Walt's birthday album and a new LO

I made this album to send to my grandfather Walt for his 90th birthday earlier this month. By a miracle I actually got it put together and mailed in time for it to actually be there for the party. I'm told he enjoyed it ;) and of course being a hybrid album I was able to make a couple of other copies for my mother and for Mark easily. My mom got hers for mother's day and Mark will receive his for father's day next month.

credits: Snapshots 6x4 Eclectic Album and Thrifty Doodled Alpha by Jessica Bolton at scrapbookgraphics; fonts: CK Becky and TXT Stonewashed

I didn't do anything fancy to make the album, it was really very easy. I printed the pages on my photo printer, and then glued them to pieces of 6x4 chipboard with Mod Podge. I'm still learning what the right amount of it is to use- not enough and the prints come off, but too much makes the prints wrinkle and ink run. At least erring on the side of not enough is fairly easy to fix. I actually couldn't find 4x6 pieces of chipboard, but my LSS did have a package of 12x6 chipboard by Westrim, so I just cut each piece into 3 pages for this album on my Carl rotary trimmer. There were 6 sheets in the package and it cost about $4, I think. That was enough to do all three albums I made. Once the pages were glued together, I punches holes using my Crop-o-dile (the Big Bite can go through 3 pieces of chipboard at once- sweet!), added some office rings and then tied on pieces of ribbon.
If you like this album and want to make one of your own, the QP album is for sale in Jessica's store at scrapbookgraphics HERE.

and scrapbookgraphics has a new designer collab coming out tomorrow: Impressions of Fatherhood. It's a lovely mix of guy-type papers and elements. I scrapped this page about Bryce learning to mow Grandmama's yard a few weeks ago. His first summer job ;)

journaling: Bryce has his first summer job- Mark taught him how to mow Grandmama’s yard on May 11, 2008. They went over safety rules and how to properly use a gas powered mower, and then Bryce started on getting the job done. When the front and back yards were done, Bryce was paid for his work. When he mowed the lawn again two weeks later, he also learned to use the weed trimmer.
credits: Impressions of Fatherhood by Scrapbookgraphics Designers (coming June 1); grass by Christina Renee; fonts: TXT Annesia

New LOs with Corina goodies

I've spent way too many hours during the last 4 days cleaning my house. It's now officially summer break and DH took that to mean we all had time to clean everything from top to bottom. Yuck! OK, yes it needs to be done as some places were a total mess. But, I don't like spending all of my time cleaning and nagging the kids to clean. Things are starting to look a lot better though, so in the end it will be worth it but man the process stinks! LOL I don't think we can even put out everything we have decided to throw away for the garbage men to pick up this week. I have a growing pile of things that will be donated to Goodwill too. I think I put on some tag list on here something about getting the table in my living room cleaned off- well, that is almost done. It's taken me three days so far to unbury it and sort stuff, but it is almost finshed. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to see the top of it again and then maybe I can actually move my laptop off of the dining room table. I won't be able to see the TV in the family room any more if i do that though, so I'm not quite sure how that will work. I wouldn't have to worry about a child accidentally spilling drinks all over it though, so that would be a big plus. Today was mostly spent going through all of the school papers that were brought home last week. Photos of projects, art papers, end of the year certificates and anything the kids wanted to have a photo of were taken this afternoon and they've all been 'round filed.' I also went through all of the leftover supplies to sort out what can be saved for the next school year. We have an extremely large pile of spiral notebooks that are partially used for the kids to use as drawing/journaling notebooks now. I just need to figure out somewhere to put them so that they are accessible, but not in the way. Add in the never-ending cleaning tasks of dishes and laundry and it seems like I haven't done much but clean up something the last few days. After spending most of the days picking up, I have given myself permission to do some 'fun' stuff in the evening and I've managed to finish a couple of layouts with new and old (new to me anyway) Corina goodies.

credits: by Corina Nielsen at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns: Spudunkity, Matties Overlays, Matties Hearts, Matties Curlers, Doodley Do Me Mats, Playing Hookies, black label from Fun and Fancy Free collab with Kate Hadfield; silver sequins by Meredith Fenwick; glitter layer style by Flergs; scraplift of "Just Love Life" by Kirstie Ibrahim at PeppermintCreative; fonts: CK Chocolate Sundae

As stage mom for the girls' tap class, I get to come up with a group gift for their tap teacher. I'm leaning towards getting a nice 12x12 frame and having this printed for her. Or the other thought I had was to put the group photo on a t-shirt and have all of the girls sign it for her. I guess it depends on how many of the moms actually give me money for the gift.

Oh, and not only have we been cleaning at our house, but we went to my mom's Monday morning and spent a lot of the day helping her clean out her garage. Bryce mowed her lawn for the second time and learned to use the weed trimmer too. While moving and going through all of the still unpacked boxes in the garage, we found an original drawing by my Dad of me at 3 years old. We don't have that many things that were actually hand-drawn by him, so it was nice to find this. It is now gracing the table in my living room. Even the very 70s style frame it is in looks pretty good in there as we do have a bit of olive green in the rug and the window valance. I'm not sure where I will put it permanently, but I will find some place for it. Here's a scrapbooked version of it.

credits: by Corina Nielsen at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns: Everyday Solids, Everyday Whites, Matties Squares, Ribbon Edgers 2, Illusive, Doodley Do Me Mats, Matties Curlers, alpha from Oh Poppycock, Arsenal of Elements- fibers, stitched trims, lacey trims; Funky Flowers Romantics by Paint the Moon (Annie Manning) at oscraps; fonts: CK Heritage

Well, it's off to bed for me. There is more cleaning to take care of tomorrow ;)

Latest LOs and card

My favorite pic I got of Carissa at the zoo Saturday.
credits: by Chere Kaye at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns: Everyday Basics Neutral Papers, Everyday Basics Classic Frames, Layering Templates, You're So Transparent Alpha, Triple Dipped Stitches- The Basics #2, Numbers Talk, Office Finishers; Funky Flowers Brights by Paint the Moon (Annie Manning) at oscraps, glitter layer style by Linda Sattgast, acrylic shadow style by Traci Reed
fonts: CK Invitation

I have nice pictures of all of the other kids too, and I got some better pics of the grizzly bears. I'll have to get my favorites from the new exhibit put together for a post soon.

journaling: Well kiddo, we did it- we survived the first year of middle school. Yes, I know that you were the one to actually attend and do all of the work, but I'm your mom and I was concerned about how the year would go for you. You had your ups and downs during the year, the good and bad days, the good and not so good choices. Overall though, I think I can say that it was a pretty good year for you. You've picked good friends. You worked hard and did your best most of the time. I'm proud of you and all that you accomplished. I'm sure 7th grade will be an even better year! I love you, Bryce. 5-23-08
credits: Joey from the Coffee House Friends collection by Chere Kaye at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns; fonts: CK Becky

and a graduation card I made for the son of some old friends we met in Germany. I can't believe that the baby I used to watch on occasion is 18 and graduating from high school.

digital credits: Downtown Living papers by Corina Nielsen at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns; white paper from White Papers by Vera Lim at PrimaHybrid; font: CK Regal
paper credits: Congratulations stamp by PSX, Textured Trios ribbon by Michaels, chipboard bracket from Journalist Collection Chipboards by Prima (#516482), Scrap Essentials brads by Joann Fabric and Crafts, Ranger Distress Ink (Black Soot)

We've been cleaning out lots of things and my husband has been rearranging the furniture. yuck. Tomorrow morning we go to Grandmama's house to help clean out her garage, and then I'm sure we will be back at it here at home in the afternoon. Yes, the house really needs it, but it isn't exactly the funnest way to spend the holiday weekend.

4th Grade Egg Drop Pictures

The annual 4th grade egg drop experiment took place on Monday, May 19. Grandmama provided us with small styrofoam boxes for the girls to use for their project, and then they filled them with various types of packing- styrofoam peanuts, plastic shopping bags, and crumpled newspaper- along with a bubblewrapped raw egg. We taped it all shut and then added a parachute made from a plastic shopping bag. They work rather well as parachutes I learned during the egg drop two years ago.

at 1:30 all of the 4th grade classes met outside the school and the egg containers were taken up to the roof, where the janitor dropped them over the side one by one.
Here is Carissa's being dropped.
After the container is picked up, the kids open them and see how their egg faired. Carissa had an intact egg- success!
here is Beth's container being dropped- the first time.
The kids kept getting closer and closer to the edge of the building and the 'drop zone.' A gust of wind caught Beth's parachute and made it move out a little more than typical and one of the boys ended up catching it before it hit the ground- oops! This happened to another person too after her. So, after all of the others that were up there were finished, Beth and a second child's containers were taken back up on the roof for another try. Beth found an intact egg inside her container too- a second success!
Here are a couple of the more interesting ideas for safely packing a raw egg to survive a drop that I saw- this girl packed her egg in a container of jello inside a box filled with styrofoam peanuts. The egg was safe, and also a colored a pretty shade of red after the drop.
This egg was put inside a hollowed out Nerf football. It was also a successful experiment.
One person also did a container surrounded by balloons similar to the version Bryce had two years ago, though it wasn't quite as big a scale as Bryce's.


And speaking of Bryce, here is a picture of the desert diorama he made last weekend for his final science class project. Sarah likes the snake the best, though that is probably because it is the only animal she really recognizes in the box LOL

Well, I think I've caught the cold Sarah had last weekend. My head feels rather stuffy, I have had a pounding headache since last night, and my energy is a bit lacking. I've managed to get the twins' tap costumes altered today, though it probably took me 3 times as long as it should have. But, it is done now and they tried them on when they got home from school and they fit. Beth's pink over-shirt is obviously way too big, but there was nothing much I could do about that except tack it down in strategic places so that it at least won't fall off of her while she dances. Formal pictures are taken tomorrow for tap, and thank goodness they went with a different photo company that has much more reasonable prices this year. Tomorrow is the last day of school too. It's a half-day for everyone, and the middle school is having a school carnival on their football field. Hopefully my head won't be quite so muddled tomorrow as I'd like to go for a bit and try to get some pictures of Bryce with his friends.

Race to Read Night of Fire and Thunder

This year (and last year) the Bandimere Speedway up in Denver has sponsored a reading program through local elementary schools. The kids have to read so many hours and they can earn prizes. Most the things we probably won't use as they are all up in Denver and it is not worth the cost of gas to go get a free kids pizza, unless we are up there already for something else. But after finishing 3 reading sheets, the kids earn a free pass to the Night of Fire and Thunder, which was on May 17. Last year Mark took the 3 older kids to the event, and this year we all went. Drag racing isn't something we normally follow, or even watch, but it was fun to do something different and of course I didn't waste the opportunity to snap lots and lots of pictures. Here are a some of the best. It's rather difficult to get an in-focus picture of cars moving at 130+ miles per hour, but I did manage one or two. Some of the ones that are a bit blurry are still kind of interesting, the obvious motion being a neat effect. On with the picture show.....








Beth with her Bandimere Speedway Race to Read t-shirt she earned for being one of the schools top readers- she completed 8 sheets, at 8 hours of reading each. The top 2 kids had their names put on the reader board during the evening. The top 2 kids read 18 and 12 sheets each. I have a feeling she will be trying to get her name on the board next year ;)

Ed Jones in his Jelly Belly wheelstander. He got out and threw mini bags of Jelly Bellies into the crowd. We picked up some samples from their stand on our way out later in the evening- yum! Brenna was especially impressed with the popcorn flavored jelly bean she got in her bag LOL

2 of the jet dragsters taking off down the track
look at their clocked speeds- wow, that is fast! the top number on each board is the number of seconds they took to get down the track, and the bottom number is their speed in miles per hour.
The "Drag Queen" starts one of her runs- yes, it is a lady driving and yes, she won this heat to make it into the finals. The announcers were having a lively debate over what the color of her car was called all evening.... magenta, mauve, purple, pink, etc.





My favorite picture from the evening, not that I have any particular attachment to this car but the picture came out really well- the focus on the car is crisp, the blurred motion of the track, and how the car is positioned within the frame ;)
as we were making our way out of the track area, we stopped for a minute to see who was waiting to race next and found that they had brought out the souped-up snowmobiles. These little guys can really move!
It was a fun evening!

More projects

It really has been an incredibly busy couple of weeks with the end of the year school projects, trips to fun things the kids earned free tickets to, etc. We are officially done with school projects finally as Bryce got all of his science things turned in yesterday. He had a few more finals today, but I think all of the hard stuff is done after today. It's just fun and games for the last few days for everyone now until the end of the year (which is Friday).

I've done a few things for Prima for the summer CHA show, so I can't show those off for a couple of months now. I do have a couple more new things I can show off now though too.

Jessica Bolton came out with some new Thrifty 'solids' paper packs last week. Boy are they delicious! lots of fun textures- each paper is different- and they coordinate with kits in her shop already so mixing and matching things to go with them is so easy. These are definitely going to be a 'go-to' staple in my stash. Here's a LO I did the other night documenting a few of Sarah's latest habits. She has to have her hair up most of the time, picks out her own clothes (and let's me know if she doesn't like what I pick for her...), calls everything 'cute', and loves to wear Sunday shoes (especially if they have heels) because they make lots of noise when she walks around the house on the wood floor. She calls them her 'tap shoes.'

and for one of my PrimaHybrid projects this month, I found this neat 5x7 cluster frame at Michael's a few weeks ago. We had a whole mish-mash of family photos hanging in the upstairs hallway- different sizes, colors, frames, etc. and it was not looking so pretty any more. So, I made them all more 'uniform' by basically turning them into a mini-album. Except this one hangs on the wall where you can see them all at once. Some flowers are digital, some are 'real', some are under the glass and some are over it. I like going up the stairs much better as seeing this at the top just makes me smile :)

digital credits: from PrimaHybrid.com: Weeds and Wildflowers: Everyday Bliss, stitching from Vintage Comfort, Counting the Ways Quick Album (hearts), Trish Jones: Dreamy Swirls, IOD: Fleurishy Silhouette Gem Frames
paper credits: Connections 5x7 Cluster Frame by Michaels; by Prima Marketing, Inc.: Mulberry Paper Flowers , Got Flowers? , Forever Flowers No. 4, Center Kisses, Say It In Crystals swirls
font: TXT Sloppy Script and Typewriter

Lots of things still to get done today:
*I need to come up with a graduation card for the son of one of our friends that we met in Germany. It's hard to believe that the little boy I babysat on occasion is 18 and graduating from high school.
* I've got to have the girls get out their costumes after school today so that I can pin them and start working on getting them altered. I've made phone calls to the moms on my part of the dance class list reminding them that pictures are this week during dance class, so I had better get my own girls ready now.
*I have SOOOO many pictures I need to get off the camera from this weekend and yesterday. Beth and Carissa earned tickets to the Bandimere Speedway night of fire and thunder Saturday night, so we all went up there. I took lots and lots of photos, and I hope some of them are useable. When the cars are going 130+ miles an hour down the track getting a non-blurry picture is a challenge! The fourth grade classes had their annual egg-drop challenge yesterday afternoon, so I need to check those out as well and get copies to the teachers. There are probably other photos on there too I'm not remembering- my camera card is completely filled at the moment!
*We have to go to the library this afternoon. We haven't been the last two weeks because of appointments and conflicts with other things. Luckily our books and videos always renewed, so it wasn't a necessity. But we have to go this week as you can only renew things twice before they have to be turned in.

I'm off to try and get started on some of this list! maybe I'll be back later with some pics ;)

O Chere! I'm on a new team

I applied at the very last minute to Chere Kaye's team call, and got a spot! When I lost most of my scrapping teams at the beginning of the year I found that I really like assignments, they give me some extra motivation to get layouts done. I'm looking forward to working with all of Chere's pretty stuff! For the call we had to use a minikit that she provided. I scrapped one of the pics of the twins in their ballet costumes with it.

credits: Calling All Scrappers, Ring Around the Sequins, and pink paper from Pink Mini by Chere Kaye, Not So Basic Stitches by Dani Mogstad, tear action by Atomic Cupcake; fonts: LDS Script and Another Typewriter

and here is my first official LO for the team with some of Chere's new Spring Line collection.

journaling: Sarah was pointing to Beth’s birdhouse she hung in the tree in the front yard. No bird families have moved in yet this spring, but maybe we will be suprised one day to find it occupied. Sarah would be among the first to notice, I’m sure. ~May 16, 2008
credits: The Spring Line- Stepped Up Solids, Floral Prints, Blooms of Whimsy, Scalloped Shapes, Tied-Down Ribbons, Spring Stitches- and Fresh Start Alpha by Chere Kaye at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns

sometimes I don't think independence is a good thing

Sarah has been trying to do things by herself lately, which on the surface doesn't seem like a bad thing. Lately though, I have to wonder as it seems like she has a destructive streak and breaks just about everything she touches. Last night she snapped a Veggie Tales DVD in half trying to get it out of the case- dang that takes a lot of strength! I guess I will be watching for a good sale on older Veggies shows at the book store since we now need to replace that one. The curtain hanging over the sliding door into the back yard is falling off the bar- Sarah keeps playing in it and pulling on it and the wooden rings that go around the bar are breaking one by one. Hopefully Mark can salvage them by gluing them back together with his extra strength wood glue. She dumped half a box of Cheerios on the table and floor trying to pour some in a bowl a few mornings ago. She drags full gallon milk jugs out of the refrigerator when she wants more milk. She hasn't dropped one yet, but it's probably just a matter of time. And her most annoying new independent trait is wanting to pick her own clothes, and then changing her mind after I put the ones she chose on.

Tonight is the Horizon spring concert so we will all be going to hear that tonight. It should be good- the bands all did very well at the contest they played in on Saturday- both concert bands, the 6th grade and the 7th & 8th grade, won gold medals! The drum corp group won a silver medal too.

The twins finally have both of their outfits for their dance classes.
For ballet they are dancing to the song 'Reflections' from Mulan- no words, just a pretty piano arrangement of the music.
For tap class, they are doing a cute routine to Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." The outfits most certainly reflect that era LOL The big theme of the whole recital this year is "80s Flashback" so a lot of the dances are to songs from the 80s- it should be a fun evening! The acro class that is in the same time period as their tap class is using the song "Freeze Frame."

Our van has been in the shop the last couple of days. One of the sensor lights came on late last week and we finally got it in for a diagnostic yesterday morning. We were hoping it was just in need of a tune-up, but a part of the emissions system needed replacing and of course they had to order it. It's about twice as expensive as we were expecting/hoping- and most of that cost is just in the labor because the part is so hard to get to. Thankfully Grandmama is here this week and able to help me out with taking the girls to dance class this afternoon.

and one last cool thing I discovered this morning.... you can now write posts ahead of time and have blogger publish them at a later time you specify. Very cool! go HERE for info on how to do this.

Just some random thoughts

It's been a while since I updated here, so I'm just going to do this list style:

The flowers are finally starting to come out here in full force. I noticed the neighbor's tree was filled with gorgeous pink flowers and spilling over the fence into our yard, which I certainly don't mind!

I scrapped with one of my NSD purchases yesterday:

credits: Chatty by Misty Cato; by Dani Mogstad: acrylic notes from Pop Rocks, felt notes from Rock Star, Alpha from MVP; acrylic shadow layer style by Traci Reed; music paper border by Brigit Kerr; photo curl and photo cluster actions by Flergs; scraplift of "Hesitant" by Karen Wong at DST

The HMS bands and choirs are going to Ehlitch Garden Saturday for a contest. Bryce has to be at the school ready to go at 5:45A as they play at 8:00. They then get to spend the rest of the day at the park. When the information about what he needs to bring, where to be, finally came home yesterday it said that one of us needs to go up to the park with him. That was not made clear in the previous information we got. So, Mark was elected to go, and is not terribly thrilled about as now he has to pay full price for a ticket since we can't buy them through the school for a discount any more. I guess we will know better next time. I will be taking the girls to a wedding at our church that afternoon.

Sarah has been moved up to a bigger car seat. The lower sides on this one let her reach out and touch Brenna more easily. The two of them are either picking on and hitting each other or they are being sweet and holding hands. Usually the fighting precedes the being sweet part.
Beth had been complaining about being dizzy and having headaches for a few weeks at school, so I took her in for an eye exam. She now has new glasses as of Monday. She only needs them for reading things at a distance- like the blackboard as she sits in the back of the room- so far, but given how bad her mother's eyes are I figure she will be wearing them permanently before too long.
Yes, everyone's bangs are getting long. We have haircuts scheduled for next week.

Brenna being cute last night. Brenna had her well checkup with the pediatrician this morning and got 4 immunization shots. We went and turned in her kindergarten registration papers right after the appointment since all we were waiting on was the physical report and an updated shot record. She is very excited to start school in August.
Bryce (and Mama) can't wait for school to be over in two weeks. It is hard to believe that the year is about done though. Bryce has another big science project to get finished up (I can't believe his teacher assigned this much work at the end of the school year -grrr!). One of the things he has to do is an experiment. The option we chose for him to do was to study the effect of water, namely the lack of, on plant growth. His experiment is lined up on the middle of the dining room table for the next week and a half. He still has to write a report on another subject that is completely unrelated to this too. Is school over yet?
Bryce had his quarterly check-up (we go that often because of the medication he takes for his hyperactivity). He is now officially as tall as his mother. The next time he has a growth spurt, I will be looking up at him.

And just to be fair since I've shown off pictures of everyone else, here is one of Carissa playing in the backyard last night.
Carissa and Beth have both passed their end of the year tap evaluations and will be able to move up to the next class in the fall (Carissa was the first one in the class to pass, Beth and one other girl passed last week). Their teacher wants them to try out for the tap ensemble next year- Mark and I have to discuss that yet. Of course they both want to do it. I'm sure they would enjoy it. It means three dance classes next year, extra rehearsals, more costumes, performances around town, and going to dance competitions. Lots more time and money no matter how you look at it ;) I ended up signing up as stage mom for the big recital in June for their tap class. I'm still trying to figure all that out and how I might be able to sneak up to the stage to see their ballet class performance. I guess Grandmama gets to take pictures for me this year if she is willing to tag along to the dress rehearsal.

I think that is about it for now. See ya!