Happy 4th of July!

oh my, time sure does slip by quickly these days. It's hard to believe that June is over already. We are looking towards our vacation that starts in a little over a week. We are headed to Chicago for a week, where I am looking forward immensely to hanging out with my bud Robin for a couple of days at CHA as well as meeting up with other digi gals I've known for years too. After we are done in Chicago we are heading to St. Louis and then Oklahoma to visit Dale and my grandparents for a few days before heading home. It will be a quick week then to get the kids ready to start school the first week of August, and just like that summer will be over for us.

The twins started their summer dance class two weeks ago. They are taking the Petite Tap Prep class again this summer and will be trying out for the Petite Tap ensemble group after the summer class is over.

It seems like I don't get nearly as much done these days, but here are a couple of things I finished up this week.
An envelope travel album to take on vacation with us so that I have a place to store all of the miscellaneous memborabilia I inevitably accumulate on a trip:

credits: Travel Envelope Album templates by Eva Blokker at Scrapartist.com; Down With Daisies by Carrie Stephens at PrimaHybrid.com
paper credits: Reverie paper (#602246) from the Caliope Collection, Elysee ribbon (#519520) and flower (#120023) by Prima, Marketing, Inc.; Textured Trio ribbon by Michaels; letter stickers by Creative Memories

If you want to see some of the inside pages, you can check out the album in my gallery.

and a couple of LOs with new kits by Chere Kaye that came out at the beginning of the week:

journaling: Sarah, we had such a busy day this day in Cripple Creek and you were just a doll the whole day- having fun and showing off your sweet smile to everyone you met.
credits: Girly Denim by Gina Miller and Chere Kaye; fonts: CK Kiddo and CK Neat Print

credits: Ka-Boom by Chere Kaye and Marcie Reckinger at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns.com; fonts: CK Becky

and last night I put together this layout with photos from one of last year's July 4th celebrations that we attended down in Pueblo at their Riverwalk park:

journaling: It was a good old-fashioned family party at the Pueblo Riverwalk on June 30, 2007. The lawn and walkways were crowded with people enjoying the oldies, but goodies, music and each other’s company. The kids thought we were just a bit silly singing along to the songs. Sarah entertained herself by pushing the stroller around in circles within the little space we had staked out for ourselves. We were a little too close to the river for comfort and had to constantly remind them to stay away from the edge so they wouldn’t fall in. We had a spectacular view of the fireworks when they went off finally though as we were sitting right in front of them.
credits: American by Redju; Doodled Acrylic Alpha by Amy Hutchinson; Templates with Attitude 14 by Tracy Blankenship at Scrapdish.com; fonts: CK Becky and Century Gothic

We were planning to head to Pueblo this evening for their beach party concert and fireworks, but it has been raining off and on since about 7- along with thunder and lightning- so we opted to stay home and save our fireworks outing for the one at Memorial Park tomorrow. The weather reports say tomorrow should be fine firework viewing.

I got to spend this afternoon with a good friend I haven't seen in a while and enjoyed that time a lot. We sit in the kitchen and do our crafty things together while the kids play together. As I was packing up my stuff to come home, I ran the little toe on my left foot into the corner of the tray she keeps the dog food and water bowls on- ouch! I'm not totally sure what I did to it, but it hurts like the dickens, is swelling up and has a rather large purple bruise on it for such a small appendage. Another foot annoyance, darn it. Once again, I've done this before and know there is nothing to do but wait it out. It's not as bad as the times I know I fractured it, so hopefully it is just a bad bruise and will heal quickly. I don't think I will be wearing shoes with toes for a few days :P

Oh, and my 20th High School reunion is coming up August 1st. I won't be able to make it again (read that first paragragh up top), so I volunteered to help put together a section for the DVD they are planning to put together to send out to people after the reunion. I will be working on the section with current photographs of my classmates and their families along with info on what they are doing. I'll probably regret the time commitment eventually, but I am looking forward to peeking a tiny bit into everyone's lives and seeing where they are now. I find it amazing how I'm not surprised by the career choices some make, while others are doing things I never would have imagined for them. I don't think anyone would have pegged me as a stay at home mom with 5 kids who did 'artsy-craftsy' things at a professional level, so I just might surprise a few of them too ;)
I got my first set of pictures from an old classmate via email last night and I've spent most of today coming up with some things to work with that will hopefully make the whole project go a bit more quickly when crunch time arrives. And that reminds me I need to go dig out my Dover books from the storage area before the girls head off to bed!

Have a wonderful holiday weekend everyone!