July ScrapShanty Designs

July's manufacturer sponsor at the Scrapshanty is Beary Patch.

I recieved a generous amount of paper, alphabet stickers and other stickers and some clear epoxy buttons. These are the layouts and card that I made with their products and I really only added some cardstock and cutters.

4th of July 2006:
Beary Patch PP (Natural Linen and Red Sanded Wood) -- I wrinkled them up and sewed them down.
Beary Patch Mini Letter Stickers in Denim.

Also used....
Hobby Lobby fun foam (cut with my Quickutz Revolution with Studio font) and kraft paper.
Spare Parts square brads.
Hero Arts Basic Alphabet stamps.

Star border cut out on Wishblade using Carrie's Creations Star Border (CS00267) from Paperthreads.com.

Happy Birthday Lil' Cowgirl card:
Beary Patch Wild West Paper Stickers Beary Patch Happy Trails Paper Stickers
Beary Patch Western Titles Sticker Titles
Beary Patch Western Titles Little Minis
Barbed Wire Beary Cute Sticker Letters

I also added some cardstock and a sheet of notebook paper for my kids to write on.

Happy "birthday" Meal:
Beary Patch PP (Brown and Blue Sanded Wood)
Bare Essentails Clear Epoxy Button (with the blue PP behind it)
Beary Cute Sticker Letters in Denim
Mini Sticker Letters in Rope

I also added...
Cardstock, ribbon, thread
White and black American Crafts pens
Notebook paper edge
Hero Arts gemstones

Birthday Party Fun!!

The boys and I went to one of Evan's girlfriend's birthday parties on Saturday. Her mom rented one of those huge water slides for out in the backyard and it was a hit. I dressed Evan for water but I knew the combination of slide + water would = Evan not wanting to be any where near it but Ian really had fun. One of his little friends and him loved sliding down at the same time (as seen in the video in the next post).

Here are some quick pics from the party!!

Sliding with a Friend!!

I did have cake

at least a cupcake!! After gymnastics last night me and the boys ran out picked up some goodies and they sang happy birthday to me!!

SURPRISE!!

I do love being surprised and today my best friend Elise did a great job!! When I got back from swimming lessons this morning there was a note taped to my door. It said happy birthday and that I should be ready to go at 2:00pm.

Of course I called right away to see if I could squeeze some information out of her but she is just as good as me at keeping a secret (and really I wanted to be surprised so I didn't push too hard). She told me dress how ever, and not to worry about the kids.

So 2:00 arrived and she showed up with a goodie bag, popcorn, a diet coke and one ticket to see the new Indiana Jones movie that I wanted to see but hubby went to see with some of the guys he is at school with. She took the boys and they went off and I got to go to the movie all by myself.

It was wonderful!!! The movie was great just like all the old Indiana Jones movies (a little far fetched in places but hey that is the beauty of movies right). It was so nice to go and watch a grown up movie by myself, I haven't been to a movie by myself since Darren went to Bosnia and I really don't mind sitting all by myself (although I did worry when the movie start that I hoped it wasn't too scary in any parts since I didn't have anyone's hand to almost break during the scary parts LOL).

Thank you so much Elise, it was the best gift I could have gotten!!! You and the girls did a great job planning my present!!

After the movie was over, I took Ian to gymnastics and then on the way home we stopped and bought some desserts and the boys sang Happy Birthday to me and I blew out my candle on my cupcake. I had a great birthday. :)

My Birthday

I am 35 years old today. After today I will be closer to my 40s than my 20s. But thanks to things like Desperate Housewives and Sex in the City (or is it Sex and the City), 40 is the new 20 so I guess I am not even close to my prime yet HA HA!! Heck I am still a baby!!

Here are some of the cool things that I got for my birthday today. Hubby got me this camera strap from Crumpler from the boys for my big camera.

He also got me the bigger bag than the one that I originally wanted. I got the 7 million dollar home for my camera and supplies. In dark red!! :)
And my sister knowing just how much I love this author got me her newest book. Thanks Sally, I will let you borrow it after I am done if you want to read it.
The boys and I went to Red Lobster and ate WAY TOO MUCH. They both had crab legs (but shared it with me) and I had shrimp (which they shared with me too). We also had lobster egg rolls and didn't even have room for dessert!! We might have to stop and get ice cream after gymnastics tonight.

Now I am just waiting for 2 o'clock. My friend left me a message on my door to be ready to go out shortly after 2, that she had a surprise and she would take care of everything!! I love surprises!! I can't wait and I will let you know what it is later!!

I guess I can't scrap. :(

My partner and I didn't make it to round four of the ScrapShanty's So You Think You Can Scrap contest. This layout was my layout for round three. The theme was wedding bells and we had to use something old (old scenic route patterned paper), something new (Hero Arts basic alphabet stamps), something borrowed (I "borrow" the technique of stamping with paint from my partner) and something blue (you can see all my blue).

Birthday at the Bowling Alley

Ian's friend also turned 6 this week and invited Ian to come to his birthday party at the bowling alley. Ian had a blast. He even rolled a STRIKE!! Ian picked out his friend's present all by himself and he loved it!! I guess his friend plays the original version of the game Operation and Ian picked him out the HULK version!!

Superfriends in Action

Superfriends in Action

I don't know why the video stopped working, I got it to work again in another post. They are watching themselves on the big screen tv and dancing to a mix on iTunes. We have our computer hooked up to the tv and the video camera that we use to VTC with family is hooked up to it (and I found the record feature).

SuperFRIENDS!!

This was one of Ian's birthday presents from one of his friends. Today the boys came home from dinner and wanted to play Superfriend!! I am so glad we had another costume for them to play with too.

If I can figure out the video I will post it later, Superfriends dancing to the cha cha slide!!

First Day of Swimming Lessons

A real quick before picture (no Ian wasn't crying, the sun was in his eyes). They were both really excited about swimming lessons. They both were going to be in level one but Evan's teacher scared him so we ended up switching him to the Mommy and Me class, which he is doing much better in.

Ian is doing really well. He is already trying to swim with his face in the water and is stretching out nicely to kick instead of just looking like a doggy in the water.
















I think they will really do well this year in the water, especially with all the extra practice we have been getting with going to the pool in the afternoons. They are my little water monkeys!!

So You Think You Can Scrap WEEK 2

Here is my latest layout from the ScrapShanty's contest So You Think You Can Scrap!! Lacey and I have made it on to week 3. This week is all about weddings, we have to use something old, something new, something we borrow from our partner and something blue.

Here is last week's layout. We had to use a given sketch (mine is a stretch on the sketch) and also we had to spell out our partner's name with scrapping supplies.

To spell LACEY I used...

L = Lace cardstock
A = Alphabet stickers
C = Cupcake patterned paper by Basic Grey
E = Embriodery thread
Y = Yellow cardstock

We are off to swimming lessons for the first time today!! Wish us luck!! I am just hoping that Evan will be able to put his face in the water by the end of the two weeks!! I will post birthday party pictures later on today!!

PARTY ANIMALS!!

Just some random pictures from Ian's party!!

The Cake

Here is Ian's LEMON Spongebob Squarepants cake that I made. I had all the helpers at the place we had his birthday party at all were asking where I got it and once I told them I did it if I was professional cake decorator!! Nope just a mommy!!

6 YEARS OLD

I can't believe that my big boy is 6 today!! It was pretty cute, they actually slept in this morning but last night before we went to sleep I had made them promise that they would pick up all the toys in the guest bedroom that they had been playing with. Legos, Star Wars guys and ships, Transformers, Cars were everywhere when I went up in there last night and I have to say I got a little mad that stuff was all pulled apart and just laying everywhere. So this morning they woke up and picked up their toys. It was so nice to be woken up to "Mom the toys are all picked up. Can we play with the race
track now?"

So after I got up and let the dog out I let Ian open up his gifts from the family. He got his very own Omnitrex from Evan. That's Ben10's cool alien watch. And from Daddy and Mommy he got a big boy Bumblebee Transformer and a soccer goal for outside in the backyard.



Tonight is his big birthday bash with all his friends from school. He has been looking forward to it for a long time. I have been getting "Is it Monday yet?" since school has been out and he hasn't been working on his calendar skills.

I will have to take a picture of the cake before we cut it all up. It turned out pretty cute. He asked for a lemon Spongebob Squarepants cake. So I made him one.


Happy Birthday to the best big boy in the world!!!

Speed I Am Speed!!

Wait wrong race car movie right? That was Lightning McQueen. Ian got to open up his birthday presents from Grandma and Grandpa K tonight. We sat in front of the computer again and video teleconferenced so they could see him open his gift and it was really cute because mom put a bunch of clothes and books on top of the "gift" at the bottom and those got thrown out and over his sholder just like they were packing material.

He loved his Speed Racer race track and cars though and I looked through the 1st Grade book they got him and I think that will be really good for him this summer. I can't wait to see how he does with Math. The boys asked all night long 'Can we build the race track?' but I didn't have any D cell batteries to make it work so we will be heading out to Walmart this morning for some of those. But thank you again Grandma and Grandpa K, Ian really likes his presents. He plans on wearing the cool shirt with the helicopters on it to his party tonight.

Why WWII?

Ian got to open up another present today, this one from Grandma and Grandpa M. They got him a Bradley(?? mommy speak = tank) and a couple of guys to play with. He is truly fasicinated by the army and is always talking about how his friends and him play World War 2 outside at recess. I just don't get the playing World War 2? Why World War 2? Couldn't they just all be army guys and run around and stuff without having to classify which war they are actually playing? What makes World War 2 so much better than playing World War 1? I guess you just have to be a boy to get it. I don't care if he plays, we don't have guns in the house and I never bought them any but it seems like it is just an inherited thing that boys do because they will make guns out of Lego's if they need them for something.

I guess I should be happy because at least when they all play World War 2 they are all on the same side and aren't pretending to shoot at each other, they are shooting at the aliens, cause you know that was who we fought in World War 2. Boys have got a lot to learn when they finally start teaching them history in school!! :) But anyways, thanks Grandma and Grandpa M for the tank and guys, Ian really likes it and is sharing nicely with Evan. They are upstairs as I type this shooting at the Star Wars droids.

So You Think You Can Scrap

I have been playing in this little contest with my partner Lacey over at the ScrapShanty and this is my layout from last week which was week one. I had to lift one of Lacey's layouts. Her's was still much better than my lift but at least we both made it to round 2.

Duck, Duck, DUCK!!!

So we have had like our very own Wildlife Kingdom going on in the backyard the last couple of days, yesterday hummingbirds and today DUCKS!! And let me tell you Momma wasn't happy that he babies somehow got stuck in my backyard. I went to let Beaker outside this afternoon before we left for playgroup and this is what I saw.

Somehow from the yard behind us, 3 of her babies got into the fence and somehow got stuck in our backyard and couldn't get back to the rest of the group. I ended up calling animal control because not only could they not get out, I couldn't let poor Beaker outside and the Momma was attacking us. This is a picture that you get when a Momma duck is attacking you by the way!!Somehow the babies got back on the other side of the fence again by the time animal control got to the house (and they were really quick too) and the girl went to the house behind mine and tried to sho them out the gate but they wouldn't have it. There ended up being 14 babies and the Momma and Dadda in the other people's yard. Somehow they all got in between the fences between our two yards (because we live in different neighborhoods there are two fences back to back) and they had like their own little highway down towards the park which is where the animal control girl thinks they went. It was much quieter after they were gone and she told me to call if they came back which they (knock on wood) haven't yet.They are pretty cute for wood ducks though aren't they?

Hummingbirds

I have been watering the grass like crazy the last couple of days because the TrueGreen guys came and did their summer fertilization of the grass and it is all turning brown because we have been so dry here. Well the hummingbirds must be thirsty too (reminds me I need to go out and change the hummingbird feeder again today) because there were three of them flying around in the water of the sprinkler and drinking off the leaves of the little magnolia tree in the backyard. Of course when I went to get the camera they were gone but I love seeing those little guys flying around in the backyard.

Other than the fact that we haven't gotten any sizable rain in a very long time and that I am thinking about teaching the kids rain dances (watch when swim lessons start it will rain every day) we have been busy doing lots of nothing. We joined the local pool and Ian is really starting really hard to try to swim. It is cute, kind of a modified doggy paddle but still he is working it!! And Evan isn't afraid of getting in the pool like he was last year so I am hoping that he will like swimming lessons too. We saw the movie Kung Fu Panda last weekend and both the kids like to try out their Kung Fu moves and jumps which is pretty cute, I really should download the song Kung Fu Fighting for them to dance to. Today we are going to try to get out to see Alvin and the Chipmunks as it is today's free movie at the theater. The boys love going to the movie theather!

Ian's First Birthday Present

The gifts have started to roll in for Ian's 6th birthday! He was all excited about this one the other day from his friend Maddy!! All the while Evan is standing behind him asking "That's a sharing toy, right?"

I guess summer vacation is finally catching up to them.

And this is only the second non-weekend day of summer vacation. This is how I found them when I went upstairs to tell them it was dinner time so we could go bike riding with friends after dinner.

I don't think we are going to make that bike riding date!! LOL!!

Guess who is 13!!!

BEAKER!!

Happy Birthday to my Princess!

Friends

Aren't friends the best thing in the whole world!!!!