my tuesday

Started very early with the arrival of Kira with bug bites that were itchy and then Alex who wanted to sleep in our room on his Tigger couch. Just as the sleep was returning to me... the alarm went off. Looks like an early night for me. Which is okay since hubby is out of town for the night.

I spent the day cleaning the place up for some company tomorrow. It needed it and being as it was Tuesday (somehow it is my favorite day to clean) That is what I did. ahhhh... happy clean house. LOL

When I finished that up, I did manage to do a little blog surfing and found a challenge over at Becky Higgins' place. So I partook. I took a few photos around the house to find the right one I wanted to enter... and here it is. Alex's bed area. I set the camera on his book case and then clicked the shutter. Pretty neat.

Of course looking at it, I am now compelled to go up there and fix everything up. That could just be my OCD kicking in!! Actually his room is lovely compared to Kira's which I also took a picture of but am not sharing. LOL

Off to wrangle the kids up so we can get dinner going. Early bedtime for all of us. And I'm hungry!!

back to school pot luck and first day of school!!

The PTA Back to School Pot Luck was so much fun and seems to have been a popular event! There was sooo much food there. People brought such yummy treats to share. We had to bring out extra tables for all the food! The only drawback was the excessive amount of mosquitoes that decided to feast on all of us while we were there. They were really hungry as we all got bit and we had bug spray on!! Here's a look at some of the food. After I took these pictures, we added another table to where I was standing!!

And here's my baby girl all ready for her first day of fourth grade with Mrs Williamson. Last night she was quite nervous about the whole thing and made herself sick. Just a little upset tummy but before she went to bed she did manage to put down some cocoa puffs and milk. She didn't seem to be all that scared this morning when I dropped her off. Had to walk her inside the building too. Not that this mommy is complaining!! Soon enough I'll be dropping her off a block away since she won't want to be seen with me! LOL

She is all sparkly today. The top has bling, the shorts have bling as well as her sneaks! She is one sparkly kind of fourth grader! She even let me braid the sides of her hair to keep it out of her face.

The new backpack for the year. Notice the large bling bob on the lower front pocket. She loves it!! I did add up her reading challenge minutes for the summer last night. She read over 2700 minutes or over 45 hours this summer!! Way to go.

Kira with her scruffy looking brother. He so needs a haircut but won't let us buzz him. I think we are getting him to the point where he is going to let us get it cut but the person has to use scissors and not the trimmer. Whatever!! He is shaggy!! But still adorable.

Need to get working on laundry and some other things today. Hoping to get stuff done since I am down to one child to entertain. I think I can do that!!

quick one

Been a crazy kind of week around here. Kira is doing both band and chorus and this week is camp for both at the school. Monday I spent a few hours at the school making copies and getting the PTA welcome packet in order for the teachers to hand out on the first day of school. Now we are working on the Back to School Pot Luck that the PTA is hosting at the school tomorrow. Praying for the rain to shut off and the sun to come out. Don't care if the ground is wet, as long as the rain stops!!

Kids have been driving me insane. Guess that means it's time for school to be back in session and you know what?? It will be on Monday! oh glorious sweet Monday! How I cannot wait to see you! I know I am insane... told you. The kids drove me to it.

Off for some tv time. Hoping to post more soon!!

i've been scrapping again!

I am really really trying to scrap more and get off of Facebook. Plus I figured if I could get through some of my paper and pictures, I would be motivated to clean this pit. Which would be a wonderful thing as it is a mess. Really it is quite pathetic looking and no I am not sharing. I have just enough room to push my chair away from the computer side of the desk and over to the work side of the desk. My actual work space is about two and a half feet wide... maybe. So that being said, I am hoping to tackle that project soon. Until then... thanks for stopping by and looking at my stuff!!

Always fun to do snow pictures in the summer months. Makes me appreciate the warm/ hot weather as I do remember how cold it gets during January and February in New England. I used a pagemap from December 2009 for this one. The popped up snowflakes embellishments were ornaments that I snipped the tops off. Works lovely!!

The kids having a good time playing pirates. I used papers from the DCWV All About Boys stack. Finally broke the seals on it to look through. Imagine my surprise when I found these papers!! Perfect match!!

These two pages are just the kids having a great time in the backyard. It is always great to get them out of the house in the spring. The fresh air and running around do wonders for them!!

And my silly little man. I did the collage in Picasa 3 and used a pagemap from August 2010. I finally broke open my Color Me Silly paper pack from Basic Grey. Yes it is a very old collection that I had tucked away waiting for the perfect pictures. Guess I found them.

Thanks for stopping by and peeking at my work. Off to see what else needs to be done around this place today.

'the look'

This is the look I get when I have taken too many pictures of my girl. The I'm done smiling but I still want to look cute in the picture so I'll stand still but I am done look. Good thing she is so darn cute! I was really trying to get a good shot of her freckles that have sprouted this summer. They are so cute on her. Need to keep trying to get a good shot of them. But as for this picture... it was the end of our photo shoot.

On a mommy note... I guess I don't clean the house enough in front of Kira. Today something bit me and I got on a cleaning kick and had to do the entire house today. Top to bottom, bathrooms and laundry included. She looked at me and asked who was coming to visit. The top to bottom cleaning means company coming to her. Probably because she is at school when I do these binges she doesn't see all the work I do. I guess it's good for her to see me deep cleaning sometimes when we are not having company (but on a side note... the place looks good- stop on by!!)

And for the real kicker to this story... dearest hubby of mine (whom I love with all my heart and soul) walked in, looked around, said "you cleaned, who's coming?". Wonder where Kira gets it from? Alex doesn't ask these things since he is at home with me all the time so he sees me cleaning. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. He is my little clean guy. His room has to be tidy before he can go to bed. Cute but I don't want him to become OCD like me. Hoping the messy boy gene kicks in later in life (like when he is on his own and I don't have to see it!!)

And because he loves me, dearest hubby of mine, brought home a chocolate fudge cake for me. Love him!!

sunny sunday

I was up a little too early for my liking but here I am. I have played most of my Facebook games, checked out a few scrapping sites and now working on the blog. Next on the agenda... getting my hind end dressed for breakfast. I'm hungry!!

Today we are going to Goodwill to drop off the last of the yard sale stuff that did not sell yesterday. There isn't as much as we started with at 8am Saturday morning, which is a lovely thing. I am just done with yard sales and holding onto things in case of my desire to have a yard sale. I think the tax credit will be more appreciated than the few bucks in my wallet right now. I WANT MY GARAGE LOFT BACK!! I don't need to trip over stuff that will one day be in a yard sale, I want just my stuff up there. It was taking up a LARGE portion of the loft.

Anywho... I need to call Goodwill to make sure we can drop stuff off today and then it shall be race watching time for this chickie. And maybe even some laundry. Hey... you never know. I am a wild one. Ciao.

zoo fun

We had the fun of going to the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Rhode Island yesterday. We got to hang out with the BABW crew from Providence Place. Great group. Alex was very intent on checking things out on the map so he knew where he was going. First stop for him would have been the elephants and then the giraffes. For us- bathrooms! But he knew where his choices were.

This is as much of the red wolf that Kira got to see. They were hiding in their enclosures. Could have been due to the heat of yesterday. The breeze was lovely when it showed up. But over all it was a little warm!

Yes happy children. Little do you know from this picture that Alex will be melting down and throwing his shoes and himself just a little farther down the path. He wanted to go home. The elephants were having a bath inside and he had enjoyed the giraffes so he was done. Lesson learned- bring snacks for him no matter what. He was much better after lunch.

Poor little kid crashed on the way home. Looks almost like he has a black eye (but he doesn't) He was just tired!!

And the best part of the day... dinner at Kelly's Roast Beef. This was my sandwich. Yummy!!

Today is a clean up day and hang up yard sale signs day. I need to get my hiney in gear and off to Walmart to pick up poster board. Here I go... if I do all my chores, I do believe my scrap table will be seeing me later!! woohoo... that is motivation!

dusty attic chipboard contest

Here is my entry for another contest at the PageMaps blog.

I had a fun time working on this one. I used some paper to create a ribbon which I think gives it a jump rope feel to the layout. I used hearts as accents as these pictures were for Kira's Jump For Heart event her school does every year for the American Heart Association. Thanks for looking!

Haven't been doing much of anything this week. Trying to catch up on some housework and have a friend and her kids come over for a visit. Tomorrow we are heading to the Roger Williams Park Zoo down in Rhode Island to hang with the winners of one of hubby's work contests. Should be a fun time. And best yet... on the way home we get to eat at Kelly's Roast Beef. drool drool!! oh yeah... I need to get some signs made for the yard sale this Saturday that I am having. If you want some stuff at a great price... come on over!! I've got a lot!!

scrap attack sketch contest from pagemaps blog

Over at the Pagemaps blog, they are having a great contest to win this lovely goodie bag of stuff. So I thought I would try it. And it got me scrapping which is a good thing lately.

Here is what I came up with. Alex loves to play with my container of letters. He can spend a good amount of time picking out different letters and grouping them together and when he is all done, he puts them back into their correct spots. He also has to do this while sitting on my desk with me right there. Last time I let him have some of my scrapping goodies (two buttons) one ended up in his nose. But I digress.... Here's my layout. Thanks for looking.

success!

My little guy can be one stubborn one. Not sure which side of the family that comes from but it could be due to the fact that he was born under the sign of Aries the Ram. Never know. Anywho... potty training had been an uphill battle for us. He refused... and I mean REFUSED to use the potty or have anything to do with training. We tried everything- bribes, pull ups, rewards and plain old giving up.

Then we discovered his love of his sister's Nintendo DS. He would play that for as long as she (and I) would let him. So we turned that into our advantage and told him he could get a DS when he was using the potty and wearing big boy underwear. He wasn't sure about it but after his vacation in New York with Nana and Papa he decided he was ready. No more pull ups during the day (night time is hard enough so he gets his pull ups then) Our first few days were more accidents than anything but we kept going. I purchased a few more pairs of underwear to keep us well stocked (even with doing laundry every night) Well I do believe he has gotten the hang of things. Yesterday the only accident he had was a teeny tiny one and that was because him and his sister were playing so intently that he forgot and he ran quickly once he started to pee. woohoo!!

Onto today... we took him to Toys R Us and got him his reward for being such a big boy... his very own Nintendo DS!! And man was he excited. I truly thought he was going to break the straps on his car seat trying to get into the store when we told him why we were there! So cute. He couldn't wait for it to charge and get playing but he did somehow manage and even wore the same pair of underwear all day long!! Go Alex!!

We are having some issues with #2 but they are coming along and I think we'll have that under control pretty quickly. He is determined to keep his DS. I told him if he slips too much, it goes away until he has it back under control. He doesn't want to lose it now that he has it. As you can see by the smile... he is one happy little guy.

Yes there is some guilt over the bribe but I feel that it is well worth it in the long run. He is very proud of himself as are we. My little guy is growing up. And I am not going to miss buying daytime pull ups.

new sounds around here

We picked up Kira's sax today from the music store. They didn't need to repad the whole thing, which is good as that is hundreds of dollars but did a tune up on it (it was stored in the inlaws basement for about 25 years) and it seems to be good. They said it should last a year or two before we need a major overhaul. By then we should know if it is something that Kira will want to continue with or not. And it is MUCH MUCH cheaper than renting an instrument. I almost swallowed my tongue when the rental amounts came out. Highway robbery!!

Anywho... Kira could not wait to get home and try it out. Daddy took some time to show her how to put it together and what all the bits and pieces were. And then it was time for some noise!

She really picked it up quickly on getting a sound to come out and man, can she hold a 'note'. I knew her strong lungs would pay off one of these days! She has had it out a couple of times with the cleaning up afterward. I really really hope this continues once she starts her lessons. I know daddy is quite proud of his little girl. Very exciting. Her first concert will be in September at the Newmarket Heritage Festival. I know you all want to check it out!

And I managed to squeeze in another layout. I created the mosaic picture with Picasa 3 and added the title for each day. It is a fun week for the kids when they can have some fun and unite as a school.

Need to get a picture of my latest creation but the sun is not cooperating with me. It may have to wait until tomorrow.

look who has been scrapping!!

Why yes that would be me!! I am so excited to be playing with my paper and pictures again. Of course all of this is while potty training Alex (who does not want cooperate), breaking up the sibling fights that always seem to happen, keeping the house clean, laundry and grocery shopping and taking care of my hubby who works beary beary hard for us! Glad to be sharing some recent stuff. Well... the pictures aren't recent but the layouts are! LOL

Easter picture with the big man himself 2009. Alex sat next to him and held his paw!! Big steps on that one!!

The egg hunt in the house. As you can tell by the kids feetie pj's it was quite cold that Easter. It was so cold and icky that we didn't even go to the Rec Center's egg hunt. No need getting everyone sick for some cheap prizes. Alex did a little dance every time he found an egg. So cute. Kira was too darn fast for me to catch more than a couple of shots of her finding eggs.

Checking out what they got!! Alex was willing to share some of his treats... until Daddy actually ate one!! Then all bets were off.

We celebrated Nana's birthday while they were here and got a pretty cool looking cake out of it! Both of the kids had to help her blow out the candles!!

One of my favorites I have done of Alex. He started doing this pout face and knew I would have a ton of great photos to use on it! So glad he outgrew that stage!!

Title says it all! He is a force to be reckoned with! And all of that in under 10 minutes!!

Kira's second grade field trip to the Seacoast Science Center. They were studying the tide pools. Lots of fun and neat things to look at!

Off to see what other pictures inspire me and have a little more fun with my papers. I have missed them and glad I am once again creating. More to come!!

teacher gifts

Let me tell you... there ain't nothing slow about me!! LOL Hey at least the gifts were on time even if the reveal to you all wasn't! LOL You have to remember I was in total meltdown after all those cards and card purses. okay... that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Anywho... here are the cards I put into the teacher bags. I then ended up doing about 16 more cards for the two 'helpers' in Kira's classroom but didn't take pictures of them as they were being created the night before they needed to be delivered and I was quite tuckered out by then! I did enjoy the whole card creating process which is a good thing.

The butterflies were from Michaels clearance section about a year ago. They were just the perfect thing to add to these cards. And love love love my treading water border punch! Why have I not been using that on EVERYTHING??? Don't know but it now lives on my desk instead of in a drawer so you will be seeing it more!

Used a new stamp I got at Joanns in their dollar section at the registers. Now just need to get the hang of stamping with it!! Even pressure is the key! LOL

I have seen this 'flower' before in magazines and actually used it this time instead of forgetting about it.

The Thank you embellie was from Joanns in their clearance section. And look at that... the treading water border punch again!!

And here are the last three card purses that I created. If you look close I used my treading water border punch AGAIN!! Go me. LOL I must confess that I had totally forgotten I owned the silly thing. And it could have been the lack of scrapping that didn't trigger it's use. Still happy that I own it!

kevin's visit

It was a great visit with Kevin, Wendy and their kids. Kira and Alex were both looking forward to meeting their Virginia cousins. Kira didn't remember them from their previous visit (about 6 years ago!) so it was fun. Alex kept asking when the children were going to be here. He couldn't remember the word cousins at first, so cute. There was a lot of running around the backyard and good food. We did manage to corral the gang into the following picture. I need to go through the rest of them and find some of the other cute ones I got. Poor Wendy's camera battery died with the charger hanging out in Massachusetts!!

Here they are! The whole gang. And let me tell you... it is not easy to get nine kids to smile and look at the camera at the same time!! But very much worth it.

Hoping to post some pictures of the cards I had made for Kira's teachers later today. Need to get them into the correct file on the computer. Catch you all on the flip side!