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!