finding my groove again

I have been having some issues with being motivated lately. Not feeling the mojo of creating. Chores are done but only when absolutely necessary. My blog... so far behind. And I won't mention my Project Life blog that is crying out to be updated. 

I am thinking it is the winter time draining me. Short daylight hours and long nights. WHEN the sun shines it is not nearly as bright as I would like so I feel disappointed.

Then this happens.....

This amazing sunrise. Happened to capture it this morning. I LOVE the pink in the blue sky. I love the snow clinging to the branches and blanketing everything. So fresh. So full of possibilities. 

This will help and it is now my wallpaper so I can look at it when things don't look so bright.

Find  your inspiration and grab it firmly with both hands. We can survive winter.

floating in nana's pool

What a great vacation the kids are having with my parents. Relaxing. Swimming. Playing. Ice cream before bed. Swimming. Stella's Diner on Fridays. It is all good. They are making some fantastic memories. And my dad is doing his duty to keep me in pictures of all their adventures!! Thought I would share a couple with you all.

Here is my little man. I think we could put a couple more kids in there with him! Such a little thing. Love my peanut.

And here is my little lady. Looking mighty fine hanging in the pool. Love my munchkin.

Today I began cleaning up Kira's room. oh my. I seriously think we have every single Littlest Pet Shop animal ever made. I had to pick up many... many little critters today. I wished them well and shoved them back into their storage bin. Then I had to tackle the enormous amount of accessories that come with these pets. oh my word!! I think we are good with LPS.... FOREVER! I know she won't think so, but I sure do.

The good news is that this year it is not a trash dump like last year. It is more of putting things back where they belong and giving her new storage spaces for some things. Half a closet done and all the storage bins are cleaned up. Under the bed storage is done too. Hoping to crank through the desk, dresser and other half of the closet tomorrow.

Hubby wants to shampoo the rugs in the kids rooms so I gotta get these rooms done. Plus the kiddos want to see pictures of their rooms and the new improved playroom. Right now there is a large pile of Goodwill donation items in the middle of the playroom so no pictures of that will be posted. Out of sight... out of mind. Works for me!!

alex's room during

Today was the fun of organizing Alex's room. Really it wasn't that it was messy, but that things did not have a home to be put away. I will say that Alex does quite well with keeping his room together and putting his toys away. We only run into a problem when new toys come into the house and they need a home.

I hope he'll be happy to see his work bench and easel are in his room and easily accessible to him and only him. I also cleaned out the white bins next to the easel as well as the bins in the storage cubes next to the tool bench. Lots of reorganizing there to make better use of the bins.

One side of his closet. I think he'll be happy to see so many toys hanging out where he can grab them and go. And I managed to leave a little bit of space for his laundry basket.

Other side of the closet. The blue lidded tub has his Pokemon figures inside. The three white bins have Wonder Pets, Little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse toys in them.

One of the drawers in his bed. Not sure why the picture turned itself when it loaded here.

The bottom drawer with the heavier Disney Car toys. I tried to keep Tow Mater on top since his tow cable always seems to be bent or broken.

Another drawer full of Mack goodness. So happy these have a place to live instead of on the floor where I was always tripping over them.

The last drawer. Just a bunch of fun stuff that Alex loves. Ignore my awful toes in the shot. I need a pedi badly. Maybe next week.

I need to get the IKEA blue plush holder installed to finish up Alex's room as I have pulled a bunch of his animal friends to be relocated. Hoping to pick up a hook tomorrow so I can complete his room and get myself headed to Kira's.

redoing the playroom 2012

While the kids are hanging with Nana and Papa for a little bit of time, the hubby and I have been enjoying our time together as well as tackling some projects around the house. It's our tradition. Every year we do some house project while the kiddos are away. Keeps them on their toes! 

This year is no different. I am trying hard to declutter my house and life. It has to make things easier with less stuff, right?? That's my hope anyways. The first room that needed major change is the kids playroom. It technically is hubby's home office as well as a playroom but the only part that would make it a playroom would be the toys that were littered all around and the television. Pretty sad playroom. Time to fix that and get organized and downsized. I'm so excited just telling you all about it.

We went to IKEA to purchase some new furniture pieces and have now decided we will be buying everything for our house from there in the future. OMG!! Like seriously LOVE that store. But I digress... we got some new pieces that you will have to wait to see but I am sharing a few behind the scenes before the big reveal in a few days.

This is our hallway wall heading to the kids rooms and the bathroom. We finally got around to painting it to match the staircase that we painted either last year or the previous year. I can't remember. I still have a bit more painting to do down by the kids rooms but it's looking 100% better! The color is Peanut Butter by Behr from Home Depot. We picked it up July 2010. Nothing slow about us.

Here are the boxes from two of the new furniture pieces we put together today. Not as much cardboard as I thought we would have. They were all well packed with no space wasted and very little styrofoam inserts.

And where is all the stuff that we had to take out of the playroom while we were working on fixing it up?? Why it headed off to the kitchen table! Yes there is a table under all that stuff. And we can still get to the microwave! We are now eating downstairs in the family room for the time being.

That's all you get for now. I want to do a big reveal as the difference is so amazing and we haven't finished putting everything back yet!!

where i have been

I should be posting a picture of my bed or my couch as that is where I have been residing since the Book Fair ended and I caught a lovely little bug of a cold. I am miserable. There I will say it. I am not a happy mommy at all. My nose is running like Niagara Falls and I am coughing up my lungs. Trust me it is not pretty. Maybe it's better I don't show you that.

Instead I'll share you some pictures from the Book Fair that I did last week. Here we are when you come into the library. It looked so nice this year. We were full but had less cases. Go figure. It was a good selection of books and every student left with a free brand new book. 

Here I am at our Family Night event with Beremy from Build a Bear Workshop. It helps to have an in to get an appearance by the famous bear. We also handed out free bookmarks. I was quite happy (and not sweating) at that point in the evening.

And here I am with Clifford!! This costume was sent to us by Scholastic for the Fair. It was a great costume and the kids LOVED it. As you can tell... so did I. I'm just a kid at heart.

It was a great book fair and I am happy to have done it but am seriously thinking it was my last. It takes a ton out of me and I think it is time for someone else to have some fun with it. Five years is a long time. Then maybe I can avoid this after Book Fair cold next year.

Sniff sniff... cough cough. Heading outside so that Alex can ride his bike. At least I can get some pictures of that. If I can focus.

look at that

I have got excess baggage under my eyes. Must be my total lack of sleep and working my hind end off at the Book Fair. It's all worth it in the end. Small price to pay for all the happy kids with their new books. I can rest on Saturday....

ALL DAY

IN MY JAMMIES

ON THE COUCH OR IN MY BED

DOING NOTHING!

I AM SO LOOKING FORWARD TO IT.

oh the fun begins!

It is that time again! The Scholastic Book Fair is here! Which means I will not be around much for the coming week. Lots to do and so much fun to be had. I cannot wait. Guess I should get my day started and get the kiddos moving as well. Pictures of the Fair will be coming soon. I need to work on the finishing touches today. I need more hours and more arms to get everything done. But it will work out wonderfully!! It always does.

saturday

oh yeah. I am so tired I cannot come up with a fun title for this post. I miss my scrapping desk and had wanted to spend some time here this weekend. Then I go and start to feel sick. Man... so not fair. I worked through it for the day and made three batches of cookies for hubby's work meeting Monday and Tuesday. But now I am totally beat. Gonna find some warm jammies and snuggle down on the couch. Hoping to feel better tomorrow.

day off tomorrow

Which is so very needed after this busy weekend of ours. I could use the morning to grab some extra Z's and the staying home to work on some projects. We'll see exactly how much of both will happen with the kiddos home as well. ;)

elf envy

Who knew a little Elf on the Shelf could cause so much envy/ anger/ frustration??

My friend Nicole gave me this link and it is WONDERFUL!! I laughed myself silly. And then I realized... I am one of those people who she is mocking. Good thing I am a big girl and can laugh at myself.

My only concern is... do I need a second elf for next year so that each child has their own Elf to have when they move out???

still nothing

Okay... I don't have anything to post scrappy wise. But I am happy to say that I have now gotten all the kids school work scanned and photographed. Everything is now on my computer. Need to do a back up so I don't lose all that work. Plus since I have now recycled a good 75% of it, I won't be able to do this again!


I am happy that I have now saved my kids school years in an easy storage way. I was holding onto BOXES of paper and my wonderful fantastical husband asked why I was doing that. He suggested scanning and photographing (somethings just don't fit in my scanner) the things I wanted to keep and then recycle the rest. I did keep a fair amount of the kids drawings which will fit nicely in one storage box instead of ten.


Feels good to have that off my plate. Not sure what I am going to do with it all. Becky Higgins keeps teasing about a school years kit of some sort so I guess I am waiting to see what she has. Love her Project Life so I figure the school years kit will be just as wonderful.


I got to help out in Alex's classroom today. Love doing that. From now on my day will be Wednesday instead of Mondays. The teacher has a parent that can only do Mondays so I switched. As long as I get to volunteer I am pretty flexible with the days.


Thinking tomorrow I may head over to Michaels and Joanns to see what I can find. I know Michaels has the glass Christmas ornament balls. I have found a great idea for these and they will be great for teacher gifts!! But I'm not telling yet what it is. Totally lifting the idea and credit will be given at the appropriate time.


Anyways... hoping that once I get them, I can get motivated to sit here and not play dumb games on the computer and I will get to scrap a bit. I even managed to straighten my desk up. I have room to work. All I need now is the motivation.


Thanks for listening. Hoping to post something scrappy tomorrow.

getting back into the swing

I have been slacking a ton lately on the blog front and the scrapping front. Now to get back into things. Especially with Christmas coming! I need to be making some presents and some cards. That being said, I will be posting here more and of scrappy stuffs. Pinky promise!

heritage festival weekend

It was that time of year again... Heritage Festival weekend in Newmarket. There are vendors and foods and demonstrations and freebies and lots of fun. Unfortunately, for the past two years it has rained and we didn't feel like dragging the kids through all this outdoor stuff in the rain. I know we are very silly parents. This year... no rain. Super humid but no rain.

Every year Kira has performed with the elementary school chorus. Last year and this year she has played her saxophone. Afterward we went looking for the fire truck that was supposed to be down by the waterfront. So after a bit of a walk, we made it and no fire truck. Talk about a bummed little guy! But we did happen upon an adorable llama who looks just like little llama from the Llama Llama books. Alex and I LOVE little llama. This picture is so adorable!! My little llama....

Before the concert, Alex and daddy went down to the Lamprey Health's Teddy Bear clinic where they were giving away Clifford and his pals that were donated by the local Kohl's. Alex was so excited to get Clifford. Kira had a bit of a meltdown when she thought they didn't have any more Cliffords. Amazing that at age 10 she still loves the big red guy.

Concert pictures!! There's my sweetie doing the motions for one of her songs. She loves songs that they can move around to. The lovely lady to her left is her BFF Michaela. Sweet girls.

Finally!! I was able to get pictures of Kira playing her sax during a concert!! So darn cool. Love the action.

About the fire truck... as we were heading back to pick up our magnets that the kids painted, there it was! At the end of the festival. Alex was so excited. Especially when the firemen asked if he wanted a hat and a tour of the truck! He was on cloud nine.


Kira got a feather in her hair... it's pink. Perfect for her. I need to snap a picture of it. Of course tomorrow is picture day so it will live on forever in her fifth grade picture. Great memory! I get to work at picture day too. Always a fun day to see all the kids dressed up... and some that are not.


Mom and dad are here for a couple days. They went to the Loudon NASCAR race on Sunday. Fun hanging out with them. I spent the day Sunday trying to find the house. Somehow tons of dirt and stuff has found its way into this place. I must have turned my back for a minute. I was sore that day, but the house is back together and in order. I'd like to say the same for the laundry. Seems to be taking forever to get through the zillion piles I have. Little at a time and it will be done... sorta.


Kira is the Student of the Week in her classroom this week. We found out on Friday and then promptly forgot. She reminded me as we were heading out to her Girl Scout series program meeting (at 6:30pm on Sunday) that we needed to print her pictures for her. oh yeah... knew I forgot something. I hadn't eaten all day since I was cleaning, so I made me something to eat and my parents came home. My dinner was at 9:30pm and then I started printing her pictures at around 10:15pm or so. Finally got eighteen lovely pictures of Kira, her family, interests and friends printed by 12:30am. I cheated on the last two and used two Disney pictures that were on my desk. shhhhh.... it's our secret.


I had the fun of volunteering in Alex's class today. I am loving having this standing volunteering going on. So wonderful to get into the classroom and help out and meet Alex's friends. Doesn't hurt that Alex simply LOVES his teacher. I'm pretty fond of her myself. He was telling everyone who would listen today that I was coming in. So sweet. I went out to the playground to meet up with his class and he saw me and came running. His one shoe did not though! He was almost to me when he realized his one shoe was missing. Adorable!!


Need to get back to scanning school work. Maybe tomorrow. Tonight this momma llama is taking it easy and heading to bed early. Me tired.

slacker

Yup, that would be me lately. Haven't had the energy or desire to do much around the house. Guess that explains the running around I have been doing the past couple days trying to get things in order before my parents get here. Guess I got tired of putting everything away that I didn't get out.

Okay... whine time over (wine time later!!)

Last weekend we went to Syracuse to celebrate my BIL's marriage. The party was held at Stafford Park in Lafayette, NY. Wasn't too bad a place and the kids did enjoy the playground that was there. Especially this cool contraption. The two of them together couldn't get it spinning the 360* it could go. But Kira did manage to spin Alex. Daddy had to do Kira as Alex was a bit too small to help her out.

They spent a fair amount of time on this. I got a bunch of fun pictures. The two that follow are my favorites. Love Alex's face in the first one. So silly but so typical of him.

This one I love the movement to it.

Then the clouds came in and it started raining. That's when the kiddos got totally bored and restless. And we had been there 4 hours and it didn't look like the cutting of the cake was anytime soon. We took off and picked up some cupcakes at Wegmans. drool drool drool They have changed their frosting. Guess it has less fat or something like that. Don't care... they were pretty darn good. No complaints from the kids.

Good visit for us. This week the parental units are coming to our place. They are going to the New Hampshire speedway for the Indy cars. Okay... it may not be the Indy cars per say since I have no idea which branch is going to be there... but it is that style of car they are going to see. Crossing fingers for them that the rain holds off until evening on Sunday.

Off to finish up the house. Have to run a few things out to the garage. Then I think a shower is in order for this mommy.

here...

Yes I am here.

Yes I have been busy.

Yes I am a slacker on the blog front.

I humbly beg your forgiveness for my long absence.

Last Friday was the 1st annual Spring Auction hosted by the PTA at our school. I was happy to participate and see the amazing work of some wonderful ladies. They did so much work behind the scenes and it was a wonderful auction. We raised over $5000! And that money will be put to good use in the fall in the form of two after school activities- a drama production and a Lego League/Club. So excited!!

So there was that. And the allergies which at this time are under control due to the week of rain we have had. Plus it's just that time of the year that everything is wrapping up at school and lots of gatherings and shows to see. I have done nothing at my desk except throw my camera on it (okay really didn't throw it) Sad. I need to do something creative soon.

On Saturday we took the kids to Kittery, Maine to shop at the Children's Place outlet. I hate paying the tax on the clothes, but their selection is usually better since it is a bigger store than most in my area. Kira needed some shorts. Heck... she needed a ton of shorts! The girl has grown and only two pairs of shorts fit this year. The only reason they fit as I bought them bigger at the end of summer (on sale at the outlet!!) Oh yeah... and a bathing suit. Hers were a tad too small. (insert angry father's face here if I let her wear the ones she had!!)

While we were in Kittery. We needed some lunch and hubby took us to the Weathervane. Very unusual as I am the only one in the family that eats seafood (and not much of it at that!) But a good fish and chips is always a winner for me. It was a good lunch and the kids ate good. They had these cute lobsters out front that the kids had to get their picture taken with. Hubby had to help Alex up as there wasn't a bench to stand on. Aren't they the cutest lobsters you have ever seen?? LOL That's my new wallpaper. BTW... Kira is an angry lobster.

Off to see if I can get anything done. This rain has really sucked the life out of me. Not in the mood to do much of anything. Need to snap out of it. Thanks for stopping by. I promise to not be a stranger!

first official day

Book Fair Day one down... whew.

Only three and a half to go. Oh yeah... throw in a crazy fun filled Family Night too!

I shall make it through this week.

I shall make it through this week.

I shall make it through this week.

It really wasn't that bad. Really. I'm just very tired right now. That could be making think I need to give this event up. The problem with that is, I have so much fun with the kids!! I love hanging with them. I love seeing the delight in their eyes when they get to pick out a new book of their very own. I love giving them the joy of reading. Makes me being tired seem very trivial. No rash decisions.

I was so busy today I didn't even get to take a decent picture of the book fair set up!! I need to do that tomorrow morning when I get in. However, right now this book fair lady is heading to the comfort of her bed. Along with her heating pad and some tylenol.

ps. we are up against our numbers for last year!! Check out our homepage!! ;)