Halloween!!

Happy Halloween Everybody!

It's a warm sunny day and I have errands to run but I'm waiting on a little laundry... so I'll pop in to share some pics of my kiddos Jack O'Lanterns.

Here's my older boys, working on Carving their pumpkins!



Here are the finished projects!
My oldest made this FABULOUS dragon! He did it all, and most of it is shaved rather than cut through!

My middle one loved this pattern for a Where the Wild Things Are! pumpkin, so he set to work! He cleaned out the pumpkin and put the pattern onto the pumpkin, and I helped him out with the carving

My youngest is a traditionalist! He wanted a happy, spooky pumpkin!


And here they are on the porch!

Wacky Wednesday

Well, I've been challenged (thanks, Lisa!) to post a little Wacky Wednesday...

I can tell you it's actually been a pretty quiet Wednesday, but that is, in part, due to wackiness!

Wackiness in the weather!

Yesterday afternoon, we found ourselves under a Winter Storm Warning!

(Despite the warning, we snuck out to dinner at IHOP... I saw a commercial for Holiday Hotcakes and TOTALLY had to have them! OH MY! Pecan Pie Hotcakes for me, Gingerbread for DS2... both were OH SO YUMMY!!! Plus kids eat free at IHOP! So, it was a bonus dinner! But really I could go back for more Pecan Pie Pancakes right now. But that was Tuesday and I'm SUPPOSED to be blogging about Wednesday, right? )

So anyway... this weather was supposed to hit last night.

It didn't.

This morning, we woke to cold and blustery, but no snow. I checked the school delays, our district had one, so I crawled back under my warm blankets and went back to sleep for an hour. Heavenly.

When I got up, there was still no snow. We were still under a delay. So I got in the shower, by the time I got out of the shower, they had turned the delay into a snow day.

Now the last time we got a snow delay/day based on a Winter Storm Warning, April 2007, (when I drove my kids to school without even looking for school delays because, well, it wasn't even snowing!) we ended up snowed in for days. So, I took it seriously.

Still with no snow.

Around 10 AM, I decided that if it hadn't started snowing yet, it'd be best to get out and run some errands that needed doing. So, we piled into the car and headed out.

Of course, then it started to snow!

But even then, it wasn't much snow. This was not the much-vaunted blizzard that had been hyped up. It snowed off and on all afternoon (and it's still snowing now at 9:30 PM)... but not much accumulated.

My middle and youngest sons were delighted that, just in time for the snow, their new snow pants arrived (thank you UPS man!). So they bundled up and went out to play. (And yes, I know, the youngest still needs snow boots. I know.)

We're still under a Winter Storm Warning, and it's in effect until sometime late tomorrow, I suppose we could still get blasted... but it's not looking that way from where I'm sitting (which, admittedly is with my feet propped up next to the toasty fireplace)

OK this doesn't sound all that Wacky. But hey, look I'm posting on my blog!

Tomorrow, I'll hopefully have pics of my kiddo's jack-o-lanterns. They did them tonight. They were a little overly ambitious and my oldest had to go to bed with his only partially finished. So, watch this space!

My mojo might be reappearing!

I have done very little scrapping of late -- it's been busy and it seemed like too much work to pull out the gear. That is a VERY bad sign! Yes, I've had lots of excuses but really... I was mostly just unmotivated.

So, finally I settled down at my scraptable to do a little work last night. And I got a couple of pages done yesterday (after spending forever cranking out thank you notes)...

I've been playing in Serendipity's Daily Challenge forum. I find a lot of inspiration there!

These two layouts both use a FANTASTIC sketch from the awesomely talented Kristin.

Now if you know me, you probably know I almost never do a sketch 'straight' - I flip it, I mirror it... I mess with it -- but I find them to be the most awesome jumping off place!

This first one here is an older pic, 4-5 years old. I love this pic and just decided to print it a little bigger and do a special page for it. When I saw this sketch, it came right to mind! I followed the sketch pretty closely here, I used punched circles instead of buttons, I used a 5x7 in place of 2 4x6s but Kristin's sketch still really shines through!

Papers are all Cosmo Cricket Lil' Man, And there's some Thickers there, too (that color is 'grapefruit')

Same kid, same sketch, same paper line ... different LO! This is also my middle son, though this pic was taken just last year. Isn't he cute with his friend? Anyway, I mirrored the sketch, and then tilted it... again a 5x7 replaces the pair of 4x6s.
More Cosmo Cricket.

This one is from the Warm and Cozy challenge I posted about earlier this month - the challenge being to use "fuzzy" products. So we've got blue felt thickers, Great flocked paper from MM (the red floral), and this totally cute Mickey Jolee that I've had in my stash FOREVER. I am a total sucker for Disney embellishments. I have, well ummm... hoard a lot of them. The pics are from the October blizzard of 2006. Man, that was some SERIOUS Snow. See how deep it is on the back sliding door? Yeah, from there, there's a full step down to get to the patio below. Plus -- this layout was chosen as Layout of the Day at Serendipity, which totally made my day :)

Papers - ummmm uhhhh I dunno. The blue and red is Memory Makers. The border punch is Threading Water. The Mickey stuff is Jolees and the alphas are AC Thickers.

Vacation Recap

I've been missing a while, I know... with good reason! We've been on vacation!

We went to Branson and St. Louis, MO. Now some of you know, I'm originally from KC, MO. So it was an especially fun trip for me!

The above pic is from the AMAZING Branson Scenic Railway. It was a beautiful ride! My youngest is a bit of a train nut and loved it, as did the rest of us. The railway took us over the AR line and we got to see a lot of lovely autumn Ozark views!
During the trip, DH and I celebrated our anniversary by taking a moonlight lake cruise on Lake Taneycomo aboard the Lake Queen. It was a quiet and pleasant evening, despite the cool weather. The boat takes you to see the final show of the Branson landing fountains. VERY VERY cool!
We took the kids to a variety of fun sites, including the Branson Titanic Museum (which was really quite cool!), Silver Dollar City theme park (loads of fun -- DS1 and DS2 really liked the big roller coasters, DS3 tried one roller coaster and was pretty much done with rides from the terror of it... he liked watching people throwing pots on the potters wheel, though, and the train ride), and in St. Louis we hit the St. Louis Science Center (if you happen to be in St. Louis -- we highly recommend this!!! It was FANTASTIC!), the Missouri Botanical Gardens (also a great thing to see -- beautiful and full of variety!), and the St. Louis Zoo's Boo at the Zoo Event (the kids loved the nocturnal animals show!)

But man, am I glad to be home! 10 days of vacation is EXHAUSTING!

My dry spell has taken a breather... I don't think it's totally over but I did get a little scrapping done this weekend!

This first page is some older pics of my oldest and youngest. I ADORE the pic of my little toddler spraying his big brother in the face -- it just cracks me up. I did this page as part of Susan Stringfellow's Saturday Sketch Challenge
Brotherly love: Cardstock: DCWV, Striped Paper ??, Other papers and epoxy stickers: Making memories Chloe’s Closet, Alphas: AC Thickers Dacquiri

This one is some pics from our spring trip to Chicago, we ended up in the Hyde Park neighborhood when we headed to the Oriental Institute Museum. Several of these flowers are fussy cut and popped up.

Hyde Park: Paper: Scenic Route Cape Town, Rub on Letters: Making Memories Circus Meadow, Journalling Spot: Making Memories, Noteworthy, Nails: Scrapbook Interiors

This is Sue. Sue is the largest, most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found, and she's on display at the Field Museum in Chicago. I did this page as part of a daily challenge at Serendipity Scrapbooks - the challenge was the 'warm and fuzzy challenge' and we were supposed to use two 'fuzzy' products -- in this case flocked paper and felt alphas.

Sue: Paper: MAMBI Coastal Culture, DCWV La Crème; Felt Alphas: Making Memories; border punch: Martha Stewart crafts

Haunted Gingerbread House

Every October, we decorate a Haunted Gingerbread House.

This sounds like an involved project. Really, it isn't. I don't bake anything. Heck I usually buy the preassembled house kits, everything is in the box and you don't even have to put the house together. As the decorating of the house (and sneaking of various candy decorations) is all that matters to my kids, it's really the best way. This year it came from Walmart and was similar to this.

A post of the mundane

I have been neglecting my poor little blog and you, my handful of readers.

It has been a busy, but mundane week... which mostly means that we spent a lot of time running around, with very little to show for it!

Wednesday we did go to the Wizard of Oz, 70th Anniversary showing. It was loads of fun! My youngest has seen the movie before but he was still transfixed! There was a glitch in the showing that resulted in us getting passes, so that was a bonus!
On Monday, my youngest had his leader day at preschool. He was SO excited and proud! He got to bring snack (carrots and goldfish crackers), show and tell (his Santa and Diego), and ME (it's a co-Op preschool so every-so-often I get to spend a day helping out in the classroom).
Yesterday, my dear DH brought home flowers, a bottle of wine and then ordered Chinese food! Now that was sweet :)
My oldest is in the midst of a science experiment involving eggs and osmosis... these eggs have been soaked in vinegar (which dissolved the shell), then in water, then in Caro syrup. My littler guys have been fascinated by seeing the yolk through the shells, and by the shrinking and expanding eggs. FUN!
And finally, I got a haircut. Yes. Finally.