Project 12, April

Today is the last day for Project 12: April, and this morning I put together this page. Even though the sketch for April had a ton of photo spaces, I needed even more!!! So I snuck in there 11 photos!

I used the May kit from 3ScrappyBoys  for this project. Photos from April include:
Oldest's Eagle Court, the little boys with their Earth Day Tee Shirts, Andy Pandy and Oldest at Eagle Court, the little boys in the pool at Nana/Papa's hotel, Oldest with Space Hall of Fame Engineer Eddie Sturman, Middle child at "Black Belt Club" for karate (this doesn't mean he IS a black belt - just working in that direction, he's a gold belt-black stripe), Pinewood Derby, DH's birthday, at the ball game (Colorado Sky Sox), Easter and the Little Guy's birthday!

A couple of pages

My kids are in their last week of school - we've got field days and Kindergarten graduation, and all the goodies to go to this week. I can't believe the school year is nearly over. Soon my Little Guy will be off to first grade, and my Middle Child will be in his last year of Elementary! And Oldest? Soon to be a Junior!

Speaking of heading into his Junior Year, here's a page of Oldest with his letter jacket right after it arrived. He earned a Varsity letter in wrestling his Freshman year, and an academic letter this year. Papers and goodies are all WRMK: Teen Angst and MVP collections.

 OK these colors are weird. I get it... and somehow they seem to work anyway! I found this paper on clearance one time a couple of years ago and I don't think I've used much of it before! Last Christmas we got a self-propelled table-top air hockey set. It's a neat toy but one we hadn't played with in a long time. At one point I suggested to the kids that they could play with it on the hardwood floor. They attempted it but weren't sure it was going to work out... until I suggested that they build a rink for it -- which they did, using the Little Guy's Thomas-the-Tank-Engine tracks! Innovative!

 This is my first Karate Layout - the Middle Child has been in Karate for almost a year now and he loves everything about it. The photos are from his first lesson, before he even got his gi! The papers here are all DCWV La Creme.

This two pager is of photos from our soccer-studio's Halloween Party. Bottom right photo is of the little guy holding up his prize from winning the costume contest (which I can take almost no credit for - I bought the shirt at a thrift store - the rest of the costume was a hand-me-down from his brother, and made by their stepmom) The papers here are from Fancy Pants and they ROCK.

Hey Hey It's My Birthday

or at least it was yesterday.

And it was a good one. Took the whole day pretty easy. Didn't cook a thing.

There were some pictures taken but, unlike my husband, my son, who grabbed my point and shoot, didn't think to warn me that the shots were going to be cleavage-ridden since I was leaning forward over the ottoman to open gifts and my shirt was kinda big... I mean seriously - that's a whole lotta my bra. Photo editing is in order. LOL

Presents included:

 Very sweet flowers from my parents

The ILs gave DH and I a joint present of $s to spend on upgrading to wood blinds.

A Mickey Tron pin from Disneyland (like this one but without the dark blue circle), a cool new Mickey Mug (classic Mickey Mouse Coffee Co.) and this book:

And as a bonus, here are some pictures of my Lilacs in bloom for Sasha :) (the ones in the bowl wilted and were replaced by birthday flowers shown above)

Some more NSD crop pages

Today, at my house I have a bowl of lilacs on my table (Woohoo!) from the yard. LOVE THAT!

But it was freezing freaking cold - high of 42. That's brutal after a weekend in the 80s!

If Wednesdays weren't so busy I would totally have holed up like a hobbit with a cup of tea in my basement and scrapped all day!

I do still have more pages from the weekend to share with you.

 This challenge called for the use of a die-cut/shaped paper, at least two buttons and at least two patterned papers - the papers here are mostly Echo Park: Wintertime. The page is about our family tradition surrounding the first snow on Pike's Peak.

 This was a color scheme challenge -- look at those colors for a second and realize how hard this was! There was a pinky color, a melony color, navy blue, a pale yellow and a springy-green. TOUGH!!! This page features a pic of the Little Guy on his first day of Kindergarten -the first day on which he was allowed to have gum. The papers here are DCWV (plus some TCP cardstocks) The alphas are Sassafrass, the ribbon is Fancy Pants and the Sketch is totally Susan.

 Another Disneyland page (WOOHOO!) and another Susan sketch - such fun with more of the Awesome Bo Bunny Blastoff and some AC: Junior.

For this page I had to meet up with a product I find unfriendly - PAINT. I don't like products which require dry time and I don't like things which are messy (guess how I feel about loose glitter?) but for this page I'm really glad I pulled it out - the black paint masking on the black background really worked for me on this page. And who can resist awesome video game papers from Moxxie and DCWV?

It's all about me!

This weekend brought two fun holidays together - mother's day and national scrapbook day!
While technically NSD was on Saturday and Mother's Day was on Sunday -we made a weekend of it.

In addition to National Scrapbook day - Saturday was another of my favorite days - FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! We packed up and headed for the Local Comic Shop where we loaded up on all kinds of fun titles! The kids have been diving into them non-stop. After picking up comics (including a new BARSOOM book for me!!!) we went out for an early dinner at Texas Roadhouse, DELICIOUS!

Mother's Day began with a delicious breakfast cooked by my Oldest. From there we headed for the park where we barbecued and played around with family. Good times!

A significant part of the rest of my weekend was spent on some cropping! The 3 Scrappy Boys' National Scrapbook Day crop offered a lot of fun challenges!

For this first challenge - we were to use circles. I decided to put together a few circle photos.

 I pulled out this Cosmo Cricket: Garden Variety. It's been sitting in my stash a long time and I've hardly used it! But it's so darned cute and absolutely perfect for these photos of the Little Guy picking Berries and Apples last fall.

A sketch was provided for this one from My Sketch World.

 And so I whipped up my FIRST page with my brand new Disneyland photos! WooHoo!! Love this page! and love this product - the Bo Bunny Blast Off Line is totally irresistible!

For this one, I started out to do a challenge, then went afield. Oh well, another page done!

I adore these photos from Christmas 2009 of my boys goofing off. This is an older American Crafts Christmas line - the papers that look kind of Kraft like are actually gold.

Missouri Trip Wrap Up

Last weekend I finished up my pages from our 2008 Missouri trip (which as I've mentioned several times - means I then ordered my Disney Prints! WOOHOO!)

So here are a few more scrapbook pages from the trip

 The Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis are breathtakingly beautiful! There is so much to see there! We spent a few hours but could certainly have stayed longer and seen more!

 Somehow this paper seemed to work for these photos of the General Lee at "Cooter's Southern Heritage Shop" in Branson.... cause I don't exactly have Confederate Flag paper LOL The second DH saw the General Lee by the side of the road he knew it was a stop he had to make!

 Table Rock Lake - this lake and its various entertainments stick in my mind from my own childhood, and from this trip. While it wasn't particularly warm at any point in our visit - the lake shore was irresistible. The kids had a ball walking along, skipping stones, exploring. The leaves on this page were in with my memoribilia from the trip. (Here's a recent article dealing with the flooding in the area last month)

I've mentioned it before but I have to say it again - if you have kids and you go to St. Louis - DO NOT miss the St. Louis Science Center!!! It's AMAZING! Our kids had an absolute ball there!

I've noticed a few missing pics from this trip that I still want to scrap but I'm feeling pretty well done with it.

Everyday Miracles

In the last year I've been seeking to be more... mindful in my life. To spend my time and energy on things which matter. To think and feel and reflect. Life is such a busy rush (note how the journalling of almost every month of my Project 12 for the last year says something like "This month was so busy!" or "How can it already be .[insert impossibly-fast-arriving month name].") that it's easy to get caught up in the things that don't matter, instead of taking in the moments of beautiful ordinariness.

Today as I stood in the work room at the school where my younger kids go - I listened to some young student-teachers who are nearing the end of their student days. Once upon a time, I was a hopeful student teacher, excited by the prospect of the coming years in the classroom. Years that never actually came. As Anne would say, there was a 'Bend in the Road' ahead.  Life took me in other directions and now, here I am with nine-years of stay-at-home-mom-ness under my belt. And another bend in the road ahead as I look forward to sending all my kids off to all-day school.

I realize that I am rambling but I am heading toward something.

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say

And - as the road leads, inspired by my friend Elizabeth, I've been reading a devotional, my first! Now, it's my kind of devotional, Walking with Bilbo by Sarah Arthur. My kids and I are engrossed in The Hobbit and meanwhile I'm pondering. And it has been a good thing.

In addition to my attempts at grasping these things close in my life, I want to embrace them in my scrapbooking, too. I've been following a few leads in that direction. And again, Elizabeth is showing me the way.

Check out : Scrapping Every Day Miracles - Challenge Blog  

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