Some photos of the birthdays. Most of these are from the joint family party when the kids' Uncle Mark came to visit, with some from the morning of their actual birthdays.
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Family News
November 10, 2009
Fly CBCS "Around the World"
Last Friday I took a much-needed break from craft fair prep to attend my children's school program. Our school had been turned into an airport terminal complete with security dog and checkpoint, flight attendants, and tickets. Each classroom was a different country that we could visit and learn about. I could not believe the effort that went into these displays. My favorite room was Mr. Jones' who somehow managed to turn his dropped ceiling into a rainforest complete with sound. They really went all out! I have always been really impressed with the scale of these events. It's never just a program in the auditorium. It's always a full scale, decorate the entire school, every one participates, multimedia event. We are SO blssed to be a part of this school! It makes me so proud that my Stampin' Up efforts pay for my children's tutition.
We also hade to sample the regional cuisine in each room, of course. We ate bratwurst and spatzel, black forest cake and pretzels in the Germany room; taco chips, salsa, enchiladas and Hot Tamales in the Mexico room; several unpronounceable but very tasty things in the Kenya room; fried rice, coconut cookies and pineapple in the Palau room, etc. The library was neutral Sweden, with benerages from all over.
Dan's room was Scotland, and if you could dodge the little boys energetically playing mini golf (invented in that country), you could sample scones, cheese soup, Toad in the Hole, and a pink beet-potato salad. They also scored a real bagpiper, which I absolutely love and my husband cannot stand. We have a mixed marriage : )
Natalie's room was Peru, which makes me laugh because of the llama jokes we have on Stampin' Addicts. I had to take this picture of her with the inflatable llama! Her room had lots of real Peruvian items because one of her fellow students' families are going to be missionaries to Peru as soon as they finish raising their support. Their part of the program was a Peruvian song, complete with motions, that Natalie has been singing incessantly for the past two months.
Here's Dan's class all in a row with the little plaid tams one of the moms made. The teacher even had one with some extremely funny "faux fur" red hair peeping out from under it. The second grade's part of the program was a poem told in broad Scots accented English, about the Loch Ness Monster. It was a riot.
What a fun evening!
November 09, 2009
Happy birthday, buddy!
Well, despite being about the pickiest eater on the planet, my man Dan has made it to year eight. He is so big and strong and I have no idea how that happened, since he apparently subsists on air. He can knock me over in a squeeze that's more a wrestling hold than a hug, strangle me in a paroxysm of joy with his after-school greeting, dampen half my face with an over-exuberant kiss that leaves me mostly makeup-less. He can break my heart and make it bust with pride in the same day. He can drive me up a wall one moment and make me melt into a little mommy-love-puddle the next.
I am the mother of an eight year old boy. I had no idea eight year old boys were so precious. Did you?
November 04, 2009
Happy Birthday, Baby!
I can hardly credit it, but my little baby girl turned six years old today. I enjoyed snuggling with her in the warm bed this morning at 6:47 a.m. and reminiscing about how happy we were at that very moment six years ago. I am so blessed.
In Natalie's honor today, I have a "blast from the past" for you--girly themed scrapbook projects from my past six years of stamping! The page above celebrates cupcakes and being three. Glitter and sparkles were a MUST! The cupcake wrapper is also made of vertical strips of Bashful Blue taffeta ribbon.
Nest is one of my favorite scrapbook pages of all time. I made it soon after Natalie got her diagnosis of SPD. I created this red, black and white layout for a contest (didn't win), so unfortunately I no longer have it in my possession to take a better photo of it.
BONUS TIP: The technique on the letters is negative emboss--something I invented as far as I know--where you heat emboss with embossing powders just like normal, only right before heating, you use a pencils or stylus to scrape off some of the powder in a pattern such as the flowers I drew here. Stripes, swirls, whatever--then heat set the powder. It adds marvelously unique texture to any embossed project.
I spent a likewise very long time on this page, also for a contest, but it did "win" in that it was put on display at the Stampin' Up National Convention in 2008. It's hard to tell in the photo, but there is a lot of texture here with the stitched photo frame, chipboard flowers, brad, paper crimping and more... I stamped, used rub-ons, chalks and even the gel pen on this page!
And finally, here's a quick little mini photo book made from a single piece of 12x4 DSP. Watch for a photo tutorial on this, coming soon!
October 29, 2009
Some unfortunate news
Yesterday I got some very unfortunate news that has me feeling pretty low. My long-suffering, ever patient, ever encouraging husband Mike is not going to be allowed the time off in April to come with me on the Stampin' Up cruise we earned together last year.
Mike is not only my helpmeet and the fantastic father of my children, but my best friend, and I am absolutely crushed with disappointment not to be able to share this once-in-a-lifetime experience with him, he who earned it just as much as I did, although he's never lifted a single stamp.
The photo below may help illustrate some of the things I love Mike for. He is a far better father than I am a mother. He always has made me want to be better than I am, from the moment I first laid eyes on him. I am fantastically grateful God saw fit to give him to me. It is a great joy when I am able to give him something really awesome like the incentive trip in repayment for a teeny fraction of what he has meant in my life.
I don't blame the school--though I wish the Executive Council's decision had been otherwise, rules are there for a reason, and the timing really did stink. I am thankful my husband has a good job with insurance in this economy, and he loves being a college teacher. I just let myself get my hopes too high and the crash back down to earth has been painful. It has been discouraging. I am not sure I will even try to earn the Alaska trip right now as it would fall in the final full week of May 2011.
Being down about this accomplishes nothing, yet I seem unable to pull myself out of the funk just yet. Bear with me, my friends. I'll be back with my attitude adjusted shortly. Thanks for listening to my ramble.
October 23, 2009
October 07, 2009
100% Pure Joy
Look at the delight on Natalie's face! These are pictures of my family at the Labor Day carnival at my husband's college. Mike and Natalie were on an enormous inflatable slide. Each society had a different attraction, contest, or food booth. My kids had a total blast! The weather was absolutely perfect, too. Good thing, because by the end of the afternoon we were all soaked.
Daniel got to dunk a student... I love this picture because it captures not only the student plunging into the tank, but Dan's absolute delight and celebration dance as well. Natalie also won a prize in a ring toss and a free taco donated from Taco Bell.
One really cool thing the students just loved was this huge homemade downhill water slide. They coated the side of a hill on campus with black sheeting, squirted dish soap all over it and turned the hoses on. Students went down on their backs, fronts, sides, in groups, standing up like a surfer, with great running starts, and if they got up enough momentum, plunged into a huge mud puddle at the end. It was a riot to watch. I thought my kids would be too scared, but they went down multiple times. My husband did not really want to do it (especially with about 100 students watching) but some of his students chased him down and bear-hugged him until he was soakign wet anyway, so off he went with the kids. Being in a denim skirt myself, I declined.
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The kids also enjoyed being allowed to clobber each other in this giant inflatable boxing ring. They declined to do the inflatable Sumo Wrestler attraction, though, because of the wait line. You can't see it, but their mouths are blue with sno-cones, too. It was a fantastic, classic end to our summer.
October 02, 2009
School Open House Day
It was open house/parent's day at our school yesterday and the kids were very lucky this year in that both Mike and I were able to make it to different parts of the day. There's Dan's second grade class above, minus the sick kids (I guess it's that time of year) doing their Reader's Theater--"The Ugliest Woodpecker Ever." It was about a mismatched egg in a woodpecker's nest hatching into something very different and going on a search to find out what he really was--only to discover that he was not even a bird--he was a turtle! It was a hoot, pardon the pun!
I was very proud of the great job Dan did, lots of expression, no missed lines, perfect comedic timing. He sure looks grown up in these pictures... he's in the brown shirt between the two boys in stripes. Because of the kids out sick, Dan had to take on another role and it was cute listening to him try to make the two characters sound different from each other.
While we were waiting forsome late parents to arrive, the kids told us what they have been learning about fossils in Science, and colonies in History. It is kind of cool to see these basic concepts, foundational building blocks for all kinds of amazing things they are going to learn each successive year of school.
We also enjoyed hearing Natalie's class do their phonics presentation. Couple of kids out sick there as well. I am blown away by how much they have already learned in just over a month. The new letter for the day was "M" so we learned the correct way to draw an "m" (apparently I have been doing it wrong all these years--oh well!) and then we did a marshmallow craft! I was the designated marshmallow-hander-outter.
We managed not to eat TOO many of the craft supplies and spoil the nice lunch of chili, homemade rolls and brownies that the school had made for the guests! The kids were delighted to have their daddy pop in for a bit between classes at the college as well. We are SO blessed!
September 04, 2009
How many monkeys does it take to change a lightbulb?
Well, I don't know the answer to that question either, but here are a few monkey jokes to go along with the monkey cupcakes I made last night to take to the kindergarten's Curious George party this afternoon (courtesy of tanmonkey.com:
Q: How do you train King Kong?
A: Hit him with a rolled up newspaper building.
Q: Where do monkeys pick up wild rumors?
A: Over the apevine.
Q: How do monkeys get down the stairs?
A: They slide down the banana-ster!
Q. What did the monkey say when he cut off his tail?
A. It won't be long now.
Q. What is smarter than a talking monkey?
A. A spelling bee!
Q. What side of a monkey has more hair?
A. The outside.
Q. If you were in a jungle by yourself and a gorilla charged you, what would you
do?
A. Pay him.
If life were like a computer...
Having computer issues and this email from my Dad's daily clean jokes list (www.grif.net) was a little apropos this morning! WHEN I get this figured out, I will show you what I have been making with my new My Digital Studio software from Stampin' Up! It is so incredibly awesome!
You could add/remove someone in your life using the control panel.
You could put your kids in the recycle bin and restore them when you feel like it.
You could improve your appearance by adjusting the display settings.
You could turn off the speakers when your wife tries to tell you to do chores.
You could click on “find” (Ctrl, F) to recover your lost TV remote control and car keys.
To get your daily exercise, just click on "run".
If you mess up your life, you could always press "Ctrl, Alt, Delete" and start all over!
Can you think of any more?
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