Coloring Away the Midwinter Blahs

Been a couple of weeks since I posted. Work has had me buried up to my eyeballs, and we've had a lot of sickness in the family, too. Fortunately, we did take a weekend for family time not too long ago. I kidnapped Scott for a night out and saw Music and Lyrics, a really quite sweet romanticomedy. Then, we took the kids to the Crayola Factory. It was great, because we really took our time and enjoyed the day together. Also, since it was the day after Read Across America, we got to meet the Cat in the Hat!

Here's some highlights. First, gotta love this sculpture over the back entrance:

Kai and Nick posed with a few "celebrities". The Cat made it clear he liked Nicky's shirt!

Of course, we created LOTS of artwork:

And we visited the canal museum upstairs, which turned out to be QUITE good. The kids loved the huge model of a canal that let them float boats through locks and under tunnels:


We actually managed to follow all the directions for hitching this mule, too. Although, had he been a REAL mule, he probably would have kicked us several times before we were done!


Why is it that putting laundry in the basket is a chore at home, but they can scrub it for fun at a museum??

The train room was also a big hit...

And all the rest....

Not that I think anyone is still looking at these... but I wanted to finish the blogging of them, since I finished the making of them. I was the only scrapper to finish all 28 layouts... and I won! Which was really neat, but the best part was just getting so many memories out of my camera files and on to paper. I scrapbook because I want to remember things. But someday, I hope my kids will look at these, and remember, too. I'm glad to be done with such a BIG challenge, though, because I don't want them to necessarily remember that I was ALWAYS scrapping, lol!

President's Day Photo Shoot

I borrowed the kids from their week of play to take these shots. I hadn't taken pictures of the kids for no reason (non-holiday, birthday, etc.) in awhile, and I wanted to take advantage of the light in the living room. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

I did, however, learn an important photography lesson. You can't mix kids and pets. 'Cause IF you get the kids to smile at the same time, and IF you get your unruly Lab to stay in one place, and IF the dog isn't rolling over or licking anyone's hands, and IF your camera takes the picture at the right time... The dog will STILL like her nose or stick out her tongue so it looks like the kids are choking her. *sigh*

More Layouts of the Day

Here's a quick catch-up on February 16-18:

Layout of the Day 2/15

Nicky took pity on me last night. I was playing pinochle instead of scrapping this layout of the day. So he thought he'd "help" and make it for me. Course, with all the help he needed to make it, I ended up losing pinochle, but I had lousy hands anyway. The layout needed 14 stars, "bling"(sparklies) and stamping.

Then of course, I had to sneaky make one myself, cause his wouldn't count for the contest. SHHH.... he thinks he got me the big points! I think his is cuter than mine, anyway.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ugh... what a few weeks it has been!! We've all been busy, we've all taken turns being sick, the weather finally realized it was winter, and we snuck in fun where we could find it. Altogether, it's been crazy. But when is it ever NOT crazy??

Today finds us "snowed in" though we didn't really get much snow. It's the ice and sleet that are making the roads a mess. It still looks very pretty, especially since school was cancelled and Scott could work from home, so since we've no place to go... you know the rest!

We aren't doing anything special for Valentine's Day today. The kids made their usual homemade valentines for friends and family, and Scotty and I will probably go out this weekend. Scotty never gets me roses for Valentine's, which is just fine with me, since the markup is ridiculous. But he gets me roses for no reason, like these pretty ones from last week. So why would I complain?

Kairi had a sleepover last weekend. Four giggling girls doing craft and cooking projects on a Friday night makes for a very tired mama. But they seemed to have fun. Kai and I enjoyed decorating the house a little for the party, too - she especially liked the balloons. Gee, I wonder why?

Nicky was feeling a little left out at this point, so I took him all by himself to Jungle Fun last Saturday. He had a blast - especially attacking the hanging punching bags.

Last, here are a few shots from my Educator's Night Out at the Franklin Institute. We got to see the King Tut exhibit before it opened to the public, which was cool. Unfortunately, no photos allowed inside the exhibit. The artifacts were really amazing. The night out with friends from work, free dinner, and goody bag of classroom helps were pretty darn cool, too. The only drawback was the around the city block line, and the fact we got back home after 10 on a school night. Ah well - I can't wait to take my seventh graders on their field trip now!

Catch-up - Layouts of the Day

The layout above needed red, black, white, doodling, and three kinds of ribbon. I like it a lot because of the precious picture of Nicky with Hobbes.

This layout is from Nicky's trip to Jungle Fun for his birthday last year. It needed red, blue, brown, a ghost shape, 4 photos, and an arrow.

This layout had to use a poem that is typed on the brown strip on the left.

This layout needed paper from three manufacturers and _3_ bookplates! (Definitely a challenge!)

Layout of the Day 2/10

We had to use _23_ flowers and a black background on today's page. As you can see, I "cheated" and used pictures I took in my garden last spring.

Layout of the Day - Feb 9

Yes, I know I missed a day. That one calls for one large and two wallet photos, and I don't have them- I was planning on using some professional shots, and then I realized I had already scrapped the one that I have in a large size. Ooops. But I digress - I'll catch that up later. Until then, here's today's layout, using all the colors of the rainbow.

Oh, and one last thing. The next time I agree to a slumber party at our house, will someone PLEASE stop me???

*yawn*

Layout of the Day 2/7

The requirements were a winter theme, snowflake embellishments, and paper tearing. The picture of the layout doesn't do it justice. *sigh* I miss my scanner.

Layout(s) of the Day(s) - 2/5 and 2/6

Oops. Got a bit behind.

2/5 was free choice, but points for "secret" items. Hope I found a few:

2/6 had to include pink, green, epoxy stickers, paint and shapes cut out of patterned paper:

Layout of the Day - February 4th

I had to use the Dr. Seuss quote and stars on this one - the picture didn't come out well, though.

Layout of the Day - February 3

Today's layout needed blue, orange, and eyelets. Plenty there of all three, I'd say!

Layout of the Day - 2

Here's my second layout for my layout a day challenge. This one was supposed to have 3 photos and inking.

Happy Groundhog's Day, everyone!

A Layout A Day - February 1st

I'm in a challenge that will have me creating a layout a day for every day in February. I thought I'd post them here as I went along.

This layout had to have silk flowers, brads, buttons, ribbon, and letter stickers. I like that with all those required products, it's still pretty simple and non cluttered.




I'd rather be blogging about my fabulous preview trip to the Tut exhibit, but since I got home SO late last night, that will have to wait until I can download the pictures I took.

Happy February!