Wednesday, August 20, 2008

"Mom...Kevin fell and his tooth fell out..."

Isn't that what every mom wants to hear??? Luckily for Kevin, the front tooth Blake was referring to was already (very) lose. It didn't make me feel much better though knowing that one of my kids hit the basement floor hard enough to knock out a tooth! I pray now with permanent teeth coming in (Blake's are already in!) that it doesn't happen again!
Blake said Kevin fell and then he noticed something on Kev's shirt...the tooth. Blake ran to find me with tooth in hand. Kevin came soon behind holding a Kleenex up to his mouth. Tom was in Idaho yesterday, so he missed all of the excitement. Kevin called him to tell him the news. It was hillarious listening to the conversation. When Tom asked if he was ok, Kevin replied, "Yeah...I'm just holding one of those...things you use...to get boogers out of your nose...to stop the bleeding." I interrupted to explain that he had a tissue! Kevin has such a way with words.

Kevin is really enjoying the huge gap in his smile. My baby is growing up...

You can really stretch a kit...

For a while I've been admiring the October Afternoon papers online, but had never seen them in person. When Personal Scrapper announced that their August kit would contain October Afternoon papers, I was thrilled. I had no idea how versatile the kit would be and how many layouts I would be able to finish with it though!

When I saw the muted earthtones, I pulled out pictures from April '06 of the boys fishing in TN with their Grandma. It was the boys' first big fishing trip and I had a ton of pictures! I was able to get all of Blake's pictures from that trip scrapbooked (even if it took 3 double page layouts and 2 singles!).
The earthtones also worked really well with our Thanksgiving family shot from last year. (This picture was AWFUL though...that was when my camera was dying on me!)
I also was able to scrapbook our playdoh fun with Adriane after Molly's graduation back in May.
One of my favorite layouts from the kit was made using a paper that I thought would be the most difficult to use. I debated cutting the flowers out of the PP, but decided instead to just cut around the edges of some so I could insert my oversized photo mat behind them. The bonus about this month's kit was that in addition to the earthtone papers, there was a collection of brights, too. I LOVED these papers!!! I was able to make a 'girly' page with a picture from a visit with my cousin Tiffany. For the past year, Tiffany has been battling brain cancer (Glioblastoma Multiform). She named her tumor, Ted, so we are all on team KILL TED!!!
When Kevin lost his first top tooth, I took a couple shots of him in the bathroom. The pics were just head shots with our light green wall background. I took this opportunity to use flowers on his page. I love how it turned out!
Personal Scrapper had a challenge to use 3 PPs, one alpha, one ribbon piece, 3 brads...I made this page. I had found the chipboard alphas for $1 at Big Lots, but the pattern on them was really ugly, so I covered them with the paper. If you see more than 3 patterns on the page...I used double sided paper! Here is another page with pictures that I had put off using. They are from August 2005! I worked the white space on these and just added some scraps of PP and brads with my title.

Yes, I've been busy scrapping at night after the boys are in bed. I think I was able to finish 16 layouts with the kit. I had to pull out cardstock from my stash, of course. Plus I added some extra alphabets and other embellishments here and there.
I went almost two weeks without scrapping because of our vacation - it was good to be scrapping again! Now I'm working on our vacation album!




Thursday, August 14, 2008

Florida Vacation!!!



We have been home from vacation for two weeks now and the boys are finishing up their second week of school. I have finally taken the time to sort through our vacation pictures to pick the best for my vacation update.


We had a WONDERFUL trip. We left after Tom got home from work on a Wednesday night, swung by to pick up two of my sisters (Adriane and Molly) and we headed for Tierra Verde (south of St. Petersburg). We pulled out of their driveway at 7:20 p.m. I drove until we got to the other side of Atlanta and then Tom took over. After several bathroom/caffeine stops and stops for dinner and breakfast, we made it to the condo before noon on Thursday. We got rained on a little on the way there, but soon after arriving, the rain stopped. After a brief rest, we headed down the road to Ft. De Soto Beach. It was the first time our boys had seen the ocean. It was overcast, but we still had a good afternoon. Soon after getting there Blake found part of a sand dollar.
Tom likes to refer to this next picture as the boys' "Baywatch" run. They've never seen the show though!
After the beach, we were ready for some seafood. While we were waiting on my sisters to get ready for dinner, Blake took this picture of me and Tom. It's one of my favorites from the trip.


After dinner we drove around the area and found a beach I'd read about online - Pass-A-Grille. Our timing was perfect - we got to see the sunset. I was happy to have my sisters with us or else we wouldn't have near as many good family shots of the four of us together.
After we left the beach, we found a great ice cream shot. I took pictures of everyone eating their cones, but Kevin had the best shot. (That's the end of his cone sticking out of his mouth in case you couldn't tell!)
The next day we went to Pass-A-Grille to swim. The beach is basically made up of shells. It was something else!



We drove about an hour the next day to Siesta Key. That was my favorite beach. The sand is like powdered sugar. It was amazing! We actually ended up spending two days there. The first day my sisters stayed behind at the condo, so we took them back the next day with us. The water was clear and you could walk out pretty far without it being deep which was good for me and Kevin. Tom also bought us a tube at Siesta Key. We all enjoyed it.






Before our trip, Kevin said he wanted to find a crab on the beach. There were plenty of pretty shells at Siesta Key, but you had to be careful because a lot of them were "homes" to something still alive. I am happy to say that Kevin did find a crab living in the shell on the mat in the photo above.
We also took in a game of putt-putt in St. Pete. Tom won and I came in second beating Blake by just one. Kevin likes to brag that he had the highest score - 89!
We woke up early one morning and made the drive (less than 2 hours) to Orlando for a visit to the Happiest Place on Earth. We had visited all four Disney parks in October 2005. This trip, we stayed at a Hilton on-site and shuttled over to the Magic Kingdom for two days. It was the first time my sisters had ever been to Disney. Blake and Kevin were excited to play tour guide for them.



The tea cups are a favorite of mine. Blake rode with me and Tom, but Kevin wanted to ride with Adriane adn Molly whenever he could.
All three boys (yes, Tom included!) LOVED the Buzz Lightyear ride. As always, Tom was the champ.
On on first day at Disney we were able to hit almost all of the rides, plus see the evening parade after watching the fireworks from Splash Mountain (that was cool!). We took it easy the second day and hit what we missed and what we wanted to see again. We left the park before having dinner and went to Benihana back at our hotel. Tom had been to one before, but none of the rest of us had. It was so much fun!

My boys ate with chopsticks! (They did better than I did!)
I had the best drink of the drink - the Karate Colada - mmmm!
As seen in this last shot...you can't take Blake and Kevin anywhere without having fun!
It was a great trip. I can't wait to scrap it!







Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I {heart} Scenic Route!

Scenic Route has quickly become one of my (if not THE) favorite paper manufacturers. Before we left for vacation last month, I finished a couple of layouts with their Liberty mini line of papers that was the Personal Scrapper add-on for July.

"Our Li'l Catcher" is based on a sketch in the SBE Page Planner book. What's funny is that two other scrapping friends also lifted the same sketch. I love this layout of Kevin in full catcher gear in our backyard back in April. In May, we attended a Louisville Bats game with Cub Scouts and Tom and the boys camped out on the field after the game. I didn't want to stay overnight (or drive home alone), so my sister Adriane went with us. I got some fun shots of her and Kevin that night. I used a sketch that was posted during a Personal Scrapper online crop to finish this layout. When I got my hands on Scenic Route's newest school-themed project collection - Appleton - I could not wait pull out the boys' school pictures. I made this layout of Blake on the last day of school in May the same day I received the kit.
The kit also worked well with these pictures of Kevin reading. (We are so proud of him!!!)
The kit also inspired me to upload our first day of school pictures to Walgreens the same day I took them! I swear I did not dress the kids to match the papers, but I don't think I could have done a better job if I had tried! This layout is for Kevin's album. First grade...wow!
I also did a first day of school layout for Blake's album. His 2-page layout is based on one I found on Allison Davis' blog. I loved her photo placement.I had to get a close up of Blake's new Boston Red Sox Reeboks (we found them on vacation). He was so excited to wear them to school to show his friends!And, I can't do a page of them leaving without one of them coming home...
I keep separate albums for each boy, so Kevin needed a "going" page, too. This Scenic Route quote could not have been more appropriate for him!
He won't tell me he missed me, but he was happy to be back home. (At least I keep telling myself that!)
I then finished the kit off with a non-school layout. Blake put his CHEAP school supplies to good use drawing football and baseball stadiums. You never know, that could be in his future. And, like any good scrapbooking mom, I made a page about it to document the event.
Thanks for looking!
I promise to get some vacation pictures posted soon. Plus, I have several layouts I created using the August kit from Personal Scrapper.


Tuesday, August 12, 2008

PageMaps sketch contest


I completed this layout based on a Becky Fleck sketch for a contest on her blog. I used the Basic Grey Recess line for this and added some Junkitz chipboard. I followed the sketch pretty closely.