First birthday and First grade... oh my!

Lucas turned ONE last week! I still can't believe it - this year went sooo fast (too fast!). I've always had a hard time with my babies turning one, but knowing he is my last made this one that much harder. But, alas, we had a wonderful birthday party celebration for him, and that helped his sad mama embrace the exciting times that lay ahead ;-) He got two ride-on trucks for his birthday that he LOVES. I just had to get these photos scrapped right away, of course :-)
Some of my favorite pics from the party (we had a Sock Monkey theme :-):

Not only did we have a first birthday, but we now have a first grader! Week one has been going well... no complaints. Let's hope it stays that way!

No firsts for this girl lol, but she is excited to be starting her second (and last) year of pre-school in two weeks.

In addition to the big birthday and the start of school, we had quite an eventful week last week! Last Tuesday, Lucas' actual birthday, we had an earthquake that measured 5.8 on the Richter scale. Not only do we normally not get earthquakes out this way, but the one we did have before was very slight. There was no denying this one! Things were falling off shelves in our house left and right - I even had a vase break! The two younger kids were freaked! Then, only 4 days later, Hurricane Irene made her way up the east coast and brought crazy storms over this way. Luckily, we did not lose power (LOTS of people out here did, and some people I know first got their power back today - 5 days later!) and there was no damage, but others were not so lucky. I feel very lucky! We did have to postpone Lucas' party from Saturday to Sunday, but it all worked out ;-) I sure hope all my friends out there who were also visited by Irene also fared as well as we did!

Let's hope next week is not nearly as exciting! ;-)

Family frame

One of my favorite things to alter is plain wood frames as I love finding unique ways to display photos around the house. This is a recent frame I had lots of fun with :-)

I'm working on a printer's tray right now for an assignment...love those things!

Speaking of assignments, I got my goodies from GCD for my guest spot - love the gorgeous stuff I got! Will share when I can :-)

Going to take Lucas for his very first haircut today... the boy's hair has exploded! Can't believe he is going to be one in 8 days, ack!!

Happy Monday, friends!

I'll blame it on mommy brain...

Yeah, these would be two more projects from when I was the guest blogger on the Jenni Bowlin blog a couple of months ago. I had previously shared the two layouts I had done, but I also made this little mini-album:

and this butterfly mobile (which is hanging in the doorway of Chloe's room):

I used the JBS butterfly stamp on transparencies with watermark ink, and then I heat embossed the images with different embossing powders. I then attached them to the little tart tins from JBS - Chloe loves it :-)

Tomorrow the kids and I get to celebrate the birthday of one of our favorite people... Daddy! Well, their daddy, anyway ;-)

Loved this day...

These photos were taken on Mother's Day. The kids and I were just hanging outside, and the big kids were blowing bubbles for Lucas (sorry, Chloe, you didn't make it into the layout lol). Lucas thought it was the funniest thing ever! Love those little moments :-)
We've done a lot of hanging around this week. We went to see The Smurfs Sunday night, and the baby came down sick later that evening, so we've been stuck in the house. We made fingerpaints, silly putty, baked cookies, went on the slip and slide, and we've played 6, 399, 293 games (at least that is what it seemed like lol) - mostly UNO. I'm definitely not complaining, though - I love games myself, especially UNO :-) I'm sure the kids are feeling a little cabin fever at this point, but we've gotten a lot of quality summer-time in. Good times :-)

My other love...

It's no secret that I love to scrapbook, but some of you may not know that I also love to crochet :-) I've been doing it since I was a little girl (I think I was 7 or 8 when my mom's friend taught me how), and i'm hooked (hehe). Having kids has given me an excuse to get back into it, and some of you may remember the sock monkey hat that I made for Lucas this past winter. I've always loved this photo of him, and I finally got around to scrapping it!



I can't believe we're already almost into August - ack! This summer is going TOO fast! The kids have dabbled in camp this summer, but from here on out, there are no more camps and vacations left, so it's up to moi to keep them busy. Today it was homemade finger paints I had found a recipe for on Pinterest. Wonder what next week will bring? ;-) Would love to hear any ideas you all have found for great summer activities!

All I ever needed to know I learned in Kindergarten...

I always thought that classic poem was true... I wonder if Noah will? :-) He had such a great Kindergarten year, and he loved his teacher. She is young and energetic and had good control of the class - she worked out really well for my little guy! (Btw, ignore the crazy coloring of the photo, my printer was being wonky, and I plan to swap that photo out!)

We can't wait to see what first grade brings - I hope Noah's love for school will continue!

Back to life, back to reality...

So, the reason I've been away from my blog (even longer than usual ;-) is because we just got back from a family cruise to the Bahamas. What a blast! The kids and Tony and I went with my parents, and we had so much fun :-) We left from Baltimore, so we didn't have to fly, and i'm really glad we did that, as I think flying with three young kids would have added a whole new level of stress lol. On our days at sea, the kids chose to go to the camp, and they had a blast! On our first port day, we hung at the beach while Tony took surfing lessons, and on our second port day, we went to Atlantis in Nassau - it was gorgeous! We didn't get off the ship in Freeport but decided to enjoy another day on the ship. Some of my favorite highlights of our week:

- Dinners in the dining room. The food was reaaaally good, and Carnival makes meals so much fun! Most of the nights, the waitstaff did interactive dances, songs, etc, that got us up and moving. There was even a magician that visited our table and did magic for us.
- Dates with my hubby. Thanks to my parents, we got to have some adult time to ourselves. One afternoon, we got to enjoy some time at the adults only pool and even snagged a relaxing hammock. One of the nights, we went back to the adults only pool and hot tub (see a theme here?) , and on another night, we hit the bars on the ship and went to the comedy club.
- A date with my dad. We went to the piano bar and also saw a comedy show - the guy was a riot!
- The excursions. I had so much fun playing in the ocean with the kiddos, and it was neat to see Lucas experience the beach for the first time. Atlantis was amazing! Totally gorgeous and the best beach ever! The aquarium was pretty awesome, too.
- The drinks. It was vacation, afterall! ;-)
- And, of course, the family time. The kids had a blast, and it was so great to make so many new memories with them. And, I feel blessed that we were able to go with my parents. Not only did they get quality time with the kids, too, but we got lots of hangage, too.

Now for some of my favorite pics from the week (in order that we experienced them) - it was hard to choose!





















I could definitely get used to the cruising lifestyle!! Something to aim for in retirement... ;-)