Hairspray Layout

Here is a quick layout I did of Tony and I from the night we went to see Hairspray. This only took about 45 min. to put together...I used most of the tags from the Lollipop Shoppe Collection from Basic Grey; I just cut them into strips for my background. The tag w/ ribbon is also Basic Grey and the letters were cut from scrap paper with my Cricut. They aren't exactly the same as the playbill, but close enough!

Monarch Butterflies

For Easter we got Landon a butterfly tree house. We had to order caterpillar's, and when we got them there were about 5 in a cup. Inside the cup, on the bottom was some caterpillar food. After a couple days, the caterpillars crawled to the top of the cup and formed their chrysalis'. At that point we took the lid off of the cup, and clipped the cocoon's to the mesh butterfly tree house. Within about 8 or 9 days, we had butterflies! It was a great project, and the kids as well as Tony and I really enjoyed seeing the butterflies transform. It's just not something you get to see everyday! We did have one that never emerged, and one that had deformed wings. It would never fly, but we put it outside anyway's. Here is one I was able to get a good shot of before he took off. He still was pretty fuzzy on top, but we let them all go because it was too hard to "feed" them. We couldn't tell if they were "eating" their sugar water! 

One Tough Chick

I did this page pretty quickly last night. I have so many pictures of Zoe playing soccer, so I thought that I would at least get this one page done for her (possible) final season as a Blue Angel. She will be trying out for the high school team in the fall, so this could be her final season with this team. The title says "One Tough Chick" but I cannot seem to get it to photograph better. This was without a flash, and it is still hard to see, but in real  life it looks fine. The tag is also a little hard to read and it only says "Zoe" 2008.

Star Power!

             

I, of course, did this page for another challenge...we had to use paint. I decided to do a little masking since I haven't in a while. I am happy with the way this one turned out, but I wish I had done the star a little differently. Landon is getting so close to beating the easy level, he's just gotta get past Lou! I did this one of Zoe playing GH3 awhile ago, before I was a blogger, so I will share it now too!

I like that these both look somewhat the same, but different too. I really like that I was able to scrounge up the crowns for both of them! To me they just seemed fitting!

 

Earth Day

To celebrate Earth Day I picked up some plants at Lowe's for us to plant. I got a beautiful Calla Lily for the pot in the front yard and the kids helped to plant it.

In the backyard we planted red, yellow and green peppers as well as squash. Peppers do really well back there, but this is our first year planting squash. Zoe started to help digging the holes but once she saw a worm she quit. She was NOT going to accidentally touch a worm! LOL! So, Landon happily finished all the digging! He didn't mind the worms one bit.  After the planting we took a few pictures outside, just because...

2 Super Star! Students

Another page for another challenge! I like these challenges, they make me use products/techniques that I might otherwise forget about! For this challenge we had to go low tech... use scissors or x-acto knife to cut instead of paper trimmers/machines. So, I just traces some stencils I had for the patterned paper borders and used my x-acto for the straight edges.

I think it turned out o.k...not my favorite, there is just so much going on... but I liked this Scenic Route paper a lot and have been wanting to use it up, so I did get a lot of it on here! I was also able to use up the rest of a set of rub-on's (not one rub-on wasted, lol)!

Game Ball

I just wanted to post a quick note about Landon's baseball game this weekend.

It was super warm out, and for Landon that typically means his allergies will be awful, and baseball won't be too fun because he'll be itching and miserable...but yesterday was totally his day! He is one of the older kids on his team this year and it really shows (some of the kids are as young as just 4, while Lan will be 7 in July). He is in the coach pitch league, so although the kids don't get to pitch, they still play in that position in order to get the balls that go that direction, which in this league is the majority! LOL! So, anyways, yesterday was Landon's turn to be at the pitchers mound and he was able to not only stop all of the balls that came his way but also got the 3 outs for that inning by touching home plate! He was so proud of himself, and the coaches were really making a big deal out of it as well as the other parents watching the game. For him it was a huge confidence booster!

After the game, the coach always selects a player that did a good job and gives him or her the game ball...of course, he gave it to Landon and he was so embarrassed, but we could all tell he was really just very proud, and we were too.

hairspray

We finally got to go to the musical last night. I have been looking forward to going to this play for months, and it did not disappoint.  Before the play we went to dinner at Red Lobster, somewhere we've been wanting to go but haven't because it is a little expensive and because the kids complain that they don't like seafood (whatever!). Our dinner was really good but when we left I looked down at my slacks, and they had white lint all over them! I had the napkin on my lap and there was lint all over me, so we had to make a pit stop at Target...and $40.00 later we were back on our way to the play.

We ended up getting to the play about 45 min. early, so we just hung out in the lobby until they let us in the theatre. The Warner Theatre is nicer than the Hippodrome; the seats are a little less crowded and it is very nice looking. Our seats were pretty much front and center to the stage, which was nice, but I had some tall people in front of me so I had to keep shifting to see. The play was really fun and the cast did an excellent job. The singing, set and acting was great! The actress who played Tracy was excellent as well as the girl who played Penny. Penny had us laughing the whole way through.

This pic of Tony and I was right before the play and we need to learn how to hold the camera up and get a good shot...like Zoe does with her friends all the time. LOL! I couldn't do it at all, and this is the best one Tony could get! 

Got Stuff?

I have been freecycling like crazy the past couple of days! Freecycle is great because you can just post things that you want to give away (has to be free) and people come and pick it up. I have gotten rid of tons of old magazines, toys, cookbooks, toys and more toys! It is like magic! I post it, someone wants it, I put it on my porch and before I know it...poof! It's gone!

{By clicking the freecycle link above, you can find if it is available in your area!}

Late Breaking...

I was just checking out the latest "news" on CNN.com when I noticed that the 6th most viewed news item, right now, is that Martha Stewarts dog died. Seriously...that makes headline news? WTF? The number one topic (on the site, at the moment) is "Teen Guilty of Murder, Beheading".

Really, Martha Stewart's dog died? Who gives a crap?

even if

I took this picture of Zoe while we were at Landon's baseball game this past Saturday. We were standing at the fence, cheering him on and I snuck this one in of her. (of course, the moment she saw the camera pointed her direction, she gave me a smile; she is so used to the camera being in her face!) So, I signed up for a couple more challenges for April, one was using conjunctions only for a title {even if} and one was using blue and pink as your base colors. I was able to get both done with this one page...

The journaling reads: even if we don't always see eye to eye you must always remember that I am here for you and I always will be. No matter what.

Hello Spring

I was able to put this page together in under 10 minutes today! I was at my scrapbook store a week or two ago and in the Creative Cafe area, they had this layout displayed. So for a little $, you get all the supplies and directions you need to make this simple page. You can either make it in the store or bring it home, which I did because I wasn't sure which photo's I was going to use. So, this morning, before the kids went to school, I had them stand in front of the tree in the backyard so I would have at least 2 pics on this page! It was cold out, but they were good sports about it! I only took one shot because Landon and I were running late, and thankfully it turned out nice! Here is that pic, a little easier to see!

Hagerstown

Our Day:

Wake up at 8 a.m., lounge around the house for a couple hours.

Leave home at 11 a.m. for soccer game in Hagerstown; only a 1 1/2 hour drive. Is that a little crazy? To drive an hour and half away, watch a game and then turn around and come home? Maybe a little crazy.

We lost {6-2}.

Double bummer.

Opening Day

Today was opening day for Landon's baseball league. They have a parade,

and face painting and of course the kids have their first game. We had great weather for the most part, a little rain storm passed through, but they played anyway's. (I think the kids loved that it rained!) I had to work the concession stand and I made sure to get there right away so I could pick my station! I did not want to get stuck on the register or cooking the millions of pretzels! So, I was the drink maker/getter person, and business was steady the whole time so time passed quickly. When I got to the game they had just started the top of the 2nd inning, so I didn't miss much. Landon did really well at bat and on the field he got to play 1st base. He got 3 people out and he was so proud!

After Landon's game we went home for about 2 hours then had to get ready for Zoe's soccer game.

Her game was about 45 min. away, so it was a long day of driving and sports watching! Zoe's game was a good one and the score was tied 0-0...we were all proud of the way the girls played and we were all thankful it wasn't another loss!

Lost Tooth

This is a page I did for a recent challenge: We had to use at least 2 pieces of cardstock, one piece of patterned paper, some sort of letters, at least 3 embellishments and journaling had to be present on the page. I have been wanting to scrap these photos of Landon's first missing tooth, and this challenge inspired me to get it done!

Spring Tease...

I am so ready for some warm weather. We have had nothing but rain for the better part of a week now and it is getting old. We had a few days of teaser spring weather, and now we are all getting tired of sitting in the house...I am ready to plant some flowers and get some yard work done. We already got all the mulching done, and have even had to cut the grass once, but we still have a ways to go to get our yard looking nice. The front is okay, but the back needs some TLC! I don't think the front ever looks too bad, especially in the spring because of the gorgeous tree in the front yard.

Hero Arm

Well, I finally tried Guitar Hero the other day (2 days ago to be exact) and I am totally hooked! So, I gave it my first try on Sunday, yesterday I beat the Easy level. A little indulgent...yeah. I just could not put the damn thing down. I beat Lou after 3 tries...he was tough for me...and then I went back and finished the 2 songs that were giving me trouble. The Metal (got 4 stars) and Raining Blood (only 3 stars). Raining Blood is really tough, but I will certainly go back and try to get 4 stars...right now I am just satisfied that I beat Tony and Dad to it...I know it is driving Tony crazy! Now I have to learn how to use my pinky to play, I am sure it will take me a little longer to get the hang of that.

"I'm Killing Your Brain Like A Poisonous Mushroom"

So this afternoon the kids and I are sitting in the basement; they are playing ToonTown (again) and I am attempting to start a scrapbook page (again), when all of a sudden Ice,Ice Baby,by Vanilla Ice comes on the radio. I, of course, sing along and tell the kids I must have been in 9th or 10th grade when that song was popular...and Zoe says "wow, that was a long time ago!" ha ha ha...and then she retracts that little meanie statement with "oh, well, not that long ago" and I said "well, it is kinda long ago considering you will be in 9th grade in the fall". Yikes. {The title is just some of the Clever Lyrics from that song...in Case you were wondering!}

Sucker for Stickers

I have always had a strange fascination with stickers, ever since I was a little kid. I had stickers and sticker books to put them in and I just loved looking at them and putting them, just so, into my book. I don't remember how long I actually collected stickers or what ever happened to those sticker books, but I still have that fascination and sometimes can't resist the urge to buy a cute pack of stickers. At least now when I buy stickers I can buy them with the pretense that I will use them on a scrapbook page...but sometimes, I just buy them because they are so cute, or original, or because I HAVE to have them! My favorites (at the moment) are by K&Company...and here is my most recent set of must have stickers:

Can you cake the icing?

Zoe decided she wanted to try to bake a cake last night. So she called Theresa and they had a great time! It was just a basic cake mix from a box, nothing special...just chocolate. It was kind of late when they finished and it was still a little warm when Zoe needed to get in bed, so I told her to cover it and she could frost it in the morning. So, she got up this morning and tried to frost it...I don't know what happened but everytime she would try to put the icing on, the entire top would pull off! The icing was being caked instead of the other way around! Landon and I thought it was hilarious and while Zoe laughed she didn't think it was nearly as funny as we did. Hopefully it will still taste good. ;)