Spring Break recap

Last week was Spring Break for us and a very activity filled one!

Monday -  Soccer practice and lunch at Chic-fil-a

Tuesday - trip to the zoo. Saw 1 yr old clouded leopards being given goats milk (a treat) for good behavior with the keepers.

Wednesday - lunch with daddy, naps and swim lessons.
Thursday - A day at the Rodeo

 A super fun way to wash your hands. Aiden is using the dryer. 

Loved the rides 

 and tried cotton candy for the first time. I don't think Aiden was a big fan after a few bites. 

Friday - We had lunch at home with daddy before he went off golfing and then after naps went to the outlet mall and then Lows to get a few flowers to plant. 

 Yeah for back to school. :)

An album reorganization and plans to finish in 30 days.

A few days after reading  Noell's  Paperclipping Play Along  post on completing a scrapbook album in less than 30 days and having Melissa's album post on my mind for the last while, I thought it was time that I did something about my albums. I have been using the LOM approach but something was just not working right with my albums so I pulled my Things We Do and Celebrations albums to put back together in a loose chronological order. I also pulled some layouts from other albums that didn't fit well there.

I had a big mess on the floor for the afternoon and evening but am really happy with the result especially for most of the pre LOM layouts (before 2009).  Those just didn't fit the themes well.  

So to play along and finish an album, I pulled the earliest album which has 2005-2007 along with some 2004 in it.

I am pulling all the 2004 layouts to put in the 2004 album I have (no idea why they weren't in there anyway...wow some really old stuff!) 

I pulled  what pictures I have printed from 2005 and 2006 and went through those years to see where I had gaps and what stories I wanted to add. Focusing on 2005, I have 5 open pages/stories and have finished 2 of the layouts. 

There are only a few anniversaries that I have documented in our early years so I'm glad to have the pictures even if I can't remember much of the details.

a simple page to fill in a gap 

It will be great to pull these years from my storage binders and be done, I need to empty it out anyway to have space for new pictures. 

Double page layouts

I've had these pictures with a few papers pulled aside to have to work on at a crop but never got to them at the last couple so put them on my table one night before going to bed. The next morning I got my blog post updates in my email and was inspired by one of Melissa's cruise layouts. I believe it is one of the sketches from the Double Take class at BPC.

 The paper is from Little Yellow Bicycle and had strips of different patterns. I got all but one of the strips on this. I added a little stamping and a tag under the title.

Thinking about the Double Take class reminded me that I never worked on this layout that I started during the class. I had to print a couple more pictures so it got moved to the side.  I pulled it out and used some very old product on it except for the Thickers and washi tape. Just had to get some washi tape on it.

Thinking washi tape...I just got a few more rolls from Michael's...had a 50% off sale.
Lots of crafting happiness going on here!!

Birthday Bear

Aiden did get the Birthday Bear we signed him up for on the 19th. It was only a week or so late.

Here is the bear that he had at his desk for the day.

 Aiden chose a new book for the library

 and got a bookplate inside. He was also the first to check the new book out.

We all really enjoyed the book too!

Pumpkin Patch

Last month, I took a break from some of the projects I wanted to finish to pull out the October Studio Calico kit I received and had not yet touch. I pulled some recent photos from 2012 and used Shimelle's sketch. 

I ended up only using a few pieces from the kit and scraps to make the strips. I also used my new tab punch. That made me very happy! 

Journaling reads: This year, we only got a quick trip to the pumpkin patch in but I'm glad we made it. We always have fun. We went one day after Aiden got home to pick up a pumpkin for a school project. The boys did pose for a couple pictures but we didn't have much time and they wanted to check out the different pumpkins and pick theirs out.

Mini Albums

Another project finished from this post. These were gift albums that only needed a few final touches but it is now safe to share. This is a fold out mini album from Little Yellow Bicycle from a few years ago. It came on a double 12x12 that was folded and you just punch the album out. It had the embellishments included. I did one as a project somewhere and then saw them in the store on clearance so picked up 5 more. I hung onto them for several years (not exactly sure why) but then decided it was a great time to add fun pictures of the boys from Fall, Winter 2011 to make a nice gift for Grandparents and family (and one for myself, of course).

The middle flips open and I added a picture on the tag. These were quite easy and fun.

Birthday weekend

It's been a busy but fun weekend. Aiden only had a half day of school Friday so I wasn't able to eat lunch with him but did get donuts dropped off for his class treat.

After school we meet some friends at the playground and then got frozen yogurt. Very yummy! Aiden was excited to open his first gift.

At home after, Aiden opened more of his gifts. I think he liked them.

 That night, Aiden had a school dance that he wanted to attend. He ran around with his friends and had lots of fun.

 Saturday we went to the new Paleontology exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science. The boys just loved it! We then had a nice family dinner that evening.

Can't believe my baby is 6!