A visit to Grandpa

Picture Smorgasbord

Here are a bunch of pictures for you! (if you want to see any of them bigger, click on the image for more detail)

I am caving and posting the mural for all to see. That is how nice I am. A few of my friends made it over but the rest are slackers. And I know there are some people who won't be able to come and see it.

The rest of the pictures are what I purchased with my birthday gift certificate to the country village. I love you guys for getting that for me. You rock. I spent about 90 mins in one store, surrounded by beautiful things, with a ton of money to spend. Bliss!



Have a wonderful week-before-school!

The Fair

Lucas and I went to the fair over the weekend.














World's biggest and most questionable corndog



















Such a small guy on such big rides!





















Meeting a police officer

Friendship

We attended the 40th Birthday of a good friend yesterday. It was "adults only" so I went on a quest for a babysitter. Our friend's 11 year old son was then hired for his first babysitting job. We knew he was young but he is a great kid and the son of wonderful people.

We dropped Lucas off (Ellie was with Grandma), and off we went to the party. It was a surprised and she was indeed surprised! It was a wonderful night with friends.

As is usual at our parties, the women and the men separate and I sit with my girlfriends and talk. I love those girls. They are such good friends, the type you can just be yourself with and relax and have fun. The type that are more like family than friends.

When we left to pick up Lucas, our babysitter needed to be convinced to let me pay him. I finally got him to take it. Lucas had a fun time full of Star Wars, Transformers and Bionicle play. Dream come true!

We are off to Canada today for one last trip before the end of summer. Can you believe it is already here?

I said I would never do it

Buy my girl Princess shoes:


What can I say, she wouldn't even entertain the thought of trying on anything else. It was that or I am a sucker.

Yummy Dinner

A big shout out to the seafood haters who read my blog! Hi V and L!

But dinner was so good the other night that I had to share:


It was "New England Seafood Bake" and it was so easy and so good.

You just put sliced red potatoes on the bottom of the foil, put the cod next, then the shrimp, corn on the side, top with sliced lemons.

Then you add a dollop of butter mixed with salt, pepper, chopped dill and chopped garlic, wrap in foil, put on the grill at medium for 14 mins.

I loved it and it was a hit at our house. Definitely adding this to the menu options.

Looking to the future

Daily Something

As some of you know, I love Ali E. She is one of the most creative people I have ever met and her work really inspires me. At CKU, she changed the way I look at scrapbooking.

It used to be "I want to buy nice papers and stickers and make cute stuff" with a little dash of "I want to preserve memories". After meeting Ali and taking her class, I had a massive change in my philosophy. Now, I am all about preserving and documenting the history of my children and family. The cute stickers and papers are just a bonus.

I have a few friends who don't spend nearly as much as I do on scrapbooking stuff. But I love looking through their books and reading the history, seeing the photos.

One of the big reasons I started this blog was to preserve the everyday stuff that escapes my mind almost instantly. When you are 2-3 years behind, how can you possibly remember the cute things the kids say, or just everyday moments that touched you?

When I logged on to Ali's site this morning, she had a challenge up called Daily Something. The idea in a nutshell is to take some time for creativity every day and create something about your day. It can be a whole page (not easy, right?) all the way down to a playing card sized creation. These are meant to preserve the everyday stuff, and then either put it on a scrapbook page later or make a whole album out of it.

Here is her article about it:

Ali E Article: Daily Something

I know this sounds like an awful lot, but as Ali would say "It is ok". The point is to try and get something done, memories preserved. If you miss a day, so what? At least you will have some of those little things that often add up to meaning more than anything.

I think I might give it a try. I was thinking index card size, in fact, I was thinking of doing this on index cards. Then you could easily punch holes with a Cropadile and put it all together with those metal rings you get at Office Depot.

Young Love

On the camping trip, Ellie and Trevor decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend.

I asked Lucas who his dream girl was and he said "She is invisible".

Camping Recap

We are back from camping. It was a great time! We had a lot of fun hiking, spending time by the campfire, cooking and having fun with friends. The kids explored a lot around the wood and, of course, found sticks shaped like guns and went to town :)

It was a short hike to Narada Falls.



The wildflowers were blooming everywhere:


A family shot:

It has been a few days

We have been fairly busy this week so I have not blogged. I am in the middle of packing for our camping trip up to Mount Rainier with some friends. 2 nights, in a tent. I am really looking forward to it though because of the great company we will be in. The kids always have a blast. I will have some pictures to share when we get back.

Something cool happened this week. I was contacted by an old swimming friend from Hawaii through the alumni website. She has been in contact with a few more friends and so I have had the chance to talk to some friends I have not seen in over 10 years. It was hard to believe we are all in our 30's already, building families and careers. Life has taken us all in different directions. It was nice to see pictures of babies and see my friends reflected in their children. Very cool.

Lucas made a door hanger for his door the other day. It reads "No Girls Allowed". He said I am the one exception :) What a relief! I love that kid :)