Friday, April 26, 2013

Some Scrapbook Layouts

I haven't been doing a lot of traditional scrapbooking since I've started doing Project Life this year, but I recently realized that I have some layouts that I haven't ever shared here on my blog, and I thought I would share them today.  All of these pages were based on sketches from Let's Scrap.  You can click on the layouts to see them larger.
This is a page about Drew's 5th birthday and some of the activities from that day.
 This layout is about Maddie's first bath, about an hour after she was born.  Her nurse gave her a bath in the recovery room after my c-section.
 This is a layout about Drew's kindergarten field trip to the fire station earlier this year.  I bought the fire truck paper years ago, assuming that I would someday have a reason to use it, and I was excited to finally get to use it!  The firefighter flashcard was from the Target dollar spot.  I got a whole box of career flashcards because I saw some scrapping potential in them!
 This is a layout about Maddie's first trip to the pediatrician, the day after we came home from the hospital.
 This layout is about Drew's first day of preschool.  I love the picture of him with his backpack on the far right!
 This layout document's Maddie's first time eating rice cereal.  She never really loved rice cereal, but she has become such a good eater since then!
 This layout is about Drew's first day of kindergarten.  He has had such a great year this year.  It won't be long before I have kindergarten graduation pictures to scrapbook.  This year has gone by so quickly!
 This layout is about the flowers I received after Maddie was born.  I got several arrangements in the hospital and then another little arrangement once we came home.
 This is a layout about Drew's first dental appointment.  He did so well and had no cavities!
 This last layout is about my little white baby dress that my mother saved.  It has a picture of my wearing the dress and some pictures of Maddie in the dress.
I have really been enjoying Project Life the past few months, but I still love and miss traditional scrapbooking.  I hope to get back to it a bit more - maybe this summer!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Project Life - Week 15

This week was Drew's Spring Break, and I had high hopes of lots of fun things we could do during the week.  It ended up being an extremely rainy, chilly week, and we pretty much stayed home all week!  
In addition to being the week of Spring Break, it was also a week of Evangelistic meetings at our church.  We were able to make it three of the nights, and I was in Maddie's nursery on Sunday night.  She loves playing with the toys in her nursery. 
Drew had his first swimming lesson on Monday night.
 He enjoyed the lesson very much!
 We are hoping that these lessons will help him become a good, safe swimmer.
 Maddie loves Curious George as much as Drew does, and she has her own little collection.  They usually stay in her crib, but she sometimes carries them out with her after her naps.  She walked around with two of them for a while one day.
 We went to TCBY after church on Wednesday evening for Waffle Cone Wednesday.
 We love the $1.50 waffle cones!
 We all enjoyed our frozen yogurt, and Maddie had a great time walking all around the room after she was done eating.
Drew won the family NCAA basketball bracket contest this year, so he got to pick our dinner one evening this week.    He chose Taco Bell, so it was a pretty inexpensive dinner out (although we actually ate it at home)  He loves the cheese quesadillas and cheese nachos.
 Jim stopped at Trader Joe's after work one day, and he brought me home some of my favorites.  We love their cookie butter and their garlic naan bread.  They have beautiful cheap flowers, and he grabbed me a bouquet.  He also grabbed me a Diet Vanilla Coke from Sonic since it was Happy Hour.  He knows me (and loves me) so well!
Here's what I did for Project Life this week.  I didn't add any inserts or anything extra - just kept things very simple.
 Here are last week's page and insert and this week's page, side by side.
I am linking up with The Mom Creative again this week.
I have some scrapbook pages to share on Friday.  It has been a while since I've blogged any traditional scrapbook layouts!

Friday, April 19, 2013

Surprise Party

Last Saturday evening, I went to a surprise birthday party for my friend, Kristen.  There were about ten of us there, and the birthday girl was very surprised!  Each guest brought something to eat, and everything was delicious!
 I made the birthday cake, and I tried a new Pinterest recipe.  I had seen this Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting pinned so many times, and I decided to finally try it.  It was very good!
 I also made another new recipe for the party - Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Sugar Chips.  They were so good!  Jim and Drew tried them, and they can't wait for me to make them again.
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We have tried several Pinterest recipes and ideas - with some successes and some flops, but we've found some new favorites along the way.  I will probably do a Pinterest post or two in the future with some of our favorites that we have tried.  Do you have any Pinterest finds that have been great?

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Project Life - Week 14

Maddie started getting a runny nose on Easter, and it continued for the first few days of the week.  It didn't stop her from posing for the camera, though!
 Monday was April Fools Day, and Jim and I decided to play a trick on Drew that morning.  We hid his backpack in the van early that morning, and then when it was time to leave for school, he couldn't find it.  He was pretty nervous that he was going to be in trouble for losing his backpack, and he was quite surprised when he found it waiting for him in the van!
I took Drew and Maddie to McDonalds for lunch one day after we picked Drew up from kindergarten.  We ate fries and nuggets, and then, since it was so pleasant outside, we decided to go to the park after lunch.
 We stopped to see the ducks when we first got to the park.
Drew wanted to play on the big playground, and Maddie wasn't content to just sit in her stroller while her brother played.  I let her get out and walk around a little while Drew played,
 and then we went to Maddie's favorite area - the swings!  We had a fun time, and we are looking forward to more nice weather so we can go back again.
 Drew's friend, Joseph, had a bowling birthday party on Friday afternoon.  Drew was excited to bowl, but he was reminded again that real bowling is harder than Wii bowling.
He just wasn't quite strong enough to get the ball moving hard enough to knock down many pins, and that was frustrating to him.  He had fun with his friends, though, and it was a nice party.
 Maddie stayed with Jim's mom during the bowling party, and after the party, I traded children with her!  I picked up Maddie and left Drew to spend the night with Grandma.
Maddie got some new sippy cups this week.  She has switched to whole milk in the last couple of months, and she has done great with the switch.
 She is such a great eater!  She will try anything, and there is hardly anything she doesn't like.  She ate pasta one night this week and loved it!  She got a little messy, but that was fine with her.  :)
 Here is what I did for Project Life this week.  I used a Design A page protector for the week itself, and I cut another Design A page to make the Easter insert.
 Here it is with the insert flipped.
 This is the week all by itself.
 Here is the front of the Easter insert,
 and this is the back of the insert.
I am linking up with The Mom Creative again this week.
I am planning to share a couple of recipes later this week, and I hope you will come back to see them!

Friday, April 12, 2013

Swimming Lessons

Drew had his first swimming lesson this week.  He was very excited!  He loves to watch the TV show, Wipeout, and he is convinced that he will be a professional Wipeout contestant as a career someday.  We've told him that he will have to become a very good swimmer if he ever wants to be on Wipeout, so he is motivated to do well in his swimming lessons.  :)  
The children kept moving from the water to the edge.  The teacher would give them instructions on the edge and then have them get back into the water to try the new skill.
 As the kids practiced the skill along the side of the pool, the teacher would take each child out into the water to try the skill with her.
 Maddie was content to watch from her stroller for a while.  She didn't nap that afternoon, and the room we were in was extremely warm.  The combination of tiredness and hotness made for a miserable time as the lesson progressed.
 The kids learned about kicking and stroking.  They also got to try floating on their backs.
 The teacher tied a pool noodle around the kids for one of their trips out into the water.
 Our little swimmer.
 Drew's buddy, Joseph, is taking lessons too, and the boys were very hyper after their lesson.

 They were also intrigued by the water aerobics class that was starting up right after their lesson.  There were a lot of older women and a couple of men in the class.
Drew will be taking swimming lessons for the next couple of months, and we are hoping that he will learn to be a good, safe swimmer (if not an eventual "Wipeout" contestant)!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Project Life - Week 13

Maddie and I run errands a couple mornings each week while Drew is at school.  This Tuesday morning, we went to Target, Aldi, and the thrift store.  I had a coupon for a free Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks, and I used it at the Target Starbucks.  It was a very nice morning!

I hard-boiled a dozen eggs this week.  I made deviled eggs from 6 of them.  Jim loves deviled eggs, and I never think to make them.
 Drew took the other 6 eggs to school on Wednesday and dyed them with his class.  Here he is with his beautiful eggs.  His Mario shirt was one of my thrift store finds from Tuesday.  I got it for 40 cents!
 Our church preschool group had an Easter activity on Thursday afternoon.  We had a potluck lunch, and then our youth pastor's wife taught the kids an Easter lesson.  Maddie was wandering around throughout the lesson.  She did not want to be held - she wanted to be part of the action!
 After the lesson, we went outside for an Easter egg hunt.
 Maddie found one egg.
 Drew found about a dozen.
 Here is the whole little group.
We have a whole little collection of stuffed Peeps.  My sister started the collection for us when Drew was a baby, and I've added some with some thrift store finds.  I took some pictures of Maddie playing with the peeps.  She is wearing a little top that my mom made for her.  It has cute little bunnies on it, and I thought it was the perfect thing for her to wear for the Easter egg hunt.
Drew's buddy, Grant, had a super hero birthday party on Friday.  Drew wanted to be Superman, so we used some Amazon gifts cards to order Drew a Superman shirt.  He got the cape at the party, and he loves it!
 Since Drew's stomp rockets were so popular at Christmas, we decided to give Drew's friend a set of stomp rockets for his birthday, and after the party, Drew wanted to come home and use his own stomp rockets.  The cape made him able to stomp extra hard, I'm sure!
Maddie had just woken up from her nap right before we went outside.  She had taken off one of her socks during her nap, and I didn't realize it until we got outside.  I put her down in the grass, and she was not very happy to feel the grass on her foot!
Here is what I did for Project Life.  It was simple and straightforward this week, after several weeks of inserts.  I used Easter papers since so much of what we did this week was all about activities leading up to Easter.  I will do an Easter insert for next week's layout.
This is how it looks across the page from last week's page and insert,
and here it is with the insert flipped.
I am linking up again with The Mom Creative.