Morning at the Farm

The kids and I had to run an errand for Jim a few weeks ago, and since we were going to be out by the orchards, we decided to stop at one for a morning at the farm. 

 We started with some play time.  Both kids loved climbing around on the different play equipment.

 Maddie tried out the little tractor.  She looked so cute!

 The kids enjoyed the slide on the side of a big wooden pirate ship.

 After a while, we went over to see the animals.  Both kids liked looking at the goats, and Drew was excited to pet them.

 Maddie got very upset when a couple of the goats got a little too close.

 The goats were very friendly.

 Drew climbed up on a big pyramid of tires and wanted to pose at the top.  He was Superman that day, after all.

 We took advantage of the sinks at the end and washed our hands after touching the animals.

 Last year, we picked our strawberries ourselves, but I didn't want to take that on this year with an active 16 month-old, so we bought some berries (and donuts!) at the farm store.  I tried a new washing technique I had read about.  I soaked the berried in a mixture of vinegar and water before storing them in the fridge.  The soak was supposed to prevent mold and help the berries last longer.

 We ate some strawberries the day we bought them, and then the rest of the berries sat in the fridge for a couple of days.  When I opened the lid of the container, there was a moldy berry right on top.  It was the only moldy berry I found, but there were several other berries that looked like they were starting to go bad, so I am not sold on the new washing method.
I used the rest of the berries to make freezer jam.  I had never made it before, and I love the taste!  It was pretty easy, and I've been enjoying it on English muffins for breakfast for the past few weeks.

I am hoping to go back to picking our own berries again once Maddie is a little older, but we had a nice morning at the farm, and we have been enjoying our berries for the past few weeks!

Project Life - Week 24

Drew took golf lessons this week at Jim's golf course.  There were only three students in the golf camp this week, and Drew really enjoyed himself.

 He loves to golf!

 Maddie entertained herself inside while Drew was golfing.  One day, she spent a long time eating a banana.

 Another day, she enjoyed playing with all the Coke bottles back in the storage area.

 One of the mornings, she and I drove over to the hospital to meet Baby Max, my friend, Beth's new baby.

 Maddie liked exploring the hospital room and seeing the baby.

 We picked up lunch at McDonald's one day and took it to the park.

 After we ate, we played on the playground for a while.  Maddie loves to swing, and Drew was a good pusher.

 Drew did not enjoy the rocks in his shoes, and he kept stopping to empty them out.  Maddie knows to roll over on her belly to slide down from high things, like beds and couches.  She kept trying to slide out of the rocks on her belly.  I love her fat little legs in those jeggings.

 She was worn out by the time we got home, and she fell asleep on the floor in the middle of the chaos she had created earlier.

 Jim and the kids were wrestling around on Drew's bed one night before bedtime.

 Drew insisted that we get Jim a Duck Dynasty book for Father's Day, so we took a trip to Barnes and Noble to get it.  Drew was excited to give it to him, and he gave Jim some very detailed "hints" about his gift.

 Surprise!  :)

 We celebrated Father's Day on Saturday, since Jim had to work on Father's Day.  I made him one of his favorite dinners.  These chicken planks are SO good!  I don't fry often, but I make an exception a few times a year for these.

 I made some S'mores Bars for dessert, and everyone loved them.  I had given Drew a couple of dessert choices, and he picked this one.  He was sure that Jim would love it, and he did!

 Here's what I did for Project Life this week.  I made a couple of photo collages - one about golf camp and one about our time at the park.

 I also did a little insert about Father's Day.

 I just cut a 4x6 pocket from a Design A page for the insert, and I used part of a Wellington journaling card for some simple journaling.  I put gift pictures on the front of the insert

 and food pictures on the back.

I am linking up again this week at The Mom Creative.

Scrapping For Two - My New Approach to Scrapbooking

I haven't been doing a lot of traditional scrapbooking lately, since I've started documenting our day-to-day activities with Project Life, but there are some things that I still want to do traditional scrapbook pages about.  To streamline that process, now that I'm scrapping for two children, I've decided to try to make some of the  layouts for Drew and Maddie simultaneously.  I've done this twice lately, and I've been pleased with the results.

My first attempt was two layouts about our Christmas trip to South Carolina - one for Drew's book and one for Maddie's book.  I had some pictures that I wanted to include on both layouts, but I also had some photos that would be specific to each child.  I found a sketch that worked for the number of pictures I wanted to use, and I ordered pictures from Sam's (a 5x7 family photo for each layout and some 4x6 photos).  I had quite a bit of Christmas paper in my stash, so I picked some more traditional-looking Christmas papers for Drew's layout and some slightly more girly-looking Christmas papers for Maddie's layout.  I was able to make all of my cuts for both layouts at the same time - backgrounds, scalloped edges, cropped photos, photo mats, and die-cut shapes and titles.  Doing all the cuts at the same time for the two layouts saved me quite a bit of time.  All I had left to do was to write out the journaling, which was specific to each child.

 The two layouts aren't identical.  Drew's has an extra photo, and some of the photo dimensions are a bit different, but overall, they are very similar, but individualized for each child.  I was able to knock out two layouts in just a bit more time than it would have taken me to do a single layout.

 I used this method again recently to do an Easter layout for each child.  This time, I used the same sketch  for both layouts, and I used papers from the same paper line and mixed and matched them on the two layouts.  I was able to get all the patterned paper for both layouts from two two-sided pieces of patterned paper.

 I used many of the same photos on the two layouts, but a few different ones too.

I am enjoying this new way of scrapping, and I think it works especially well for holiday layouts like these, when I want a similar look with a bit of a personalized feel.  I plan to keep scrapping this way as much as I can, and I will share the future layouts here on my blog.

Project Life - Week 23

This week started, as usual, with Sunday at church.  I worked in Maddie's nursery that evening.

 She is so fearless!  She climbs on everything without any fear.  Her new trick this week was flipping her shopping cart on its side and standing on top of it.

 Drew finished up his first round of swimming lessons on Monday.

 I bought Drew a summer review workbook, and he's been working on it several mornings a week.  He enjoys it, and I like that he is keeping those skills fresh.

 My parents brought us a little chair that my siblings and I used to sit in when we were young.  Maddie loves it, and I find her sitting in it all the time.

 I had to have another thyroid biopsy on Wednesday morning.  It went just like the first one.  It was sore for the rest of the day, but not horrible.  We got the results back last week, and this time, they are saying that the nodule is abnormal.  I have been seeing an endocrinologist, and he had recommended, before the biopsy, that I go ahead and have surgery to remove at least part of my thyroid (just because of the size of the nodule).  Now that my biopsy results have come back as abnormal, he has told me that I should try to have the surgery this summer.  I am seeing my surgeon this week to get the surgery scheduled.

 Drew had some friends over to play on Friday afternoon.  Their mom is a good friend of mine, and she was struggling with high blood pressure during the final weeks of pregnancy.  I told her to bring the boys over for a few hours so she could rest or get some things done without them.  The boys played the Wii,

 played Balloon Lagoon,

 and played with the stomp rockets.

 It was National Donut Day that day, so after all the playing, we went to Krispy Kreme to get free donuts.

 Everyone enjoyed the donuts, and, yes, Maddie did eat that entire donut!

 This week I just did a simple page again - all 3x4 photos and one 4x6 collage.

I am linking up again with The Mom Creative.

Influenster Spring Fever VoxBox

I signed up for an Influenster account a few months ago, and I got my first VoxBox in May - the Spring Fever VoxBox.

 The box was full of fun stuff - an Osis+ Rough Rubber hair texturizing paste, a Tastykake S'mores bar kake, some Secret Outlast deodorant, a tube of NYC lip gloss, and a set of Broadway Impress nails.

Drew and I have both tried the hair rubber.  It has a very thick consistency, and I don't know that we used the right technique or amount, but it was just ok for us, not great.  Jim and Drew ate the Tastykake bar the night our box came, and they enjoyed it - they both love anything s'mores!  I have been using the deodorant for the past week, and I like it.  It is a gel, which is different from what I normally use, but it works well.  I am also really liking the lip gloss.  It has a nice corally red color, and it feels nice on my lips.  The nails are an extremely bright, neon pink that just isn't me, so I will probably be finding a friend who would enjoy them more than I would.  If they had been a more subtle color, I would have given them a try.

I really enjoyed receiving this box, and besides the nails, we have, at least somewhat, used and enjoyed all the products.  I received all the products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes, but the opinions I shared were mine.

Project Life - Week 22

This Sunday was a very special day for our family.  We had Maddie's baby dedication that morning during the service.  Our family went up on the stage, and our pastor explained that in dedicating Maddie, we were asking for the help and prayers of our church family as we seek to raise Maddie the way we believe that the Bible wants us to.  Our pastor also announced that Maddie is the new secretary of the nursery.  :)

 Monday was Memorial Day.  My dad and I finished our plant shopping that morning, and that afternoon, Dad and Drew planted the plants and finished up the garden bed.

 Drew has been very interested in the garden.

We went to our friends' house that evening for dinner.  There were several little boys there that night, and Drew loved playing with them.  The boys managed to overflow a toilet in the basement, so it was an exciting evening!

 My parents left to go home Tuesday morning, and we rushed off a little later for Maddie's 15 month well-visit.  Her doctor noticed that Maddie has a small heart murmur, and she wanted to take Maddie's blood pressure in both of her arms and legs.  Maddie hated having her blood pressure taken.  They tried several times and only got a decent reading for one of her arms before they gave up.  After the blood pressure fiasco, Maddie had to get three shots, so there was a whole lot of crying coming from our little room that morning!

 Drew had dog night in his Wednesday night church class.  The children were supposed to dress up like dogs, and they got to eat hot dogs at their class.

We made and delivered a dinner for Drew's teacher and her family on Thursday.  A big thunder/hail storm started while we were at her house, so we had to stay for a little while.  Drew enjoyed seeing his teacher and her new baby.

 Friday evening, we made one of our favorite summer dinners - grilled pizza!  Drew loves to put his own pepperonis on his pizza.

Of course, we had to make s'mores on the grill after dinner.

Here's what I did for Project Life this week.  I kept it very simple with one 4x6 photo and a bunch of 3x4 photos.  I used some paper from my stash for the title card and a Wellington journaling card.

I am linking up again with The Mom Creative.