Memorial Day

Today I want to thank all of those who are currently serving or have served our country to protect our freedom.  Thank you for your service.

Last fall I had the opportunity to go on a Freedom Flight, sponsored by by husband's employer, Hy-Vee Food Stores.  The Freedom Flight takes WW II veterans to see their war memorial in Washington D.C.  My uncle went on the same trip we volunteered to help with.  It was so moving to see how much the veterans enjoyed the trip.

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Above, is my Uncle Dean.  He was a pilot in WW II.  He flew in multiple missions in Europe until the end of the war.

This was the WW II monument.

There are 4000 gold starts on the Freedom Wall, which commemorate the more than 400,000 Americans who gave their lives in WW II. 

The U. S Capital.

Washington Monument

We got to see the last changing of the guard for the day at Arlington National Cemetery.

I hope everyone has a safe Memorial Day!

Darla

Card 2- Celebrate

As promised, here is the second card using the My Minds Eye paper.  The green is Kaiser Craft paper.  I used the Stampin Up butterfly & top note Sizzix die cuts, and Kaiser Craft & Jenny Bowlin pearls/pins.

This was inspired by a card submitted by Lynnette Kauffman to Cards Magazine. 

Again, this was a super easy card to create.  If you didn't want the bulk of the stick pins for the butterfly antenae, you could just use ribbon (& tie knots in the ends, or just a pen to draw in the details).

OK, that is all I have for today.  Have a great day, and check back in tomorrow for some VERY colorful cards.  They were a lot of fun to create. 

Darla 

Card 1-Thanks a Bunch

Happy Saturday!

As I mentioned in my previous posts, I spent a weekend a scrapbook retreat in the WI, Dells.  I typically have several layouts and/or projects planned out to work on over the weekend to make the most of my time there.  Well, with our trip to Disney I just didn't have the time to get anything planned out.  So I decided that I was just going to take scrap paper and embellishments to make cards.  I had been saving lots of ideas I had liked from my favorite magazines and books, and couldn't wait to put my own touches on them.  I hope you enjoy them as I share them with you over the next month, so keep checking back.

If a card was inspired by a specific submission to a magazine, I will try and quote who it was and what magazine it was in.  I want to give credit, where credit is due.  :)

Here is the first card I am going to share with you.

The cardstock was My Minds Eye, butterfly was punched from Chatterbox with the Martha Stewart punch.    I tied yellow tulle around the card.  I used the Stampin Up curly label punch, and used a  Stampin Up chocolate rub on (cut into sections to fit the punch).  The flower was a free gift from Archivers.  I added pearls to the butterfly to give it a finished touch.  It is a simple, but very nice thank you card.

Check back tomorrow, as I will have another card using the same scrap paper.  

It felt really good to use up some of my scrap paper, and I can't wait to start making more cards with my scraps.  It really jump started my creativity and now I want to create the cards after I finish the layout (instead of just putting the scraps in a folder for later).  It only took me 10 years to start using those scraps (ok, I have purged my scraps since I started, but still...)

Have a good day!

Darla

Graduation Day!

Today, Hope graduated from Pre-school.  They were all so cute in the construction paper caps and ribbon tassels.  They each received a diploma and an award to describe their personality.  Hope was awarded the Pinkalicious award because she likes to dress in pink and also practically has the book memorized.  It is one of her favorites.  :

We are very proud of everything she has learned "academically" this past year.  We still have a few "social" and "behavioral" things to work on before Kindergarten starts in the fall.  Please pray with me that we get her ADHD under control and find the medication that works best for her.

After the ceremony, Hope and I headed to get haircuts.  She has developed a REALLY bad habit of eating her hair (which is causing other issues), so we decided to get her hair cut short.  I didn't know if I could go through with cutting it short, but I made it.  It actually is REALLY cute!  How could it not be on her.  :)

So obviously the graduation picture is the BEFORE picture.  And here is the AFTER picture.  She actually yelled across the play area for me to come over and take her picture.  She is such a ham!

Of course, since it was her special day she wanted to go to the Mall.  We played for about 15 minutes then went to see the new Shrek movie.  It was pretty cute and had a great message:  Shrek learned you don't know what you have until you lose it.  Even though life gets crazy sometimes, it is still a great life, and I love everything about my life right now!

And after the movie we had to do some shopping and ended up with "Goldie" a white and gold horse from Build A Bear.  Luckily, the golden wing assessories were 50% off.  :)  

We finished off our day of fun by getting pedicures.  Ok, I had a pedicure and she got gold (yes she chose gold to match her BAB horse) polish for her toes.  We had a lot of fun, and I look forward to many years of fun days together (this summer) and for many years to come.

On a side note, she was very upset that she actually has to go back to her pre-school this summer.  She is SO ready to start Kindergarten.  I am going to have Fridays off this summer, so I am hoping to get to the pool at least once a week and maybe some evenings this summer with Hope.  I hope that is enough to convince her to finish out the summer, which she doesn't have a choice anyway because I have to work sometime.  :)

Ok, I have jabbered on long enough tonight.  I am going to start editing my photos of the cards I completed in WI at my scrapbook retreat and start posting them this weekend.  Have a good night and safe travels this weekend!

Also, in case you want to see some photos from our Disney trip, please visit our Share Shutterfly website to see the photos.  It is posted as a Favorite Link.

Darla

Fun in WI Dells

Wow, I get back from vacation and turned right around and went to a scrapbook retreat in WI.  I really needed a vacation, after my vacation.  :)

Anyway, I didn't have any pages planned out to work on while I was at the retreat, so I decided to take my scrap paper and make some cards.  I got several done, and will be sharing them over the next month.  I hope to get pictures taken of them all this weekend, so stay tuned...

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend.

Darla

What a MAGIC time we had...

Well, the past week we have been having a magical time at disney.  We all had a great time!  I was surprised at the things that Hope enjoy (& didn't enjoy), but overall we had a great time.

I really expected Hope to really get into meeting all the characters, especially the princesses and Tinker, but she just got really shy and froze.  I think the only pictures we have are of her with her hands over her face.  :)  Oh well.  The second day, she wore her Tinkerbell dress and wanted to go back to visit  Tinkerbell, and she was much better the second time around.  Tinker was very excited to see her dressed up like her and we thought she was going to scare Hope with her excitement, but Hope just rolled with the punches and enjoyed the visit that time.

The first day we visited Magic Kingdom.  About half way through the day Hope decided she needed a stroller, so we had a stroller the rest of our visit.  :)  We stood in long lines for the Dumbo ride and the Aladin magic carpet ride and to see the Fairies and princesses, and Jasmine that day.

The second day we went to Epcot.  We walked through each area dedicated to a different country, and Hope enjoyed the Fairy Butterfly garden art project and the Princess Tiana Garden too.  Finally, she said she wanted to go back to Magic Kingdom the rest of the day.  We went to see Tinkerbell Fairies again (over 60 minute wait) and thought Tinkerbell was going to attack you because Hope was dressed up in her Tinkerbell dress.  :)

The third day we went to Animal Kingdom.  We did the safari first thing, and explored the rest of the park. Later we went back to the hotel and swam.  It was slightly chilly since the sun was starting to set, and I was the lucky one that got to go swimming with Hope.  :)  It wasn't too bad if you stayed in the water.  Later I got to go to the hot tub to warm up after Hope went back to the room with Grandma Deloris.

We are so glad that Grandma Deloris got to go to Disney with us.  It was the first time for all of us to visit Magic Kingdom.  Joe and I went to Hollywood Studios (which was MGM Studios 15 years ago) on our Honeymoon, but didn't visit any of the other parks.  I am so glad that mom could come along and experience the MAGIC too.  Thanks Mom for all your help.

The last day we went to Hollywood Studios.  We saw the Little Mermaid show, rode the Toy Story Midway Mania ride (which was a lot of fun) and went to the Fantasmic Show (or something like that), that showed images on water, fireworks, Mickey Mouse, and so much more.  It was pretty cool.

My favorite parts of our trip included seeing all the characters up close,  the fireworks at Magic Kingdom with Tinkerbell flying through the air, and the lighted parade at Magic Kingdom.

We had a great trip and I hope you enjoy the pictures (to be posted soon).