Fun with the family

We had a busy night last night.  Swim lessons, softball game watching the twins play and then dinner out with everyone.  Good times!

All of these cute kids were with us too!  They were all super good considering how late we were out.

Annie-in the black Waukee shirt, Kenton-little guy in the middle, Ally-in the back, Kendal-green sweater and Hope in the front.

We also gave mom an early Christmas present to help her stay in touch with all of us.  We are all excited to try it out with her and we think she is going to LOVE IT!  We love you mom, Merry (early) Christmas.

Since we celebrated Christmas early, here are some more Christmas cards to share with you too...

The tags on these cards have been in my stash for MANY YEARS, possibly close to 7-8 years.  How crazy is that.  I used the papers that matched the tags several years ago and never used the tags.  Well, when I got ready to use up the My Minds Eye papers I noticed they matched some of the colors.  So I pulled them out and used most of them up.  Yeah me!

The inside of this card says..."is coming to town".

I loved the chipboard banner sticker, so I cut it in half and used it on two different cards.  I just added letter stickers to go along with the sentiment.

Alright, we now return to autumn, which officially starts tomorrow, but feels like it today.  Love it!

Have a good one!

Darla

Greater than...

We had a funny with Hope tonight, when I was helping with her homework.

She is learning greater and less than.  So on her homework, she had to complete the > or < symbol to indicated if the first number was greater or less than.  When she drew the symbol there were wavy lines inside the triangle area and I asked what they were.  Mom, they are the alligator teeth.  :)  Hehehehe!

Keeping it short tonight so I can watch Parenthood.  Love that show!!!!

Here is your daily card inspiration...

That's it!  Later...

Darla

Feels like Fall

Well football is in full swing and the weather is just beautiful these past few days.  Soon we will be going to the pumpkin patches, apple orchards, etc. this fall.  I can't wait.  I am actually craving apple crisp this afternoon.  YUM!

I will take a break from sharing the Christmas cards I have been working on to share a fall layout with you.

I used mostly Simple Stories papers to create this layout from various paper lines.

I hand cut a rough pumpkin shape and used it to house my title.  I used green wire I have had in my stash for years as vines on my pumpkin.

Ok, since I have an abundance of cards to share, I will share a few of those as well.  

Well, we are off to go see our new puppy "cousin" Max.  My sister Dawn just went to pick him up and we can't wait to meet him.  Until next time...

Darla

Remember...

Today, after I dropped off Hope at gymnastics I took a few moments to visit this memorial dedicated to the events of 9-11.  The nearby fire station has a steal beam from The World Trade Center towers.

Prayers to the families and service people of 9-11.  rest in peace.

Voting...

Yesterday, Hope heard a political commercial for both candidates and asked in a serious tone..."mom, who are we going to vote for?"  I just had to laugh...because she was actually curious about it.

Well, let the craziness begin...Nutcracker rehearsals, regular dance, gymnastics, swim lessons...I will try and come up for my breath soon.  :)

To share...I have a few Christmas cards from the My Minds Eye Lost and Found paper scraps.  I loved this paper line and I loved making each and every one of them.  I hope you love them as much as I do.

I even started Christmas shopping this week.  I guess I was in the spirit early this year.  I actually found two new lego sets at Target, so decided to go ahead a pick them up for Hope.

Well, now I need to clean up my desk, since we haven't seen the top of it in a few weeks.  :)  Goodnight!

Darla

Bye-Bye Butterfly!

Today was a day Hope has been waiting for at school.  I was able to drop her off at school this morning and when we checked on the monarch butterfly was ready to come out of its chrysalis.  By noon, her teacher had emailed me that it had come out and they were going to release it that afternoon just before school was out.

So, I took off from work a little early and came home to get my camera.  I wish I would have had it this morning, because i had never seen a chrysalis before and it was so transparent you could see the colorful wings.  It was SO COOL!  :)

Before we took her outside, they went over some of the facts they had observed that morning.

They found out it was a girl butterfly, since there were no dot markings on the underside of the wings.  When she came out, her wings were all wrinkled and as she flapped her wings the color and wings began to unfold.

You can see the translucent chrysalis behind the butterfly.  They have one other one that should be ready to "hatch" in the next day or two.

Here she is just before taking her outside.

And I was lucky enough to capture this after she was placed on the butterfly bush.

The other exciting school event today was Arthur, her teacher's bunny, finally came to school.  She keeps him at school during the week and the kids love having him there.  Here is Hope and Arthur.

Well, since I shared a Christmas project last time, I will share a few more Christmas cards, from another My Minds Eye Christmas line.

Well, hopefully the Christmas cards will cool you off for the evening.

Darla

Football and Playdates

I love fall weather and weekends at home.  We didn't have much going on this LONG weekend, at least for today.  So we called the twins to come over and play.  It is a win-win for both my sister and myself.  Hope has entertainment (that isn't me) and she gets some quiet time.

So while watching some football, the girls are playing and I am scrapbooking.

I am working on a Christmas decor project.  These are not typical things I work on, but I saw an idea at my local scrapbook store, Memory Bound, and loved the idea.  They were out of the exact tri-fold frame, but I got a slightly smaller one that worked good for my project.  I used the same paper line, but different papers overall.

Here is a picture of their project...

And here is my project...

I had already used some of the chipboard pieces on another layout, so I improvised with other items from the same line of paper by My Minds Eye.  I remember seeing this line at CHA and LOVED it!

To attach the rings to the frame, I hot glued them with an edge sticking up so the clasp could just be attached to the ring easily.

I measured the length of my chains, from 7 Gyspies, and took off part of the links and attached the two chains together.  Then I just added the rings through the chipboard letters and hung them from the chain before closing the ring.

Well, my freedom time is over.  Time to go cook some supper!

Darla