Quick Update

Just a quick update on the last week and a half -
- Felicity has still had her cough - took her in last week and the PA said to give her Ibuprofen. Didn't help, in fact it's getting worse again. Taking her back in tonight.
- Getting ready for primary program.
- Lydia gets strep throat and missed 2 school days last week - LOVED watching movies all day in her bed (she did do homework too). I've never been so glad to hear strep throat as a diagnosis (and not swine flu).
- More getting ready for the primary program aftermath.
- Shawn gets strep throat and misses a couple half days of work.
- Cedric got a much needed haircut.
- Gathered up and bought costume supplies.
- Went to "marathon meetings", took activity day girls to retirement home to sing, set up for primary program, had primary program, prepared my sharing time "celebration station" for program aftermath (make a baggie of trail mix), then got someone else to do it so I could be primary secretary too.
- Made paper mache paste so Lissy could make a wigwam for an assignment.
- Took Lissy to the orthodontist for a consultation.
- Started to work for Shawn's office again (braces cost how much?!)
- Shawn started Karate again after his sprinkler installation class was over.
- I went to the eye dr. to update my contact prescription.
- Dance classes, helping at school, library, grocery shopping, presidency meetings - not much cleaning.
That's what we've been up to. We've gottten a lot done, but there's still lots to do. I guess that's what keeps us out of trouble and mischief, right? Our primary program went great and I think the kids had fun with the "celebration stations" afterwards (bingo, memory, coloring, make trail mix, and watch their singing practice videos.) It was a little more work than popcorn and a movie would have been - but I dont' know if they could have sat still for much longer. We also had the congregation write anonymous comments to the children, so we read those and sang some wiggle songs before we divided into our stations. Our pianist said if she had to play "My Eternal Family" one more time she would have puked! I think we're all ready for a break from the program songs for awhile.

Spooky Sign

Well, I don't really have a tutorial, but I'll explain how I made the Spooky sign. In Word I set my page to Landscape and minimum margins. Then I typed Spooky (I did EEK on a separate line too) in the font "Blackadder ITC" and set the font to about 200 points. I centered the text and printed it (black) on some vintage looking music scrapbook paper that I cut down to 8 1/2 by 11 inches so it would fit in the printer. Then I just cut a brown mat to fit my frame, cut my "spooky" to fit on the mat, inked the edges and stuck it on the mat.

I don't remember where I got the font, and I can't find it for free anywhere. If you don't have that one, something old fashioned and fancy, but a little creepy is what you're going for. I recommend having someone step on your frame so the glass gets a nice long crack in it, but that might be a little dangerous....

I hope that helps. I just make things up as I go along and use what I have laying around, so I may not explain things very well.

Note: To truly copy the sign at Roberts, I would have used a board, some modge podge and vinyl lettering.

Inspiration Continues

Monday afternoon, I was still inspired to be creative and complete a couple of projects that have been lingering around my "office" for awhile. I had some dollar store frames I've wanted to make decorations out of for about a year now. Before the wonderful shelves arrived, the frames were sitting on the floor and got stepped on by an anonymous party (of the young girl variety) and the glass in them broke. Well, I went ahead and threw most of the glass out (kept the least broken one for "spooky" effect) and made my projects. I don't know how creative it is if I'm just copying other people, but here are my new Halloween table toppers.

Spooky - copied from a decoration seen at Roberts craft store.

Eek - copied from a few blogs and a friend's decoration made by another friend.

Boo - a variation on last year's "boo" deocration to match this year's creations

Here is last year's:

Award Winning-Husband

While I spent almost 6 hours at Super Saturday last weekend, here is what the Best Husband (and kids) in the Whole Wide World did:

- pulled out the old tomato and corn plants

- bundled the old corn stalks to make me festive decorations for the front yard (I am so excited - I have always wanted these - geeky, huh?) (the pumpkins are from our sweet neighbors who called the girls to come over and pick them out from their garden) - drained and hung the hoses in the garage for the winter

- installed shelves in my "office/scrap room" closet so I could get all the boxes off the floor!

This so inspired me to do something "crafty" in my room that I made my "autumn thank you" cards for our card group this week. Then I used the leftover scraps from Super Saturday and some other random stuff I had and made a bunch of other cards. The girls were also inspired to be crafty and made baby beds and "rooms" out of boxes (sorry it's a bad picture).

Thanks Babe! You're the best!!

Happy Halloween - ballet style

After dance class one day, Evelyn put our skeleton and scarecrow decorations into ballet positions. The scarecrow is in Releve' and the skeleton is in Passe' . I thought it was just too funny and had to get a picture to send to her dance teachers.

Super Saturday Card Class

For our Super Saturday last Saturday (go figure) I agreed to put together some card kits and teach a class. I made 15 kits, with supplies for 10 cards in each kit. These are the 5 designs I used and the kits had two of each design. I copied most of the designs from other people, but this first one I did make up. Get WellHello Happy Birthday
Thank You

Blank

About a week before the class I got really stressed and had an emotional break down. I had subbed in the library at school for 3 days and the last day was when we had a snowstorm, so the kids had to all stay in the library during lunch recess. I didn't think it was that bad, but at the end of the day my back really hurt. The next day I ran around trying to get things ready to go to Caldwell for conference weekend, get packed, etc. all before Shawn came home. I was hoping to have all the supplies I needed for the class so I could put the kits togther during conference. Well, I didn't have them, my back still hurt, the girls had put the last straw on this camel's back and as Shawn put it, I had a "hissy fit" and decided to stay home while he took the girls to Caldwell. I'm not proud of that. It left things in a bad state for Shawn, the girls and his parents. I missed spending a nice relaxing and fun weekend with all of them. I don't blame them all for hating me, but I really am sorry and I hope they forgive me.

I did spend 12 hours that weekend getting the last of the supplies and cutting out bits and pieces of paper and ribbon and dividing up other supplies for 150 greeting cards. Super Saturday was a couple days ago and it was fun. They based it on a carnival/state fair theme and did a really cute job. There was a carnival game at each station and lunch was provided via a "cook-off" of soups, cornbread and pie. All the classes had a tie in to a carnival game too. For example mine was a dart throw with the phrase "Never Miss and Occasion".

Happy Fall!

It is my favorite season. It never seems to be quite long enough, but I am trying to enjoy every little bit of it. We have been as busy as ever, but I'll try to post some cute pics of the girls and few other things we have been up to over the next few days. Enjoy!

Since Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to loan Lissy some egg-shaped rocks for her rock collection, she decided to display them all as eggs in an Easter basket. We found some clear eggs in our stash and numbered them and created a key that she hung from the basket. The little piece of iron pyrite went in the huge golden Easter egg, of course.

Lissy asked to make a giant tent downstairs one day and was busy at it for quite awhile. When I went downstairs later she proudly showed me her "padded floor and tunnel". She may not grow up and become the world's greatest architect, but she was happy and had fun.

Now that Evie can read, one of my favorite things is to come across her caught up in a good book. I just couldn't resist snapping these pictures. Her favorites right now are the Junie B. Jones books, but she's also tried a Goosebumps (gave her nightmares I think) and is working on a Magic Treehouse book right now, along with a Junie B. Jones. I guess she is her mother's daughter and can't decided on just one book at a time.