My Kids

Nice short blog post today.

Just took this photo today of my kids!  I was totally shocked that I was getting cooperation!  Ty actually wore something other then black and didn’t bicker about it!

I also found these little jars up at our small towns general store.

They had peaches, or strawberries or blackberries in them, but that didn’t really matter to me!  I wanted the jars and had immediately had an idea in mind!

I wanted them to create these.

These are 8 of 11 jars I created for a couple of graduates and many teachers as thank you gifts!  We filled them with M&M’s, except for one that we filled with special sugar-free candy for Ethan’s teacher whom is a diabetic.  One teacher, our computer specialist, got a special jar as she retired this year.

We have officially begun summer vacation!  Hopefully the summer will be a productive one!

Take care!

Never thought you’d see me again . . .

did ya?

Leslie can’t possibly be the worst blogger.  That would have to be an award I take!

So,  I’m not going to pretend – I’ve messed up the 365 challenge big time!  April and May have been spuradic at best when it comes to taking pictures.  Not that I haven’t taken pictures!  Oh no!  I’ve taken several 100 in fact.  Just not one everyday.  I’ll pick it up again in June – or at least I’ll try.

April finally ended, but before it did, Aryn entered another poetry contest.  By May 6th we learned that she was a finalist!  By May 15th we learned that she was one of the top 6 in the Time for Kids poetry contest.  Now she didn’t win the grand prize, but to be one of the Top 6 was a win in every sense of the word!  You can find her poem as well as the poems of the other finalist here.  She’s on a roll now!  So what does she do?  She enters ANOTHER contest!

Aryn has had a busy month.  She preformed with the rest of her 5th grade class in this:

She was part of the chorus . . .

But should have really gotten credits for set decoration too!  She was a big help when it came to creating all of these!

Well her, and 5 teens (including Ty) from the high school theatre department and the art teacher, several other teachers (classroom, gym, music) other parents and myself!  We spend several Tuesdays after school and Fridays creating these and other set pieces.  And Seussical night came and went without too many issues!  Of course Miss Cat in the Hat got sick the Tuesday prior to the Wednesday performance and had us worried a little bit, but she came back to school the next day and was able to perform!  Here’s a shot of Aryn and some of her girlfriends.

Also in May we had Fine Arts Day at school!

These colorful Eric Carle-inspired creations were done by third graders at our school.  I need to get some close-ups as these are so pretty and would be so easy to replicate for use on a scrapbook page or card!  Our Art teacher hit on another favorite!

May wasn’t without sadness.  On May 6th, we lost this beautiful woman.

A couple of posts ago I posted that my husband’s grandfather had passed away after a length fight with Parkinson’s and posted this photo of Ethan with his great grandmother.  Great-Grandma died due to complications after a stroke, 28 days after her husband.  This time the kids had so much happening that Brian took Aryn and Ethan with him to the funeral and I stayed here with Ty and Zoe.  Ty had several study sessions for the AP exams and Zoe had some girl scout activities happening while they were gone.  I am so glad I took the opportunity to take this picture!  It is the LAST photo taken of her, and Ethan loves it!  I have to frame it and get it displayed for him in his bedroom.

We also celebrated Ethan’s 10th birthday.

We played outside.  A  lot.

Ty spent hours on the phone. . ..

And I took dozens and dozens of photos of flowers!  Here are a few of my favorites!

And now I must go and escort a little girl to yet another sleepover.

Bye!

Take care . . .

Earth Day and Paper Trunk!

Here is a bit of the fun that is happening over at the Paper Trunk Blog for the next week and a half!  It all starts today so have fun scrapping!!

BLOG CROP!!!

Yippee! It’s time to get scrappy and the Trunk Team has put together a super blog crop for you…challenges, ideas, eye-candy, and PRIZES!!!

The crop begins Earth Day (April 22) and ends on National Scrapbook Day (May 2). Each day, a Trunk Designer will post a challenge right here on the blog. We hope you will be inspired, motivated, challenged, and excited to play along.

For more info visit the Paper Trunk blog here!  The first challenge is up too!  Find it here!

I plan on participating!  If nothing else it will get me scrapping this week!  Of course I really should finish planting my garden too!

Take care. . .

April thus far

First a toot!!

Only it’s not for me and that’s more then okay!

It’s for this child.

And the magazine she’s holding in where she is published!  Now the new magazine isn’t up yet on their website, but when it is it her poem is on page 54 of the May/June 2009 issue!  She wrote a poem in 4th grade in response to a unit they were doing on Martin Luther King.  If you want to see a copy of the poem you can on her blog here.  From what I understand she is the youngest poet ever to be published in this magazine!  This magazine also offers a photo contest, so if anyone is interested!

We are so proud of her!

Other April happenings!

I held a photo shoot with my eldest.  He was cooperative only because his girlfriend was watching.  I REALLY am jealous of all that red hair!

Of course there was Spring break!  Brian and the three younger kids spent 5 days at Grandpa and Grandma’s house!  I stayed home with Ty and so I could participate in an online scrapbooking crop held by Create My Keepsake!  I managed in those 5 days to complete 10 layouts, 4 projects and 2 cards!!!  How often does that happen?  Here are a few things that I did with my scrappy weekend!

Then there was Easter.  Ours was rather busy and trying.  I really wish it hadn’t been, but God had different plans.  On Good Friday, at around 3 am or so, Brian’s grandfather, the kids’s great-grandfather, finally got his final reward in Glory!  It had been a LONG, long battle with Parkinson’s and 7 long years in the nursing home.  My younger children do not remember Papaw Great anwhere but the nursing home and certainly never the way Ty remembers him.  The funeral was the Monday after Easter.  We were all fine until Ethan lost it about 10 minutes before the service was over.  Ty prefered to sit in the front row, prior to the service and play his guitar.  It’s as close to the casket as he cared to get.

Warning!  The next photo was taken of Ty doing just that- It does show the casket and Grandpa’s body.  Ty will need to remember this.  For those that think funeral and casket photography morbid, scroll past it please.

We all mourn in our own way.  Papaw never got to hear Ty play and music and writing are two of  Ty’s way of expressing himself.  He did a lot of both this weekend.  For more about the who Grandpa was see my husbands blog

The flowers were just beautiful.  I took several flowers from the cut flower arrangements.

These lilies were my favorites!  So very pretty!

Two more photos from Easter weekend.  Ethan with his Great Grandma and a close up of Zoe.

We also colored Easter Eggs and had an egg hunt.  Had to keep some normalcy to the weekend.

Now back home again.

We had book fair night at school.  Aryn was a 5th grade star reader!  Complete with her own star!

And we have a finch that has taken up residence on a pillar on our front porch.

And Ty finally painted me a flower pot for use on my scrappy table!  I LOVE it!!

Take care . . .

March Photos – - Finally!

So it’s April 2nd.  Okay – I really blew it for the month of March.  It just got busy and I couldn’t get here to post updates.  But now hubby has the three younger kids at his folks, and it’s actually quiet in my house – except for the dogs that are wondering where the kids went!

First of all my layout for Scrappin’ the Musics latest challenge:

The photo is of my brother and sister-in-law on their wedding day.  The lyric from the Dave Matthews Band song Everyday just fit this relationship so well!

There!  Now that that is done I’ll move on to my top 15 photos from the month of March.  I took one almost everyday, but there were also days that I took over 100 photos in a matter of a few hours!  I think I did good!

Okay!  My top 15

Ethan’s first ever Soaring Eagle!

Now look at those eyes!  That’s my curious kid!

This horse lives along the route I take on my daily walk with the dogs.  She always runs to meet us at the fence line!

Zoe as a Ringmaster during her school musical Circus-Circus.

Ethan and his Fine Art and Music in Elementary Education (FAME) Festival.  This was is first piece to ever go to FAME.

Aryn had 3 projects at FAME this year AND her choir performed as well.  This piece is my favorite that she has done this year!  It just tells you so much about her!

This was one of the neatest projects I saw displayed at FAME this year!  These flowers are created out of plastic water bottles and misc. craft supplies!  Very clever and oh so colorful!

Zoe and Ethan after visiting a face painting booth at the FAME festival!

Brian at the Remnant Trust exhibit at IPFW in Fort Wayne, IN.  This is an exhibit that can be obtained by different organizations that is solely of books and writings that have changed the way we see the world!  When you go to this exhibit you will be surprised that the books are not under glass or kept away from the viewers in anyway!  You are allowed to pick them up, page through them, and even take pictures!  If you get a chance and you have a love of literature, you must see this exhibit if it comes anywhere near where you live!

March is also Science fair month.   Here we have Aryn putting the final touches on her display board.

Never underestimate the ingenuity of a dog with a love of pizza!  Shadow managed to drag this box out of the bin behind the house that we keep burnables in, get it open, and lick the cardboard clean of any leftover scraps possible!

Ty on his final day of a 3 day bout of the flu.  Looks like he’s feeling much better already!  Sent him back to school the next day!

Now three sure signs of spring!

Ethan playing ball in the front yard.

The neighborhood ice cream truck.

and finally,

Buds on the lilac bushes.  A sure sign of the nicer days to come!

Thanks for looking!

Take care . . .