A Pirate Parrrrrrrrrrty! ;)

This past Saturday, we had my youngest son's 5th birthday party. It's so hard to believe he's "a whole hand" old now! Wow...that's my BABY, and he's THAT old?!! According to my mother, that means it's "time for another one"....but I'm not so sure I agree with that. ;) I sure am happy with the two I already have.

For Aaron's party, he chose a pirate theme. This was so much fun! I had no idea there were so many pirate things out there...I found so much! However, with hubby not having a full-time job right now, we really tried to do everything ourselves and not overspend.

So, my sweet friend Vickie graciously cut out some adorable little pirate ships on her Cricut (I don't own any diecutting machines) and mailed them to me. I taped these to sucker sticks using black tape and made the cupcake toppers for the vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese icing (which I baked myself):



I also made German chocolate cupcakes with coconut pecan frosting and found these cute cupcake picks from Hobby Lobby:



Hubby and I also carved a ship out of a watermelon and filled it with melon balls and grapes. We bought a cheap bandana from Hobby Lobby, as well as a dowel rod, and made this cute sail (the foam skull and crossbones stickers were given to me by a friend who had some leftover pirate party stuff):



For Christmas, Aaron received a cardboard trunk full of dress-up costumes. I saved this trunk and changed it into a "treasure chest" by adding a few more of the foam stickers a friend gave me and filling it full of treasure!:



This was the most fun...finding all the little things to fill up the treasure chest with! Some of the things it contained included: bubbles, beaded necklaces, fake jeweled rings, sidewalk chalk, party blow-outs with skulls and crossbones on them, bubble gum, suckers, pirate coins, stickers, eye patches, and pirate finger puppets:



My mother-in-law and sister-in-law were in charge of putting the fake pirate tattoos on the kids. After eating grilled hot dogs, it was time for cupcakes! Aaron LOVED his #5 sparkler candle on his cupcake. It was extremely windy and HOT on his party day, so we had a little trouble getting the candle to light, but it worked out eventually:



My dad built this adorable sail and added it to a little fishing boat he had for his pond. The kids loved playing on this "pirate ship!":




After food, it was time for the treasure hunt! My husband hand-drew the map and wrote the cutest rhyming clues for the kids. Before reaching the buried treasure, the kids had a run-in with "Barnacle Bart", the bad pirate who was trying to keep the treasure for himself! (AKA, my dad! how cute is he?!) He fought the Cap'n (Aaron), and finally he surrendered and agreed to hand over the treasure!:



The kids then got to fill up their goodie bags with TREASURE before watching Aaron open his presents!! :)



We had a great time, and I think the birthday boy would agree!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Busy, busy around here! It's been one thing after another for the past few weeks....preschool graduation, my little sister's big wedding, end of school festivities, my son's 5th birthday party...and the list goes on.

Now, it's time to relax a bit and enjoy the rest of the weekend with my family. All the big plans are over with, and it's good ol' summertime. I hope you enjoy your holiday weekend and are finding some relaxation amongst all the busyness as well. :)

In honor of Memorial Day, here is a patriotic page I made from last year's 4th of July celebrations:

Scrappy Sunday 5/22

Here are a couple more pages made at the retreat a few weeks ago.

This first one was based on a sketch by Sketch Support. These pictures are from last summer. My dad was teaching my son and my niece how to pitch horseshoes during our annual trip to the state park for 4th of July weekend. Makes me smile:



Next up, another Easter layout from LAST YEAR. Yeah...still scrapping those. Sigh....



Hope you are having a beautiful Sunday! We are staying home from church today and recovering from my little sister's wedding yesterday. More on that later. ;) Thanks for looking, and thank you to all of you who are so kind to leave comments. I love reading them! :)

Go Fly a Kite.

Just sharing a 2-pager I did of my boys flying kites last year with my parents. I used a Pagemaps sketch for this one and some Echo Park papers/embellies. This is one of the layouts I got done at the crop/retreat we went too a couple of weekends ago. The lighting was off when I took this picture, so that's why it looks bright on the first page and dark on the second. Sorry about that, but you get the gist. ;)



Have a beautiful day!

Scrappy Sunday 5/15

Just sharing a few layouts I've made recently. Hope you are having a beautiful day! You know what I'm looking forward to the most today? The fact that I don't have to get up early and teach preschool tomorrow! HA! :)

That's right, preschool is over for the year. While on one hand it's great to have a break from it all, it's also bittersweet because my Aaron graduated from his 4-year-olds class...which means kindergarten is next! :( Now that the preschool year is over, I FINALLY scrapped his 1st day of preschool picture. I guess I was a little intimidated by it....I just always feel that those first day pics are so special and need to be scrapped in just the right way. I had a hard time finding school-themed papers/embellies to go with the teal color shirt he had on. That was, until I found this adorable line by We R Memory Keepers. :)



Next up is a Spring/Easter page from last year. The baby in the pics is my little cousin. My boys just love him! :)



Finally....my silly, silly Aaron wearing his SuperWhy! costume while watching his show on PBS one morning. He's so funny! :)



Thanks for taking a look! :)

May 2-pager

Just a quick drive-by blogging to show you my 2-pager made with this month's kit from The Scrap Room!

I got to use Bo Bunny's new Ad Lib collection for this, and it matched my son's birthday party pictures perfectly. It was such a fun and bright line...perfect for summertime! :)



Thanks for looking! Have a beautiful day.

May 2011 Full Kit Reveal from TSR!

Whew, what a weekend! Did anyone do anything fun for National Scrapbook Day? Our crop went really well. I got a total of 12 pages done over the weekend, and the classes I taught were a lot of fun. We met some really nice people too! :)

Before I left for the crop, we had our full reveal at The Scrap Room for the May 2011 kits! Here are my projects:

Girls Paperie "Jubilee" collection:





Jillibean Soup "Chilled Strawberry Soup" collection:





Glitz Designs "Laced with Grace" collection:



Bo Bunny "Ad Lib" collection:




The above teacher's gift was also made with our monthly stamp add-on kit! It was perfect for a cute little teacher's gift for the end of school...which is coming up super fast! :) I also have a 2-pager made with the "Ad Lib" collection, but that will have to wait until our Recipe Card reveal time.

I've got LOTS more to share from the crop this past weekend, but I haven't even attempted to unpack my stuff yet! hehehe Thanks for taking a look!

National Scrapbook Day 2011

Soooooo....who has big plans for National Scrapbook Day this weekend???

I'm not gonna lie....I'm a little nervous. My sister somehow got us roped into TEACHING a couple of classes each at a scrapbook store a couple of hours away. Okay:
1. Neither one of us have ever taught scrapbooking classes before.
2. Neither one of us has even BEEN to a scrapbooking class before!
3. Neither one of us has ever been to an overnight crop, much less a 2-night, 3-day crop.


Oh well, it'll be fun right? Right???

I really don't know what to expect, but I'm kinda just trying not to think about it. I'm an over-analyzer...big-time....and if I start with the over-analyzing right now, I'll be a hot mess by this weekend. So...I'm just gonna let go of any ideas or expectations and just go with it. (sure, I say that now, but you watch...I'll be up all night the night before we leave, trying to write cue cards and outlines for the classes I'm teaching! ha!)

So this brings me to a whole other set of questions/advice needed:
How do YOU pack for a big weekend crop?
Do you make up little page kits?
Do you just throw everything into your crop tote and go?
Do you carefully select the things you will take/will leave at home?
What about alphas....how do you know which ones/colors to take?
Do you buy a lot while you are there, or do you try to stick only to what you brought with you?
Is it weird feeling kinda like an "outsider" and newbie in the group of friends who always crop together?
Do you get much done at crops, or do you tend to socialize more than scrap?
How many completed pages/projects on average do you walk away with after a big crop?
What fun things have class teachers done in the past to make the class more interesting?


Now, see....here I was saying I wasn't going to worry about it, and those questions just came flying out. Sorry! I would love to hear your thoughts, though. :)

Whatever your plans are this weekend, I hope you have a very Happy NSD and an especially Happy Mother's Day to all you mommies out there!!

May Blog Hop Time!

Hello blog readers!! It is May 2nd...can you believe that?!?! With the beginning of each month comes one of my favorite things...KIT REVEAL from The Scrap Room!! Take a look at one of my examples...



Check out those papers and embellies by Jillibean Soup! They are BRAND NEW, and they are adorable! Remember, TSR has bits and pieces of FOUR different collections in EACH monthly kit...so you will always have a great variety of the latest and greatest scrapbooking products! :)

These pictures are from our Valentine's Day breakfast. I made pink pancakes with fresh strawberries and pink milk for my boys. It was wonderful and a great way to start off Love Day. When I saw the strawberry paper in the kit, I knew I had to scrap these pics! I love the way the Kraft colored paper is paired with the bolds and brights.

So in celebration of our May kit, we are having another BLOG HOP!! You know the way this works, right? Here is a list of the places you will be visiting...

Lan Amphone
Melanie Call
Sarah Eclavea
Jenny Moore ------->You are here!
Aphra Bolyer
Kim Arledge
Frances Sylvia
TSR Facebook Page

The hop begins at Lan's blog, but all of the blogs are linked in case you get lost along the way. Just follow along the blog path, and keep hopping until you reach your last destination which is The ScrapRoom Facebook Fan Page!! Make sure you become a follower and leave a comment at each blog telling our wonderful designers what you liked about their project! When you reach The ScrapRoom Facebook Fan Page, leave a comment letting us know that you finished the hop.

One blog hop participant who follows the rules, will be chosen at random to win a $5 gift certificate to The ScrapRoom Store! Whoot! Whoot! Check out the blog Wednesday, May 6th for our winner!

Happy Hopping! :)