Scrappy Fun!

Last Monday I was so lucky to meet one of my online scrappy friends. Kim and I met each other from a "few" different sites we both hang out at. She mentioned that she was going to be in MI for her sister's wedding. I asked here where, and come to find out it was 40 minutes from where I live. Kim is SO nice!! She drove to my little town where we had lunch and chatted for such a long time.


Another great thing in my scrappy world is that I am joining the last 3 sketches for Creative Scrappers. I am so excited to be back, they truly have some of the most inspiring sketches around. Here is this week's sketch.

And here is my interpretation of it
Some'bunny' new to love

Homecoming!

Yesterday was the big Homecoming Parade. We usually just line up and watch the parade. This year we went to the school first. The school was putting on a hot dog sale..hot dogs were $1. We then walked up to town to watch the parade. I forgot to bring something for Natalie to put her candy in, but my purse worked quite well. LOL. I checked the University Den for hair stuff since the University of Michigan and Mattawan both have blue and gold for school colors. There was barely anything so I just made her ponytail holders. Here's Natalie showing her school spirit.

Here's to a great week....

This was Natalie's first full week of school. I am so proud of her because on Thursday and Friday she walked to her bus all by herself at dismissal. Go figure, her bus is one of the very last ones which is at the opposite end of both schools. She was so proud so I treated her to a Bug Juice. :) I was able to sub 2 1/2 days already and was so excited to see her at school when she came in at the afternoon. Gosh, if feels so good to be back in the classroom. Picture Day was on Wednesday. Natalie looked so cute, but of course she had a monster of a mosquito bite right between her eyes. The mosquitoes have been really bad lately and she really swelled up from them. When she was 2 she had one right by her eye which swelled to the point her eye swelled shut. It was horrible. I have seen so many kids with tons of bites and tennis ball sized swells. I wouldn't mind one good freeze at night to kill the mosquitoes off, and then warm right back up again.

On Monday I got a call from my SIL and she told me that they knew of someone giving away a bunny. Jenny and Brad didn't want it because they just got a bunny for Katie last month. Apparently my BIL met someone in the pet store who was looking for a home for their bunny with all it's home goodies for FREE. If they couldn't find a home they were going to shoot it!! EEEEK!!! So my BIL called the poeple and even went an d picked it up for us. Natalie's been wanting one for quite some time and I thought it would be a good little pet for her. He's such a little cutie and really friendly. We put a litter box in his cage and he already does his business in that.



We had our second soccer game today! Boy, did my girls do AWESOME!! We won by a score of 9+ to 0. I wasn't keeping score but my Dad quit counting at 9. I am pretty proud because I feel like I taught them some things at practice and they used those skills at the game today. Here is a picture of Natalie and I after our game last week.

And Natalie. I love these uniforms because they are reversible. When we are the home team we play with the green side, the away team we wear the silver side. All the kids have the same uniform which makes for easy uniform orders when adding a new player to the team at the last second.

And I already scrapped a layout about it. I stitched the black lines on the soccer ball and the white movement of the ball.


And here are 2 more layouts I have done using my Treasured Scrapbooking Kit for my Guest Design Team spot. I have SO much more stuff left that I could scrap a ton more.

Natalie's friends do have faces, **insert giggle**


Oh, and you may have noticed that I need to approve comments now. So sad that I must do this, but I actually had a spam comment. Ugh!

Guess that's all for now, have a great rest of your weekend!

Candy Shoppe Designs Sweet 16

Candy Shoppe Designs is looking for any way to celebrate...and what better than a Sweet 16 blog hop. Today is the 16th day Candy Shoppe has been up and running and things have been a blast already!!


If you have stopped by my blog for the Sweet 16 challenge...then here are your simple instructions. Each DT member has simple instructions posted one her blog for you to create an amazing layout. It's sort of like a blind layout challenge via a blog hop...I LOVE these!

The 6th SIMPLE STEP for you is to layer your chosen photo (with an edge) over the cut piece of patterned paper that you did on STEP 3.

Add my simple instructions to your layout and go back to the CSD blog to post something new you have learned about me.

Here are the RULES for the Sweet 16 Blog Hop challenge
Rules:
1. You must complete the Blog Hop in the order listed. Please do not skip over anyone. If you find that there is a dead end somewhere through the Hop please wait a little bit as we are all on separate time zones.
2. After each Lollipop Girl's Blog you visit you will be directed back here to C.S.D. to check-in. CHECK-IN by leaving a COMMENT under this post letting us all know 1 thing you have learned about that particular Lollipop Girl you just visited that you never knew beforehand. Also, let us know how you are coming along with your layout and anything else you'd like to share.
3. You MUST follow the SIMPLE STEP that each Lollipop Girl lays out for you. In the end of it all you should have a completed layout with YOUR interpretation of the SIMPLE STEPS we gave you.
4. You MUST enter the layout you completed during the Blog Hop into the Challenge for the Lollipop Guild Kit Blog Candy. You may create as many layouts as you'd like by doing the Blog Hop over again for extra chances at winning.

Here is the layout I created following the instructions given

I used
Bazill cardstock
PP is Basic Grey
Pearls, flowers and ribbon-unknown




A few random facts about me...
I love watching Ghost Hunters and any "real" paranormal shows
I returned to college when I was 27 and graduated with Honors when I was 32.
If I were still married, today would have been my 9th Anniversary
I can't stand meat in my spaghetti

The school journey has begun!

School is back in session! Yesterday was the first day of school. All of the kids went back except Kindergartners. We had a half our time block in which we went to Natalie's room, gathered some information, found her locker and most importantly...got her name tag with school bus information. This is the 3rd time we've been to school in preparation for the school year, and let me just say that I think it's a GREAT idea! Natalie was really happy to see another girl from Kiddie U in her room, and Meaghan seemed just as excited.
Here she is entering the school

Here we are together

Here she is in front of the office entrance of the school. It seems like yesterday I was entering these doors every single day as an elementary student. Now I will enter them as a Mom AND guest teacher.

Today was the official day Kindergartners rode the bus to school. Even though Natalie's been excited, I was concerned she'd really cry. We got down to the Kiddie U bus stop about 45 minutes early. We took some photos and then I saw all the kids that were in preschool come out of the building. It's so hard to believe that these kids are in Kindergarten. All of the kids who are catching the bus at the Kiddie U bus stop joined the line. This one little boy was crying so hard and holding his Dad's leg. I was about losing it then. I thought Natalie might get upset but she didn't. She did great up until the bus pulled up. She started to get nervous and grabbed my pants and shed a few tears. The little girl in front of her also started to cry. Both girls got on the bus with the help of Johanna (the owner of Kiddie U--she is AWESOME) Next thing I know, Natalie's waving out the window at me with all smiles. I drove to school to watch her get off the bus. Wasn't sure if this was a good idea but I did it anyway. The principal escorts each child off the bus and hands them over to another school adult. They then guide the children to their teacher's line. Each child had a color coordinated name tag that matched their teacher's sign. Natalie got off the bus full of smiles. She told me, "I knew I'd see you down here!" I took a couple more pics and then left. She did GREAT!! I saw a friend who has twin boys entering Kindergarten also. We both left, teary eyed and reflecting on the past 5 years....they truly do go by way too fast!
Here are some pics of today

Waiting for the bus


The iCarly backpack

Me and my girl

Her bus arriving at school....principal is on greeting the children before escorting them off. He is an AMAZING principal!!

Natalie once she got off the bus...all smiles


So, our journey has begun. I can't believe it! I am thrilled that today went well and can't wait to hear how her day went. One more hour until her bus arrives!

Challenge and Treasured Hunt layout

The first challenge is posted on Candy Shoppe Designs...go check it out and play along!

Here is the card I made to go with the challenge


I made it through another week on the Treasured Hunt contest at Treasured Scrapbooking. It's down to 7 now! This is the layout I did this past week.
Requirements were:
one photo
recycled item
stitching
at least 3 leaves
and journaling with "I'm not willing to"

Candy Shoppe Designs DT and TS GDT!

Yay! I can finally announce that I made the design team for Candy Shoppe Designs!
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click on the icon to check out this cool blog and to see who the other Lollipop girls are!
Candy Shoppe Designs is a cool challenge blog with challenges (of course) and prizes. Sign up and become a follower (Sweetheart)! Our first challenge was to create and All about me layout. I rarely do these but I am glad I did. Since my fun alternate name for the blog is Orange Passion, my layout was suppose to reflect that. I used orange of course, but I also used blue which is on the opposite side of the color wheel as orange. I also jotted down things I am "passionate" about.
Me, Myself and I

Here is a close up of the butterfly. I cut two different sized butterflies from the Jillibean Soup papers. I adhered one flat to the paper and stapled the smaller one on top of it and folded it to give dimension. I then slid the two pins under the staple for the antennae.


The goodies I used were
Bazill Cardstock
Patterend paper: Sassafras Lass and Jillibean Soup
Alpahs: American Crafts
Bingo Card: Jenni Bowlin

I am also sooo stoked that today is the official day that I am a Guest Design team member for Treasured Scrapbooking!! First of all, I got the kit in lickity split time. That always impresses me! Secondly, it is JAM packed with patterned papers AND cardstock! BONUS! For my reveal today I had to have one layout and a sketch completed. I have so much more to work with but this is what I have done for today's reveal!!

And here is my sketch