Weekend at The Rocks Ranch

What an amazing time we had at The Rocks Ranch! Check it out!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

DreamGirls Challenge #18

I had a ball with this challenge! I haven't scrapped in AGES, and feel like I've lost my groove, so it was great to scrap something again, even though it wasn't my best work. Thank you, DreamGirls for the inspiration! We were to use this sketch

by Liz Qualman, bling, and a holiday song for a title.

Here is a little of the detail.

DreamGirls Challenge #15

I was so inspired by this challenge! We were to use a song that inspires us, a coffee filter, and distressing. Loved it! Thanks for the inspiration!

Another ScrapLove GDT Layout

Here's another! This one is my fave!

ScrapLove GDT Layouts

I've had so much fun playing with the supplies Suzanne sent me from ScrapLove! So far, I've done these two layouts, using supplies from the store!

Kids Ice-Skating

We've been taking the kids ice-skating the last couple Sundays, and the just LOVE it! They can both skate on their own now, and Jack is starting to pick up a little speed. It's a super fun family activity for us!

Greek Salad

I was in the mood for something fresh for dinner. Jeff and the kids ate at the Keiners after Great America, so I'm on my own for dinner. Woohoo! Looking forward to devouring this thing!

Charli's First Day

Charli started Pre-K this past week. Here she is at home, all excited to start the day!


And here is the back of her. Love the bow on her dress, and, of course, I made the hair accessory to match!


And this one is my favorite. It's so Charli. She's in her cute, girlie outfit, but her hair is already messed up before school starts, and she's all over the monkey bars! That's my girl!

August is almost over!

And I haven't done a single post for August. Charli is being needy, so this will be quick. Jack started school this week, and here's his first day pic. Isn't he adorable?

Hitting the club pool today, and did yesterday after school. I love summer, but only wish the heat would hit during summer vacation instead of at the start of the school year!

Dream Girls Challenge #8

I love scrapping meaningful things, and often forget to do it! Thanks to the girls over at the DreamGirls Challenge Blog, I was inspired to do this layout. The challenge was to scrap a love relationship. This is about reassuring Jack that there was still plenty of Mama Love to go around after his baby sister, Charli, was born. Thanks for the great challenge!

Plenty of Mama Love


The twist was that we were to use distressing and flowers on our layout. This close up shows both. I crinkled, tore, sanded, and inked! :D

ScrapLove Layout #2

Here's my layout for week 2 of the Summer of ScrapLovin' Challenge over at ScrapLove. The challenge was to use at least 3 non-scrappy, or "junk drawer" items on the page. I used six! 1. cardboard 2. newspaper 3. coffee filter (for the flower) 4. zipper 5. cheesecloth 6. popsicle sticks. TFL!

ScrapLove Layout #1

Here's my first layout for the Summer of ScrapLovin' Challenge at ScrapLove. We were to use a colorful photo collage of gorgeous photos for inspiration!

Another Crop Layout

I was able to complete one more layout for the ScrapLove Summer of ScrapLovin' Kickoff Crop. It was for a "wings" challenge.

ScrapLove Kickoff Crop

So I had a little time to play over at ScrapLove, and got these two layouts done during the crop. Hope to get one or two more done before it's over!

Dream Girls Challenge #7

I really felt like being artsy last night and just playing. So here this is. The challenge was to have some raw journalling, office supplies (I used staples on the ribbon) and stamping with household items (I used silver paint and a lid.) I'm not sure the journalling is raw enough for this challenge, but I still like this layout! Had fun with it! I like all the wrinkles and cracked paint.

July 1st, 2008

July Art at The School of Scrap

I just posted my Art and Design assignment at The School of Scrap. The students were to use this art piece, which is my son's class' rendition of Van Gogh's Sunflowers, for inspiration.

Here it is:


And here is my take on the piece:


Come check out my class!

Charli Diving

Just had to show off how well Charli is doing in the water already this year! Enjoy!

Water Babies

We just had four days back-to-back of water fun! My wonderful neices, Alexandra and Sophia, visited for the two days after Father's Day, and MY kids looooooove spending time with their cousins! And we continued on with the water play the next day! Here are four pics, one from each day, in chronological order.

Discovery Bay


The Club


State Beach


Sprinkler Play

Dream Girls Challenge #5

The challenge was to scrap five random thoughts in five different places on the layout, and to have some doodling. It's not my best work ever, but it's done! Jack was pressuring me to hurry up the entire time, as HE wants to do a page. Man, I was hoping for JUST ONE DAY to relax and scrap. Just one. But the kids will NOT stop bickering, whining, crying, and driving me crazy. What's happened? School ends and all H breaks loose???

We made it!

We survived the school year! Woohoo! What a wonderful year it was! Here are the kids and me this morning at Jack's school. Yay summer!

Kid Pics

I haven't posted any pics of the kids in awhile, so here ya go. Our lives continue to be very full! :D

Here's Jack blowing bubbles at the park:


And here he is on Fun Day at school. Notice the bangs cut. Ain't he cute?


Here's Charli having fun with water:


And here she is at school. What an angel!

Reading Journals

Here are the reading journals I created for Jack and Charli to ensure we keep the reading going this summer! They are just altered/decorated composition books.

Slacker

Ok, feeling really guilty about slacking with Jack's reading lately. We've had many late nights, busy times, and we've done very little reading lately. At least Thursday he signed up through the library for the summer reading program. I also made both him and Charli reading journals. My plan is to make the reading and journalling part of our daily routine over summer.

I'm really looking forward to summer break and hanging with the kids. I have all kinds of fun art, science, reading, writing, etc. ideas to do together. Plus (and more importantly right now) all the FUN we'll have! Especially swimming at the club, assuming a nice summer will actually arrive soon!

Oh, I can't wait! I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait....

Has it really been this long....

since I wrote a meaningful post? I was just looking over my calendar, and here are a few things that have been happening lately (my little excuses for being MIA.) May 18th was our Day on the Green fundraiser at school. Put in back-to-back 12+ hour days for that one. May 30th was our Principal's retirement party. So bummed he's leaving. Today was voting day, and I've been helping a bit with the Yes on Measure E Campaign. We'll find out soon if it passed (hopefully.) Let's see... it's tournament week for Little League, Charli had a birthday party today, I've been exercising a bit... for several weeks now! Mostly running with Denyelle Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I've done a couple exercise classes at the club, as well. Wondering what's up with this unseasonably cool late spring we're having. Ummm. What else? Oh, one weekend recently we had five events in one day. Ummm... yeah, that was May 10th. The last birthday party we had to bail on. We were just wiped at 12:30am after going hard all day. Still need to load some pix from Jack's 7th birthday that day... didn't really get any good ones, though. So tomorrow we have a baseball game, Friday I'm working Snack Shack, Saturday we have our last game followed by our year-end party, followed by my awesome friend, Amy and her hubby Jim coming over Saturday night before their Sunday triathlon. Oh, and did I mention I had Allison's little girl, Bella (who is Charli's best friend) for about five hours Sunday and then for a Monday sleepover? Oh, and I think I had them all Friday, too? Or did I? I keep forgetting which days I've had Allison's kids lately, but I know I've had them a few times. I'll have them again this Friday, and then she'll watch mine while I do Snack Shack. This is really just a mindless rambling. Just updating my MANY readers (ha!ha!) of what I've been up to. A lot. But not much at the same time.

My Grandpa has cancer. I need to call him. Darn, it's already too late tonight. If I could slow my life down a bit, I could remember to call him and have a meaningful conversation. Meaningful. That's the second time I wrote that in this post.

I'm looking forward to hanging out with the kids this summer. Last night I made them reading journals for summer. Will have to get pics of them and upload them soon. Well, just rambling. Time to go. I did another DreamGirls layout recently. Here it is:

First Sketch-Abilities DT Layout

Well, here's the layout. Los Gatos Little League Day fell on Jack's 7th birthday, and he's #7 on The Storm!


Here's the sketch:

Measure E

So this is what I've been up to lately. Trying to renew funding for Jack's school. Check it out!

Sketch-abilities DT Entry

Holly Hooven has started a new sketch site called Sketch-abilities. She is having a DT call, and just extended it until the end of the month. I love this first sketch, as it is something WAY outside my normal way of thinking. Here it is:


Here's my take on the sketch. Embraced some white space and used a grocery bag for kraft paper.

First two DreamGirls layouts

So my friend, Dolores, and her friend, Debbie, started a new challenge blog called DreamGirls. These are my first two layouts from their site! Thanks for the inspiration, Girls!

The first challenge was to use the word dream, plus scallops and paint on a layout. The paint is a bit difficult to see here; it's white, and makes a frame and mat for the photo. I'm into recycling lately, so I also put a piece of lemon bag on there!


The second one was to use a reality TV show for the title, felt, and stamping. I stamped the buttefly on vellum, and stamped the frame.

Thai New Year

Yesterday we had quite a fun and new experience, Thai New Year. Our good friend, Sroison, is Thai, and she invited us to the celebration at her in-laws' house. We arrived late, as the kids had a birthday party to attend beforehand. (Fun party, BTW. Lots of great animal crafts. My good friend, Katrina, is a rockstar of a Mom!)Anyway, upon our arrival, the minivan was doused with buckets of water, and we were greeted by a bunch of kids with water hoses and squirt guns, as well! This is a Thai tradition (of which we were unaware.) We had been told to bring a change of clothes, but I had no idea it would be like that! The kids were too scared to get out of the van, so I had to call in on my mobile phone to negotiate. Jack eventually joined in the fun. I think Charli would have, too, if we had arrived earlier. What a fun time! Additionally, the hostess, Ayre, prepared an amazing Thai feast. We were so lucky to be invited!

I tell you what, though. If we're invited back next year, we'll come prepared with loaded squirt guns and tarps for our arrival! LOL! I didn't get any photos, but use your wildest imagination, and you're probably dead-on!

Santa Barbara Pics with Humpback Whales

We just returned about an hour ago from our weekend in Santa Barbara. Of course, I could not wait to post pics and videos from our amazing trip! Though the weather wasn't as warm as it usually is when we go (we usually go Memorial Day or early October,) we enjoyed ourselves just as much, if not more! In fact, I would say it was our most memorable Santa Barbara trip yet! We did our usual buggy ride, and this year, they had these cool, new buggies which were much easier to use! We went for about an 8-mile loop. Aren't we cute?


And, of course, a Santa Barbara trip at our favorite little boutique hotal isn't the same without some pool and jacuzzi time. They kept the pool almost as warm as the jacuzzi!



Of course, you really want to read (and see!) about our Whale Watching expedition, right? Well, look how happy we were!

And why shouldn't we be happy? After all, we got to see real, live, wild humpback whales! Apparently we were lucky, as they were a bit "early" this year. Otherwise, we would have been looking for grey whales. We did spot one... they are travelling this time of year (not feeding,) so we didn't get to see much of it. But the highlight was the six, yes SIX humpback whales we saw! We saw two different groups of three. They were obviously different groups because of their tale coloration. We also were lucky enough to see a rare site, a basking shark. This creature was very curious about us and came RIGHT up to the boat! Here are a few pics and videos of these spectacular encounters!