wrapping up valentine's day preparations

just a quick post to round out the week as we wrap up our valentine's day preparations around here. for those of us with kiddos in school all the big parties are today, so the last couple of nights have been a rush of filling out valentine cards, stuffing bags with little bits of the sweet stuff, and even making a cute little necklace for a special little valentine. and while all that was going on i decided that i wanted to complete a little project of my own....

first the valentine treats for michael's kindergarten class...totally stole this idea from becky higgins and it worked out great. i had michael create a "card". we scanned it and printed them out and then folded them down the middle. he wrote his classmates' names on the back and we stapled them to a ziploc bag of goodies. very simple and very cute. thanks becky!

but there is a special little someone is his class he wants to be his valentine. this special someone was very close to getting my sapphire and diamond necklace from right out of my closet (!!) but luckily someone decided to let me know that he'd taken it before it actually made it to school. so after some discussion about what is appropriate (and what is considered stealing) we decided to make this little necklace for his special valentine. and oh how i wish i could be a fly on the wall tomorrow when he gives it to her - how fun would that be?! but then there is this whole big thing about how he never talks to her because he gets nervous and can't think of anything to say. which is unbelievable in itself as i've never seen him at a loss for words....

and here's a picture of my project - taken right off the pages of ali edwards blog. i pretty much just love everything she does and well...imitation is the best form of flattery....i saw it and immediately thought about this small 8 x 8 shadow frame i had gotten last year. i pulled out my heart punch and a couple of mini brads...love it! thanks ali!

i hope everyone has a great weekend and a happy, happy valentine's day!!

the shark project

so this project actually started out as bribery. my six-year old ended up having to make a trip with me to my local scrapbooking store. certainly not his favorite place to visit (no toys) and not a place i like to have to take either of my boys when i go....but sometimes when you're out of school for veteran's day and your mom has errands to run you end up going to places that aren't your favorite. anyway, to entice him to behave and not to complain too much i told him they had some really cool stickers in this store and if he was good and let me look around without incident he could pick out any sticker he wanted. he was good and one of his favorite things right now is sharks. so he picked out some shark stickers.

on the way home he decided that he would create an ocean scene and put the shark stickers "in the water along with some fish for them to eat". i thought it sounded like a great idea. when we got home he immediately started on his project. in the end the picture turned out great and he was very proud of it. we added some chipboard letters from my stash to spell "shark" and matted it on some light blue cardstock. i found an old frame that fit perfectly! instant art that is now waiting to be hung up in his room after its trip to school to show all his friends and his teacher.

we started with this....



and ended up with this....



and here are some of the close up details....





an excellent way to use some scrapbook stickers if i do say so myself!!

ten things about michael right now

hello everyone! it's thursday and you know what that means....ten things thursday! my oldest kiddo turned six yesterday (october 21st) so my post today will be ten things about him right now. his name is michael and i cannot believe he is six years old already. i love you buddy and the dinosaur trail this weekend is going to be a blast!

1. you started kindergarten in august and it would be an understatement to say that you have had a rough start. but i think you are finally finding your groove and the rest of the year is going to be a breeze.

2. the first thing people say when they see you is "man michael, you are getting so tall." the second thing they say as they look at me is "you're going to be as tall as you mom before long!"

3. you are getting dressed pretty much all by yourself in the mornings.

4. you are really into sharks right now and you still like star wars.

5. you're favorite tv channels are animal planet, the history channel and the discovery channel.

6. you asked me the other day why god decided to make criminals and murderers. my answer was that god always gives people the ability to choose and that they can chose to do good things or bad things and that some people decide to listen to the devil instead of to god. you thought about it for a minute and said "oh, i get it. so the devil makes the criminals and the murderers and god makes the police officers".

7. i think your favorite things about school right now are getting to go to the library every week and music class.

8. you still really do not like to brush your teeth.

9. this morning was your birthday and the very first thing you wanted to do was weigh yourself. i have no idea where this idea came from but you literally popped out of bed and said that we should go weigh you. the scale said 53.2 and you seemed a little disappointed. i'm not sure what you expected.

10. you love eating cheese and drinking chocolate milk and your all time favorite restaurant is still mcdonalds.

october means fall

earlier this evening michael proclaimed that fall had finally arrived at our house because he finally found the "first fallen leaf of the season" right in our own front yard. he went on to declare that this was "quite unbelievable" and said that we really needed to put out our halloween decorations as soon as possible....we agreed that this weekend would probably be soon enough.

indeed it is true...fall has arrived and the month of october is in full swing. it's also been a week since i published my first blog post where i listed ten things i hope to gain from my blogging experience. in honor of that first post and the excitement of fall, i'd like to post ten things i love about the month of october....

1. michael has a birthday

2. blake has a birthday

3. pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins

4. visits to the pumpkin patch

5. the state fair

6. halloween decorations

7. mums, haystacks, and scarecrows

8. colors of fall leaves

9. cooler weather

10. trick or treating

what do you like about october??