Happy 5th! ~ 11.10.09

Max with his Star Wars cake- the lava planet (?) where Darth and Anakin fight. We took a few creative licenses with this one... hope none of my readers call me out on this.

We'll be going to movie night at the library tonight to see UP! It comes out today on DVD and I need to squeeze a trip in to go and pick our copy of it up at Giant Eagle. Such a great movie. Did you see it? I bawled.

For Max's birthday treat I made Chocolate Chip Marshmallow squares. Oh yum. I got the recipe here.
sooooo yummy, especially if you undercook them just a wee bit. I cooked mine the whole 25 minutes this time though.

We're up for a busy day... I still need to post pictures of Gabriel's birthday! Just remembered that!

They told me to ~ 11.5.09

These three ASKED me to take their picture the other night. Told me they'd wait while I ran and got the camera.... they waited! So I obliged. What sweeties are they? And mostly looking at the camera to boot!

Thanks, Max, for the idea and for looking. He's almost 5 you know. I'm stuck on a creative drought after making my Godson's birthday cake last weekend.

It was great fun to make a pumpkin cake! I think I'll make one just for the fun of it next year.

In the meantime though, Max wants a Star Wars type cake.... with lava. I've looked and have some ideas, but we will see. Thinking Bruesters Ice Cream cake would be AWESOME! ha!

See you next week....

Finishing well ~ 11.2.09

Here's a round up of the last week's of my layout a day challenge that I did with 107 other amazing scrapbookers around the globe! I'm looking forward to February when we'll do it all over again! yeah!

and with that, I'm done scrapbooking for awhile... okay, just until Saturday when I participate in a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society at our school. Can't wait!

And here's the gal who inspires it all, Lain , check out her very cool new blog, Five Things. Perfect for list lovers everywhere!

Still at it and Big Hair memories ~ 10.24.09

Yup, still working hard on that layout a day project.

Nursing our sick little family back to health (why oh why do we get sick at the SAME TIME every year?)

Anyway, here's the rest of this week's pages. Be nice about the Senior Picture, will ya? Fess up if YOU had big hair back then, too.

Wordful Wednesday ~ 10.20.09

October gave a party;

The leaves by hundreds came

The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,

And leaves of every name.

The Sunshine spread a carpet,

And everything was grand.

Miss Weather led the dancing,

Professor Wind the band.

~George Cooper

from the archives... these photos were from way back in '06! I added that lovely October quote to the pages just yesterday. Had the pages 1/2 done and added a few more pictures.

These pictures are a good reminder to me to stop and play. I get caught up in the 'laundry list' of things that need to be accomplished on any given day. I do try and prioritize what needs to be done now and what can wait until nap or bedtime. But I fail, daily.

Wednesday I'll have a chance to just play as we're headed on a field trip with Max's class to the pumpkin patch. Good times to be had by all and the weather seems like it's going to adjust itself and bring us a little "Indian Summer" after all! Hooray!

Let me encourage you (and myself once again) with this gem of a quote (or two) from Fred Rogers. From his book, The World According to Mr. Rogers, Important Things to Remember:

Some days, doing "the best we can" may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn't perfect- on any front- and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else.

How many times have you noticed that it's the little quiet momentsin the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra-special meaning?

well said, Mr. Rogers, well said.

For more wordful Wednesday posts, head over here.

Birthday boy ~ 10.19.09

We celebrated Gabriel's 7th birthday this past weekend (and today) with lots of family activities. Saturday was all about Star Wars with a trip to the South Side to see Darth and the Storm Troopers and participate in some fun activities at Joseph Beth Booksellers.

Sunday we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese with our friends, the Martin's. Their Jack (my Godchild) celebrated his birthday on Sunday! My parents and niece, Caterina, came along and helped us sing and take in the sights and games at that crazy chaotic place. I remembered (how could I forget) why we don't go there but once in a blue moon. It was an experience to say the least. The kids LOVED it- and that's what really matters. I brought my own desserts: not yo mama's banana puddin' and pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting! yum!

Today was low key- a school day. I brought Gabriel a fave sandwich at lunchtime - Italian beef sandwich- that I had made this past weekend. Took his glass our favorite brownies, too.
Dinner was the kids fave- green pasta (aka Knorr's Creamy Pesto Pasta) and brownie sundaes for dessert. Daddy had to head out of town for a few days so the boys spent the entire evening taking in their new Lego Indiana Jones Wii game. They were in heaven. I've already declared Tuesday a Wii-free day (am I the only one still struggling with policing the usage of this thing?) so that Gabriel can take some time to work on some of his new Lego sets.

And I remembered to conduct the birthday interview:

1. What is something you are excited about right now:
(he clarifed that it was something he was excited about this weekend) Going to Chuck E Cheese and getting fun and cool presents

2. If you could do anything you wanted for one day, what would you do?  Play Wii all day- specifically Lego Indiana Jones

3. What is something you do or a place you go every day, every week?  school

4. What is something you couldn't live without?  food

5. What's the best thing about being you right now?  Having fun every day

I asked a few more interview questions... you'll notice a theme:

-What is something you are good at doing?  playing Lego Indiana
-If you had $10 what you spend it on? buy a lego star wars game- the 2nd one
-What are you afraid of?  nothing
-Who are your friends?  Ryan, Travis, Ben, Tristan, Nick, Luke
-What is your favorite food? brownies
-What is most important to you? Building Lego sets

One of these interviews will appear in the space in this layout I made yesterday...

Layout for Thursday on a Friday ~ 10.16.09

For our birthday album! Z on the left and D is on the right. 97% of the products on this page are Creative Memories.