Music Man

So far Ben loves his viola and is practicing every day!  Thankfully they finally learned how to properly use their bow this week.  No more listening to plucking of the strings! :-)  Looking forward to seeing the little music man in the orchestra winter concert.

  

Sam's PAWS Award!

Here he is!  My POSITIVELY AWESOME WONDERFUL STUDENT!  Students at MT are nominated for these awards by teachers or staff members when they are noticed for doing something special.  Sam received his award for always being kind to others.  Loved that I just happened to be in the school photographing a PTA program and heard the announcement over the intercom.  I was able to march right down to the office for a few photo ops.  So proud of you Sammy!

Finally Finished!!!

Note to self . . . do NOT ever choose a shade of orange as a paint color again!  It doesn't cover well and requires 3 full coats!  Despite a long weekend of painting, I'm pleased with the outcome and the boys are loving their new room.  So happy to have the bunkbeds separated.  Changing the sheets was such a pain!  We could still use a couple of items on the wall - maybe a mirror over their bureau but that's about it.  God help us if we ever sell our house and I have to neutralize all of the walls! LOL!  Here are a few photos:

The "befores" . . .

Here are some before pics of the boys room.  It had been this way with a vintage airplane theme since they were born.  It wasn't babyish but they had grown tired of it and had been asking for me to redecorate since Olivia had her room done a while back.  Pics of the new room to follow!

Pagemaps Sketch Contest

I love love love Pagemaps and Becky's wonderful sketches!  Here is the sketch for a current contest on the Pagemaps Blog (love the new blog by the way!) and my entry.  I have had this picture of Olivia sitting on my desk since her dance recital last June.  The gold flowers and ribbon were pulled from her costume hairpiece.  Love when I can add extra keepsakes to a scrapbooking page.  Thanks for the inspiration!

 

Just a new scrapbooking page to share . . .

Quickly whipped together a page of my little man Ben (the "Animal Lover") with a couple of pictures of him with the baby cows at the fair.

Family Time . . . Love it!

Sunday we spent the afternoon at the Deerfield Fair.  We took the kids a few times back when they were little but we hadn't been back since.  What a fun time!  We started with a sheep/goat herding show, which being dog lovers, we were facsinated by and then moved on to some horse riding shows.  The kids (including the 6ft tall one) jumped on some carnival rides.  I think Ben's favorite part was being able to see and touch all of the animals, especially the baby cows.  I swear that child is going to grow up to be a vet or animal trainer!  The biggest dilemma of the day was trying to decide on what to eat.  We of course all had our favorite treats in mind for later (caramel apples, cotton candy, fried dough . . .) but it took a good hour of strolling the rows and rows of vendors to choose something for lunch.  Here are a few pictures.  I just love family days like these!  With Michael back in school they are definitely few and far between.  I miss them!

Yay! 1 More Day!

Well it's after 11pm in India.  Michael should be on his way to the airport to board a 1am flight home.  It's been 1 long, busy week without daddy around.  We're all looking forward to seeing him tomorrow night! :-)

Whoohooo! She made it!!!

Congratulations to my baby girl Olivia for making the Middle School "M" field hockey team!  Soooo proud of you!

Tryouts started last Monday and were supposed to end on Friday with the lists posted in the evening.  Well the coaches weren't expecting the overwhelming interest as last year they were recruiting to fill the younger "M" team.  This year with 60 girls trying out cuts had to be made and the coaches pushed it out with another tryout day today.  That was a bummer as we were hoping to deal with the outcome good or bad over the weekend.  It's been a long week.  Glad all of that sweat equity in the hot sun paid off!  Can't wait to see the girls play!  Have I said how proud I am of my girl?  You rock! Love you!  :-)

Mack's Run for the Apples 5K

Today was the Mack's 5K through the apple orchards and woods.  Not easy to do in 90 degree weather and hot sun!  Olivia amazes me . . . always running with a smile on her face and making it look so easy!  Here are some pics of Liv & Daddy at the start:

And here they are as they crossed the finish line.  Whohoo!  Way to go! I'm so proud of you guys!
Oh and forgot to mention, their time was 27:49.   Not bad for a couple of "non-runners" ey?

And here's post race after a jump in the pool.

Back to School!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  No just kidding. I'm usually ready for back to school at this point in the summer but this year I was really sad to let the kids go (and they weren't ready to either).  With such nice weather and lots of hanging out with friends by the pool, there wasn't much opportunity to get bored and get on eachother's nerves.  Here we are, 2 days under our belts and so far so good!  Hard to believe that the boys are in 4th grade and Olivia is in middle school.  Time flies!  Here are a few photos from Thursday morning.

Had to share . . . a then and now

Our desktop slideshow just popped up this oldie of Olivia on the trampolines down the Cape so I thought it would be fun to post it w/one from last week.  Boy does time FLY!

What in the world???

What in the world was I thinking when I let the kids pick out this crazy thing while down the Cape! When they call it a "wave machine" they weren't kidding!  Each time the kids use it, we have to put the hose in the pool for a few hours to refill.  Hello water bill!

It's a beautiful day today and there are only a few left before school starts {{sigh}}. Off to the pool!

Boy do I stink at blogging!

Okay, so I created this blog months ago and haven't been back since.  I promise I will get better at this. :-)    The kids will be off to school in another week and I will have more free time than I know what to do with (yeah right! lol!).

For now, I thought I would share some news with all of my scrappin friends.  A Page in Time Scrapbook Kits which I design for is celebrating it's 6th birthday this week.  Yay for APIT's owner Amy!  Her kits rock!  We have daily inspiration and challenges going on all week ending with a fun-filled weekend crop jam full of challenges, games and prizes.  Come on by and check it out!  I posted a funky ad challenge yeseterday.  Here you go . . .

It's A Page In Time's 6th Birthday!!!

Lots of fun stuff in store for you all this week at APIT! I posted a funky & fun ad challenge yesterday. Here is the ad along with my take on it:

Here's what to do!

1. Scrapbook your take on the chosen ad
2. Upload it to the APIT Birthday Gallery: here
3. Come back and share your layout in this thread
At the close of the week, we will randomly draw the name of a participant to win a prize from APIT!
As a bonus, if you use an APIT kit (any current or past kit), your name will be entered twice!
Please note, there is no doubling up on challenges/layouts. One new layout per challenge for this week please.

Looking forward to seeing your take on this cool ad!

There ARE kind people out there!

Yesterday was Olivia's dance recital rehearsal at the Lowell Auditorium.  We were making great time.  Dropped the boys off at a birthday party, hit the highway and made it to Lowell in record time.  Drove though a Wendy's for dinner and were in the area of the auditorium looking for parking.  We were pulling up to a red light when an older man plowed through traffic, in a much tighter space than he could fit through, and sideswiped our truck.  Ughhh, seriously?  We pulled over and looked at the damage. It wasn't too bad but he did leave a big scrape down my driver's side.  We exchanged info but he begged not to go through insurance.  He would pay for any damage.  Today I visited Prestige Autobody upon the recommendation of our Toyota dealer.  Within 10 minutes my truck was buffed out and looking pretty at no charge.  There are kind people out there!  I'm sure the voicemail I left for the old man that the truck was all set and he was off the hook made his day!  It made mine!  So here are a few pictures from the recital of my pretty little dancer!  Time for me to go to bed.  Goodnight!