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!