It's November, right?

Because to see this picture you sure wouldn't know it!

Jonathan headed out to the park for a little bit this afternoon...and yes, he's just wearing a t-shirt...no sweater. And yes, it is indeed November the 5th, I checked the calendar.

Scott and Lauren aren't home yet, so I have yet to hear how their day went.

Colin, on the other hand, is home and thrilled beyond reason with the "UV crime kit" that he got from scholastic books with some of his birthday money.

I'll be back later with a "work report".

Thanks for stopping by!

Take Your Kids to Work Day

Today, across the province of Ontario, is "Take Your Kids to Work" day. So...Lauren (in proper business attire) went to work with her dad.

She will be learning all about pilots and airplanes...and if she's REALLY lucky, she'll get to go on the flight simulator.

The kids asked if I ever went on a "Take your kids to work" day with my Dad...and you know...I honestly don't remember. I remember once or twice going to work with my dad, but not sure if it was a specific day like we have here in Ontario. I remember going to work with Dad was a blast because there were so many cool things to play with! Dad is/was a graphic artist and worked in the print industry, so there were always easels and colouring pencils and lettraset - WOOHOO!!! Maybe that's where my love for rub-ons started...hmmm...

I sent her with the point and shoot camera (digi) because while I offered the DSLR it was causing me heart palpitations this morning, so I had to rescind it. Hopefully, she will remember to take pics though I'm not sure how good they will be since the P&S was acting up and was the reason for purchasing the DSLR.

I'll let you all know how it went!

Thanks for stopping by!

Halloween Haunting

Yesterday was Halloween.

So, just before it got dark, we headed out. We live in a high rise condominium complex (4 buildings) and while the kids can't trick or treat throughout the buildings (how cool would THAT be?), they can go into the lobbies of each of the buildings and trick or treat there. That started off the evening on a good note as the folks handing out candy were VERY generous!

After doing the buildings, we headed across the street to the townhouses. A fair number of them were dark, so there wasn't much to be had there. I did find this cool light strand and took a picture though.

After that, we did the houses on the next couple of streets and the boys got quite the haul. I got a picture of this graveyard that looked pretty cool. It's a little blurry 'cause I was shooting in night mode (for effect) and didn't want the flash to ruin it all - no flash = slower shutter speed = slightly blurry.

Hope all your little ones had a GREAT time trick or treating and that you enjoyed imposing the candy tax. WHAT??? You don't impose a candy tax? Haven't you heard? Candy taxes are in the parents charter of rights. "They who take the little goblins out for Halloween are by law permitted to impose a candy tax".

Thanks for stopping by!

Colin's Birthday Party

Colin turned 10 this year. How did that happen? If you figure it out, could you let me know? Oh...and do it QUICK because Lauren is about to turn 14 and I am TOTALLY clueless where that came from - YIKES!

He wanted to have a swimming party, so that's what we did. We headed out to our community pool and enjoyed a swim for about an hour and a half. Just before the swim ended, Scott went out to get pizza to feed the masses.

The boys enjoyed pizza, drinks and chips before having birthday cake.


Ahhh...the cake...(bad mommy moment coming up). There are always lots of cake on display at the grocery stores and I was under the mistaken impression that you could actually BUY the display cakes. Turns out I was wrong - OOPS! So Scott went out in the morning to buy a cake and had to buy a pre-made cake...with roses on it - YIKES!

The plan was to take the roses off before we served the cake, but we weren't quite sure how to go about that, so we left them on. Turns out the roses were a HUGE hit and the boys were thrilled to each get one for that added sugar boost - UGH!

I carved a 10 into the cake with the knife and it was a big hit!

After cake came presents...then, as a favour to the parents of the boys, I had them play tag and run around for about 15 minutes before they were picked up...of course, I did send them home with goodies bags that were full of sugar - LOL!


Colin asked his friends how they would "rate" his party on a scale of 1 to 10 and they all said "10", so I guess everyone had a great time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Merry and Bright

First, a funny story (out of the mouths of babes)

Yesterday was Tuesday...Jonathan had cooking school...he takes cooking lessons at Loblaws, which means that we inevitably do some grocery shopping after class. I don't mind that...it works out, since the Loblaws that was near our house is now a "SUPERSTORE" and they don't carry the specials as Loblaws does - kind of annoying. But I digress...

Jonathan uses the flushable wipes when he goes to the bathroom. Over the weekend, he ran out, so we needed more of those. Over the weekend, I also ran out of baby wipes. No...we don't have any babies in the house, but I use baby wipes to clean my stamps when I'm done using them.

Before Jonathan was potty train (not long before) we had been to Costco to buy a MEGA box of wipes...I JUST used the last of them and he's been trained since just after he turned 3 years old. Yep! The box was THAT big!

All that to say that I needed more baby wipes...we're in the wipe aisle picking his flushable wipes and I say, "Oh wait! Mommy needs some wipes so I can stamp. I ran out and I need them because I WANT to stamp." Jonathan says (without missing a beat), "NO Mommy! You NEED to stamp!" I stopped the cart to give him a hug and a kiss right there! How much do I love that kid? SO CUTE!

So...today I stamped - WOOHOO!!! I missed it yesterday...

On Monday, our challenge was to create a book mark...but not just a regular rectangular bookmark...we were to create that would fit over the corner of a page. I started it, but didn't finish it.

Today, our challenge was a sketch. I LOVE the sketch challenges, because they always give you a great jumping off point...especially if your MOJO has left you hanging the day before - UGH!

I decided to incorporate my bookmark in with the card, so that you could give the card and a small "gift" at the same time.

This is what I came up with:


I think it would make a great Christmas card for someone who is an avid reader.

STAMPS: Merry and Bright
CARDSTOCK: Whisper White, Buckaroo Blue
PAPER: Four Seasons DSP
INK: Buckaroo Blue
ACCESSORIES: Ribbon

The base of the 5 X 7 card is Buckaroo Blue (in Colour '07) which I sponged in the same ink colour. The next layer is a 4 3/4" X 6 3/4" piece of Whisper White also sponged in Buckaroo Blue. The next three layers are 4" X 4" pieces of cardstock and DSP all sponged in Buckaroo Blue.

The images were stamped in Buckaroo Blue on Whisper White and then mounted on Buckaroo Blue mats.

The bookmark is tucked behind the piece of Whisper White so the whole card will fit in a 5 1/4" X 7 1/4" envelope.

My next goal is to work on yesterday's colour combination challenge...sort of...'cause I don't have the EXACT colours...

Thanks for stopping by!

They're going baaaaa-aaaaacccckkkkkk!

Sing it with me: "It's the MOST wonderful time of the year!" C'mon, you know darn well you want to sing along!

While I love summer vacation as much as the next person, by about the 2nd week of August it starts getting OLD! This year was no exception. We had a busy July, filled with traveling and visiting friends; but as July turned to August, the lack of routine started to get stale.

By late last week, I was counting seconds and wanting to throttle children (not really on the throttling), so today I was more than happy to pack them all off.

Of course, not quite all of them have been packed off...Jonathan is still home with me for today and tomorrow as he starts back on Thursday. They stagger the kindergarten starts at his school and his back to school day is Thursday. We did go into school today to drop off his "indoor shoes" as well as a complete change of clothes for...well...just in case; he is only 5, of course.

So, today I sent my girl off to high school - she's in grade 9 now...how did THAT happen! She's going to a Catholic school (we're not Catholic, but she can still attend that school) and looks darn cute in her uniform!

*Note* Yes, I know there's a shadow behind her...no time to set up a decent "shoot" at 7:45 a.m. as she's walking out the door.








Colin went off to grade 5 - again, how did THAT happen? He'll be ten next month...then I'll just have my little man in the single digits.
















Not one to be left out, Jonathan wanted a "first day of school" picture taken even though this isn't technically his first day...still stinkin' cute! (Yes, that's a scrape on his chin. See yesterday's post for the reason.)





Scott was showing off and generally being a smart ass, so I snapped his pic too and promptly informed him that it would make it to my blog. Let's see how long it takes him to figure it out and retaliate - BAHAHAHAHA!!! He says he has some pictures of my behind that he's going to put on his blog...uhhhh...he doesn't have one!


O.K., so with that lovely image...I'll "see" you all tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by!

Splash Pad - Photo a Day, June 30th

Today was the first "official" day of summer vacation. I say this because the children always finish school on a Wednesday, so the last two days of that week are what I call "free pass" days. That means they get to do whatever they want to do: They can slack off, sleep in, watch all the TV and play all the video games they want. Basically it's their time to just "chill" from a long year at school.

So today they had things to do: get up, get dressed, make your bed and do a small chore. Small chores are things like recycling, putting away a few toys, emptying the dishwasher...that sort of thing.

Today, I handed out BIG chores. Big chores are big stuff...cleaning the playroom (it almost always has toys on the floor), tidying up a bedroom, purging items no longer wanted/needed from a book case...that sort of thing.

Today, the big chore for the boys was the playroom. I made "signs" on three pieces of paper: Put away (and NOT on the floor), Give away (things they no longer played with), Throw away (dollar store junk, broken toys that can't be repaired).

The reward for all their hard work was a trip to the splash pad. I didn't realize that it really wasn't all that warm today, but that didn't stop them. It was only about 21 degrees Celsius (that's around 70 degrees for my American friends), but they didn't seem to mind and we even made a trip to McDonald's for McFlurry's afterward.

Here's the pair of them having a blast making sure all the "fountains" in the splash pad are doing their thing:


(you have to either run by or touch some spots on the wall to activate the "fountains").

They did change into warm clothes when we got home - LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!

Look at what I did!

It doesn't qualify for any of our challenges, so I am putting it on my blog instead of the group blog...the good news is, I used my stash - WOOHOO!!! No new products were used in the creation of this page - LOL!