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On November 7th, I had the opportunity to attend my first-ever scrapbook night. A group of ladies from our church got together from 5:00pm - midnight to share food, fun, and scrapbooking! I took my Cricut, as did Amy, and one other person brought one to share. So, after a short Cricut tutorial we were off and running! And, I should probably add that there were a few of us who didn't actually get out of there until after 1:30am...
It was so great to spend time getting to know these wonderful women. I only wish I'd thought to bring my camera! You will need to check out Amy's blog to see pics of who was there (the link to her blog is on my site - check out "A Day in the Life of the Sandages").
I did take some pictures of the pages I did. I know it's a little hokey, but it was my first time scrapping outside of my remodeled bedroom and I was just a little excited - I never dreamed how many great ideas could come from just chatting with other women who are as passionate about this as I am.So, my first page was my "Cowboy" page...after Harrison's choosing to be a cowboy this year for Halloween, it just seemed to need a page of it's own:
I also chronicled Harrison's various Halloween costumes over the years - this is something I've had in mind to do for quite some time. Instead of creating several pages, I wanted to put all the pictures on one page, just to see him change over the years. I was happy with the result of this one:
We also had a couple of "make and takes" that were brought in by Angela Bowman and Amy. Angela's fall page was fun to put together - and because I knew ahead of time sort of what they were going to be, I was able to bring pictures and complete them that night. Here's the layout that Angela brought - I loved the use of colors that she put together and also got to use some sponging and ink on the embellishments...something I'd never thought to do before!
Amy's offering was a Christmas layout and it was very cute! I was especially excited about her use of ribbon and clips on the page. It just added a little more dimension to the page. Again, because I'd see the layout prior to going, I brought along some pictures that worked very well with the colors/patterns she brought for us to use:
I think as much as I enjoyed getting 4 pages done in one night, I especially enjoyed looking at the work the other ladies had done. We had such a good time sharing stories about our kids, husbands, family vacations...and more (don't worry, Ladies, your secrets are safe with me - smile). We are talking about continuing to do this once a month and I sure hope we do...it was such a blessing to share with these women! And, as one of my friends has reminded me in the past, God blesses PLAY, too!
For those of you who may not have heard, Chris has taken up a new hobby...he's brewing his own beer. And, for those of you who know him best, it's sort of like the "Mother Ship" is calling him home! What better combination than Chris and beer he has brewed himself! Well, actually, there is more to the story...
This past weekend, we made a family trip to Davenport, IA. How did you choose to go to Davenport, you ask? We ended up there because Chris was entering his beer in a brew contest in Rock Island, IL. Harrison was most excited about the road trip.
While Chris was at the contest, Harrison and I played at the pool. Harrison had a great time playing and actually had me playing volleyball with the beach ball. I got quite a work out:
Chris was only gone a very short time on Saturday evening to the contest and when he called to let me know he was on his way back, he didn't have much to say...I was ready to commiserate with him and tell him it would all be ok. Imagine my surprise when he comes into the pool area with a 3rd place ribbon for his Orange Zest beer. There were 9 entries in his category and about 230 beers submitted overall. Needless to say, we were all very excited.
Oh, and another GREAT addition to the weekend was that Harrison got his first introduction to Zotz! For those of you who may not remember...Zotz is the candy from our past that fizzes when you eat it (watch out for the apple ones - they give you that "sour taste next pain" just below your ear)! Here's a picture of Harrison "getting fizzed", as he called it:
And here's Chris's "Zotz face":
We had a great time just getting away and spending time together. We ate at a lot of our favorite restaurants (Cracker Barrel, Papa John's Pizza, Applebees) and had an awesome breakfast at the hotel. And, because of all my business travel, our hotel room was FREE...who could ask for more???
We all agreed we'd like to go back to the Quad Cities and spend more time there. Because this was a quick trip, we didn't get a chance to really see the sites - but stay tuned...you never know when we'll take off on another road trip again!
Harrison was so excited when he came home from school Friday. He won his election and will be the Media Assistant for the next week at school. (See previous blog titled, "Vote for Harrison". He shared his campaign speech with us and Chris and I were both amazed at how well he speaks - he kept his notes handy, but would glance at them and the rest of the time was speaking to us.
Not only did he win the position, he also was given an award for most creative campaign poster. So, I had to get a picture of him with his winning election certificate and his poster award:
In recognition of the election tomorrow, Harrison's class is having an election to vote students in for school jobs next week. Harrison is running for the Media Assistant job. So, we had great fun tonight making his campaign poster - we even got to use the Cricut AND get a little messy in some glue. His poster turned out great and he's very excited about the election.
Harrison's choice for a Halloween costume this year was a cowboy...please note the resemblance to Howdy Doody. If you don't know who Howdy Doody is, don't tell me - that only means you're too young! By the way, Chris made the belt buckle by printing a picture off the computer, painting it with a silver paint pin and mounting on a piece of cardboard covered in aluminum foil. It looked VERY real! The boots were a loan from a friend at work (thanks, Victoria!) and the hat was our most treasured find at a flea market on our trip to Paducah a few weeks ago (see previous blog on that trip for the rest of the story...)
Here are Harrison and Emily - we actually caught up with Emily between Trick or Treating events, so I got a picture of them in our front yard.
I had planned to blog the decorations in the yard along with our trip to the pumpkin patch, but those photos have disappeared. If they ever turn up again, I'll just post the blog a little out of sequence. In the meantime, Harrison and Emily dressed up the yard even more. (For those of you not in the "Elmo scene", Emily's costume is Abby Cadaby, Elmo's best friend.)
A little later we met up with the ever-popular Hannah Montana (Gracie), a beautiful nurse (Ellie), and - just to make sure we were safe - the red Power Ranger (Tommy). Harrison and I did our big Trick or Treating round with them and their parents and we had a GREAT time with LOTS of candy to show for it!!!
Along the way, we met up with Kyla, who just happened to be a cowgirl!
So, of course that was the perfect photo op:
We also ran into Lilly, who was the perfect Dorothy Gale. I definitely would have followed her down the yellow brick road - too cute!
We had a wonderful time with our friends - hope you all had a Happy Halloween, too!
I also chronicled Harrison's various Halloween costumes over the years - this is something I've had in mind to do for quite some time. Instead of creating several pages, I wanted to put all the pictures on one page, just to see him change over the years. I was happy with the result of this one:
We also had a couple of "make and takes" that were brought in by Angela Bowman and Amy. Angela's fall page was fun to put together - and because I knew ahead of time sort of what they were going to be, I was able to bring pictures and complete them that night. Here's the layout that Angela brought - I loved the use of colors that she put together and also got to use some sponging and ink on the embellishments...something I'd never thought to do before!
Amy's offering was a Christmas layout and it was very cute! I was especially excited about her use of ribbon and clips on the page. It just added a little more dimension to the page. Again, because I'd see the layout prior to going, I brought along some pictures that worked very well with the colors/patterns she brought for us to use:
I think as much as I enjoyed getting 4 pages done in one night, I especially enjoyed looking at the work the other ladies had done. We had such a good time sharing stories about our kids, husbands, family vacations...and more (don't worry, Ladies, your secrets are safe with me - smile). We are talking about continuing to do this once a month and I sure hope we do...it was such a blessing to share with these women! And, as one of my friends has reminded me in the past, God blesses PLAY, too!
