New toys

For my birthday, my kids bought me a 2" scalloped circle punch. I thought that I'd be able to use it with my Creative Memories circle cutters. But, the CM cutters cut a 1.5" circle and a 2" circle, not a 1.75" circle. So I ordered a 1.75" circle punch from Stampin' Up! and Anne dropped it off for me on Friday.

So, I've been playing with my new punches. :)

I made this card for Patter's scripture challenge.



And this layout, using Liz's sketch #23:


(I cut a piece of the MM pp out from behind the scalloped cardstock to make the card.)



And then I lifted myself and made this layout, using the new SU! pp that Anne also dropped off for me. ;)







I saw this quote in the Sept/Oct 2008 issue of Simple Scrapbooks and knew it would be great on a page for my boys. (Again, using the new SU! pp.)







Such a great feeling to get a bunch of layouts done. And so fun to have some new tools to play with as well.

Thanks for looking!

Check this out!

Click here: The Design Experiment #23.

Project 366, week 34

Here are my photos of the day for the past week:


Tuesday, August 19th: The kids, plus Austin's best friend, Soren, walking together to five day club.


Wednesday, August 20th: We went to Susan's for a visit and the kids pulled out the slip and slide.


Thursday, August 21st: A picture of the Corn & Apple set up.


Friday, August 22nd: Sage on the merry-go-round. She was bound and determined to ride on the bunny. We paid for her ticket, but someone else was already on the bunny (can you believe it??), so we asked for the ticket back and waited at the front of the line for the next turn.


Saturday, August 23rd: Watching the parade.


Sunday, August 24th: Jonah, on the pony rides. That's Sage behind him, in brown, riding on the pony named Sage!


Monday, August 25th: Soccer practice. Austin's team is called the Black Dragons (his teammates got to choose the name!)

Thanks for looking!

Highlights from the C&A

Here are some of my favourite pictures for the Corn & Apple Festival this past weekend.

Day 1 (Friday):


Austin, climbing on to the "monster." (Love his smile!)



Cameron took these two shots (above)-- I love them!


Sage and Jonah loved the petting zoo. Jonah really wants his own bunny now.


Another picture taken by Cameron as we waited for balloon animals.

Day 2 (Saturday):



Before the parade started.


We've never seen a tank in the parade before!


Austin, in a bright green shirt, on the Sea Ray.


Val & I worked in our church's booth selling cheesecake and mudpie that evening. Afterwards, we walked around and I talked her into riding on the new ferris wheel with me.


A view from the top of the ferris wheel.

Day 3 (Sunday):


I didn't get a lot of pictures this day (my battery was dying and Cameron wanted to take it to the Show & Shine at the park.) But I did get this one of my girl trying to do "tricks" (Look, Ma! no hands!) on the pony ride.

All in all, a great weekend to be sure.

Woohoo!!

The kids spent the night at my MIL's last night, so this morning I went for a run...

6 miles.

9.67 km.

Woohoo!!

Setting up

Well, they've started setting up for the Corn & Apple Festival in downtown Morden today. (Well, we've seen a bit of set up before today, but today, they started setting up the rides!)

So, after supper, we biked down there to check out the action and take a few pictures (so nice without all the crowds!)

Here are some of my favourites:









I think this ferris wheel is new. This might be the one ride that I go on this year. Now to find someone to join me... ;)

Some random stuff...

Thought I'd share some random stuff today...

1. I ran 5 miles on Sunday morning, running (well, jogging) the whole way, without walking!! That's the furthest I've ever run at once. :)

2. During the last mile of my run, my lower calf muscle started hurting and has been hurting ever since. :(
I've been icing it and it's definitely feeling a lot better today, but I'm nervous to run again. I'll probably try tomorrow with a short run.

3. Our annual Corn & Apple Festival is taking place this weekend. That means a weekend filled with walking around, seeing people, looking at stuff, attending the parade, going on rides, eating free corn and drinking free apple cider (& buying other yummy food), working in our church booth, going to the Show & Shine, riding the shuttle bus (my husband is the organizer of that), etc. Should be a fun weekend!

4. The kids have been attending a five-day club one street over this week. Which means that I've had an hour and a half break from them every afternoon. It's been kind of nice! I don't get much accomplished, but hey, it's still some good "me time." That's where they are as I type this and they'll go once more tomorrow. With our C&A Festival starting Friday, they won't have it that day.

5. The August challenge at My Scrap Shoppe is up. It's to use song lyrics on a page. I got two layouts done for the challenge, but I have some ideas for a few more...


This one has the lyrics from the song Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman.


And when I took this photo on the last day of school, I knew I had to use the title of Alice Cooper's song for this layout.

Well, as always, thanks for looking!

Now, I'm off to see what else I can accomplish in the next 45 minutes. ;)

Project 366, week 33

Here are my photos for the past week:


Tuesday, August 12th: Sage and Abbie. We went to their house to celebrate Abbie's 6th birthday. Sage was so thrilled to give her the Hannah Montana colouring kit we'd bought her!


Wednesday, August 13th: Jonah, at his very first soccer practice. He's listening to his coach (in black.) The next shot I took was funny because Jonah had spotted me taking this picture and he's frowning like "what are you doing here?" Then he started jestering to me that it would be better for me to get off the field and head back to the sidelines where I belong-- too funny!


Thursday, August 14th: My birthday treat with Val. :)


Friday, August 15th: Our friend, Michael Wirth (son of our friends, Al & Darlene) competed in the Manitoba Games in Carman. Here he is doing the shotput. He won the gold medal with a shot of 8.88 metres!


Saturday, August 16th: Since Michael and his dad were in Carman all weekend, we spent a lot of time with Darlene and Lauren. Here they are with Sage on our way to the park.


Sunday, August 17th: A picture of Sage sitting in the bleachers at slow-pitch.


Monday, August 18th: My kids got invited to a five-day club. They had a great time! (And I enjoyed an hour and a half break. ;) )

Thanks for looking and for your kind comments-- I really appreciate them!!

My birthday

Thanks for all the birthday greetings!!

I had a great birthday!

It started off with this:


(A homemade card from Sage and a gift from my kids-- a scalloped circle punch that I've been eye-ing forever. Yes, I picked it out. ;) )

Then it continued with a little of this:


(Val & I spent the day in Winnipeg. We shopped at Costco, met my mom for lunch at Moxie's (their 3 Med Bread is yummy!!), and spent the rest of the day shopping. Bliss!)

And then we ended the day with this:







See? What did I tell you? One. Great. Birthday.

(Thanks again, Val!!)

Happy birthday!!

Just wanting to send out a happy birthday greeting to my twin brother, Chris today! :)

This is a picture of him and Sage last summer when he came for a visit. It seems like WAY too long since we've seen him last...

Wishing you a great day, Chris, and a wonderful year ahead!!

436 phonebooks

As a fundraiser for CanSkate, we deliver phonebooks.

This is our third year doing this. The first year, we got a route in Winkler. The past two years, we've gotten a route in Morden (much more convenient!)

So, yesterday, before and after supper, we delivered 436 phonebooks.

We had a bit of extra help. Austin's friend, Ethan, came over to play in the afternoon and offered to help us. (I wasn't going to turn that down!)

The kids did so well!

I was able to drive the van and send them out with two to five books at a time. They were so great at going to the different houses and plugging away until it all got done. In total, it took us a little over three hours to finish.

And then, the rewards:

Slushies from Thornview Grocery. Yum.