After school photo shoot

After school yesterday, Sage and I biked to pick up the boys. We went to the park where I took these:







And then we took a break to watch a squirrel in a tree. ;)



We started to bike to location #2 when the kids decided to stop here and have me take a picture.




And the we went continued onto destination #2-- the pumpkin cart in front of Tim Horton's -- where I took these.







I love fall photos-- especially with pumpkins!!

Thanks for looking!

Random going-ons...

Just a few random things that I felt like blogging about this evening....

1. Guess who can read?



Jonah came home with these books on Monday and read them to me! At first I thought maybe he was just guessing at the words, but no, he got them all! He's only been in grade one a few weeks and already he can read-- I'm so proud of him!!

2. Sage & I went to volunteer at the Tabor Home this afternoon. They have a birthday party once a month for the residents and our church is in charge of the September one. I offered to make the cards for the birthday "girls" and Sage handed them out, along with some balloons. She is such a gem to take along to things like this-- always such a good girl, I never have to worry about her at all. I'm so thankful for this.



Here she is with my friend, Val. The ladies who organized the party suggested we all wear hats. It was quite fun, especially the oldies songs we sang (Red River Valley, You are My Sunshine and Yellow Rose of Texas-- nice tunes but the words are all a little depressing. Especially a couple of verses of You are My Sunshine-- they sound a little sinister!)

3. Sage and I reorganized her room on Monday to accomodate her new table and chairs and her Little Tykes kitchen. Here are a few pictures.





(sorry they're a little dark!)

And I was trying to figure out how I could take down all of the butterflies from my living/dining area without a cry of outrage from my daughter. And it hit me....

Suggest we put them all on the wall in her room!

And she added some creativity to the equation-- she suggested that they fly in a loop-de-loop!



And I have been scrapbooking a little bit lately, but not as much as I'd like (too much going on!!) I've been working on some layouts with the October kit from My Scrap Shoppe, which I'll share soon.

Project 366, week 38

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


Tuesday, September 16th: It was picture day at school, and because I'm too cheap to buy portraits for my kids, I made them pose in the backyard before going to school.


Wednesday, September 17th: The picture I took of Sage with her birthday cake before the party guests arrived.


Thursday, September 18th: Enjoying a relatively quiet day at home (I was tired from all the partying the day before! LOL!) Sage is playing with her new Polly Pockets.


Friday, September 19th: Cameron was asked to do a hayride for some neighbours at the farm and we got to go along! I love this shot of Austin. Jonah, Sage & I sat at the front of the hayrack and he was at the back. I called his name, he looked and I snapped. Not perfectly clear (okay, quite blurry!) but I love it!


Saturday, September 20th: Austin making jewellery with Sage. :)


Sunday, September 21st: We went to Stanley Park after church to have a wiener roast with Cam's SIL & her family. Jonah wanted to play on this (not sure what it's called) and wanted me to watch, so I took a bunch of photos. This was my favourite.


Monday, September 22nd: Sage got a new table and chairs for her birthday and wanted them in her room, along with her Little Tikes kitchen. So we spent several hours reorganizing her room and I took some pictures. This one was my favourite-- I love her dress shoes lined up and the toys on the shelves in the background!

So, which one is your favourite?

Sunday's Seven

My wonderfully, talented friend, Heather, shares a Sunday's Seven on her blog-- seven things she's thankful for during the past week. So, I thought I'd borrow her idea and share seven things for which I'm thankful for the past week.

So here goes....

1. That I participated in and finished the 10K Run for the Hills run in Treherne last Sunday. My goal was to run the whole thing (or more acurately, slow jog ;) ), which I did! Yay! And man, it was not easy, as it was all on gravel and there were lots of hills!! But I finished, with a time of 1 hour 23 minutes, which I was quite happy with. We'll see what kind of time I can shave off of it next year. ;)



2. That I get to stay at home with this girl full time. I love being a stay at home mom. And I think Sage appreciates it, too. She's been telling me lately: "Mom, I love you all day long!" Isn't she sweet?



3. That this guy is adjusting well to being in grade one full time. He had one day where, after lunch, he didn't want to go back to school. He said he just wanted to stay at home with Sage and I . And he cried. So heartbreaking. But we prayed and he went and I haven't heard anything else about it. He seems to like his class, his teacher, and three recesses a day! He's making new friends, too, which is awesome. :)

4. For the different pre-school programs our town offers. Sage and I have been attending Stay & Play and last week we registered her for Story time at the library that starts in October.

5. That my mom could come for a visit for Sage's birthday. She took us out for lunch (Sage wanted it to be just the girls, so I picked up McDonald's Happy Meals for the boys and they got to eat at school.)

6. That I got to scrapbook yesterday. I made this layout using the Scrappy Formula for the week at Create My Keepsake:



7. For the beautiful weather we've been having this weekend. We had a wiener roast this afternoon at Stanley Park his Cameron's sister and her family, which was really nice!

Party Time!!

It's Sage's birthday today. My baby girl is four!! I can't believe it... where has the time gone?

We actually had her party on Wednesday, because it was early closing, which worked so much better for her friends who are in school full time.

We went with a butterfly theme. Sage and I worked hard on cutting out a lot of butterflies from my scraps of patterned paper...



and decorated the house with them. Hanging them from the chandeliers...



using wooden skewers to display them in my hurricane lanterns...



and outside to welcome guests at the front door.



We made a butterfly cake.



Here are some shots with Sage and her guests.










(This is Sage's babysitter, Carley, who was so kind to come for cake and ice cream!!)



As part of their treat bags, we gave butterfly wings to each female guest (the young boys got bee wings and the older ones got pirate swords (yeah, at that point, the theme fell apart a little. ;) ))



After the other guests left, then our friend Lauren read one of the books that Sage received as a gift to my kids.



One last shot of the birthday girl in her jammies before bed. (The chipmunk-- a Webkinz :)-- was a gift from Lauren.)




And now it's done.

*Insert sigh of relief here. ;)

Project 366, week 37

Another week has flown by! The days almost seem to go by faster with the boys back in school!

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


Tuesday, Sept. 9th: Stay & Play started up again. Here is Sage, enjoying making the craft (she's such a focused little artist!) It's a school bus. We couldn't take it home because it was so wet, so she's been playing a guessing game with Cameron with clues to see if he can figure out what she made! So cute!


Wednesday, Sept. 10th: After we dropped the boys off at school after lunch, I asked Sage what she wanted to do. "Play the Dora chutes and ladders game with the treasure!"


Thursday, Sept. 11th: Taken from my van after dropping the boys off at school.


Friday, Sept. 12th: The butterfly invitations Sage & I made for her birthday.


Saturday, Sept. 13th: A layout that I made on Saturday.



Sunday, Sept. 14th: Our church hosted an Amazing Race event for families in the afternoon. One event required us to follow the paths of Livingstone Park and play a round of Jenga with two people, while only using one index finger each. I snapped this photo of Sage while we waited for our turn.


Monday, Sept. 15th: Jonah (centre, white socks) at his soccer game.


Any favourites?

Quite an honour

So, a few weeks ago, I was at our public library and the librarian and I struck up a conversation about scrapbooking (I know. Shocking.) And I guess someone used to host monthly crops at the library but now she is too busy and would I be interested in doing something like that?

I said I'd think about it and get back to her.

So, I thought about it and agreed to host one every two months. There's no cost. Just come, bring your stuff, set up and scrapbook.

So, if anyone local is reading this and is interested, you can sign up at the library. The first one is on September 27th. Space is limited, though, so sign up soon.

Anyway, so then, Kathy (the librarian) says that she's been talking to Bryan (a friend of mine from church, who also scrapbooks) and that they would like to make a display in the library of my layouts and published work!

How cool is that?

So, this week, Sage and I went to help set up the display.







The sign says by "local artist, Leigh Penner." Ha!
I just can't get over this-- it is such an honour. Really.

Project 366, week 36

Tuesday, Sept 2: Jonah picked out these rhino runners when we were in Grand Forks. So our challenge was to teach him how to tie laces before school started.


Wednesday, Sept 3: First day of school for the boys. Sage is staying at home for another year with me. :)


Thursday, Sept 4th: Sage climbed onto the counter at the library while we were checking out our books.


Friday, Sept 5th: I actually didn't take a picture today!!!!!!
I KNOW!!!
I made it this far and missed a day! I can't believe it!!!
I had friends over in the evening to scrapbook and I thought, I'll take a picture of them when they come. Well, as I'm climbing into bed at 12:36am, I realized that I'd forgotten!
I'm so disappointed. :(
So, rather than having a space blank in the calendar-type pages I'm making with these photos, I took a picture of this layout, which I made on Friday during our online crop at MSS.


Saturday, Sept 6th: Sage, on our couch in the living room.


Sunday, Sept 7th: We had our R.O.X. kick-off (our Sunday school program for grades 1 to 6 is called Radical Over Christ, with the X being Christ) at the park. Wes, our awesome sound guy, brought all the equipment to the park, which was really cool. AND it didn't rain. :)


Monday, Sept. 8th: I took some photos of Sage in our dining room and this was my absolute favourite!

Thanks for looking!