Scrap Around the World

There's a new challenge blog called Scrap Around The World :-)  You can check it out here.

This month's challenge is the sketch below and the moodboard.  See here for this month's challenge details.

I stuck pretty much to the sketch, except I used an oval instead of a circle, and although I love teal, it's not my "go-to" colour ... brown is hehee  So my eyes were automatically drawn to the bottom right picture on the moodboard.  I decided it was rustic look and pulled out a pad of Tim Holtz's papers and went from there.  Actually, apart from the tissue tape, oval shape, linen thread and photos, everything else is from Tim (papers, inks, cogs, clocks, spinners and the Sizzix dies as well).

Aaron at 4 years old :-)  Yep ... still working my way through that mighty pile of photos from our 2009 holiday!  (nearly there!)

It took me 3 days of 5-10 minutes here and there to finish this LO!  Help me, I haven't scrapped in so long I am rusty!!  

Love the sketch for this challenge.  Might even use it again :-)  Is anyone else out there reading my blog that's playing along?

Thanks for visiting.

Samuel's 3rd Birthday

Samuel's birthday is actually today, but because Lyndon is away all week for work, we had a little party for him on Saturday.  

He helped with the icing of his cake by licking the beater on Saturday morning.  :-)

We had some of his favourite foods for lunch, pizza, chippies, strawberries and carrot sticks (nice mix!)  ;-)

The dinosaur helped him eat his lunch! :-)

After lunch he opened his presents.  Maddison gave him a book about sea creatures and a bag of plastic sea animals.  He loves sharks.

Aaron of course gave him a set of Hot Wheels cars :-)

We gave him a scooter

And a cardboard fire station.  He also got several hotwheel sized fire trucks and engines as well.

During the afternoon the kids took their scooters and played on the skateboard ramp.

There were a few races with Daddy too!  :-)

The picture tells the story here haha

Riding your scooter is very thirsty work!

As usual Maddison gave me a lovely pose!

And them some goofy ones of the kids all together hehee

Then we came back inside to have cake :-)

I made the volcano out of 2 large Texan muffins and Lyndon shaped them for me.  I drizzled gel icing down them and chocolate chips for the lava and flying rocks!  :-)

Samuel liked the cake, but had no interest in eating it ... he just wanted the dinosaurs!  :-)

Later on Aunty Irene came for dinner ... he'd gotten the hang of tearing off the wrapping paper by then!  :-)

Last night I baked chocolate & zucchini cupcakes for him to share with his class mates at pre-school this morning.

Love that even though the teacher told all the kids the candles were Samuel's to blow out, there were quite a few that "helped" hehee

Yumm yumm :-)

This is how you eat it guys ... just stuff it in your face!  :-)

He's had a pretty fun time over the last few days.  He loves his scooter and the plastic animals ... I think I have to upgrade the size of the container for the plastic animals!!  :-)

Thanks for visiting.

Mother's Day 2013

The kids had all made things at school for me for Mother's Day, but this year Aaron and Maddison told me I wasn't allowed to look as their presents were "secrets"!  Which made me laugh because they gave them to me to put away safe hehee ;-)

Aaron gave me a card he had done on the computer and he'd written a nice poem for me.  In art he'd made a chopstick decorated vase and a flower.

Maddison had made and coloured a lovely card (which opened back to front!  she is left handed so that might be why!)  And she'd made a plastic dolphin beaded bracelet which fitted her perfectly, but I can't get it over my hand hehee (well planned Maddison!)  :-)

Samuel had a heart shaped card which had his finger prints around it.  He wasn't much interested in his card haha ... he just wanted to get into the chocolates Lyndon got for me!  :-)

 I got a beautiful bunch of lillies.

And this morning Maddison's teacher put on a Mother's Day tea for the mums in the class first thing in the morning.  I dropped Samuel off to his pre-school early and then went.  It was so neat, there was apple crumble, fresh fruit and all different sorts of tea to choose from.  The kids had all made a book for their Mum.

A very special book.  I just love it.

 I even got a "voucher" that is good for "no wining" from Maddison!  Amazing!  haha

The kids had to guess their Mum's age if they didn't know it.  I found out I was the eldest Mum in the class at 91!  haahaa  (oh we had some laughs ... the Mum that had 23 in her book was very thrilled hehe) :-)

A few things Maddison wrote about "me" I think may be more about her!  (She's the one that really likes rice and rainbow colours!)

Can't say that I like to run that much!  

Or jump for that matter!  hahaa

The last page is fantastic!  What a fine figure for a 91 year old! :-)

I will treasure this little book and if I ever reach the age of 91 I can't wait to show her! heheee

A very special day indeed and very spoilt from Lyndon and the kids.  :-)

Thanks for visiting.

Photo a Day for April

Photos I've taken over the month of April for my Project Life album.  I mainly followed the photo prompts from FMS again.  I've missed a few days and some days I'm not sharing the photo, but as usual there's plenty of photos!  :-)

Day 1 - Play.  Spring break and I took Aaron and Maddison to Block Space (you can see more details here).

Day 2 - Blue.  Blue togs, blue dolphin, blue eel, blue tiles :-)

Day 3 - Something beginning with A ... Aaron the Artist (at Kidzania).

Day 4 - This happened today ... we went with some new friends back to Block Space :-)

Day 5 - Something good ... water to play in :-)

Day 6 - Air.  Glad of the ceiling fans circulating the air.

Day 7 - Dreamy ... didn't really have the right photo for this, but Aaron and Maddison were playing and Maddison was Aaron's "dog" hahaa She's in her kennel! It's a dream of their's to have a dog (sadly that dream will have to wait as we can't have one in a condo).

Day 8 - On my plate ... dinner tonight, rice, chicken & salad.

Maddison also (finally) earned all her puzzle pieces on her reward chart :-)  Much excitement.

Day 10 - A Place.  Local garage where Lyndon's car is being serviced.

Day 11 - Detail.  Love the detail on these hanging tea lights holders.

Day 12 - In the Middle.  Frozen Yoghurt :-)  Lyndon and I had dinner out without the kids - was very relaxing!

Day 13 - View from your bed.

And it was the big boys birthday :-)

Day 14 - Water.  Filling water bottles ready for the start of the school week.

Day 15 - Alone ... I can't seem to leave these alone!!! Lyndon bought a bag of them (Delicious choc covered almonds) and I think I have eaten more than my fair share!!

The 15th was also our 18th wedding anniversary.  Ahhh ... doesn't time bring change!!  ;-)

Day 16 - My favourite colour.  Red of course!  :-)

Day 17 - Busy - Traffic here is always busy.  Billboard made me laugh though!

Day 18 - Hello.  Why hello again Thai food :-)

Day 20 - On My Mind.  Hoping that the pages of my mini album hurry up and dry so I can get it finished during class!

Day 21 - Blurry.  Rain makes things blurry ... glad for window wipers.

Day 23 - Time. I spent some time with Samuel building a Thomas track.

Day 25 - Life is ... BUSY with little kids hehee  (This particular day I'd made chocolate cupcakes.  They were cooling on the bench and after a while I realised I hadn't heard Samuel for a while ... I followed the trail of cupcakes and found him on the deck scoffing two of them!)

Day 26 - Childhood. Making good childhood memories in the pool with friends.

26th we had Mari Makan (International Food Festival) at the kids school.  Parents only :-)  It was fantastic ... there was SO much food.  The New Zealanders put together and provided roast lamb - it was delicious :-)

There were about 13-15 NZ couples I think and we all had matching tee-shirts.

Day 27 - Earth - Earth week at the kids school. Loved the art displays hanging in the hall ways.

Day 28 - My Sunday.  After dinner was spent frantically trying to take pics of Maddison for her earth week homework project! (Nothing like leaving things to the last minute!)

Day 29 - I wore this today.  One of my new RM40 skirts :-)

I also wore a bit of this as well!  The room wore a whole lot more!!  Maddison and Samuel got into a nearly new LARGE bottle of talcum powder and spread it around the boys room.  What a jolly mess.  Terrible stuff to clean up.

When Aaron had his shower I just dumped all the blocks and plastic toys in the shower and he washed them for me ... then I tipped them out on the deck to dry :-)

The day ended with a beautiful sunset though.

Day 30 - Glasses.  My current glasses in the front with the top pair dating back to 1995!  The 2 or 3 previous pairs before that must be in storage in NZ ... I must have thought they were too large to come with us hahaha

So that's this month nearly over!  6 weeks left of school for the kids before summer break!  Unbelievable really how fast this year is going!

Thanks for visiting.