Camping at Nemo Landing

What's gonna happen? Two posts in two days? We've had a lot going on and I am actually taking the time to get it down.

We went camping again at Pomme de Terre lake on the 5th and 6th. I know, it's not a long time camping, but with Shane it's about all we can manage. And really two days of being away from air conditioning, beds, and all the comforts of home is long enough. That and the rain didn't help matters any. We got down to the lake right after noon and the campsite was already empty. Scott and I decided to set up camp while Abby, Shawn, Matthew, and Shane headed to the lake to swim. I love our campsite being so close to the lake - just a short walk and you're there! The lake was pretty crowded when we first got there, but cleared out pretty quick.

We did get rained on Monday evening. It didn't last long, but it didn't take long for Shane to decide he was ready for home either. He is definitely not an outdoor person unless he is in the water. Shawn, Abby, and Matthew wanted to go swimming while it poured down rain. Since it wasn't lightning or thundering we let them go. They stayed down in the water the whole time it rained. Matthew thought it was really cool going underwater and listening to the rain hit the water. Turns out Abby spent most of the time under the shelter house roof!

That evening we enjoyed smores and playing cards. It didn't take Shane long to fall asleep. He had had a long day filled with swimming and playing on the playground. That along with boredom on his part made for a fairly early evening. The air mattress the kids slept on lost air during the night and by morning they were pretty much sleeping on the ground. I don't think any of them got a lot of sleep. Even Matthew, who can sleep through just about anything, wasn't happy when he got up! The birds woke me up about 4 a.m. with their singing. It sounded beautiful, but I could have used a couple more hours of sleep! We were all up and having breakfast by 6:30 and back down to the lake for an early morning swim soon thereafter. Once again we had the lake to ourselves that early. Well except for the geese. They were exploring the beach again.

Abby found a few more rocks to add to her collection from last year. Matthew stuck to Shawn like glue the whole time. I don't think he ever got far from him the whole time. The clouds started rolling in again and we decided it was time to head home. Just in time too. As we were pulling out of the campground it was starting to rain.

It was another fun camping trip and I'm sure we'll do it again next year. Maybe we'll push our luck and try for 3 days!

Fun on the 4th

This summer seems to be flying by! We're already into July and it always seems like after the 4th time really goes by fast! I noticed when I went to Wal-Mart today that the school supplies were front and center. I really don't know if I'm ready for that!

We had all the family out to our house for the 4th of July this year. Everybody was able to make it, so the night was filled with family, food, fireworks, and fun! We had bar-b-qued burgers (thanks to the Noyes'), hot dogs, chips, homemade ice cream (thanks to the Paulsen's), and the best homemade cookies (thanks to Abby and Aunt Kay)! I do believe that Aunt Kay makes the best chocolate chip cookies on the planet!

Shane usually loves the 4th and this year was no exception. Things were a little crazy for him with having everyone over and he chose to stay inside and watch the fireworks from the window. He did come out a time or two, but I think the reason he stayed in the house was so he could eat Aunt Kay's cookies. Everytime I checked on him he had a cookie in each hand!

Sarah and Katie enjoyed getting to spend time with Matthew, Abby enjoyed getting to talk with April and play with Bailey, and Bailey fell in love with Otis. She constantly wanted to pet, kiss, and try to ride him.

A lot of the kids - and some of the adults- played wiffle ball - turns out Kelsey is quite the hitter. They all had fun hitting the ball and running the bases.

Bailey really liked the sparklers. The only problem was she wanted the end with the fire on it instead of the right end to hold! We got a kick out of watching her stomp on the poppers. She can flat stomp! The fireworks display was non stop for about a half an hour. Scott, Shawn, Don, and Michael kept things moving on!

It was such a fun night and I hope we get the chance to do it all again next year!

4th of July card

Where has the time gone? Today is June 30... This summer is flying by faster than ever.

Kathi had posted a card challenge over at HSS for the month of June and I had such good intentions of getting lots of cards made, but that once again didn't happen. I did get a chance to make a card this morning - an invitation for the 4th of July party we're having Sunday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! It's a good thing everyone lives close and these can be hand delivered! At least this has got me in the mood to make some more cards. Maybe I'll have some more to share, but right now the pool is calling my name!

Birthday card for PTT challenge #1

I came across a new challenge blog this week. It's called Party Time Tuesdays and they post a challenge every Tuesday for a birthday card. That's just what I need to get my supply up! The first challenge was an anything goes challenge - the only requirement is it needs to have a birthday sentiment on the card. I used paper from The Paper Studio, cardstock from DCWV, a Cuttlebug embossing folder, and the border punch is from Fiskars. I am looking forward to the next challenge and can't wait to see how many cards I can get done! If you haven't visited their blog yet, you need to stop by! http://partytimetuesdays.blogspot.com

Week 19/52 week challenge - Mother's Day

I am so glad that I'm just making up my own rules for this...who knows, by the end of the year maybe I'll have 52 layouts done...maybe I'll have ideas and pictures for 52 layouts!! At least I'm working on it. Oh well. This is the layout I made for week 19 of my 52 week challenge. I used my Mother's day pictures, a sketch from The Scrappiest, and the My Family collection of paper from Fancy Pants. The flowers on this was made thanks to Giselle over at Papermice. She had posted how to make them for a card and I fell in love with the way they looked and used them on this layout, too.

Matthew's trash robot FF-300

Matthew finally got to bring his trash robot home from school! I have been waiting so long for him to bring it home so I could get some pictures of it. They made these robots out of "trash" in art class way back before Christmas. The kids all had to bring in plastic bottles, old cd's , etc. to make them with. They only had two class periods to get them done in and Matthew was sick on the first day of it. He told me he had made his into a firefighter and it's name was FF-300. Before Christmas the teacher entered them into a contest with other schools where the top prize was a gift card from Radio Shack. Matthew's robot came in 5th. Then they went on display at an area restaurant and finally FF- 300 went to an area art show where 3 schools participated and he came home with the 3rd place ribbon. He spent the last month of the school year in the trophy case at school along with the other winners. Now FF-300 makes his home on the top shelf of the book case where we can admire Matthew's handy work!

The bean bag bounce

Last Sunday was one of those rare days when Shane was in the mood to play with Matthew. Scott and I got so tickled watching them play. They started out by taking turns falling on the bean bags each one trying to outdo the other. There was a time or two when Matthew would do something to make Shane mad - like move the bean bags before Shane could fall on them - but Shane never got mad enough to want to hit. (Shane not hauling off and hitting Matthew is a big improvement recently- thanks to Mrs. Metcalf!)He just made the famous fish face that we have all learned means to get the heck out of the way! Matthew started picking up the bean bags and running into Shane with them. Then they each got a bean bag and would take them and run into each other. I don't know how long they played like that! I think they finally had to quit because Shane was too tired to get back up off the floor. It was just one of those glimpses that we get once in a while of how things would be all the time if Shane didn't have autism. We'll take all these moments we can get! I am planning on these being the pictures for this weeks (week 17) 52 week challenge. Now I just need to get them printed and the layout made!

Just a quick card to share

Here is a quick card I got in and made today. Giselle over at Papermice had posted the instructions for this and another card and they were both so cute I just had to try them out. I got this one done today and the other one will have to wait til the weekend. I really like the way this turned out. The directions called for 8 - 2 inch circles, but I was too lazy to pull out the cricut, so I just used the biggest punch I could find. I think it was about an inch and a half. I used some really old Cosmo Cricket paper, Making Memories alphabet, and Fiskars apron lace border punch. The card went together really quick and I plan on using this flower idea again!

I got to meet...

Kathi and Sherry face to face on Friday, April 16! I had gotten acquainted with them online a couple of years ago on a scrapbooking message board. We decided we were all close enough we could meet up and do a little scrapbook shoppin' together in Springfield. Sherry is from Webb City and Kathi is from just across the state line in Kansas. I have got to say I have not laughed so much in one day in a long time! They are both so funny and easy to get along with. We went shopping at Scrap Nook first - the lady that was working that day was kind enough to take our picture for us, took a break for lunch at Cheddars (they were so sweet - they bought my lunch!) and then headed to Scrapbook Generation for more shopping. I ended the day by picking Abby up at MSU and we headed home. I'm looking forward to the next time we all have a chance to get together.

Week 9/52 week challenge

Oh my goodness, I just can't get my crap together when it comes to this blog. I do alright for a while, and then it gets totally neglected again. I finally got around to doing a layout for me today. I have been so busy trying to get Marilyn's albums of her grandson's birthdays done I haven't even looked at too many of my own pictures. I've been pretty good about taking my pictures during the week, it's just finding the time to make the layout about it. So, now I've skipped to week 9 (I still need to do week 6 and week 8 and I'll get there in time!) of my 52 week challenge. It's just a good thing I make up the rules as I go along! Week 9 is for the week of Feb. 26 - Mar 4. My crocus had finally started blooming and I was starting to see the robins make their way back and the weather was starting to get warm enough that the boys were going outside to play basketball and baseball and the neighborhood kids started coming over to join in on the fun. All sure signs that spring has arrived! I had originally planned on making this a 2 pager, but since I'm trying to keep my 52 week challenge layouts just single layouts I used 3x4 pictures instead of 4x6 and cut down the number I wanted to use. It's just a pretty plain and simple layout. I used white cardstock, ribbon and chipboard letters from Hobby Lobby, and a jewel flower from Kaiser Crafts. I embossed the green cardstock with the swiss dot embossing folder from Cuttlebug and then sanded the edges and the dots. It didn't turn out quite like what I wanted, but then they rarely do! Maybe I'll get caught up one of these days!