Monthly Challenge Update

I know I don't often update my monthly challenge progress, but I'm actually quite pleased at how easy this challenge is becoming, so I thought I'd share!  After 6 days since I started this scrapbooking challenge, I've fully completed 4 of 12 layouts, with the 5th one partially completed (hopefully to be completed tonight after the boys go to bed).  Here are the 4 I've done so far (remember, I admitted I was very behind!) and feel free to click on them to see a closer version of the page:

Ellis' "first" steps (when he really started walking more than crawling)

Logan's "first" steps

Ellis' first hair cut 

Logan's first hair cut

I have to admit that it really isn't too hard to focus enough to do one layout a night - although I think the next few that I do are going to be 2-page layouts (birthdays, Christmas, etc), so it might take a bit more time to complete.  It almost seems less "threatening" when I know I only have to do one layout at a time instead of working on multiple pages at a time.  Tonight I hope to finish a 2-page spread for Ellis' album for his first birthday.  Wish me luck!

4 years

It's been an amazing 4 years since Troy and I tied the knot in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  Much like today, it was freaking hot and humid, but it was still such a beautiful ceremony.

My favorite picture right after the ceremony - July 2009

One year later, we spent our anniversary in Europe.  We just got to Rome on our anniversary - another day of extreme heat and humidity.

Trevi Fountain, Rome - July 2010

Yet another year later, we didn't take any anniversary trips as we had two little ones that joined us that year.

No trip for us this year - the boys are only 3.5 months old!  July 2011

Last year, we took our first camping trip with the boys.

Port Crescent - July 2012

This year, no major anniversary plans, but we did just get back from another camping trip 1.5 weeks ago.  

The Pinery - 2013

It's amazing to see how our lives have changed since being married 4 years ago.  Lots of fun experiences and additions to our family (don't forget Bella) have taken place.  I look forward to many more years together and even more fun experiences to share with you, Troy.  I love you so much and I'm so thankful that you chose me to spend the rest of your life with, to start a family with, and to share lots of laughs and love with.

Hello July (+11)

Okay, so I've been neglecting July's post for my monthly challenge - kind of on purpose, kind of not.  Last week was busy with getting ready for our camping trip, and with everything going on, I really had no idea what to challenge myself to do.  To be honest, I had so much fun just enjoying my free time in June that I couldn't think of anything more serious to do this month.

So, after a few extra days of thinking of things I'd like to accomplish this month, I finally figured it out...11 days later!  Although I've been pretty good this past month at getting caught up with my Project Life album for this year, I've fallen behind on the boy's individual albums.  For their albums, I've just been focusing on their milestones, holidays, trips, etc, but I haven't worked on them this entire year at all.  After reorganizing photos, I determined that I have about 6 layouts for each of them to complete, so it is my goal in the remaining 20 days this month, to get their albums up to date.  I don't want to rush through each layout just to get it done, but I want to be more focused during my free time after the boys go to bed to spend some time working on them.

Any of you creative people out there can feel free to send their creative juices this way.  This mama is going to need all the creativity I can get.

The Pinery

This years camping trip was taken this past weekend - and we headed to The Pinery in Canada.  I've heard lots of great reviews of the campground, and the kids loved camping last year, so on Thursday, we packed up and headed out.

Here's a photo bomb review of our trip:

Thursday:  We arrived at camp around 3:30pm.  Unfortunately, it being a holiday, it took us 4 hours instead of the 2 hours it should've taken because of heavy Blue Water Bridge Traffic.  Shortly after we got there and set up camp, Nicole and I went to nearby Grand Bend and picked up a few groceries and got some firewood.  Little did we know that in Canada, buying firewood is a "self-serve" deal.  I wish I could have taken the picture of our faces when the guy told us "Here are the bags, there is the wood - whatever you can fit in the bags is yours.  Oh, and there is the dolly to take it to your car".  Um, for real?  Yup, for real - time to pack up 7 bags of wood!

Once we got back to the campsite, we had a quick dinner before setting off to the beach.  The beach was just beautiful and the boys loved climbing some small dunes to cross over to get to the beach.

 

And no surprise - they LOVED the water!

Beautiful night and surprisingly there was no one else was at the beach!

The boys fell asleep quickly (no surprise after only having a very short nap in the car on our way), so it was time to relax with a campfire and have some s'mores!  My favorite snack was by far the roasted starbursts.  I know, I know, you are probably re-reading that to see if you read it correctly, but yes, they are delicious.  Thanks to my sister for finding that recipe online!  And knowing that I'm a sugar addict, that is one campfire snack I will not ever forget about!

On to Friday.  Unfortunately, we woke up to some rain and from what the park rangers said that we ran into when we went to the bathroom, it was going to be a wet morning.  We could only stay in the tent for so long before the boys went stir crazy, so we decided to head back into Grand Bend to see if there was any way to entertain the boys doing something inside.  Well, guess what?  There isn't.  Luckily though, we did find a school library that is open to the public so the boys had some time to play while the rain moved out of the area.

Once back at the campsite, the rain had stopped, but we all know what happens when you mix dirt with 12 hours of continuous rain.  Yup, mud.  And who found it?  Logan.  He just loved playing in the dirt.  

Looks like Logan wants an annual "face is dirty" camping picture.  Remember last years picture? (4th picture from the end of this post)

Once our lunch was over, it was off to the lake again.  More fun in the water!

Logan was Parker's little shadow and once Logan saw Parker throwing some stones in the water, he started to do the same thing - over, and over, and over...

Back at the campsite, we had some dinner and then had a little "quiet" time before bed.  Luckily my iPad had a little charge to it still, so we checked out some things on there and read a few stories before the boys went to bed.

Saturday we woke up and the weather was just beautiful.  We decided to spend a majority of the day at the beach, so we packed up our stuff (including lunch) and headed down.  The boys have had very limited naps (mainly in the car when going to or coming back from Grand Bend), so I was shocked when Ellis barely finished his lunch and fell asleep right in my lap.  It was quite a bit hotter on Saturday, so I think the combination of all the fun, lack of naps on previous days, and playing in the water, zonked this little dude out.

And not too much later, Logan laid down all on his own right next to Ellis and 

they slept for nearly an hour. 

For dinner we had hamburgers.  The boys were huge eaters during our entire trip so since they ate so much during the day, I wasn't really surprised that they weren't too into dinner.  But, Ellis barely got down from eating after saying he was done, and he was quick to come to my plate and start picking at my bun.  Of course we don't give them the bun, just a cut up hamburger, but it looks like he was a little upset that he didn't get a bun.

And before I know it, he literally took off my entire top bun and ate the entire thing!

A little random, but I thought this was a funny sign.  It was right by the dunes to cross to get to the beach and it said "No Lifeguards.  Parents, children are your responsibility."  HA - no kidding, really?!?  That just cracked me up!

Sunday it was time to pack up and come home.  It rained all night, so it made packing up a little challenging since our tent and everything was wet, but we were on the road around 11am, heading home.  Thankfully we were home in less than 2 hours and had no major traffic on the bridge this time.

Lots of fun for the weekend and we came home with some very tired little boys.  We weren't even out of the park and the boys were both passed out in the car.  Quite a successful camping trip and even better that no one brought home the dreaded poison ivy.  Note to self - Canadian Parks don't control poison ivy like Michigan State Parks do, so if you are taking small kids with you, be very cautious of them trying to explore without you being right next to them.  I have a ton of pictures, so this was just a snapshot of our trip.  I'm doing a separate camping scrapbook for this trip, so once I complete that album, I will share more!

It's never too early to think about next years camping trip.  If anyone has any great locations, I'd love to hear them!

Last but certainly not least, a HUGE HUGE HUGE thank you to Val and Derek for watching Bella while we were gone.  Although this campground allows dogs, we really didn't want to take Bella because we knew we'd have our hands full with the kids since they are still at that age where they need to be constantly watched.  Despite the fact that they had 4th of July plans and had company coming into town for the weekend, they welcomed Bella to their house and she joined in on their fun.  She came home exhausted after playing with many other doggie friends over the weekend.  We can't thank you enough, guys!  

A winning Pinterest activity

This summer, aside of having lots of fun outside, I want to have a little bit of structured time each day with some learning activities.  I found this great counting/numbers activity and pinned it a long time ago, but just got around to making it.  Yesterday I wanted to test it out and Logan seemed to get into it with little guidance.

Today, I wanted to test it out with Ellis.  It was nothing formal, but he's more hesitant to sit down and do any structured activity, so I just wanted to see if he would show any interest.  After showing him how to put the peg in the #1 spot, he worked diligently on completing #2-8.

As a matter of fact, he was so into it, Logan walked up and insisted that I put him in the chair next to us.  In order for him to do some, I had to take out the pegs of the smaller numbers Ellis already did so Logan could redo it.  The only issue is that Ellis was hogging some of the pegs, so Logan started taking them out of the previous "board" to use them in the next one.  Oops!

Looks like a winner!  Now that I've hooked them into the activity, hopefully we can do a little more deliberate practice with it.

Logan must have been into his learning time because he even sat through some color matching practice.

I'm looking forward to our next busy bag exchange next week.  We focused on making activities that focused on letters and alphabet recognition, which is something Ellis seems into right now, so I can't wait to see what else I can do with the boys over the summer.

The past 24

I have experience quite a range of emotions over the past 24 hours:

Sunday night - 

• Happiness: Going to a sushi party and having a great time catching up with good friends - watching the boys play with their friend Luke - seeing their reaction when they played with their first drum set!  

• Frustration: Coming home to find that our air conditioner wasn't working correctly.  Our house was not very cool and after some inspection of the pipes downstairs, they were frozen.  Not fun to worry about after a warm day with too much to do in a short amount of time before bed.
• Tired: After maybe 4.5 hours of sleep last night - tossing and turning thinking about today's events, trying to fall asleep in a warm house, and staying up trying to get the things done that I needed to do - my alarm was going off and Bella promptly stuck her nose in my face indicating it was time for her to go out.
• Thrilled: To get a text message shortly after I woke up, from a close friend, sharing the news of the birth of her son.  He's such a cutie pie - I'm beyond excited for the new mommy and daddy.  And the kicker of it all - the baby shares his birthday with his daddy and uncle.  How cool is that?  It's crazy to know that this is our 3rd close friend that had a baby within the past month. 
• Nervous: Today was part 2 of an interview in a way awesome school district close to home.  It would be beyond a dream to teach here.  Last week I was 1 of 2 people that passed the first round and had to go in to teach a lesson today.  Why am I nervous?  I've been teaching for 10 years, but then again you never know what they are looking for.  
• Confident: Leaving the lesson, I was pretty confident.  The kids were pretty receptive and although I didn't get through my entire lesson in the short 30 minutes I had to teach it, I thought it still went well.
• Bittersweet: After the lesson, I headed to work to finish cleaning up my room and do my class records.  I was there for only a couple of hours before I said my goodbyes.  Yup, the UPA chapter of my life is closing.  A bit bittersweet because I worked with some pretty awesome people that I hope to keep in touch with, I will miss working and chatting with them on a daily basis, but it is time for me to move on to a more positive work environment.  Aside from the earlier interview today, I have another job option that I agreed to take.
• Disappointed: Just as I was about to wrap up at UPA, I got a call from the other school already. Unfortunately, I was not chosen for the position they had.  They said that I didn't do anything wrong - my interview and lesson were done very well - but it was mainly because they had a lot of people on the team I'd be working on with similar characteristics as me and they wanted a more diverse group of teachers working together.  I could analyze this over and over and try to figure out what exactly that means, but it isn't going to change the outcome.  Disappointed, yes, but I also have to remember the pros of working at the other school I committed to just a week before this other school even called. Sure this school had it's perks too, but I know I will be happy working at UYA in the fall.  
• Thankful: After wrapping up everything at work, I headed to my moms to pick up the boys.  As hard as it is to make changes, we have decided to put the boys in a more socialized day care setting next year.  It has been so comforting to know the boys were in such good hands the past 2 years, knowing that she had their best interest in hand, that schedules could be followed, that she would give them their one-on-one time, and especially develop the immensely strong bond that she has with them.  I can not express in words how thankful and appreciative I am that my mom has taken such good care of the boys over the past two years.  It was such a relief, especially as a new mom, to know that they were in such good hands.  And gosh, nothing beats the bond between grandparents and their grandchildren, you know!?!  This one was no different.  Those boys love their grandma more than anyone can know and I know they will miss spending every day with her, but we also know that giving them more social interaction will be good for them in the fall, especially to develop their speech a bit more.  Mom, I can not thank you enough for everything that you've done for us and them over the past two years.  And although you might not see them every day, I hope you know how important you are in their life and how much they love you.  We will just have to make sure to make more weekend visits and play dates whenever we can!
• Thankful (again):  The air conditioner was an easy (and cheap) fix.  Less than $100 for the repair and service call and we have a cool house again - PHEW!
• Content:  School's over - summer has officially begain.  Lots of things have transpired in the past day but most of it was very positive.  Sure, I didn't get my dream job but I have to believe that everything happens for a reason and it just wasn't meant to be.  But you know what?  I'm okay with that.  On the wonderfully positive side, I get to spend the next two months with my boys and do lots of fun things with them, our friends, and family, and for that, I'm extremely grateful!

Happy Summer everyone!

Summer Bucket List 2013

A little list of fun things we hope to do this summer:

• Have a picnic at a park
• Story time at the library
• Go to a parade
• Splash Pad
• Detroit Zoo (maybe Toledo Zoo, too?)
• Camping at the Pinery
• Go to a local beach
• Hit up the farmers market
• Go to a new park
• Attend the Big Rig Gig
• Ride the trains at Starr Jaycee Park
• See fireworks (or at least play with sparklers)
• Take a walk (sans stroller) on a local trail
• Feed the ducks at the park (without Ellis freaking out!)
• Make homemade ice cream

I have a ton of fun at-home activities in mind too.  There are just way too many to mention here, but I got many of the ideas from Camp Mom.  It's a great resource that Nicole found that has over 80 activities related to water, nature, and arts and crafts.  There is even a section on sensory play and different basic skills that kids could practice and how to do it in a fun way (cutting, mixing, etc.)  I'm hoping to incorporate some fun activities with a few structured activities here and there to keep some sanity in our day and not make it a huge free for all.  They made such progress during there speech classes with the structured activities that I don't want them to digress.  At the same time, I'm also going to be realistic and realize that just because I have a plan doesn't mean we are going to follow it.   It'll be more of a loose plan of options we could explore during the week.  

Most of you know that I use Project Life as my way to scrapbook our weekly events around here. While I plan to keep that up over the summer, I also know that last summer we did so much that some weeks I had so many pictures, I took up 2 weeks worth of page protectors to record it all.  This year I saw a really cute post from Becky Higgins showing how someone used Project Life to record their Summer Bucket List.  Basically, they took Instagram pictures of each of their bucket list items and put it on a 3x4 card and slipped it in a page protector.  This person did a full layout of this (up to 22 pictures depending on the page protectors you use) to highlight their list, which I thought was a really cute way of doing it.  My only problem with this is that I have such a hard time taking only 1 picture of any particular event.  Especially with 2 kids, how could I limit each activity to only 1 picture?  So, I decided to use this basic idea and broaden it a bit.  What I am going to do is use this cherry mini-album, and use this to record our summer bucket list.  I'd really like to get a new core kit to use for this, but I should probably take a step back and just use what I have so far, right?  We'll see.  I still have another week before I'm going to start using it =).  I might just use some blank 3x4 grid cards that I already have and make my own 3x4 cards out of cardstock I have.  Since there are 20 page protectors, I could have anywhere from 20-40 activities in this book, depending on how picture-happy I get with each activity.  I'm pretty excited to use this as a way to document our summer fun, so perhaps I will show some of it once I get started with it.  

Anyone else have any fun ideas they plan to do this summer?  I'd love to add more fun to our list!!