summer!

well, summer has officially begun for us! brandon's last day of school was 6/15. the 1st fun thing we did to kick start our summer was to go cherry picking! i thought it would be fun for the boys. it was hot & hard work pickin' cherries in 90* heat! but we aren't complaining eating sweet, fresh cherries!

 these are some teacher gifts i put together for brandon's 2 teachers. inside the tote was a beach towel, red vines, lays potato chips, a reusable cup filled with a small tube of sunscreen, a pack of face wipes & a bottle of fun glitter nail polish. all things for the teachers to enjoy after a long school year! i also made some jars of sugar scrub for some of the school support staff. but i was in such a rush the last few days before school ended that i forgot to take a picture.

 these were passed out to brandon's classmates. the printable can be found here. inside the bags were a water squirter and a variety of candy. check out angela's site for lots more free printables!

brandon's 2 teachers

what a busy month june was for us. my sister came down along w/ my BIL, jadeyn and my mom. isn't she the cuteset? love how she hops onto the scooter w/ her bowl of bread and even stepping into brybry's brobee shoes!

 little miss diva at the playground! i love this picture of her!

my coworker asked me to make her some graduation cards and this is what i came up with. i didn't want to make the traditional 'graduation cap". i wanted something pretty & fun.

 my niece just graduated high school. i cannot believe i have known her since she was born. she has surely gown into a bright and smart young lady.

 the kids are ALL growing up too fast! thanks for stopping by...i know it's been a while. enjoying lots of family time.

MIA

hello! it's been a while since i last posted. so many things have been going on. my aunt recently passed away. she had a heart attack and within a week, she passed away. it was so fast....i regret not going home (SF) to visit her in the hospital. she's was more of a grandmother to me than an aunt. i will miss her dearly........the above card was made with hero arts.

the 2 below are cards made with new lawn fawn paper & stamps.

brandon's 2nd grade homework has been kicking us in the butt. we had the whole month of february to complete a biography of someone who made a difference. we chose rosa parks. he had to submit the subject for approval, then a rought draft and then a final draft in addition to making this can (trader joes tomato sauce). ok, so it doesn't exactly look like her but it's a lot different when it's not flat! oh, and did i mention he had to present this in front of his class? man, being 7 is hard nowadays!

here is his write up. (sorry the pages are reversed)

ok, so i am going back a month! yes, it's been THAT long!

this is what i made for brandon's 2 teachers for valentines. a starbucks gift card and a trader joes choco bar. it all fit into the coffee cup perfectly.

i prettied up the cups with a hero arts heart and some red crochet thread.

wrapped the choco bar with 2 doilies & tied it up

as always, i made some for the support staff & the crossing guard.

brandon's monday & tuesday and sometimes wednesday teacher

his valentines

we went home to SF to attend my aunt's funeral beginning of the month. not easy but seeing this cute face kept me busy. can you believe my niece jadeyn is 16 months old now?? such a big girl and such a cutie! she'll be a big sister in JULY!! so excited for my sister & BIL!

she held her own with the boys. except she was trying to get her iPad back---the boys were hogging it!

we took advantage of the nice SF weather and made some playground time.

as you all may know, i hardly cook & we go out to eat often. so ever since bryan can read, we make him order his own food at restaurants. when the waitress came by to take our order, he said, "i'll have the mini hot dogs but i don't want the all beef ones. just plain hot dogs". she looked at him weird and just laughed. i whispered to her that he'll have the hot dogs.

saw this and thought it was pretty. i'm sure it has a name. anyone know?

a card i made for stamp fever's card of the month. it has lawn fawn stamps & papers. i love those butterflies!

a hero arts card

lawn fawn recently celebrated their 2nd anniversary with a celebration at stamp fever. i would have taken more pictures but i was busy with the make-and-take table. i didn't even get to take a picture of the cute card kelly designed. but you can see it here.

i am lucky enough to have local flickr friends tiffany & nancy near. and i was excited to meet annette, another gal from flickr! she is local too! (from L-R: tiffany, nancy, me, annette)

i have a project for the beauties in the near future!

last friday, i spent 3 hours at the pool with bryan. it was so hot already at 8:30am that i told him that he can go to the kiddie pool. a friend and her son met us a little bit later. i had time to read the newspaper & relax.

went to ikea and saw lots of pretty things. a sure sign spring is near!

can you believe all these pictures in this post were taken with my iPhone? pretty good quality, no?

sorry for the long post! one last thing, does anyone have recommendations and links to any place that sells good wool felt? i'd like to have a variety of colors. thanks!

happy new year!

happy new year! finally feeling better (from last year ;) and have time to post 2 cards. this is a new set from lawn fawn called love 'n breakfast. super cute!another card i made for aunties who sent us a big box of pears for christmas. they were juicy & delicious! just had to make a pear-specific card using cosmo cricket, lawn fawn & hero arts.

sorry for this not so good picture below. hubby asked me last minute to package this gift up and i made a quick card to go along with this movie-themed gift. this little cake here, we bought for the guys at our favorite sushi place to wish them a merry christmas. we go there every week on wednesdays. the boys both grew up eating there in their carseats! LOL! they treat us real well there and knows all our drinks and our favorite foods there. i think both brandon & bryan have a job there when they can legally work!since we are talking about sweet treats, here are pictures from last month when we went to extrodinary desserts.

pretty treats

love that color green on that flower

and some pictures of the boys from last month

love the tinsel snowman....so vintagey

did you make any resolutions for the new year? i did. one of them being going to bed earlier! well, it's 2:40am right now and i'm still not sleeping! i suppose my blog title still suits me.

celebrations

we've been doing a lot of celebrating these past 2 months! we celebrated my niece's 1st birthday, had a halloween party in school, been to a boot camp birthday party, and had bryan's end of the season soccer party. tomorrow, we will be going to brandon's end of the season soccer celebration.

here is brandon walking in his ash costume in the school parade.

one of his 2nd grade teachers....yes, i did say 1 of his teachers. he has 2 teachers this year! they split their days (M&T, the other teacher takes TH&F alternating wednesdays). i think it's great! the teachers are more refreshed and energetic!

here is jadeyn. she's sooooo cute! really makes me want to have another! she looks innocent enough but don't let those big eyes fool you!

here she is climbing up on a step stool. she is quite daring and has no fear.

enjoying her birthday cupcake! she's a quick learner!! and did i mention she started walking at 10 months old!! trouble at an early age!!

it was soooo very hard to get a picture of these 3! i love how brandon trapped jadeyn by locking her in with his legs!in their halloween costumes.

in her other costume.

my parents with the grandkids

dontcha wanna just pinch those chubby cheeks??

some birthday cards

the inside

TFL! TGIF! have a great weekend!