back to school clipboard

hi all! our summer is coming to an end but we've sure been busy! getting ready for back to school and made a quick back-to-school project.
this a a dollar store clipboard covered with lawn fawn's newest paper line, "dewey decimal" with mod podge. (LOVE that stuff!) this paper is so fun!
the above is the front side. there is a piece on the clipboard that can be hung as a decorative piece in the classroom for important notes.
the bottom picture shows the backside with bryan's kindergarten teacher's name. he's going to have the same teacher brandon had :) i wanted the name on the backside so when she totes this clipboard around or when she's jotting down her notes, her name is visible on the outside




thanks for looking! hoping to get back to blogging but i must say, i enjoyed my summer with the boys!

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.

thanks teacher

 this past week has been teacher appreciation week at our school. i made several simple sets to give to the teachers. the card below was a free printable from here. i just added my own punched out apple. fast & easy. i have a teacher who has made a permanent impression on me....her name is mrs. fujiwara. she was my 3rd-4th grade teacher. what i learned in her class are still the best memories i have of elementary school. do you all have a teacher that has made an impact in your life? please share---i'd love to hear!

 here is an idea for using up leftover paper: cut them in to strips in varying lengths, fish-tail the ends and stamp a fun sentiment and you have a quick card. i made a couple of these to send to moms i think that are fabulous, for mother's day.

 here is bryan dancing to "elvis" at the farmer's market last weekend.

 i dragged the boys to the antique market before the farmer's market. these were the "me wants" but were too much moolah. one day....

 the boys didn't leave empty handed. i'll show you their treasures & mine on another post. nothing too exciting that i bought but fun finds. thanks for stopping by! have a great weekend and to all the moms out there---happy mother's day!

santa's not coming to our house!!

happy holidays and merry christmas to all! this was our photocard (below) we sent out this year. i made it with this template here. love that it was easy and let me put multiple pictures! the only thing i didn't remember to do (or if it was even possible) was to put a message on the front. i ended up writing the boys' names [after i got tired of writing all our names]. a thing i do is to take a pic of the boys on a ride with their age on the side...hopefully, people got that that is how old they are. we went to legoland on both their birthdays and it worked out great! :)made this wreath out of old vintage mercury bulbs.

this picture below is more of what the color is like. it took about 36 to make this. i was picky about the colors so i didn't use all the bulbs. BTW, hubby managed to knock over the pretty light blue bulb on the bottom right hand side :( it shattered to pieces.

it took me months & months of collecting these.

so, let me tell you a funny story. last friday, it was brandon's last day of school before they went on their 2 week break.

we were sitting around at home after school and the boys must have been bored. they both disappeared for a while and here comes brandon, running upstairs and says, "look at what i got mom!! a new toy! it's SO cool!" i was like, "WHERE did you get that toy???" busted. bryan was right behind him waving his toy around too!

my 2 boys opened up 2 out of the ONLY 4 presents that were under the tree at that time. mind you, the tree wasn't even decorated and there wasn't even a tree skirt down yet. they know exactly when christmas is too. we've been counting down the days with a chocolate advent calendar (trader joe's). i couldn't believe they opened up thier presents before christmas!!!!

i gave them a yellin' and a loooooong lecture. and i told them those 2 toys they opened will have to be donated to a toy drive of some sort. there were LOTS of tears but hey, you have to lay down the law. i'm sorry if the 2 peeps who gave these toys to the boys see this.....it's a hard lesson for them but it's one they have to remember.

the boys holding their toy they opened, ready to donate.

i read that sprinkles (cupcakes) was having a toy drive where if you donate an unwrapped toy, they'll give you a free cupcake. that's where i chose to have the boys donate to. when i told eddie this, he said, "wait......so they are donating toys they opened and in exchange, they get a cupcake?" well, if you put it that way....yes, it doesn't sound right rewarding them with a cupcake. the double whammy too was if you say their secret word of the day, you get a free cupcake so we got 2 free cupcakes each.

secret here----me & my sister used to always peek in our presents when we were little. we'd open them carefully and tape them back shut. bottom line, we did it subtly. the boys don't know what that means yet---obviously!!!

here are the other picutres we took with santa.

luckily, we visited santa BEFORE the incident! LOL

i made some altered calendars for school staff, the crossing guard and some co-workers.

thought this one looks so simple, it took the longest! lining up the owls just so was time consuming!

thanks for stopping by! i'm sick as a dog right now. been going to sleep early this week. on monday, i thought i had strep throat. luckily, the next morning, it wasn't as severe but now, it's full-blown. good thing all our shopping was done & i had wrapped mostly everything so there's not much left to do.

merry christmas and happy holidays to you all!!

santa

took the boys to go visit santa on tuesday. wasn't too crazy. i used my own camera...3 shots for $8. luckily, the boys cooperated and i got nice pictures on those 3 shots! i actually got 6 shots but more on that another day ;)

the boys are getting excited about christmas!

been busy making card sets still for brandon's teachers. i stuck with the same layout as the previous set. it works for fast & easy, clean & simple cards. this one is an orange and green combo.

this set is yellow & green

just changed out the sentiments
TFL!

card sets

this time of year is when i start thinking of gifts for brandon's teachers and school staff. i always resort to something hand made. card sets are always useful, right?
i like how these holiday card set came out that i might just keep these for myself!

i love how this set below came out and the color combo. i have so many other combos in my head that i want to make....now if i can only find the time.

been dealing with the sickies in our house, holiday decorating and gift buying. eddie put up lights this weekend and we also bought our christmas tree. the lights are on the tree and now, i have the fun task of decorating with the boys.

2nd grade homework takes up a lot of time too! 3 digit math (the subtraction is killing me! i really don't remember as a 7 year old doing the kind of math brandon is doing!). the spelling words are tough too! 20 words a week they have to learn in 4 days!

bryan has been keeping my patience at bay too! he has become a very stubborn 4 year old (wasn't the terrible 3's supposed to gone by now?). i cannot wait til bryan turns 5!! on my days off while brandon is in school, we "play" school at home. we have a schedule---we come home after walking big bro to school, we have breakfast and then we do our writing ABC's and 123's. we've recently started doing our own spelling tests too with basic everyday words. he has a book log that he writes in his own notebook of the books he reads daily. he'll have his quiet playtime (building legos, action figures). and then i'll let him watch 30 minutes of tv. he's a pretty good boy for the most part but there are those days..................

ok, onto the cards. :)

thanks for looking!