the summer rundown

we are in full school mode now. but here is a summer rundown of what we did (for those who are still out there ;)

 

we sure went to the pool A LOT this summer. at least once a week if not more!

 i swooned over this chair and really wanted it but passed....outta my price range :(

 took a trip back home to SF in july. brandon has been wanting to go fishin' for a long time and we finally did. it was windy & cold. we didn't catch anything but the boys had fun.

 our main purpose for the SF trip--------to meet this little guy, evan, my brand spankin' new nephew! he weighed in at a whopping 11 pounds 14.5 oz!!! he was about 11 days old when i took this picture. he's such a cutie! thanks to my sis & BIL for letting us come to meet him and to stay with them so soon after his birth!

 the boys were super excited to hold baby evan! brandon even got to feed him!

 we got to have some time at the playground with big sis, jadeyn. she is super smart & super adorable!

 one treat i discovered while in SF was this flavor of it's-it. i was so happy to have found it at 1 grocery store back here in SoCal!

 back home & back to reality.....4 new tires for my car. we had some more maintenance done and it was costly!!

 added to our list of "improvements" this summer were getting these puppies out. brandon had severe over crowding in his mouth and after a ortho consult, they suggested brandon have 4 teeth extracted. OUCH! i was not looking forward to it thinking i'd have a very cranky kid after but he did extremely well---both times. they pull 2 teeth a visit. i am so proud of brandon for going though this. we were told after the 4 teeth gets pulled out, it'll make the teeth erupting out over the existing ones fall back into place and you know what---it has and his teeth are looking a lot better!

more pool time

 adding to the improvements this summer was replacing our tile. i cannot believe we ever had this! we had to be out of the house all day while they demoed & blasted out the tile so what do you do all day w/ 2 boys?

 have a picnic. and go to the library. and the bookstore. and drive around.

 caught some work in progress. the boys though it was hilarious having the toilet sitting outside in our backyard!

 looks SO much better than tile don't you think? and it changes the whole look of our house.

 random pics

 bryan is still afraid to take swim lessons but miss jessica noticed that bryan would just sit around while brandon had his lessons so she convinced bryan to come dressed in his trunks the following week and she said she'd take him in the water. bless her for taking him on her break time. she tried to make it fun but he still does not want to learn.

 the OC fair is a must for brandon every summer.

 super giant turkey leg and corn dog

 clowning around

 one of my favorite meals

 went into a store and bryan's eyes lit up and said, "what is this?" it's a rotary phone my dear boy....

 my plate would be the one on the left...

 and more pool time

 i convinced bryan to go on a big boy roller coaster with me. he was nervous waiting in line but he was brave--didn't back out. i could tell during the ride, he was silent and scared but after the ride ended, he said, "let's go again!" big bro brandon chickened out...

 summer treat and someone grew a goatee!

thanks for sticking around! hope to be back on track soon!

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.

sometimes, you just have to let go....

......like when your kiddos learn how to ride a bike without their training wheels! the last straw for me was seeing a 3 year old in our neighborhood riding a bike without training wheels. so i told the hubs to take them off brandon & bryan's bikes. he said both at the same time & i said yep! i'm glad i did becuase it took brandon less than 10 minutes and bryan in 15 minutes. my partner to train was brybry and i would let go and he would be ok for  3-4 seconds but i would grab back on cause i was afraid of him falling. so by that time, eddie had already taught brandon so i told him to takeover bryan. and wouldn't you know it, eddie let go of bryan and there he was, riding all by himself. he did fall while trying to stop and he scraped his elbow. but we're so proud he got back on his bike to try again (though he was pretty mad he fell). so moms----- you just sometimes, have to let go.

brandon above
bryan below

we took advantage of the great weather last weekend. took a trip to the farmer's market. the boys love going stand to stand & trying new fuits.

yum! we left with a flat of strawberries.

succulents....want to have this in the backyard.

 

we went out to the great park too over the weekend.

the boys on a (fake) rock play structure

i think my heart skipped a beat when bryan did this! he's such a dare devil. he's the type of boy who jumps off from the 6th step on stairs.

we tried a new cupcake place, casey's cupcakes. when i saw the cupcakes, i thought they were a little on the frou frou side. i must say, i prefer sprinkles over these. i don't care how pretty your cupcakes are, they have to taste good. give me an ugly cupcake that taste good and i'm happy! :)

i'll be taking a break from crafting and blogging. so you may or may not see me in bloggie world. thanks to those who stuck around with me. i've been so tired lately and decided giving up some things in my life is more important. and spending time with my boys is number 1. they're growing up so fast and i don't want to miss a thing. i want to be an awesome mom. ;) i'll be posting random pics now & then.

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!

card class samples

 hello! sorry for the repeat picture on the 1st card above here but just wanted to share my 3 cards for my card class coming up on 5/12 @ 10am at stamp fever. this class will focus on making embellishments for your cards and projects. more details can be found here.

 made another gift card tin. similar to this one except i changed out the butterfly. got some new dies and wanted to use them.

 made some 'just for fun' cards using lawn fawn.

thanks for stopping by today!

be unique

hello! sharing a few cards today. this first one up uses lawn fawn. hard to see in the photo but i glossy accented the eyeglasses. made it for the spectacular spectacles challenge in the moxie fab world.  i can never get my act together but happy to have had time to get this challenge in.

this card below also uses lawn fawn. just a fun sping card.

i have fond memories of farrell's....anyone else? i remember going there was a huge treat as a kid. i never did have my birthday party there but glad to have given bryan his 4th birthday celebration there. we just go there for our ice cream fix.

this is called the pig's trough.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

anyone who finishes this gets a ribbon. i cannot tell you how many of these we have! the waiter handed us a sharpie & told us since we finished this, we could also write our names on the trough.

this past sunday, we went to the LA times festival of books.

highlight was seeing scooby and max (from max & ruby)

ah.......the mystery machine! super cool!

bryan is absolutely crazy about watching scooby doo right now & reading the books. the boys ended up with a bunch of comic books and stickers & tatoos. me...i ended up with a bunch of reusable tote bag freebies :) 



this is a card using hero arts. inked up with markers and finished off with some washi tape. a fast a quick card in under 5 minutes.

thanks for stopping by!