Whoo loves you, Baby??

Is this adorable or what?? I love this little owl. I was inspired by a card I saw at Kimber's house. Kimber used to be my second level upline when I was with Stampin' Up! To make this card I used several punches. The head is the Round Tab Punch, the body and wings are the Scallop Circle Punch and the feet and beak are from a retired flower punch. Oh, and the eyes are from my 3/4" circle punch that died as I punched that last circle. The punch froze with the paper still in there! If you know how to fix this...let me know!

For the background paper I used the Chocolate Chip Patterned Designer Paper (which I love) and the owl is put together with Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun and Barely Banana. The circle in the background was cut with my old Coluzzle. But I hear the new Circle Scissors are fabulous! When I glued my little owl together I put stampin' dimensionals under the wings for a little bit of lift.

I gave this card to my mom for her birthday this year. She has been a big owl lover/collector for years. I think she liked it.

A day at Six Flags

Tuesday I took Matt and Beth and two of Beth's friends to the local Six Flags Park. Beth was celebrating her 1/2 birthday. Which we do since her birthday is so close to Christmas. And Matt had a free ticket from the reading program at school. We had a great day. The weather was great and the park wasn't very crowded at all. We even rode Scream (see pic above) four times. Beth and her two friends went off on their own while Matt and I on ours. We met up every few hours and rode several rides together.

Matt was so fun to hang out with. He is a fun kid and so very generous. He always wanted to make sure I was having fun throughout the day. We got wet on a couple of water rides and loved the many roller coasters. We only skipped the few with lines that took over an hour.

This is Matt's last week of school. The other kids are all out for the summer already. So I'll need to come up with some fun (but cheap) activities to do with the kids.

I hope you are planning a fun summer!

Gold Rush Fun

Matt was required to make a diorama for school recently.  He could choose between a mission or the gold rush.  I'm so glad he decided on the gold rush.  We had a good time putting the project together.  Even Meagan helped locate just the right legos for the job.  We did our research and learned several things about this time in history.  One interesting tid-bit: people rarely bathed. Yuck!  I'm happy to be around during the age of indoor bathrooms.

School is winding down.  Thank goodness.  I think.  It will only take about a week before the kids are whining, "I'm bored".  Every summer I threaten to make a chore list that the kids will have to choose from every time they say those dreaded words.  Maybe I'll actually do that this summer.  I wish the world was more like when I was a kid.  I would take off in the morning and not be home till dark.  My friends and I would explore nearby hills, teach ourselves to roller skate backwards, make up dance moves to "It's a Hard Knock Life" from Annie.  There was always something fun to do.  These days, the kids only know a few neighbors and they spend most of their time on the computer or playing video games.  How boring!

Feel free to share ideas on how to occupy the long days of summer!  I'd love to read them.

High School is History!

The whole family...so proud of Jacob!

Jacob walking at the graduation ceremony.

We attended Jacob's High School Graduation on Friday evening.  It was a nice ceremony... not too long.  Jacob, and the rest of the seniors in Show Choir sang the Star Spangled Banner and the school's Alma Mater.  One great thing about Jacob's singing voice is that you can always pick out his voice in the group.  

After the graduation we all (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins) came home for spaghetti dinner and visiting.  We even had a fire in the backyard to sit around.

The next day we had all the family over and a bunch of Jacob's friends for a party.  We had tons of Mexican food: Enchiladas, taquitos, tacos, rice, guacamole and chips, beans, etc.  Then there were the desserts: Hershey Cake, Banana Pudding, Lemon Squares, Brownies, and home made Ice Cream.  And to wash it all down: home made Root Beer!!  Needless to say, we were stuffed!

But the best part of the day, was talking Jacob into singing for us.  For his AMDA audition he had sung Stars from Les Miserables.  None of us had ever heard him sing this and so this was our request.   Can I just say, "Wow"?  I know he's my kid and I guess that makes me a bit prejudiced, but dang, that kid can sing!!  Of course, I had tears streaming down my face while he sang.  No surprise there, either.  After that we all wanted more so Jacob and Zoe sang their duet from Back to the 80's: Total Eclipse of the Heart.

We all had a fabulous day.  Thanks to all who came and enjoyed the day with us, and to everyone who brought yummy food to share.  And thanks to Berk for playing piano while Jacob sang.  You rock!

Only two years until Meagan graduates!  

Yikes.