Billie's Birthday Party

I am so excited that we get to celebrate Billie's Birthday at the family reunion. We decided that it would be fun to have a girls only slumber party on the night of her party. I thought I would whip up a cute "fast" invite instead of a store bought one. I am not sure it was faster, but it sure turned out cute. It is going to fun and we planned some fun things to do!

From Wooden Stamps to Acrylic

I LOVE my rubber stamps, but I hate how much bulk they are. I hate digging them all out when I am scrapbooking to see what I have. After doing some internet research and talking to my friend Rayanne I have figured out a system which I think will be great! I converted all my rubber stamps to an acrylic system. Below you will see how much "bulk" was in the old system and then the new system. Here is what I did.

#1. I peeled all the old labels off the wooden blocks and relayed them onto a white sheet of paper. (If you don't want to do this step, you can just stamp your image onto the white paper. Once you have the white sheet full of images, place them into glossy sheet protectors.

#2. Peel the rubber part only off of the wooden block. (This was easier on some of the stamps than others)

#3 Apply a thin layer of Aleene's Tack-It Over & Over and let it dry until it is clear. Then you have a tacky surface that will adhere to your acrylic block. You can also use a repositionable adhesive for this step.

#4. Lay the new rubber only stamp over the image on top of the sheet protectoer.

#5. Figure out how to recycle 16 pounds of wooden blocks! (that is how much weight I got rid of by converting.)

All the cases that my stamps were in.

All the same stamps put onto sheet protectoers in a couple of thin 2 ring binders.

An alphbet set that I can use! (I will be able to line up the words before I even get to stamping)

Last Summer Swim Meet

James after one of his races.

James getting ready for another race.

One hot Dad! (It was only 116 as we were leaving the meet at 6:30pm)

Grant patiently waiting for his race.

Billie getting ready to backstroke!

Grant after his last race of the season!

Last Thursday we swam in our last summer swim meet. Here are some pictures. The kids really did great this year and they enjoy their time in the pool each day. Grant really kicked into gear in the last race and ended up coming in 2nd. He was swimming against 3 of his friends, so it was a very lively race. Billie very much takes after me and each time she would come up for air she had a big cheesy grin on her face. She loved that we were standing at the end waiting and cheering for her. James invented his own type of swimming. It is called "Jamestyle." He combines all of the strokes that he learned into one. It is a 1/3 freestlye, 1/3butterfly and 1/3 breast stroke. He would have been happier with swim team if it had been swim on the bottom of the pool and race across. It was a fun swim season and we can't wait for our next season to start.

Creating Keepsakes

Well, I did it. I finished my entry for this year's Scrapbooker of the Year. I had a great time putting together layouts for this and even making a mini album. I will post some of my project when I am allowed to. (You can only have 8 published posts. The rest have to be unseen.) Now it is off to plan my portions of the Family Reunion.

Another week

Hunter was able to stay with us after his family went home. We have had a great time with him and he is a great kid. He fits well into our family dynamics so adding one more has been fun. He is even a pretty good cleaner. The kids have had a great time getting to know him and spending some time with him. That is the one stinky thing about living away from family is how much they don't know their cousins. I am glad that Lin and Jess allowed him to stay with us. So far so good. We still have 10 more days to go, but we are loving him like our own. :-) And I must say, that in the week since his mom left he has become quite the little swimmer. He is running right along side of my fish. :-)

More Company

We had a 2 day recovery period before our next guests arrived. An old friend from WY came with her kids for a couple of days to visit. We also laid low and spend time in the pool. Both Lucas and Keely loved the water. Keely is a fish just like Billie and I think we saw her more under the water than above it. We had a great time catching up with Lezlie too. It is nice to have friends that you know are your friends because they are still your friends even after you move 5 times. :-) Thanks for coming guys. It was great! You are welcome to come anytime!

Visit with our Cousins

Kiley Clinging to the wall!

Taggart "When can we go swim?"

The great Hunter. He loves the dive sticks in the shallows!

Madison first needed to try the slide this way.

Then she needed to try it this way.

We had a great time having our cousins here for a whole week. There were 3 adults matched up to 7 kids. We basically swam, watched movies and scrapbooked for the whole week. The kids did wonderful and we only had a couple small fires to put out. Kiley and Hunter came not so sure of the water and by the time the week was over, they both were doing great. Madison and Taggart are 2 of the biggest daredevils I have ever seen and it was a good thing they both had water wings on. :-) Jess and I set up a table and scrapbooked almost everyday. We swam in the evenings after the kids were in bed and even had a night out while Bill held down the kids... err I mean the fort. :-) At the end of the week we took everyone to see the Valley Youth Theater production of High School Musical. The kids really liked it and they had fun going around to all the actors and geting their autographs afterwards. Some of the kids were a little star struck I think. It was a good ending to the week. Bill said he hadn't heard me laugh that much in years. It was fun and I was so glad to have the chance to get to know Jess some more.