the last day of school...

...was yesterday. anna is officially a first grader. how can that be? i'm sure it sounds like such a cliche to say they are growing up too fast. but my goodness - it's waaaay too fast. denise inspired me to do first day / last day pictures side by side. and if i had known then how much of a difference 9 months was going to make. well, i probably would have just cried even harder on that first day. lol! i am soooo proud of what an amazing young lady anna has become. she's gained so much confidence in herself and she's so much more independent in a good way. i'm so glad, though, that she still likes me to snuggle with her at night and she still likes spending time with me. i'm sure those days are numbered. i'm going to try to remember that this summer when i'm sure there will be times when i've had more than enough of them. like today, for example. lol! just kidding! but it was a little crazy. there are 8 girls in our neighborhood including my girls, and 2 friends visiting, and they were all out playing together for most of the day. they range in ages from 11 down to little miss e who is 3. going on 11. ;) our neighbors have a trampoline and princess ella sparkle (as she likes me to call her) got to jump today for a "special treat." it should be a fun summer! :D

(ps - i over filtered the pictures of e a tad. whoops! i'll have to fix those! the storyboard frames are from katie pertiet at designer digitals.)

field day!

anna's school had a field day today. oooh my goodness, i think it was about the most fun we've had in along time. we could only stay for 3 events - the pirate game, follow the leader, and the water relay. they soaked sponges in water, ran across the field then squeezed them into buckets. they were so cute and funny! it was a little chaotic - poor mrs. kloke - i bet she's going to be exhausted at the end of the day! i was tired after only an hour! we know for sure the kids also got to do a jump rope station and a parachute station. i was really sad we couldn't stay for the parachutes - i wanted to play - er, i mean get pictures. ;) i can't post any pictures here because there were so many kids in all of them. they were such hams when they saw the camera on them! lol! i wish could have stayed and taken pictures all day. it was so fun to see them all together having so much fun. :)

quotes from ella...

"this outfit is SOOO comfy! i don't know why, but it really is!"
(it really was, because she was wearing leggings and a tshirt instead of her usual sundress. hee!)

"i don't like any boys, except wilson."

every morning when anna gets out of the car to go to school she says, "goodbye anna, i love you." and today i said, "ella, that's so nice that you love your sister." and she said, "i DO NOT!!!"

gotta love little miss e. ;)

so lucky!

it's that time of year! everyone has something going on. so far every day this week there's been some event. monday was anna's year end open house. the teachers put together a slide show and set it to some of the sadest music i had ever heard - about how fast they grow and to hold on to now. oh dear - i'm crying again trying to write about it. i just love her teachers and her school so much. we are so lucky!

tuesday i got to have dinner with a few bagels - stef, becca, kelly and becky. it was so nice to get to go to dinner friday, again on tuesday and then to bagels today. so lucky!

kurt is getting to visit his brother and see his nephew graduate this weekend. mimi and papa are coming for support. thank goodness! we are so lucky to live near them!

and with yet more luck i got a free starbucks for breakfast yesterday and then a coupon for another free one at hyvee. woohoo! :D

hope all of you feel lucky too!

addicted to pink and green..

i am! paper and digi! i've been wanting to scrap these pictures for a LONG time. there were sooo many of them from that day that i couldn't chose which ones to use. and they were some of the last pictures that i took before i got my digital rebel. the focus is off and the colors were so dark. i used the color action from scrapping pro on them as well as quite a few levels and brightness/contrast adjustments. and i find i am using the trick of using an overlay layer and using a high pass filter on it to sharpen things all of the time. a lot of the time i have to erase parts of that layer because it becomes way to grainy, but it's really great for making the eyes pop. and for adding a bit of sharpening to not so clear pictures. i'm having problems getting my shadows to work - i didn't want them to be that dark and big. in photoshop they look normal but when i save it as a jpg they get HUGE! not sure what that's all about! i used a rhonna kit from two peas. everything is recolored, because that's this week's 2ps2sday challenge. i'm also addicted to using the fling font and every font made by kelly purkey. you can buy and download kelly's fonts from scrapsupply.com. and there's even one named for wilson! :D thanks, kp! :D

ladies' man....

my willsie is. he has them all wrapped around his teeny fingers. and from the look on his face i know the feeling is mutual. :) and can i say again how lucky i am to have this group of friends? they are always so supportive in so many ways. they were such lifesavers especially at lunch that day - poor wilson is having the hardest time with his teeth and it was sooo relaxing to have someone else hold him for just a little while. they have lifted me up so many times. thanks, girls! i love you!!!

more scrapbooking...

for you digital and hybrid scrapbookers, katja kromann posted a new kit in her shop - "happiness is..." the kit has turquoise and reds and browns - gorgeous colors - combined with beautiful textures and patterns. and for all scrappers she has a great set of tags perfect for printing and journaling on. just go to her website and click on the word "shop" on the left. she also has a gorgeous free kit in her shop a little down on the page if you want to give digi a try. i made this page with her new kit for the 2ps2sday digi chat.

and in it kit studio news - as of 11 am there were only 13 kits left!
eta: now they are sold out!!!! i'm so happy for and proud of kelly! way to go, friend!!!

this is IT!...

today is the day the IT Kit website goes live! IT's amazing! the kit is so gorgeous. the IT girls are all sooooo amazingly talented! be sure to check it out and order FAST before the kits sell out!!! i have been doing more digital scrapping lately but this gorgeous kit has inspired me to pull out my paper more often. i LOVE IT!!!

a little horn tootin'...

the sweet ladies at disc talk radio chose to feature my quote book mini album on their weekly radio webcast. i am blushing at all of the sweet things they said! thanks shanah and deann!!!

happy national scrapbook day!...

...one day late. lol! i was too busy partying to remember to blog. hee! i was asked, along with about 180 other scrapbookers, to have a layout displayed in the 2 peas user inspiration gallery. i was SO honored! the gallery is FULL of AMAZING pages! here's a link - Two Peas User Inspiration Gallery.

i wanted to do something different for my page, but i had the hardest time thinking of something. of course i always find it harder to think of something when i am putting the pressure on myself to make something great. hee! i remembered seeing a contest on two peas a few months ago for doing a page about why you scrapbook. of course this contest has been over for awhile now, you know me - always late, but i thought it was a FABULOUS idea! and i'm hoping kurt will see it and understand why our house is so messy and we eat a lot of macaroni and cheese. so that was a great starting out point for me. since this was a page specifically for 2 peas i wanted to showcase all of my favorite 2 peas products and designers. but, well, of course i couldn't chose just one digi designer so i thought how fun to use one from each! so here is my page... if you are a scrapper and would like to see which elements are from whom the supplies are listed on the page in my 2 peas gallery and the journaling is typed out there too, if it's too hard to read.