I never intended to take the summer off from scrapbooking but that seems to be what has happened. This week alone has been so crazy. I can’t even think about sitting down at the computer to blow a few hours at one of my favorite hobbies. There’s just no time for that. Maybe when this week is over things will calm down a bit.

I’ll give you a little update though.

Emma turned 8.

We had our third annual birthday part at my dear friend’s swimming pool. (Hello, what a wonderfully easy party. Hurray for summer birthdays!) If this picture looks familiar it’s because I’ve got 2 from the previous years that look almost identical.

Emma, of course, was super excited to be one year older and finally 8. But of course things can not go completely smooth so we had to deal with a small fall and a popped open a chin two days before her party. She couldn’t swim with her friends like she would have liked to because of the Dr’s orders to keep it clean and dry. Drats.

Turning 8 is super exciting for us around these parts because Emma was able to be baptized.

We had such a wonderful day. It turned out super special and sweet for Emma and us. I hope she remembers this day all her life. I know I will.

We had a great little camping trip this weekend. The weather was great, the location gorgeous and the memory making complete.

I’m in love with camping. I always find myself wondering why I’m not doing more of it. Oh yea, it’s quite a bit of work to pack and unpack. It’s always challenge to find a free weekend too. But it’s totally worth it! For those of you who are not campers or have never been I encourage you to try it.

Here’s my Camping 101 list for you:

1.Call ahead- It’s a great idea to call the ranger or camp host over the area and find out the scoop on your desired campsites and hikes. They can tell things like where are the nicer spots, what time walk-up sites fill up, if there is a water source or if the mosquitoes are bad.

2. Gear- There are some things you’ll need but don’t feel like you need to have it all. You may also be limited to what you can fit in your car (like us) so pack light if you can. A basic tent, a decent sleeping bag and a cheep foam mat will do. You can catch up on your sleep later. Some other must haves are flashlights, something to hold water in, matches and a first aid kit. The more room you have, the more comfy you can get with camp chairs and air mattresses. Here are more comprehensive lists here and here but I would personally scratch off about half of the items. I guess I’m a minimalist.

3. Plan your meals- If you plan wisely you’ll only need one source for cooking. Fire pit (hot dogs or tin foil dinners), camp stove (soups or scrambled eggs) or maybe even a dutch oven (cobblers, meats or a yummy hashbrown breakfast.) A lot of food prep can be done at home such as cutting up veggies for a tin foil dinner or scrambling eggs. Don’t forget a can opener or your s’more ingredients.

4. Go with friends or extended family- Sometimes it’s nice to just have family time but everyone seems to be a bit happier if there are friends along (for motivation on hikes.) We also found that if you forgot something (bug spray, serving spoon) chances are your friend will have it.

5. Bring firewood- Don’t plan on gathering your logs from under the trees. Chances are the campsite has already been picked clean. Maybe you have your own stash at home but if you don’t it’s cheaper to buy a couple bundles from the grocery store. If you forget you can usually buy some from the camp host. If you are super stingy then be sure to bring your trusty axe because nothing small will be left.

6. Plan on getting dirty- Don’t wear your cutest clothes. Kids will always get sticky with marshmallows and it’s almost impossible to keep dirt and ash from rubbing off on you. Don’t worry, everyone will scrub clean once you’re home.

7. Explore the area- Hanging out in camp is fun but be sure to check out the nearby hikes, lakes and rivers. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Well, that’s the basics, I think. The only thing I personally need to remember for next time is to have a bowl or bag in the tent for throwing up in. This is the second camping trip that Leah has spontaneously thrown up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Bare-handing it isn’t very pleasant at all.

I think I must have recovered from my vacation because life has really picked up this week. I’ve gone mountain biking, rock climbing and now we are headed out to go camping. Whoo! This is just the way I like things but occasionally I’ll sit down on the couch in a big huff and think, “Gosh, I’m tired!”

Emma’s birthday is coming up. We are getting ready for it weeks in advance because it’s the big 8 which is a big deal around these parts. Yesterday I spent the afternoon making invitations for her friend party and they turned out cute enough so I thought I’d share.

Emma originally wanted to make them all by herself so we bought card stock and glitter and she planned out her design all by herself. After taking a couple weeks to make one (which was soon destroyed by her sister) she gave up and asked for my help. The only problem is “help” means “please take over” so I did.

I had seen these cute No-Melt Pop Invitations by Martha Stewart and thought they’d be an answer to our problem. There is even free clip art that makes them a breeze to make. Perfect for busy summer time, yes?

I bought some sticks and vellum at the craft store but decided against the glassine paper and regret it only a tiny bit. Let’s not tease ourselves, we all know these go in the garbage once the event is over.

Here’s my version. I just used left over card stock and experimented until I had a version I liked (the polka dot one.)

I didn’t have any spray adhesive and so my glue stick was disastrous on the dark brown paper. I also think my vellum was more see through than Martha’s. Okay, we can admit that Martha’s are way cuter, but hey, they’ll do the job. At least I’ve got something done on my TO DO list.

I’m off for a fun camping trip. Happy summer.

Since coming home from my summer vacation I’ve had a hard time getting back into the groove of thing. My brain is thinking of new projects I can do to jazz things up around here.

Yesterday I painted my front door a boring black. It needed it and looks better than it did but at the end of the day it left me with an incomplete since of satisfaction. Now I’m wanting to paint something more fun… something bright and cheerful.

How about a piano?

I’ve been wanting a piano for a while. I’m not a pianist by any means but my parents had me take lessons and I can play a handful of songs and read a bit of music. Now that I’m a parent shouldn’t I make my kids take lessons as well? Every kid should be tortured with having to practice for hours on end (oh, maybe it was only 30 minutes). It’s good for them, right? I’ve survived. And yes, I wish I’d stuck with it.

My front room is the perfect place for a piano. In fact I’m dying to get rid of a couch or two but I can’t get over one issue. I don’t care for the way pianos look. They are so big, so imposing and so noticeable. I know, it seems so superficial but if the piano is going to be the first thing people see when they walk in my house, I want it to look good.

There’s one problem. I can’t afford a good looking piano.

And then I saw this:

And oh my gosh, I fell in love. I didn’t know you could just paint a piano. I’m sure there are people out there who are moaning and groaning but I love the idea of a bright fun piano. It makes me want to play it. I searched the internet and found a whole bunch of cool inspiring pianos.

Here are some of my favorites. (images linked)

I think that this green is a perfect green. Greens can be tricky but this one looks modern and fresh. I like that this is a normal upright. I guess it doesn’t have to be a vintage piano to be worth painting.

This yellow one is so cheerful and cool looking. I wonder if I could pull off this color in my house.

This whole room is darling. The white piano isn’t exactly my style but I think it really looks good in this chic space and I think it’s a good example of what can be done.

I like red too. It’s probably the most doable color in my house but maybe not the most fun color.

So now I’m dreaming about what color I’d paint a piano if I had one.

I’ve been searching the classified and there are a lot of pianos to choose from. I’m nervous about buying a piano though. I want it to work. There are a lot of cheap ones out there and they could just be garbage. My piano doesn’t have to be concert worthy but I want it to sound nice, hold it’s tune and hold up to the kids banging on it.

I do have my eye on a beautiful vintage one and even went to check it out. I was so disappointed to find that it was in bad shape and had about 10 or so broken keys. I called some piano guys about fixing it up and heard some negative responses. First of all, it would be expensive. Second, you don’t know if your buying a lemon or not and thirdly, major parts could simple just snap when they tried tuning it. So sad. I did talk to one guy who seemed happy to fix up old vintage pianos and said that occasionally he’ll find a diamond in the rough. That gave me hope but I’d have to put money into it to find out if I found a diamond or not. Risky, eh?

So here is the question. Do I buy a cheap ol’ crappy piano that I don’t feel bad painting or do I spend a little bit more money and find a decent piano that my kids can learn and play on for years? If I bought a nicer piano would I feel bad or weird painting it? See the problem? I guess I need to find a middle of the road piano that needs a little tlc but still sounds good.

So what do you think about painted pianos? Would you dare? What color would you choose?

I mentioned that we took family photo on the beach and that Leah had been a little difficult but I didn’t mention how difficult the whole fiasco really was.

We only had one night to do the big family photos. We quickly coordinated all 30 people in our family and showed up at the beach all spiffied up and ready to go. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate. It was so windy and sunny. The wind was blowing one way and the sun was shinning the other.

Not good.

You might wonder why we didn’t we wait until the weather was more desirable but when you have the chance with all 30 family members you’ve got to take it; rain or shine… maybe I aught to say wind or shine…

Because it was terribly windy.

Emma seemed to have handled the wind better than me. She still seems to look adorable underneath all her hair.

It was so sunny when we first arrived. I know very well that we shouldn’t take photos in the bright sun but I’m telling you that we really had no other choice.

Isaac struggled with the sun in his eyes. He tried the binocular method but was told to put his hands down so then we just got squinting, grimacing and looking down from him.

Leah was really the star of the show.

She was so unhappy. She wouldn’t let anyone hold her but me. That made me hot, sticky and unhappy too. She wouldn’t look at anyone for a picture despite the funny faces, noises or whatever party tricks they could come up with. We were even promising suckers and popsicle. We did our best and then we gave up.

I love this photo because not only is Leah having a fit but Emma is holding Isaac’s head up because he kept looking down. Such a hoot.

Any tips for taking photos of kids?

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the Doritos feast the kids had RIGHT BEFORE we headed down to the beach.  I was unaware until we were there and noticed my kid’s orange faces and shirts. Cleaned them up the best I could… guess I’ll have to photoshop Emma’s shirt though.

Better luck next time.

As hard as it was to leave the beach house we knew we still had a couple days to spend with our East Coast family back in the DC area.

During our 5 1/2 hour drive home from the beach Jeremy said, Wouldn’t it be fun to go to Kings Dominion?” Emma yelled “NO,” Isaac yelled “YES,” and as my mind ran over all the mommy type thoughts of a  day at a theme park (high humidity, no stroller for Leah, dealing with packing swimsuits, kids tired of walking, Emma hating roller coasters, not wanting to spend money on theme park priced food and having to smell funnel cake all day.)

I replied, “It’s up to you.”

So we did it.

And it was hot, and the kids did get tired and we did spend money on expensive food. We didn’t buy a funnel cake but I did smell it and want it. We packed our swim suits and loved cooling off in the lazy river because it was super hot and humid. Emma did refuse to go on any big or medium roller coaster so she went on all the kiddie rides and she loved them all even though she wanted to roll her eyes and act just a little bit big. I did have to carry Leah around a ton. The kids did get tired of walking around and my feet got super sore but we had a great time and we’re glad we did it. Right?

We spent all day doing kid stuff and at the very end Jeremy and I decided that we wanted to go on at least one big roller coaster. We picked the Intimidator. It’s a new ride there and was voted Best New Roller Coaster of 2010 and we thought if we jumped in line at the close of the day we’d be okay waiting with the kids in line. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones with that idea so we waited for an hour past closing time and you can imagine how tired and worn out we all were. Jer and I had to take turns on the roller coaster so one of us could stay with the kids. It worked out and we’re glad we did it because it was a super cool ride -vertical drops, crazy unexpected twist and even some fog thing going on. Wooh! What a day. We crawled into bed in DC around 1:00 am.

The next couple days we enjoyed some of our favorite places in DC: The National Zoo, The Natural History Museum, The Air and Space Museum, and the Smithsonian’s.

It was so deathly hot and sweaty!! Just walking down the street was painful. I can’t believe people live there and actually survive it. Oh, wait, I used to live there. Luckily the museums were air conditioned. I wish we had more time there. There are so many old haunts we’d love to see again.

We did make sure to drive past our old house in Maryland. It left us feeling so nostalgic. Did we really have a life here? Did I really bring my first 2 babies here to this house? It seemed like ages ago but the minute you see it so many memories come flashing back. Remembering this and that. Have you ever drove past an old house after years of being gone? We looked at all the things that were still the same and all the things that have changed. We stopped and visited with a couple of our closest neighbors. Wow, time flies, doesn’t it.

Our trip has finally come to an end. I’m left with a vacation hangover. It was bitter sweet to come home.  I kinda feel like I had to say goodbye to that long ago life all over again. I’m not sure when we’ll get to go back again so I missing it already.

Ah, beach week was wonderful! I don’t think there is anything more great than spending time at the beach with family. We went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Ever been there? If not, I highly recommend it. It’s such a perfect family friendly place.

We had the whole family on Jeremy’s side there. Here are all 16 grandkids. Can you spot my kiddos? Leah happened to be “the one kid who wouldn’t cooperate” and ruin the photo for everyone else. Ha. This is the best we got.

Kids can play all day at the beach. Isn’t it wonderful!

We did a lot of this…

and this…

and this…

And when we got tired of the sand and sun we had plenty more to do around the island.

Like checking out wild black bears…

Oh, this picture is has the wild bear. I know it’s hard to tell the difference.

and climbing to the top of a light house.

It’s so sad to have to leave. It’s one of those trips that are almost too good to be true.

So far, our trip to the East Coast has been Awe-some! Can you hear me singing?

I always fear traveling with kids and prepare myself for the worst possible scenario. I imagine things like screaming babies in hot squishy airplanes, kids messing their pants at inopportune times and running through airports to catch a flights with loads of bags on our arms and sobbing kids getting dragged behind… Oh, the stress!

But Luckily, nothing like that happened and everything when quite smoothly. Leah slept for a full 3 hours on the plane, there was minimal fighting between the siblings and we had plenty of snacks and entertainment to keep the littles (and husband) happy.

Yeah!

With all our travels we rode on planes, trains, and automobiles (and a shuttle bus too.) Good times.

We’ve had a great time hanging out with family and doing some fun things. Before we headed to the beach in North Carolina we had a few days to spend with family up in Northern Virginia. It was fun but hot. I’ve forgotten about the sticky humidity. Check out Leah’s flushed cheeks.

With all of our East Coast cousins we went to a farm and learned all about the facts of life, you know, all those things that you can learn on a farm… like where milk comes from.

We made sure to attend an Orioles game, Jeremy’s favorite team from his youth.

And since we were going up to Baltimore for the baseball game we wanted to go to the aquarium too. I don’t have any cool photos of the fishes or rays or sharks that we saw but I thought that this pic of Emma and Leah was so cute. They are waiting to see a monitor lizard.

Of all the fishes and water animals there, I think this guy was our favorite. Can you tell what he is?

Oh yea, and I had a birthday as well. I’m one year older and wiser too.

Next post should be our rock’n trip down to the Outer Banks in NC. Stayed tuned.

This summer me and my family get to spend a whole week at the beach. Hurray, Hurray. We are getting so excited. I’ll keep you posted on some of the fun adventures that we’ll be having.

I’m sure many of you are going on vacations too so I’m having a little Vacation Sale. All of my Bundled Templates will be 30% off from now until July 13th. That’s 2 whole weeks! This will be a great time to pick up templates that can help you scrapbook all the gazillion photos that you’ll be coming home with. Buy any template listed under my Bundled Templates category and then enter vacationsale2011 during check out to get 30% off.

I’ve looked over my bundled packages and have picked out some of my favorites to share. These templates have truly made scrapbooking a breeze for me. Looking back at my layouts is always fun too. Here we have a layout from the Vacation Templates package. We will be going to this same beach again so I’ll have more fun beach pictures to scrapbook. (I’ll have to make a new Vacation Package when I get home.)

The Mass Production Templates are always great for showing off lots of photos in a simple, clean way. 

The Super Duper Templates are nice because you can add as many photo as you need or add paper in to jazz things up. (BTW, I love the word jazz! It’s so totally cheezy and 80′s-ish)

This week I printed out 57 pages to go in my scrapbook. I was so totally over the moon when I had the prints in my hand. I love seeing them in real life and adding them in my book is simply thrilling. Hello, I know I’m nerd. I admit that I flip through the pages over and over again just enjoying them. I think there is something special in seeing my memories all down on paper and ready to share. Well, Template 71 Add on is one of my new favorites from this latest batch I printed. I loved how the two pages look together. Lucky for you they are also included in this sale.

That’s it for now. I’ll be keeping in touch while I’m on my travels so stay tuned. I hope you have a wonderful summer too.

Summer time is really heating up around here. As soon as Summer Solstice hit and the season was officially here the temperatures immediately jumped above 90.

Wooh eee.

It’s finally time to go to the pool, turn the sprinklers on underneath the tramp, and eat all the Popsicle we possibly can.

In celebration of Summer arriving, here is a new template that is Summer-ish looking but will work for just about anything. I added some wave looking details for fun but also put in a scalloped option if you prefer that. Look for it hidden in the layer palate next to the waves. You can click on the eye to make it visible and delete the wave if you want.

Download it here.

And of course, here are my pages. It made me panic a little bit that I was still scrapbooking summer of last year. I really don’t like getting to far behind because I start forgetting journaling details and rushing through my pages. Oh well. Guess it worked out well for you , season wise and all. Maybe I should stay a year behind. Ha. We do what we can do. Credits at flickr.

Have fun. Later.