Oceans of Fun

Sunday we took the girls to Oceans of Fun. Eric and I had never been to Oceans of Fun before, so it was the first time for all of us! It was actually Billy and Amanda's idea, and I will admit that I was not originally thrilled about going.  It was going to be expensive and I was worried about the girls getting lost etc. I am so glad that we went though! The girls had a blast! Mom, Billy and Amanda had fun, and they watched the girls for us so that Eric and I could go on a couple of the adult slides. I had more fun watching the kids though than going on the slides myself.
We will probably go again this summer, hopefully I will have the new waterproof camera by then so I can post pictures. We are even talking about getting Season Passes for next year!
Thanks Billy and Amanda!

Father's Day part 3

Ok, last one. This is my Father's Day gift set for my father-in-law. I bought the clock in a box thingy, and made a card and mini album to fit inside of it. I did not take pictures of the mini album, it is really simple inside and the pictures are cut to the page size, so there are very few embellisments inside. The card is mostly PTI. Ripe avocado and stampers select white are the colors that I used, with a little Chatterbox paper (?) as a mat. PTI's Men of Life with Dark Chocolate and Ripe Avocado inks make up the focal image and sentiment. The mini album is held closed with PTI Ripe Avocado ribbon and a Maya Road ribbon slide. The ribbon is adhered to itself with redline tape (or whatever it is called)

Father's Day part 2

For my Dad's Father's Day card I used the same layout as I posted yesterday. With this card however I used all scraps from my scrap drawers. I have no clue what manufacturer/ lines this paper is from. The CS is PTI's Vanilla that I distressed with lots of Distress Ink. The sentiment is from SU, "dad" rubons from Creative Imaginations, the ribbon is Maya Road, the wrench charm I have had for ages and lots of edge distressing.

Fathers Day part 1

I finally got back down in my craft room this weekend! The girls and I made Father's Day cards for Eric. For inspiration I followed the sketch from Mojo Monday and the Loonie Stampers Challenge #45

This is what I came up with:

I started with the PTI Vanilla Base (4.5x8.5... I think) and layered it with the Smokey Shadow. I knew that I wanted to emboss the Vanilla with the herringbone embossing folder (Cuttlebug) but had a hard time figuring out the focal image. My first try used the Wise Owl set.. but it did not fill out the space enough. I do not have many masculine PTI sets, so I went digging through my other stamps and found these SU sets. The images are actually from two sets, but I do not have the names with me. I stamped the star on scrap and trimmed it out, popping it up on the focal image for some dimension. I also discovered my MM edge distresser. I have had it for at least 2 years, and had never used it. I really like the texture that it gave to this card, adding to the masculine feel.
The sentiment (For My Husband) is from PTI's Men of Life set. I would have used that for my focal image as well, but my husband has already received a couple of cards using that set, so I did not want to use it again for this one). A brad, some Spring Rain grosgrain ribbon and a staple finish off this card.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: PTI- Men of Life, SU
CS: PTI Spring Rain, Vanilla, Smokey Shadow
Ink: PTI Smokey Shadow, Spring Rain
Ribbon: PTI Spring Rain
Other: Cuttlebug, herringbone embossing folder, rectangle nestabilities, MM edge distresser, misc brad

Legends

Saturday evening we took the girls to Legends for dinner at Stix and a Movie (UP). After dinner while Eric brought our leftovers to the car I let the girls play in the fountain. I actually had the camera with me this time!

 

 

Las Vegas

Last week I traveled to Las Vegas for a Workforce Leadership Council (WLC) off-site. WLC is a volunteer program Booz Allen Hamilton offers that allows junior personnel the opportunity to lead. I am the co-lead for our office Chapter, and so I got to go to Vegas for the off-site (along with my co-lead Katie)! I had never been to Vegas before, so I was definitly excited. Too bad Eric was already scheduled for training last week, and a trip with his Dad this week, or he would have gone with me!
The off-site was held at Planet Hollywood!

The first night we had a welcome reception for the WLC off-site participants. Somewhere there is a picture of me with a showgirl. Unfortunately my camera batteries were dead so I have to wait until everyone shares their pictures to post it.

Thursday is when the off-site started. It was a LONG day! We started at 8am and ended at 9:30 pm. In the evening we had a Scavenger Hunt/ team building event and then an awards ceremony. Our chapter won for best communications!

After the awards ceremony/ reception ended some of us took a walk to the Bellagio.

Where we stopped in at a lounge for a drink...
Then we were off to Caesars

And then headed back to Planet Hollywood to go dancing at Prive.

Friday the off-site ended at 5ish, but Katie and I did not fly back to Kansas until Saturday morning. So, we went to a show!

My first Vegas style Burl's show.. and it was really cool! Ok.. enough bragging about Vegas.

Relay for Life 2009

Ok, I am a little late posting this (10 days) but Relay is over for another year! It was a good night and the weather was perfect. My team (Booz Allen Hamilton) raised over $5000 and our Relay (Leavenworth County) raised over $92,000! That is just amazing! Booz Allen is a National Corporate Sponsor with 54 teams and over 115 participants.  So far this Relay year (Sept 2008 - Aug 2009) Booz Allen teams have raised over $119,000 for the American Cancer Society.
Thank you for everyone that supported my team, and our Relay!

Here are a couple of pictures from our event.
The reason(s) that I Relay: My girls!

Some of our survivors coming around the track:

The girls, Mom, Jason and Dad waiting for me so the girls could say Goodbye. Maybe next year I will let them stay out all night with me.

Me and April - Side ponytails and all (80s theme)

Next year I will just be on committee (instead of being a Team Captain AND the Online Chair). Our Relay goal for next year is $100,000 and I will start bugging friends and family for donations again in September. You have been warned!

Little Miss Independent

This is my other layout that I made this weekend. More MME PP. The mat for the main focal picture is from CS out of my scrap drawer. I think that it is Bazzill. I used the Fiskars threading water border punch to mimic the scallops in the PP. My title started out with just the "Miss independent", but I decided that I needed another embellishment down there, and pulled out my "red" drawer. I was playing with a scrap of red fabric, started pleating it and liked what I saw. So I taped the pleat down and ran the fabric and my LO through the sewing machine. Then I just trimmed down my pleated fabric to the size I wanted it. Much easier than trimming it to that width and THEN trying to sew it! The MM (I think) metal "i" was also in my stash. I have had that forever, I think that it came in a kit a couple of years ago. Finally I found the perfect place for it!

Journaling reads " Of course it spilled right after I took the picture. Lauren - January 15, 2009"

Supply List:

PP, Chipboard - My Minds Eye

CS - Bazzill

Rubons - Creative Imaginations

Stickers - American Crafts

Metal "i" - MM
Bling - The Paper Studio

Misc - Brads, bookplate and red fabric from stash

A little update

I have been horrible about keeping this blog updated, but not much has really been going on! The weather has warmed up, and the kids love playing in the water. 2 weekends ago we pulled out the sprinkler ball and had Emily and Justin over to play. The kids had a blast!

 
There are a lot more pictures are in the May 2009 folder --->

This past weekend we spent a lot of time at Mom and Dad's house in the pool! (no pictures though). The weather was perfect Saturday and I was in the pool for at least 3 hours! (The kids were back and forth between the playset and the pool) Amanda and Billy showed up right after the girls and I got in the pool, and Jason brought the kids over as well! We had a blast! It was a great family day. The only thing that could have made it better was if Eric was there, and if Russ and his family were there.

Funny kid quote:
Lauren: Mommy, I have a booger
Me: So get it out
Lauren: I can't, it is too far
Megan: Use your middle finger, it is the longest

New Layout!

I actually had time to play downstairs this weekend and made a couple of layouts! Here is the first one that I made. I pulled out some MME paper and Title that I had. The background is actually a scalloped edge paper, I had to put a piece of chipboard behind it to take the picture. There are some details that are hard to see without enlarging the picture. The pink scallop circle on the left is actually embossed with the Paisley embossing folder from Cuttlebug. I then added small bling to each scallop. There are also small bling on the 4 corners of the title block as well as dotting the "I". Finishing off my visual triangle is some bling in the center of the button (on the pink flower). The large pink mat behind the focal picture was run through the crimper, and I added 3 SU buttons to the right to fill in the empty space.  The chipboard circle being used as the flower center is from MME, and I used a rub-on in the center of it. Originally I had a flower rub-on in the middle of the words with some bling in the center. The rub-on came off (partially) and I had to cover it with the button.

The journaling reads "Megan and Emily, January 2009, Emily's 5th Bday"

PP and Chipboard - My Minds Eye

CS - Bazzill

Rubons - Creative Imaginations

Buttons - Stampin Up

Flower - Heidi Swapp

Bling - Paper Studio

Misc - Fiskars Crimper, EK Success Mini Border Punch, Cuttlebug embossing folder and Scallop circle Nestabilities