Almost Wordless Wednesday…

We all know how much my boys love Angry Birds. Anthony was thrilled when he saw these larger than life birds….

Happy Hump Day…

An eventful weekend….

I  am writing to you from my laptop, with my air conditioning running and my lights on. Not many of my friends and family can say that they have those luxuries. Actually none of them can. Well, not today at least.

Hurricane Irene past through New York early yesterday morning.


We were ready. I had made numerous trips to the grocery store to stock up on water and canned goods. Really just soup. I can’t see eating a can of corn for dinner…LOL! I don’t ever recall a time when the supermarkets were out of water and there was a line to fill your car with gas. But this week there was. Home Depot and Lowes were out of batteries. It was amazing.

I am not one to fall victim to the news and listen to the bad weather threats. My husband on the other hand, is a prepare-er. He was ready and waiting. The plywood was cut and the generator plugged in.

The winds picked up and we decided to have a ‘slumber’ party on the first floor of the house, farthest away from the bedrooms where there are trees outside the windows. The kids laughed and we played play-doh and had a family night. Although sleeping on the couch was uncomfortable, I was really just nervous to go to sleep. What if a tree fell on my house? What if the power lines started a fire? I tossed and turned all night.

When the morning came and the storm had died down, we assessed the damage in the neighborhood. Streets were flooded. Trees were down, homes were destroyed. But we were okay. We had power. Nothing on our house was out of place. I felt so thankful. So blessed to know that these little faces were safe.
 

My heart and prayers are with those less fortunate……

Mountains and the lake….

Well, our trip to Lake George this year was as good as it always is. We go and see the same families every year when we are up there which is so fun. We pick this type of vacation because it is all about relaxing and the beautiful scenery. It is a lot of work for me because I have to bring everything but the kitchen sink to the cabin!! We try to grill most nights while we are there and I am still cleaning and tidying up, but the good times we have and the memories we create make it worth it.

This year a friend of mine came with her three kids which made for even more good times. I think I have come to realize that going on vacation with other families is great, but you need to make sure you still have separate time with ‘your’ family. And we did.

This is view outside our cabin….what is not to love??


Anthony trying to catch a fish….


But Christopher got it instead…


On a scenic drive we found a little lake that had a ton of frogs and tadpoles…the kids were thrilled!


And we did get dressed and go to dinner one night….


All in all it was just the trip we needed to spend some good quality time together as a family.

And now….back to reality!!

Back from vacation…..

Ah….we are home. It is nice to be back. We spent a week up in Lake George, NY doing what I call ‘glorified camping.’ It was so nice to be on the lake surrounded by beautiful mountains, relaxing with family and friends.

I will have some pics to share in the next day or so. As soon as I get out from under here…..


I have a ton of catching up to do….both cleaning and blogging reading :)

Have a great Monday…..

Freezer Paper Stenciled Bride Gift…

Happy Friday!! I hope everyone had a great week and is planning an even better weekend.  Seems as though these last few weeks of summer are just flying by. I know most of the southern schools are going back already….thankfully we have a until the week after Labor Day to enjoy the rest of the summer.

With that said, things will be really quiet here next week (not that they haven’t been a little quiet already…LOL). We are planning on spending some good quality family time together and I can’t wait. I need to just relax and reconnect with my loved ones.

But before I go, I wanted to show you a quick little project. I have seen so much on freezer paper stenciling that I wanted to try my hand at it. I have to say, I love the idea and I think it would work well if you were doing simple shapes. I tried to use the freezer paper in my Silhouette machine and that didn’t work so good..LOL! I am not sure if the only way to cut your stencil is with an exacto knife….but that doesn’t seem to work if you have a more detailed design. I have used my Silhouette vinyl as a stencil which works great, but seems like that is kind of wasteful.

Regardless, I had made this cute tote for my sister a few weeks ago for her engagement party. I figured that every new bride needs a place to store her venue information, magazines and clippings and dress inspiration.

I am all about the “Keep Calm” sayings lately…..


The stenciling isn’t as crisp as I would have liked, but the ring came out really cute!!  I used a glitter fabric paint and added some bling with my Hot Tools.


My sis loved it and I had fun trying something new, that is what matters…..






Have a great weekend!

Almost Wordless Wednesday….

There are no words for this child…

Happy Hump Day….

Rainy day Angry Birds….

Happy Monday!! Hope everyone had a great weekend. The weather here was a little on the dreary side this weekend. It was a nice break from the hot 95 degree days we have been having!! With that, I took the opportunity to clean my house and catch up on laundry.

But, we all know that kids do not like the rain and therefore, it was also a good time to do a quick craft project with them. If you remember my post on the ‘Angry Birds’ project fail, you will also remember that Christopher is obsessed with Angry Birds lately.  He was watching a You Tube video on a kid who made Angry Birds out of clay….so we need to mimic what the video and headed to Michael’s. I have never really used clay before, expect probably in high school art class….LOL! I was not really sure that to expect.

Well, we got the clay that you ‘bake’ so that out characters would stay nice and hard. I just took a picture of the Angry Birds and went to work modeling the clay. For my first time, I think that they came out pretty good. Needless to say, it turned into a project that “I” did and the kids just watched…LOL!

Here are our Angry Birds…




In addition to out clay project…I whipped up a quick t-shirt with fabric markers.

I think I am over Angry Birds this week…..LOL!

Have a good day!

Almost Wordless Wednesday….

Mall rides are the best!!


Have a great day….