Wednesday, September 30, 2009

More August stuff

August 18th was Alex's 12th birthday and since his birthday falls in the summer it is hard to have a party with kids from school so usually I let him invite a friend for a fun day or give him a shopping spree of his choice. I guess this year I let him have both, who knows...I could have been over compensating for having lost his cousin and his grandma in the last year. Here we are setting out for our fun filled day.




After picking up his friend, Matty, our first stop was the paintball store when I spent a ridiculous amount of money to make a kid's birthday a happy one...yeah I got a lot of hugs for that shopping spree, trust me. Do you have any idea how much it cost for a paintball gun barrel? Insane!! Let's just say the American Express card was letting off steam after I walked out of there!




It was then off to Alex's choice of play, the local amusement park for an afternoon of games and rides. First on the ticket...rock climbing and I have to say that Alex was a champion climber and hit all 3 bells pretty quickly!



Last year when Alex turned 11 Jim and I had taken him to this same park for his birthday and I remember how mad he was that he wasn't tall enough to ride the Go-Karts alone to the point that he was obnoxious about it and we almost took him home...imagine that? HAHA! So this year I was praying...I knew the height requirement was 58" and at the last checkup he was 57" so I told him that when he got up to the ruler he needed to really stand up straight and stretch his neck out!! Well....HE MADE IT!! Man was he happy, he rode those things 3 times...but alas, Matty didn't make the cut...he wasn't so happy...but he did manage to ride the roller coaster a few times while Alex was on the Go-Karts.



Go Alex!!


We really enjoyed the afternoon, Alex and Matty played a round of mini-golf and then went on the bumper boats before we headed back home to wait for Jim to get home from work so that we could go out to a birthday dinner.




We all went to Applebee's for dinner and it was yummy! Of course I couldn't resist telling the waitress that we were celebrating a birthday while Alex was off playing one of the video games in the restaurant.



All of the wait staff is singing loudly to him!


That is not a sunburn on his cheeks!!

Happy Birthday Alex! :-)

Monday, September 21, 2009

Crop Classix Weekend

So it's been over a month since I went to my scrapbook weekend and I haven't had much time to scrap since much less blog but I thought I would take a few moments this morning over my coffee to post a little bit about it.


It was great to see my friends, Regina and Karen again (we met in New Jersey at my last weekend) and get to sit with them and chat and crop together.



Regina's daughter, Emma, sat next to me and I enjoyed watching her creativity. I hope to see them again at future crops! I love the hotel we stayed at, I loved all the food (maybe a little too much, hehehe) and I thought that Mindi and her brother did an amazing job running the crop and would go to another Crop Classix in the future for sure! Just all of the dies and tools they had for everyone to use was like being in a candy store! I spent a couple of hours on saturday night when others had gone to bed just using up my card stock scraps and cutting words and titles and shapes galore!! Here are just a few layouts I completed. Enjoy!!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

First day of school


Alex started the 7th grade...how is that possible? I can't believe that next year he will be a teenager and I feel as though he was just a baby yesterday? Time has a way of getting away from you if you don't watch out...we certainly have to live each day to the fullest and cherish all of the memories.

Of course when I took out the camera he said I wasn't taking a picture and I said, "Listen here...we are getting a picture of your first day of 7th grade so you choose...inside or outside...!!!" He posed in the house and then when he wasn't looking I snapped one of him waiting for the bus. I'm so sneaky but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do!!

Now let's see if I can rewind a bit and continue with my summertime fun memories.

The weekend of August 14th, 15th and 16th was my long awaited scrapbooking retreat. It was my first time attending a Crop Classix event and boy did I enjoy myself!!! This was held at the Marriott in Trumbull, CT and the location couldn't have been more convenient for a summertime crop as far as I'm concerned! First of all it was about a 10 minute drive after I got over to Connecticut once I got off the Pt Jefferson/Bridgeport Ferry and since I absolutely LOVE the convenience of riding the ferry it was ideal for me! That friday morning was picture perfect weather and I got to the ferry early and just walked around a bit until it was time to pull the cars on board and then I settled into a deck chair to enjoy the sun and the view as we started making our way across the Long Island sound.

Right before I snapped this photo I sent Nancy a text that said, "Well Stimpy....dis is dee life!!" For those of you who ever watched, Ren and Stimpy you'll know what that is.



It was about halfway to Connecticut and I was just relaxing and chatting with some random woman sitting nearby when I glanced over and saw a young man on a cell phone and I realized, "Hey...I know that guy...", imagine my surprise when I found my niece, her husband and their little baby daughter on board!!

So we enjoyed chatting and I told them I was heading to a scrapbook weekend and they told me they were heading up north to visit some of Brad's college buddies for the weekend. Totally cool to run into them and get a snapshot overlooking the sound. It truly was a perfect day for crossing over to Connecticut and I enjoyed every second of it.

I did spend some time reflecting on the last time I had been on that ferry...last October when I went to Hartford for the Creating Keepsakes Convention. That ride was sad for me because Nancy had called to tell me that mom's MRI showed that her cancer was growing and that she would have to get some other type of treatment (we later learned she would have surgery to remove the tumors). So this day I looked out over the water and enjoyed the warm august sunshine on my face and thought about mom and how I miss her but also I smiled to know that she loved riding the ferry with my stepdad and doing fun things with him...I know she would have been happy that I was doing something for myself.

More about the scrapbook weekend in my next post...