Bubbles

The older grand kids received bubble guns in their Easter Baskets at our house. I guess the Easter Bunny thought Jaren was too young (but that has now been fixed). Here's a layout of Luke I did called Fun With Bubbles.

Supplies used:
Scrap Girls:
Christy VanderWall -- CVA_SSTools_Scripts_SupplyTracker
Digital Artisan Guild:
Mask6a_MH_DCozzi
Mask6bTexture_MH_DCozzi
P_WatercolorWonder3_SJSDBDesigns
Dunia Designs Upside Down Kit:
dunia-upsidedown-paper-05
dunia-upsidedown-paper-06
dunia-upsidedown-paper-07
One Little Bird Scrapbook Designs (Oscraps):
onelittlebird_bubbletemplate

Font: Century Gothic
Font: Champignon

Sweet & Simple April Part 1

April 1 was family night with Easter egg hunt and pizza. April 2 the Okland grand kids spent the night and we visited GG in the care center and then went to her house to play with the kitties. On April 3 Roger and I hit the road to visit some Iowa wineries, including White Oak, Snus Hill, and Santa Maria.
April 4 was Easter Sunday. After dinner some people crashed on the sofa after dinner. April 5 the daffodils are in full bloom. I need to clean out my flower beds. April 6 I visited Gray’s Lake on my lunch as it was a beautiful day. April 7 visited Mom after the Neighborhood Revitalization Board approved Ft. Des Moines’ application. She is looking great.

March 8 spent the evening at my childhood home freshening up for my mother’s home visit. March 9 enjoying my flower bed. March 10 was a busy day. I washed quilts at the laundromat, took 3 dogs to the veterinarian (alone) for shots and heartworm testing, and made Mom’s bed with the help of Penny. March 11 went to Gray’s Lake to walk and caught this beautiful sunrise
April 12 the City Council officially recognized the FortDes Moines Neighborhood Association. On the 13th I made myself one of my “smoothers” for breakfast. Went to Sacred Heart Church on the 14th to see the girls sing.

April 15 I visited Leiserwitz to check out Tamron 18-270 lens I am coveting.
April 16 my mother returned home to live after residing in the hospital or care facility since February 22.
April 17 I drove through Water Works Park to enjoy the flowering trees.
April 18 we visited the zoo with Jeremy, Sarah, and the kids.
April 19 I enjoyed watching the birds at my feeder.
April 20 enjoying my tulips with my new Tamron 18-270mm lens.
April 21 was a visit to Home Depot to exchange a lawn mower we had recently purchased.

Tiffany Tillman's Summer Edition of 25 Days of Templates

Go leave a comment on the link below for a chance to win a place in Tiffany Tillman's summer edition of 25 days of Templates. I took Tiffany Tillman’s December edition of 25 Days of Templates class and loved it. Her templates are awesome. Discover the secrets to making changes to templates, learn how to design your own, and find new ways to create beautiful, stunning layouts in this next workshop.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Simply-Tiffany/103835779657216

Mosaic Moments Page Patterns

Page Patterns

Just ran across Mosaic Moments Page Pattern blog. Great ideas for multiple page layouts.

It's Official--Ft. Des Moines is now a recognized neighborhood

Tonight the mayor and my city councilman was presenting the Fort Des Moines Neighborhood a certificate recognizing us as an official neighborhood. Roger and I was there representing the 'hood. I thought it would be a stand up front, smile, and listen while the certificate is read.
Smile, shake hands with city councilman, and take certificate.Listen to the Mayor, shake his hand, and sit down. What's this????
You want me to speak??? I wasn't prepared for this. I said a few stupid things, and ended up with "and stuff like that." Where did that come from? I'm sure I really impressed everyone with my great public speaking ability.

Winery Visits

Yesterday was a beautiful Iowa day and after the grand kids were picked up, Roger and I decided it was road trip time and headed out to visit some of the Iowa wineries we haven't been to yet. Our first stop was White Oak Vineyards winery near Cambridge. Overall, I would give this winery five stars on a scale of one to five. There wasn't one wine I didn't like. Beautiful building and event room for receptions, etc.
We next traveled to Snus Hill Vineyard and Winery near Madrid. Another beautiful setting and our server Diane, along with her husband John Larson, own the place. We joined up with two couples from north of Panora for our samplings. Diane made sure we had a good time and explained where the name of Snus came from. The Snus Hill Winery name is reflective of the family’s Swedish heritage and their love of cats. Snus is the name of the Larson family’s affectionate and beguiling tobacco brown Burmese cat. The cat got his name from an old Swedish chewing tobacco (Snus). I would give this winery five stars also.
From Snus we headed northwest, stopping in Boone for lunch and a look at the train tracks and depots before heading to Carroll, Iowa and the Santa Maria Vineyard & Winery. It is located right in downtown Carroll, Iowa (across the highway from the Carroll Train Depot building). This winery is in a renovated historic building along the Old Lincoln Highway (Hwy 30). It is a beautiful building with great wall murals. They have an outdoor piazza where in nicer weather you can grab a bite to eat at our bistro, or warm up in front of the fireplace. The piazza wasn't open when we visited. We wished we would have waited to eaten there as they serve food that looked very good. The wines, though, did not match those we tasted (and bought) at White Oak and Snus Hill. We really liked their Brianna. I had also purchased a bottle of their Swan Lake White last fall while at a scrapbook retreat in Clear Lake that I found very good. I would give this winery 3 stars.

In total we purchased three bottles from White Oak, three from Snus, and two bottles of Brianna from Santa Maria.

Sweet & Simple, March 2010, Part 2

Finished my March Sweet & Simple pages tonight. Mom is still in the Care Center but we've seen improvements in her awareness since being taken to the hospital on the 30th. After nebulizer treatments, and med changes she was sent back to the Care Center. Am hoping she can come home next week perhaps.

Fun with the grands

Had everyone over tonight for the Easter egg hunt. This was Jaren's first year and he had a blast. Had to re-hide eggs for him to find. We use a combination of foil-wrapped Nestle Crunch, Butterfinger, and Hershey's eggs along with the plastic eggs that are filled with either (1) jelly beans, (2) M&M's, and (3) money. Miss Mia focused her attention on the large plastic eggs bypassing the foil wrapped ones. We even got Keira in the game with her own bag and a plastic egg. The older grands got battery-powered bubble guns that were a big hit.

Easter egg hunts have always been a tradition in our family, and we continued to have them for our two kids well into their teens. They may have been embarrassed to be seen hunting them, but the competition was still very much present.

We held it tonight instead of Easter Sunday because part of the family will be traveling out-of-town for the weekend. I think this worked out better as the night was warm and beautiful. Actually it was HOT! Sunday sounds like it might be rainy.