Fun with Grandma and Grandpa, parts 2 and 3

Been a busy day today. We stopped at Best Buy to buy a Hannah Montana's Best of Both Worlds CD for the girls' listening pleasure while riding in my PT cruiser, then went and picked up granddaughter #2 for her bike ride. Asked her where she wanted to have lunch, and guess where she chose--Fazoli's. Had another nice long lunch spending some quality time with her. I managed to get spaghetti sauce all over my shirt and shorts so we came home so I could change. Grandpa laid down for a power nap, and Mia and I made a card for her to give her Mom. I then took her home and grandchild #2 was ready to go. He's 2 1/2 and has never gone bike riding with us. So the two of us set off to wake up pick up Grandpa and headed back to the bike trail. While riding with #2, there was a sign saying the trail was closed. I figured it was because the river was rising due to all the rain, but since we saw people had been through the area, we decided to go on ahead. At the bottom of the trail there was water on the other side of the trail, but then found it all over the water a couple inches deep. We made an executive decision to go to higher ground and walk the bikes. So when we set out with #3, we went another direction. After going almost three miles, we stopped for drinks. Grandchild #3 was looking kind of tired, and didn't want to go back. He wanted to go "three blocks that way." Convinced him to get into the cart and headed back the way we wanted to go. He quickly fell asleep. Brought him back to our house because he was hungry and wanted one of my smoovers (translation: smoothie). After he recharged, we got out his cars to play with until Mommy and Daddy got here to pick him up. They were going to Olive Garden and invited us along, but I didn't really think I could handle more pasta and breadsticks, although I love breadsticks and pasta. I think we will kick back, enjoy a little vino, and relax tonight. Took a shower and saw that I got some nice sun today. Well on my way to my summer tan.

I also reworked my Squirmy Wormy layout by changing the title to look like stickers; changed the stitching on the journaling box, took the worm out of the jar and placed it peeking out from under the journal box and added a lady bug to the jar. I also added a tag with "I love bugs" on it.

New Adventure for Grandpa and Me

Last night when I left work I was shocked to see the sun shining and no rain. So instead of heading to the gym, I thought I'd see if Grandpa wanted to get his bicycle out for a little ride. Then I thought, "we ought to use our bike trailer and take a grandchild with us." The bike trailer can fit two smaller children, which we've done with the twins, who are now 6 1/2 years old, but it would be a tight squeeze now. The problem was, all three of our grandchildren live in the same house with the same set of parents. How do I take only one? So I called their mother, my daughter and told her what I was thinking of doing, but that I couldn't decide how to choose only one. She put it to the grandkids. I could hear all kinds of screams of excitement and discussion. She came back and said that granddaughter #1 figured out a plan--she was the oldest by 20 minutes so she would go first, followed by her twin sister, and then their little brother. Sounded like a good plan, kind of how I worked out years ago which one of my brats children got to ride in the front seat (can you believe we used to let them ride in the front seat with no car seat ) with me and which one had to ride in the backseat--child #1 was born on an even date and child #2 was born on an odd date, so #1 rode in the front seat on even days and #2 rode in the front on odd days.

Back to last night...we got there to pick up granddaughter #1 and all of them were in a good mood although they all said they wanted to go to. We promised them we would take them today and tomorrow. So we did our little bike ride, picked some flowers, caught some bugs, and then went to eat at #1's choice: Fazoli's. (Did I forget to mention we washed our hands first?) She was a little on the fidgety side at first, not knowing what to do with herself without her sister, but was also eating up the two-on-one time, chatting away, cuddling with Grandpa, and playing with her food. You would have thought we were at a fine dining restaurant with seven courses--we were there for over an hour and a half! Grandpa and I just kept looking at each other smiling, glad that we had taken the steps to spend some quality time with her. She also wanted to go get ice cream at a place in an adjoining town where her other grandparents live. As it so happened her parents and siblings were there visiting so I asked her if she would like to have them join us, which she smiled big time and shook her head yes. So after a phone call, we all met there and as soon as she saw her twin, they were in each other's arms hugging and dancing away. You would have thought they hadn't seen each other in weeks instead of 3 1/2 hours.

I meant to take my camera and can't believe I forgot it. Going to take granddaughter #2 today, but since I didn't take my camera yesterday, I can't do it today--got to keep it fair.

Squirmy Worm

This layout is in honor of Cailey's dead pet worm. The journaling reads "One day at school Mia found a worm and gave it to Cailey. Cailey put it in her coat pocket, where it stayed during the school day. When s he came home the worm was dead. She then made the dead worm a nice home in her but catcher.

"She loves to catch bugs and worms. While at Living History Farms her friend picks up this worm. I wouldn't let them keep it. As a compromise, I promised to take a picture of it."

I used Kim Hill's Girly Bugs kit, that my daughter and her family gave me for Mother's Day. I love the jar. I can think of lots of uses for these jars.

Nikon Family poster

Che-Guevara-Nikon-Family-poster-web, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

Saw a great tutorial by Ariadna Wiczling in ScrapGirls.com Newsletter on How to Turn Your Photos Into Pop Art. I played around with a couple pictures of Roger and myself, both with our wonderful Nikon cameras. Scraplifting Andy Warhol's “Che Guevara” poster, I created our own little poster. Wonder if Nikon would be interested in it?

Pella Tulip Festival

Earlier this month we went to Pella with our children and grandchildren to enjoy the Pella Tulip Festival. I've finally gotten around to scrapping a page from this visit, thanks to some scrapbooking kits I received from my daughter and her family for Mother's Day. I used the Girly Bugs Kit from by Kim Hill.

Living History Farms Field trip

dj_LHF-12x12-double, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

Last Thursday I went along as a chaperone with my granddaughter's kindergarten class to Living History Farms. I used Pioneer Woman's actions on my photos, and Doreen Stolz's Rustic Fields Kit from http://godigitalscrapbooking.com.

Soccer

2008-May-08_soccer_0392, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

I am still amazed the difference a year makes. The girls are right in the mix this year, with smiles on to boot. I shot over 300 pictures during their game. The hard part is choosing which ones to post. I've posted a few more over on flickr. Check them out!

New Soccer Shirts

Soccer_04 24 08_0162 edited, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

Last night the girls had their first soccer practice of 2008. They wore their red shirts from a previous year and after the practice, which they did an awesome job at, they got juice boxes and their new blue shirts. They are the Bulldogs. Go Bulldogs.

If you want to see some more soccer photos, visit my Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/queenshakenbake/

King of the Jungle

King of the Jungle, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

I was playing around with my PW Actions on this photo from Luke's and my zoo visit. Isn't he beautiful?

Last night I went to the girls' first soccer practice of the season. This is their 3rd season "playing" soccer. I think this is going to be a good year. They were right in there participating in the drills and they have a fantastic coach--Mike. He ran them through drills and took time to explain everything to them. They both showed a lot of interest and Grandpa saw Mia throw an elbow into Cailey trying to get control of the ball. Cailey really paid attention to what Coach Mike was saying and was probably one of the better ball dribblers on her team. I'll post some pictures tonight. Not a tear in sight!

I got an Email from nephew James last night with a link to his Flickr page. His lovely wife Lindsey recently purchased him a Nikon D80 camera. Check out his pictures.

City Jewel: Gray's Lake

The picture/poster above was done for the Bubble Gum Challenge over at Digital Candy, in which we were to use an ad as our inspiration. This month's ad was from my favorite store--Target:


I used pictures I had taken at Gray's Lake, which is probably the number one spot to go in Des Moines. I made it look more like a poster to promote the lake.

Grapes

Grapes, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

Hee is an "after" processing photo. The original was pretty great, but the actions really made this one POP.

Napa Valley Grapes

napa valley grapes copy, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

My favorite blogger--Pioneer Woman--posted a FREE set of actions on her site and I have been having so much fun playing around with them. The picture above will become one of my favorite beverages, but for now were just hanging around getting fat and juicy. The picture on top is SOOC and the one on bottom is after I ran fresh and colorful, boost, and quick edge burn.

Pioneer Woman Action Set 1

flower girls times 2 copy, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

The fantastic Pioneer Woman has created a set of free actions available on her site. The top picture is SOOC (straight out of camera) and the one on the bottom I've ran a couple of her actions on it.

Another Weekend is Over

Been a busy weekend. Started out with an exciting event on Friday. My Grandson got a casting call for an upcoming movie to be shot in Iowa: Paradise starring Ellen Page from Juno and Cillian Murphy who was in The Girl With The Pearl Earring and Batman Returns. We have our fingers crossed he gets selected for the role of 2-year-old Jack Ellen Page's character's son. For more information, visit "The Adventures of Cailey, Mia, and Luke" or Variety.com

Met up with Carrie, David, and grandchildren at Costco yesterday. Can't believe it has been over six weeks since we were there last. That is some kind of record. We drove the girls home with us and they took Luke and a brand new 47" tv home with them. DH and I had already eaten lunch but we joined them at Cheesecake Factory where I had a Peach Bellini (YUM YUM) while they ate and a slice of chocolate cake, which I shared with Luke and the girls. It was fun talking to Cailey about my favorite book, Misty (see previous post). Their kindergarten teacher has read them the book and showed them the movie and brought pictures she had taken of the island. It was fun talking books with my 6-year-old granddaughter.

Today I spent my morning scrapping and then we went shopping again. Later tonight I went and walked around Gray's Lake (I love that place).

Here is the layout I worked on this morning as part of a template challenge at digitalcandy.ca:


Supplies used include Template by Chrissy W; GDS_Buds_N_Bloom kit; and DMI_bitsy_spiral brush

My Favorite Reading Material as a Child

As long as I can remember, I have always LOVED to read. As a child, I started out reading (I believe) every one of the Bobsey Twins books. I know I read every one of the Little Women series books. I was big into series. Another series I really loved were the non-fiction series about Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry.

I have always loved horses and always dreamed of having my own horse. That is probably one reason I am so hooked on Confessions of the Pioneer Woman.

Anyway, back to Misty, the pony on which the book was based. Misty of Chincoteague is the title of a 1947 children's book by American author Marguerite Henry, based on the true story of a Chincoteague Pony named Misty. Set on the coastal island of that name, the book tells the story of the Beebe family and their efforts to raise a pony born to a wild horse. The book won the Newbery Honor. Wikipedia Misty and her foal Stormy have been preserved and are on display at the Beebes' home. Sequels to this book include:

Stormy, Misty's Foal
Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague
A Pictorial Life Story of Misty
Misty's Twilight

These books brought me so much pleasure and transported me to the Chincoteague Island off the coast of Virginia.

Hanging out at home

Well it has been awhile since I've posted. Not much happening around here. I have done some scrapping this weekend for a couple challenges over at ScrapGirls.

For the Friday sketch challenge, I created the following layout:


For the Saturday Color Challenge, I scrapped this page from my visit to the zoo with Luke:


The journaling tells a cute story about Luke and the monkey that bit his toes. It wasn't really a monkey and it didn't really bit his toes--didn't even come close to him. It was a cool March day and after the class we participated in, we decided to tour the zoo. There was an enclosure and inside the enclosure was a building for some monkeys. Because of the temperature, the monkeys were in the building making LOTS of noise. Luke kept wanting to know what the noise was and I told him it was some monkeys inside the building. He wanted to go inside the building to see the monkeys. Awhile later, on our way out, we passed by the bird exhibit and a peacock had his tail feathers spread. It was beautiful and I was taking some pictures through the fence. Then I decided we would go into the area so I could take pictures without shooting through the fence. We were probably 25 feet away from him. I'm shooting away with Luke standing right next to me. Then the peacock, which was evidently flirting with an ostrich, hissed at us so I decided it was time to leave. Later that afternoon Luke was telling his father all about the monkey that bit his toes, the monkeys in the building were loud and they bit my toes. I kept assuring my son-in-law that although the monkeys were in a building and were very loud, we did not go see them and Luke's toes were not bitten. Later when my daughter came over, Luke and I were showing her the pictures I had taken and when I got to the peacock, he informed his mother that that monkey bit his toes. We told him it was not a monkey but a peacock, but he insisted it was a monkey. A few days later I asked Luke tell his Uncle Jeremy about our visit to the zoo. Luke said he saw a peacock but that he calls it a monkey. What a boy!

I've also been scrapping some 4" x 6" inch brag books for the grandchildren.

What I Did This Weekend

This weekend I've worked on mastering Photoshop and working on a couple layouts (above). We are babysitting our grandcats this weekend too. Rented a couple of movies, one of which I highly recommend: August Rush. It was one of the best movies I've watched in some time.

What Color Palette Are You?

Here is something kind of fun from The Voice of Color at Porter Paints: The Color Sense Game It gave me color combinations for rooms that I am really drawn to. I am Leather, Stone & Wood harmony, which means that I am at ease with the strengthof natural substances. My secondary harmony family is water beads, meaning I am drawn to the refreshing and peaceful blues that will create the calm I crave (I crave calm??). Give it a try.

Here is a palette I would like to do my living room in:

Creative Dry Spell

I've been having a creative dry spell when it comes to scrapbooking. I have spent most my free time trying to create a scrap page of the girls with "The Beast." This I think is my fifth attempt and I am finally happy with it.

So you think you want to be a sportscaster

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This young man may want to rethink his career choices.