It's Pumpkin Carving Time!

Josh and I had a little quality time together today after Emily went to see High School Musical 3 with a good friend, so we carved the pumpkins. He loved the haunted house one...this one was his fave. Emily picked a spooky Jack the Pumpkin King face and Josh's was one I just hand drew out. We did the haunted house for a competition on Pack Rat (Facebook).

We also created a cute little pumpkin using the Cricut for our preschool. They were so easy to make and turned out so cute. I used my George cart to cute star shapes from the Cricut vinyl and let the kids stick them wherever on their little pumpkins. I then spray painted the pumpkin black and removed the vinyl. These were neat and SO easy!!!

My Newest Addiction

I LOVE Woot.com. It's been an addiction of mine since I found it on Emilie Ahern's blog months ago. Since then, a friend introduced me to a scrapbooking version of Woot called Peachy Cheap. They have some great daily deals (they take a break on Sundays) and I LOVE most of the goodies they pick out to feature. You'll hafta check it out!
Click Here for Peachy Cheap!

Halloween Spookies!

Josh had his Halloween Birthday party this weekend and of course... costumes were required. :) I was able to have the two of them slow down enough to grab a few photos of them in their spooky garb. Josh ended up spiking a fever almost immediately after these pics were taken and is scheduled to visit the dr. later on today. Poor kiddo.... sick for his party.

Em wanted to be a gothic inspired vampire and Josh was a pirate once again... one of his fave costumes. :)

She's in the Band!!!

Miss Em had a fabulously fun weekend! Friday night, the elementary band was asked to play with the highschool band for the half time football show. It was senior night and the stands were packed, so she had a blast out there on the field hamming it up. It was colder than cold, but the kids all had a great time.

This pic was from the night before. She and her fellow band buddy posed for some pics for me... this one was just too cute!! :)

Happy Birthday, Birthday Boy!!!!

Here he is... the 6 year old little guy!!!! Time flies!!!! I can't believe he's 6 already!!!

In honor of his birthday, I decided to do my Round #6 Bad Girls Top Designer layout on my little guy. The class was all about breaking all of the design rules that we have learned so far, so I started with making my own patterned paper with acyrlic paints and glimmer mist, and using colors that I loved, regardless to whether they were in the photo. I then added my textured layers in reckless abandon for the rules of balance. :) This was my end result!!!!

Oh... and I had to share with you... my son is doing the "Happy 6 Year Old" dance right now and accidentally let out a little toot. He stopped in his tracks and smiled a bright smile and proclaimed "That's my first 6 year old fart." Ahhhh.... the things that makes a Momma proud!!! :)

Happy Birthday Joshie!!! :)

Halloween Inspired Semi Healthy Birthday Treats

Joshie man turns 6 tommorow and wanted to celebrate with his Kindergarten pals. Our school district has adopted the healthier snack options at classroom events which leaves the old cupcake standby out of the question. So I thought up a semi healthy Smores snack mix and created some cute boxes to serve it up in for some spooky birthday fun!

FOR THE BOXES:
I used my Cricut Tags Bags Boxes and More cartridge to cut out the popcorn box with window option at 5 1/2. I then stamped the boxes with a Stampin Up Halloween background stamp set and assembled. I lined the box with a cello bag from the candy making aisle and added my mix. I topped it off with a cute Halloween ribbon. I would've loved to glam them up more, but since I was making 20 of them, less was more. :)

FOR THE SNACK MIX:
Mix one box of Golden Grahams cereal, 3/4 of a bag of mini marshmallows, and a bag of milk chocolate chips together and measure into the bags in 1 cup servings. Don't make it too early in advance though because the cereal will absorb the moisture from the marshmallows and make it soggy.

The {Almost} Birthday Boy!!!!

So Friday is Joshie's BIG day... he turns 6!!!! He is so stinkin excited to hit 6 that he literally wakes up every morning with a case of the giggles wondering if today is the big day. :) We had some beautiful weather this weekend so I got a few shots of the birthday boy in our beloved sugar maple tree. The tree isn't quite as splendid this year as it was last year (we had a very dry summer) but the pics turned out fairly good all the same.

So Happy Birthday, Little Man!!!! :) We'll be celebrating in Halloween style on Saturday with a spooky Halloween/Birthday party in the barn with all of his closest friends and family. :)

Create a Layout and Win at The Paper Element!!

The blog challenge is up and running at The Paper Element. You'll hafta stop over and check out my challenge for this week... it's all about autumn!!! Click on the Paper Element to head on over!

The Paper Element

Guess Who is October's Guest DT Member at My Acrylic Album?

....well none other than me!!! I was asked to be a Guest DT member a few months ago and this month it's my turn! :) I love working with acrylic albums... this is quickly becoming one of my fave ways to scrap. I created two different albums and I just love the end result for both of them. Here's a sneaky peeky and you can click here to check both albums out!

Just Jack

I had to get some pics of some layouts last night and Jack was watching the neighbor boy (one of his favorite people eva!!) across the street, so I was able to snap off a few pics of the hyper puppy before he ran off to play.

Our hyper puppy Jack decided to eat a copy of Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" over the weekend. I have to say, he does have great taste in books... Dr. Seuss being my fave author and all, but it was a school library book. We tried Border's to replace it, and can you believe it's out of print?!?!?! So Mr. Jack's lunch (which he actually UNzipped Josh's backpack to get to while we were out) is $20 to replace a VERY well worn book.

That dog.

Round #5 of Bad Girls TOP DESIGNER!!!!

OK.... so I COMPLETELY cannot believe that I am actually in for Round #5 at Bad Girls Top Designer! I am amazed! The talent there is just overwhelming and each week I find myself on the verge of throwing up when I enter my layout into the gallery... will I make it another round?!?! I am having so much fun with this competition.. the classes are amazing and really force me to put thought into my pages...something I don't always do. So here is my round #5 entry. This week is all about pulling color from your photo and balancing it with neutrals. It was taught by the uber-talented Heidi Sonboul. I pulled out the purples and Em's skin tone for the background paper (how yummy is that Black Market paper?! YUM!!) I pulled further color with the reds and pinks of the dress and used those in my embellies. White already appeared as a neutral in my photo, so I decided to strike a balance and throw in black as a second neutral. I like the way it turned out, but the competition is fierce. I am second guessing myself and my style with every page. But, my heart and soul is in this page and my style is me... I can only hope they like it as well. :)

A Little fun at the Faire

We had a beautiful weekend and took full advantage with a trip to the Renaissance Faire. It's a great place to visit for anyone headed to the Lancaster, PA area... there is so much there to see and do and the entertainment is terrific!!!

Here are the kiddos by the cool pirate ship. The ship is actually a sword shop inside and during the day they raffle off some of the swords. The place is teeming with pirates and Josh got a kick out of that! He even saw Captain Jack Sparrow and bought a cool doubloon necklace from him... he was warned not to wear it in the moonlight though lest he turn into a skeleton pirate. :)

We also watched a cute jester show with a doggie that looked alot like our Jack. This dog's name was Blockhead (I think they must be related.... Blockhead is a GREAT name for our Jack!) It was cute and the two jesters did a great job!!!

The human chess match and the joust at the end of the day were for sure the highlights. The action was amazing!!! None of the pics turned out of the joust becuase they never stopped moving!!!

Here are my two Renaissance loving kiddos near the end of our fun filled day....we had a blast!!!

And Bad Girls Continues......

So I made it to round #4 at Bad Girls Top Designer and this week it was all about the embellishments. I decided to make abunch of my own embellies for my page and I created my frame by following the way I made bubblegum wrapper chains when I was little. I hope it wasn't too far out of the box. Let's hope I get another round but I dunno.

Fall is here with the colder weather and the rain and we are just keeping busy with life. Whew... never a dull moment!! :)