And....It's May!

I had such good intentions...really I did!  I posted back in January that I was going to start blogging again, and now it's already MAY?!  Very close to the end of May in fact!  OK, so that was a major failure, but I'm going to do better.  :-)
We are counting down the days until we leave for Ch*na.  The girls have new suitcases and are ready to roll.  "Thank You" to all of the friends/family who are taking care of our other two kiddos while we're gone.  Thanks also for looking after our home.  If I have trouble posting to blogger while in Ch*na, I'll do my best to get a fb group going for updates.

Here I Go - Again

I haven't blogged in such a long time - so long in fact, that I couldn't remember my password to sign in!  I haven't updated the cookie blog either.  And the 365 project blog....forgetaboutit!  Such a bad, bad blogger!

OK, so I DO have a reason for starting back up again with this sad little blog.  We are planning on going to Ch*na this summer for a birthland tour, and thought this would be a good way for friends/family to follow our trip.  Our daughters, Allyson and Claire, are so excited about their return trip!  Look out Ch*na, we're coming back!!  :-D

May, June, July

Finally back in business with my computer!  I've actually had the computer back for a few weeks, but just haven't had any time to update the blog until now.  We've had lots of fun things going on the past 3 months...too much to blog about on one post...so this is a quick recap.

May:  some fishing, piano clinic and recitals, Emily's final band concert as an 8th grader, church children's choir program, winning a church auction basket full 'o chocolate, picking strawberries at grandma's house, Emily receiving some special awards at school, and Max enjoying some of his dress-up stuff.

  

June:  we spent a wonderful week in Florida with some great friends.  Emily's China travel group rented a huge house (complete with elevator!), and we lived the good life in Destin.  It was an awesome week!

July:  highlight of the month was China camp.  Our two oldest girls were counselors this year, while Claire and Max were campers.  Randy and I helped with camp olympics...fun times!

I know I have tons more photos to download from our cameras, so I may have more to add later.  I've been busy making lots of cookies, so I'll those pics to upload as well (may start a seperate blog for those).  And my project 365 blog?  Oh dear I am SO behind on that!  MUST make that a priority to get caught up or I fear I'll drop the project altogether.  :-(

Computer Woes!!

Please pardon my absence from blogging.  One of the kiddos was playing on our computer, and a virus decided to come home with them.  :-(  This is the SECOND time this has happened while they were playing on the Nickelodeon site!  This is a virus that worked its way around our anti-virus protection.  If you have children, I would highly advise AGAINST allowing them to play on Nickelodeon!  :-(
I'll be back with a giant catch-up post once we have our computer back......

Spring Cookies

I was planning to attend an all-day scrapbooking crop at our church, and needed a food treat.  Why not cookies?  I played with some of my new cookie cutters and tried one of the designs shown on Sugarbelle's blog (of course mine don't even come close to hers!).  

Spring Break '11

The kids were off for spring break last week.  ((Our schools actually decided to make up two snow days with the first part of spring break, but we just skipped those days.  :-) ))

Randy had a business trip in Dallas, so we all piled in the car and went with him!  While daddy had meetings in the hotel, mommy and the kids shopped and played.   (please forgive me...some pics may be duplicates of pics on my Project 365 blog...a girl can only take so many pics a day you know!)

Our trip included lots of riding in the car...

Eating out at some fun restaurants...

 A little bit of "posing" for mom and her camera...

Feeding the hotel's wildlife...

 A little bit of swimming in the hotel pool...

A little bit of shopping...

And a sucker for the ride home.  :-)



Alice in Wonderland

Claire's school had their annual ballet program last week.  We are fortunate that this ballet "class" is offered free of charge during school hours.  The kids only practice once a week for about 30 minutes, but they put on a really wonderful program.  Any student who wishes to participate is allowed...and many of the staff even get involved.
This year's performance was "Alice in Wonderland".  Claire's part was a "Rose" and she danced with a King of Hearts (so sweet!)  The principal acted as the Mad Hatter, and the librarian was the Queen of Hearts.  It was a wonderful program!  The school's select choir (of only 20 kids) also sang several songs prior to the ballet (our little miss did a great job on her solo!).  This performance was a little bittersweet though as this was Claire's final choir/ballet performance...she's moving up to middle school this fall! (sniff, sniff)  I took photos of each group of dancers (there were over 200!), but am only posting a few pics here.

Claire singing her solo

Claire dancing with her King of Hearts

Shamrocks and Music Notes

I am really enjoying making cookies...I think I have a new hobby! lol  My kids are loving it too.  I think Emily has eaten several dozen all by herself!  Every day after school, she asks if I made any cookies during the day.  I practically have to hide the cookies from her! ;-)

In honor of St. Patrick's day, I made a batch of shamrock cookies and tried a lemon flavoring this time...yum!  (We *had* to do a taste test you know!)

Claire's school choir had a party to celebrate their final performance for the year, so I made some music note/treble clef cookies for them.  The school colors are green/white, thus the color of the notes. ;-) 

Little Cowboy

I realized that I didn't post the best photos from Max's birthday party.  Here's a few of my little cowboy!

Max's 4th Birthday Party

We had Max's 4th birthday party over the weekend.  Just a few family and friends...very low key (just the way I like it!).  The theme Max finally settled on was "cowboys", because he wanted to wear a hat.  :-)  The party was during lunch time, so we served cowboy-type food (BBQ pork sliders & baked beans). 

I bought little adhesive mustaches for the kids to wear, and made cardstock mustaches for the adults.  A little impromptu photo shoot with the mustaches was required.  :-)

The kids played several games of "There's a Snake in My Boot!"...every snake hitting the target won them a piece of candy.  Even the teenagers stepped up for a turn.

The cake was made by the King of Cakes (a teen boy from our church) who always does a great job.

 I decided to do something different for party favors...and made themed cookies.  I didn't have cookie cutters for the horse head and cowboy boot, so I made a template and cut them out with a knife.  Once I began decorating them I realized I didn't have the right colors on hand, so I did the best I could with what I had.  Overall though, I was pleased with the end result...and have plans for more cookies in the future. :-)  Thanks to my friend, Christina, for the inspiration to give these a try!

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

To celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday, Claire's school asks everyone to wear their pajamas to school.  The kids are also allowed to bring along a favorite stuffed animal and a blanket.  We've had a Cat in the Hat costume for several years, so Claire was sweet enough to wear it for a quick photo before she left for school.  :-) 

YeeHaw! Max is 4 !!!

Our baby boy isn't a baby anymore...Max is 4!  Can't believe he is growing up so fast.  Since his birthday falls on a weekday, he has to wait until the weekend for his party.  The only thing he has asked for is a basketball goal (hope we can find one his size!). 

Blessed to be his mommy!

A Few Layouts

A few more scrapbook layouts.  As I said before, I'm making a real effort to get more caught up on my photos.  These are from 2004...my girls have changed SO much!  I used sketches for all of these (just not sure whose sketches...PageMaps maybe?).  Simple = DONE!