Gift of Laughter

I truly believe that laughter is a gift from God. Laughter has the ability to heal our wounds and change the mood of our days. We got our fair share of that gift yesterday as we watched the third graders put on their Alice and Wonderland play. This class has quite a few gifted actors. They were so good at playing their parts and making the crowd laugh. L was quite excited to be chosen for the part of Alice. I am so proud of how hard she worked to learn her lines and did a wonderful job getting into character. :)
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We had to make sure to get a picture of L and her best friend the Mad Hatter. :)
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The little girl that played the queen was fabulous and the King was perfect! Got a giggle out of this photo. :)
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Speaking of laughter, I did a layout about my sweet mom. She has such an easy laugh and I feel truly blessed to capture photos like this one. (so much better than the posed ones). I created this layout for the Mom and Me contest at Magistical Memories. There is still time to participate. You could win some awesome chipboard!
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Love the new chipboard pieces by Magistical Memories. This piece is called Open Heart Swirl.
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Don't forget to check out the Deal of the Month from Creative Charms. You find the link over on my sidebar.
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Thanks for stopping by today and enjoy your long weekend!

5th graders, gotta love em

Morning everyone!
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Been busy helping out at school and going to a bunch of different programs that the girls have been doing. Yesterday was the 5th grade talent show and open house. I have to say, there are some seriously talented kids in that class. I am going to be sad when K goes on to 6th grade. This is a really neat group. They are sweet, funny and treat each other with respect (largely part to their amazing teacher).
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I didn't get any pictures of the talent show since K wanted me to video her, but I did get a few during the open house afterward. Here is K with a few of her girlfriends.
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K and the two girls on either side of her did a gymnastics routine for the talent show. The other idea they came up with was for the whole class to do the Cha-Cha slide at the end of the show. The idea was a huge hit with her classmates but sadly they ran out of time. So the kids decided to do it at the end of the open house. Got this picture of a few of them dancing. Looks like fun doesn't it?
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Last night after swim practice we were taking one of K's friends home and as we came around the corner we saw 6 deer right up near the road. It is not all that uncommon to see deer around here, but they usually take off when you get too close. I still had my camera in the car and got some great pictures. This guy was only a few feet from us.
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Last but not least, I can't leave without sharing a project. I created this gift bag and card using a fabulous sketch that Anabelle created for Emma's last week. You can see the sketch and supply list on the Emma's Paperie blog along with all the other wonderful sketch projects.
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Got lots to do before this weekend. We get to go the Indy 500 with some friends. This will be my first time going. DH's parents are coming to visit and watch the girls for us. Hope you have some great plans for this weekend as well! Thanks for stopping by!

My poor neglected blog

WOW things have been busy around here lately. I have been keeping quite busy with lots of end of the year school type stuff. One of the things that has been really keeping me busy the last couple of weeks is trying to get a jump start on next year's fund raiser for the school. This last year I was part of a team that revamped the way our school is raising money. In the past we they have done wrapping paper sales. The problem is, half of the money always went back to the company. So our school decided to try something different and we held a Read-a-Thon. This year we brought in $12,000 MORE than the previous high. Because our PTO works with both the Primary school (K-2) and the Elementary school (3-6) we do the Read-Thon at both schools with different themes. That is really the biggest struggle with this program. Anyway, the Elementary school theme is going to be the Percy Jackson series.

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Have you read these books? I have to admit, at first I was a bit less than thrilled with this theme. I love to read but Fantasy has never been my Genre of choice. I decided though, if I was going to really be able to embrace the program next year I needed to become familiar with the books. I have to admit, I am really loving this series. I am not an instant fan of Fantasy now but Riordan does a wonderful job writing these books.

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I have two cards to share with you today. The first is one I shared sneaks of two weeks ago for Creative Charms. I am in love with the Pure Blossom gem flowers. They are so versitile. You can see I created a garden at the front of the house with them on this card. The blue gem stone on the door and that sweet butterfly are also from Creative Charms.

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The second card I want to share with you was for this last week's challenge over at the Card-a-Licious challenge blog. We were challenged to use the color green, polka dots and a flower. Here is my card. I created the polka dots using the Textured Dots and Flowers Embossing plate from Sizzix. LOVE that set! The little pink flower in the middle of the green flower is also from Creative Charms.

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Hope to be back real soon to share more with you! Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful week!!!!

You Make My Heart Sing

In my humble opinion there truly is nothing better than being a mom. You gotta love the endless kisses, toothless grins, and bedtime snuggles. One of my favorite things about being a mom though, would have to be the constant giggles, both theirs and mine. My youngest DD in particular has always kept us laughing. Take last night for instance. Every night before bed she wants 3 things to think about. Not so bad, you might be thinking, but try coming up with 3 new things EVERY SINGLE night. It forces us to get creative once in a while. So last night DH is giving her 3 things to think about and one of them is driving a garbage truck LOL. Her reply is, "that would not be my occupation of choice." The funniest thing about her vocabulary is that she has no idea how funny some of this stuff is coming out of an 8 year old's mouth. She is a hoot!

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I have a card to share today too. One of my favorite color combinations lately has been yellow, teal and red. Just love how vibrant and fun they look together. I created that cute little bird using one of the Lollipop flowers from Prima. Just love how he turned out.

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I am off to our last day of Bible study for the school year. Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Deal of the Month

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day! Mine was wonderful. The girls made me the most wonderful book. I will have to scan it and share it. My sweet husband is getting me a sofa table that I have been wanting for our living room. I can't wait to start shopping for it! The weekend felt way too short though. We pulled the girls out of school early Friday to head to Wisconsin for my uncle's funeral. We got there just in time to spend a little time with family before we needed to get the girls to my parents and into bed. The funeral was beautiful and a wonderful tribute to a great man. I got to spend time catching up with cousins that I have not seen in years. One of the advantages to making this trip this weekend is that I got to spend time with my mom over the Mother's Day weekend. We don't get that opportunity very often and I am thrilled to have had a chance to spend even a little bit of time with her.
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I put this card together for the Card-a-licious Challenge Blog this last week. The challenge is to use yellow, pink and teal together on a card. Not a huge challenge for me on this one. I just adore this color combination and have been using it quite a bit lately.
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I also decided to join the ladies at the Shabby Tea Room for their Chipboard Challenge this week. This lovely chipboard butterfly is one of the new chipboard pieces from Magistical Memories. I painted the butterfly with red acrylic paint and then stamped on him using black ink. After the ink was dried I added gold detail using Stickles.
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I have lots of Creative Charms new for you today. The fabulous women at Creative Charms are starting a new program called The Deal of the Month. This month's amazing deal includes all the items pictured below for only $8.99. That is a $25 value!
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Also they are joining with Life Perservers Kit Club this month to give away a chance to win this month's kit. Check it out! The kit includes:
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• 4 Sheets MME Pattern Papers (3 are double sided and one is a die cut)
• MME Alphabets
• MME Accessory Sticker Sheet
• MME Tickets
• MME Sticker Sheet
• 4 Sheets Crate Paper Brook
• Crate Paper Brook Journal Sticker Sheet
• Crate Paper Chipboard Sheet
• 8 Sheets Bazzill Cardstock
• 2 Yards May Arts Premium Ribbon
• 4 Creative Charms Vintage Poppies Embellishments
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All you have to do for a chance to win is leave a comment on the Creative Charms blog on this post.
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Have a wonderful week!

Mixed Feelings

Hi everyone,

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I am sitting here writing this post not exactly sure what I am feeling. You see, I got news yesterday that my uncle has passed away. Although I am sad for the loss and will miss him, I also know that he is in a much better place. I have no doubt that he has gone to be with the Lord. He has been battling cancer for the last two years and was in a lot of pain his last couple of days. My joy comes with knowing that now he is pain free, so much more alive than any of us still here on Earth. My pain is for my dear aunt, who is struggling with how she will live without him. So please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. She needs God's comfort now.

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Every month Cindy, from Emma's Paperie, shares a color inspiration with us and asks us to create a project using that inspiration. These are some of my favorite assignments. I love having that jumping off point. I have to admit though, when I saw this photo, all I could think of was Christmas colors. I was not sure what I was going with this picture.
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As it turns out I am quite happy with the way this project turned out. Hope you enjoy it too. You can find the supply list on the Emma's Paperie Blog.

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Make sure to stop by the Creative Charms blog today and register for an awesome prize they are giving away!
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Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!!!

Creative Charms

Good morning everyone!
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It is such a beautiful sunny morning here, I can't wait to get outside! First I wanted to share a few things with you. I am the blogger over at Creative Charms today. I thought I would give you a little sneak. :) Head over to the Creative Charms blog to see the whole project.
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I have another sneak preview for you as well. I have been working on some kits for girls using Creative Charms. These kits will be available to stores real soon. If you are interested in these kits please send Michelle with Creative Charms an e-mail. Here is one of the kits that they will be offering.
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Have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Relaxed but not rested

Good morning everyone!!!
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Oh what a great weekend! We had such a nice time and got so much accomplished. I did not get any sleep though. We always end up staying up scrapping into the wee hours of the morning. I got a few assignments done along with a bunch of projects for the upcoming Paper Crafts call. I can't share a whole lot with you right now but I would like to post the two cards I created for NSD for the Emma's Paperie Blog. We decided to do cards around the year as our theme. My two cards were for the Fourth of July and Father's Day.

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Make sure to head over to the Emma's blog to check out the amazing cards everyone created.

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Now for the winner of my give away. I would love to know how to post the random generator on my blog but I have not quite figured that out yet. So you will just have to take me word for it. :) The winner is number 9!!!

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Renee Lamb said...
I just love your teacher project!! how cute! and
beautiful card too!
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April 30, 2010 4:27 PM

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Congrats Renee! If you would send me your address I will send you your goodies!
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I am editing this post to share an incredible opportunity to help someone in need and to win some AMAZING prizes as well. My friend Danielle posted about a beautiful woman named Linda who has gone through a lot recently and needs our help. The story is scary because it could be any one of us. I do not personally know Linda but her story moved me. Please take a few minutes to check out all the details on Danielle's blog.
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Have a wonderful week everyone!!!