Our trip...

to Florida! **Warning, picture heavy

Love landing in Tampa and seeing palm trees lining the interstate:


1st stop, SONIC!! And we were there for happy hour, RT. 44 Strawberry Limeade baby:

and cheddar peppers with ranch and a chili cheese coney to split with my mom!

Shopping at SuperWalMart was a treat, especially since they have Monkey Bread! Alex kept saying he hadn't had it since he lived in OK and it was Yummy:

(we don't have Super WalMart in MN:( . )

The next day was my Grandma's memorial service. It was a beautiful service, their old Reverend flew in from Texas just to perform the memorial (he grew up with my aunt and has always been special to my Grandma - bless his heart he gave her her first computer and taught her how to use it). This was the table at the entry:

I love that picture of my Grandma, it was her Senior picture. The picture in the back is my Grandma, her sister, four brothers and their mom (Grandma is in the center).

Me with my Uncle Rick (my mom's baby brother who I haven't seen since I was 20!) and his son, Matt, who is 15, looks just like my uncle when he was that age:

After the memorial and a nice gathering at a family friend's house, mom and I dug in my grandma's closet, trying on hats! (I LOVE hats, so momma wanted to see which ones I would like, of course I told "all of them"!)

This was mom's when she was a teen:

This was my great-grandmother's (Josie Main):

I teased Momma that we HAD to wear hats the next day because it was Derby Day - she didn't know if I was kidding or not, NOT!!

That evening my Uncle Rick's other son, Ryan, came over and Alex jumped right in the back of his truck - he's so not shy!! We headed to the pool so Alex could show off his swimming to my mom. She said that he didn't have lungs, he had gills because she has never seen anyone hold their breath for that long or stay in the pool for that long!


On Friday we headed to the beach! We had lunch in the sand (grouper sandwich melted in my mouth!!!).

Alex colored a beautiful rainbow fish that Grandma Patti hung up on her refrigerator as soon as we got home:


We played in the water for a while, it was SO nice! Alex had a great time playing in the waves and karate chopping them:

Saturday morning we went to see my Aunt Phyl (she's my dad's aunt who has always been like my third grandmother):


Aunt Phyl lives in a beautiful retirement community and she gave Alex some pennies to throw into the fountain to make a wish:

Alex wished for a puppy and didn't want to leave because there was going to be a puppy come out of that fountain, "puppies love water mom!". He's such a nugget!

That evening we went for a bike ride down to the water. Alex and I rode on my grandma's three-wheel bike, he had so much fun standing behind me like it was his chariot:

Sunday after church we went to a cute local steakhouse, they serve your beer to you in a paper bag, so cute:

and yummy!

Alex's wish for a puppy came true that afternoon when Grandma Patti bought herself a Chihuahua puppy:

She is so adorable and just perfect for my mom, who needed to have a companion since she's spent the last year taking care of my grandma. Just the distraction that she needed so she wouldn't be too alone after we left.

Next we went to my cousin Jessica's ranch. They have lots of sweet horses, but Alex and I didn't get to ride that day, maybe next visit.

Alex had the puppy (her name is still being debated on!) in the backseat with him on the way to the airport. He kissed and petted her the entire way:

On our way to the airport over the Skyway Bridge:

Man, what a sight, LOVE me some saltwater!!!

It was a great trip and I'm so glad that we would be able to go, to be there for my mom and to see lots of family.

Where oh where...

does time go? I haven't blogged in over a week.
Alex has been keeping me busy, very happily! We've been on several play dates with his friend Max, going to the park lots, but since we live in MN, we're back to being cold, so what should we do? Fly to Florida you say? I think we will!
My grandma, my mom's mom, finally went to be with The Lord after suffering from emphazema for many years (second hand smoke DOES kill!), so Alex and I will fly down for her memorial service. We are leaving Wednesday and get to stay until Monday. Alex hasn't ever been to Bradenton and there are lots of people there that cannot wait to meet him! Alex is going to be beside himself to swim in the outdoor pool since it's plenty warm! I'm looking forward to seeing my mom and getting out of MN for a little bit.
I'll be back with many pictures!

More...

Layouts and Alex funnies!

Trisha's Wednesday Challenge at Just4Keeps was to use orange and I {heart} orange, this picture of Haley and my new Maya Mists, so this is one of my faves:


One of Trish's old Tuesday Challenges was to scraplift one of Kelly Goree's layouts. I used LOTS of Studio Calico papers and "was/now" stamp on here:


Now for the Alex funnies...last night we went to the park at the lake to play and feed the birds/fish some bread. I gave Alex a piece of bread, I took mine, starting pinching some off throwing it out, Alex says, "mommy this is yummy bread!" He had eaten half the bread, which may or may not have had a wee bit of mold thinking about growing on it. Yikes! What doesn't kill him only makes him stronger, right?! He finished that and asked for more bread, he was "hungry for more of that delicious bread"!
Then this morning I could hear Sparkles upstairs meowing. I asked Alex to go up to see if she was shut in a room, he told me, "I didn't want Sparkles to eat Robo, so I shut her in my bathroom!" I asked to go up there to let her out - goodness how long was she in there? Never a dull moment with him!

Have a fab Friday!

More layouts...

I've been holing myself up in my scraproom lately (read: Alex's dad had him all afternoon and evening for Easter and scrapping saved my sanity...well somewhat!).

I participated in Just4Keeps' Neverending Scraplift Challenge - my layout was #177, so fun seeing the progression of the lift from #1!

I also did Trish's Tuesday Challenge using a fun sketch:

Alex has been getting up with the sun lately, so I've been getting lots done in the a.m. - my laundry sorter is empty, seriously! Never thought that would happen!! And I've got two layouts working on my table, I love getting a jump-start in the mornings!

Alex got on a kick last night and wanted me to read his Kung Foo Panda book and of course it was a Kohl's Cares book, so we have the stuffed Po Panda to go with it, who happened to be wearing Alex's karate sash. Well, of course he wanted me to tie the sash on his head like a headband and slept with it on all night! He got up this morning and practiced his karate moves all morning, such a fun lil man I have, he makes me SMILE!!

**edited - I was able to get Alex to go to school without his headband on, but he has a red mark on his forhead to show for it!!

Hope you have a terrific Thursday!

Star Wars cards...

Alex got a cool book for his birthday from Aunt Jenny, Uncle Jonathan, Lily, Maddy, Katy and Parker Buddy - a Star Wars book with punch-out character cards! The other night while doing his therapeutic listening, he grabbed his book, his cards and a blue pen:

A section of the book was to list your favorites (droids, character, coolest, bad guy, etc.) and he had so much fun filling it in:

Thank you Aunt Jenny for picking out this cool book for me!

Easter fun...

Instead of decorating Easter eggs that we won't eat, we decorated Easter cookies that Alex gladly ate!

I'm still finding sprinkles on the floor after a dozen sweepings! He surprised me by helping decorate all of them, that's huge for his small concentration. :)



Aren't they decorative?!

The Easter bunny brought Alex a basketful of treats and his eggs all over the living room that he had fun collecting:

I'm so thankful that I was able to spend Easter Sunday morning with him, he said it was the "best Easter ever"!

New Haley layouts...

I'm trying to get back to doing some of the awesome challenges over at Just4Keeps!

Trisha's creations are always so incredible. She challenged us to use vintage inspired papers, this is what I came up with:


Trish have us a great pagemaps sketch to create a layout, this is my take:


Kathy challenged us to use a less than perfect picture on a layout. This picture of Haley has an awful glare and is very fuzzy, but I don't think Haley's ever taken a bad picture, she's so photogenic!!

Trisha challenged us a few weeks ago to use blue as the main color in a layout. This picture of Haley playing softball was perfect for that:


I'm really enjoying Haley's layouts, filling them with fun girlie embellies!

Sharks galore...

Alex and I headed to the aquarium during spring break. It was very cool.

The shark tanks were tunnels with a slooooow moving sidewalk:

Alex was excited to see this alligator:

At the end of the aquarium was a play ship that Alex really enjoyed playing on, especially the telescope:

What a fun day!

Spring Break...

Alex has spring break this week and we played at a classmate's house, hung out at the library, rented two movies, stayed up a little past 9:00 (shhhh! don't tell) and slept in until 7:40 this morning. I love having Alex home all day with me, he is the light of my life and brings me much needed happiness!
Hope you're having a good spring day:)

Scraps of pink...

I worked on some of Haley's layouts this past week.

I got a little bling happy on this one:


This one was all Basic Grey yummies (except for the bling and flowers):


I used lots of odds and ends that I've had forever on this one:


Papers from one of my Studio Calico kits, love those lil birdies:

I took a piece of paper from a SC kit and cut it to pieces to get all of the embellies for this one:

Thanks for taking a peak!

Coming off our sugar high...

All of the cupcakes have been consumed, the crumbs vacuumed up and we're getting back to life as previously scheduled after the big 6th birthday celebration!

I finished up Alex's thank you cards:

Alex went to the dentist:

NO cavities and we saw "pictures" of his big boy teeth that are waiting patiently under the wiggly baby teeth!

Today was School Spirit/Pajama Day at school:

Batman pj's with a flashing bat on the chest and a cape in the back, what a good day!

Alex and I are going to spend a quiet Friday night watching Beverly Hills Chihuahuas in our pj's (luckily he has on already, so easy night for me!). Have a great weekend!

Waterpark Birthday Party....

Alex's 6th Birthday Party was today at the Holiday Inn WaterPark right near our house. It was SO fun!

This is the big slide:


They had basketball goals:

At big hot tub (no BNB!! inside joke for my fam!):

A shallow swimming area that the big kids invaded:

Here the big kids had a water ball/slingshot war:


And of course we had cake (really cupcakes!):

All of Alex's friends were able to come and I think everyone had a good time, I know we had a GREAT time!!

Lil Leprecon...

On ST. Patrick's Day, I took cupcakes to Alex's Kinderzone class:


I stayed and went to lunch with him and his class in the cafeteria - big stuff! It was a very fun morning!

Alex's BIG 6th Birthday...

To start out Alex's birthday, I took cupcakes to his kindergarten classroom:




After school, we headed to the Mall of America! We went for his birthday last year, so he now thinks it's a tradition. Here he is with his map, guiding our way through the rides (even though he KNOWS that place like the back of his hand!):




I just love this picture of him:



THis is his favorite ride there (Jess, you remember this one!!):

He was very brave and rode this:

To end a fun night at the Mall of America, we had dinner at the Hooters there - Alex's favorite restaurant!

Alex was SO wiped out, he fell asleep on the way home! When we got here, he got out of the car and said, "I thought we were still at the Mall of America!", but he soon perked up to open presents!!

First up was his "mystery package" - his box from Aunt Jenny has been here since Saturday and he's been so intrigued by what's in the box - he even told his class about his mystery box! He LOVED his gifts, wrapped in super cool Transformers paper:

LOVE the excitement on his face:


He cannot wait to put this together:

He LOVES this book, it's FULL of trading cards! His big wide eyes remind of of Parker Buddy:

Here is the excitement of him getting his Nintendo DS (sorry for the screaming, don't turn your volume up very loud!):

Thanks for taking a peak at Alex's BIG 6th Birthday!!

**Edited - sorry about the video, don't know why it's turned sideways!