Just for fun.

In and out all day today...busy this week with getting ready for our trip. Realized I haven't shared many layouts lately, though, and wanted to just post these two quickly. These are layouts I actually started back in April and finally got around to finishing this week. Normally, I don't leave layouts hanging like that but assignments cropped up and these got set aside. In any case, just a couple layouts I did for nothing in particular. :)

 

This one was about a field trip with the boys where they learned about bats...not obvious from the pictures. ;) Big thanks to Vivian for the cute little wooden bat button! This next layout is just a heap of pictures from some fountain fun downtown last September:

 

Love the mirror paper (by Prism, of course!) for the "spray" and how nicely the title came together (finally). Hard to see here, but some of the little pictures along the bottom are popped up and framed with silver tape as well.

Okay, off to the gym now then the rest of my crazy afternoon... :) 

Water rocks!

It started with the sidewalk chalk. And then they wanted to change what they'd written. Thus came the water...

 

Noah, of course, declared himself in charge of the hose as he sprayed his brothers. Micah wasn't keen on getting wet but loved to see the spray. Not exactly sure what he's doing here...perhaps signaling some sort of water spray preference? Regardless, he's adorable!

 

And, my suddenly fearless Asher ended the session completely soaked...with goosebumps and pruney fingers. Unlike his water-dodging brothers, Asher headed straight into it:

 

Incidentally, I now think that it should be mandatory that kids wear tie dye when playing in the water. :)

(Yes, btw, I know I should have redirected them to spray the water over the yard so at least we'd have been watering the grass. But they were having such fun and we didn't stay out there *too* terribly long...)

 Well, it seems like a good start to the weekend. :) Here's hoping the rest of it goes as well...(and I promise to try to do some scrapbooking to share, too!)

Last Friday...

Popping in again to share some pictures from last Friday (aka the Fourth of July). First, here's Micah in his very first ever water gun fight...gotta love the belly profile!

 

Not surprisingly, he was NOT a fan of anyone squirting him, though he felt more than justified in getting everyone else. :) Noah, on the other hand, has finally grasped the true spirit of a water fight:

 

The boy was completely soaked in short order and gave as good as he got. Asher's still on the fence about the whole being squirted thing...doing better than last year when he was more like Micah, but still rather adamant about certain "rules" that seemed to be forthcoming at his whim. Regardless, this is one good-looking six year old:

 

And, what Fourth of July would be complete without fireworks? We again visited the Loveland city fireworks show. Here's one of the many photos we took...not the best, but still a fun one:

 

And thus ends my belated pictures from last Friday. ;)  

More photo books!

Dude. I can't even remember if I've mentioned this before (and shame on me if I haven't!) but Creating Keepsakes and Shutterfly have me completely addicted to photo books! I just finished up a couple of 8x8 photo books for Noah and Asher (okay, I didn't *just* finish them, but I did just remember to post about it, so that's okay, right?). Check 'em out right HERE and HERE.

I used the Creating Keepsakes "Play Hard" photo book (designed by Kerri Bradford). They stinkin' rock! I'm going to gift these to the boys soon to commemorate their first year of soccer (figured I'd better get them done before the next season starts this fall, eh?). I love how easy it was and how I now don't feel guilty about not using the gazillion photos I took on the few layouts I'm planning for their actual scrapbooks. Score!

Incidentally, while you're there, check out my other photo books in my gallery. I've done one other but I'm not ready to share that one right now. :)  Back later to add a few pictures from the Fourth...

ETA: Okay, I'm not sure why those links aren't working. Do a quick search on the page it brings you to for "play hard" and you'll find them. Sorry about that! :) 

Any big plans?

Happy Fourth of July all! So, whatchya doing? Last year we had a jam-packed day. The boys spent the morning with Nathan watching a radio control plane show in north Fort Collins (while I attempted to get a bit more work done scrapbooking layouts for my book...that's coming out this November!!). This was Noah's favorite plane:

 

By all accounts, the boys loved watching all the RC planes fly and particularly enjoyed the ones that made smoke trails. (Nathan checked last night and couldn't find information for the group doing this again this year.) Then we all headed to the Loveland airport to see real planes on display, including a couple of WWII bombers. The boys and Nathan got to climb/walk through one of them. They're doing this again this year, but it's supposed to be 95 degrees today and, well, it was about that hot last year (maybe hotter actually) and that was pretty dang hot on the tarmac like that. Here's one of my favorite pictures of the day...just Noah goofing around between the planes:

 

We ended the day, of course, with fireworks. We found a nice spot near the Loveland city park where their display was and settled in. It rained a bit initially but cleared up just in time. By the end, the boys were rough-housing a bit and having a grand time:

 

And that was our Fourth of July last year. This year we're opting for a more low key celebration...just enjoying some water play in our front yard and then heading for the fireworks later tonight. We were hoping Zach, Marcy and Makenna would be joining us but Micah's got a persistent cough today and they opted to not risk Makenna getting sick. Can't blame them, though the boys are pretty bummed. They were looking forward to trying to get Uncle Zach in a water fight. :) Guess we'll have to shoot for next weekend. :) 

So. What are your plans? Hope you have a safe and fun Fourth!!