Our "great" Pumpkins

I have to say I am not a fan of Halloween. First my dear children pester me for the whole month of September about what their costume should consist of. Usually it is far from what they will end up with, but you can't blame a kid for dreaming. Then add to that the usual cold, candy and running them around town all dressed up, it just isn't my favorite thing to do.....until this year when we have to miss it. My mom is going to get to do all the dressing up and running around with my sugared up girls and I am surprised to say, I am pretty sad. So tonight we broke tradition on dragging our feet about carving pumpkins and did it a little bit early. The oldest opted to go on an outing and have her first and maybe only limo ride, but that is a whole different story. The other two were in pumpkin heaven. The three year old kept telling me she had to have an ah-choo on her pumpkin. What the heck is that......then I figured it out. She wanted something coming out of it's nose. I swear this is no normal three year old. The pumpkins got done, the mess didn't seem so bad this year and we had more fun than normal. Now I just have to come to terms with sending them out the door Friday and getting on a plane. Who plans a convention over Halloween? I am going to have a little chat with them about that when I get there. In the meantime, I be more willing to fix their costumes, buy them treats and get all the Halloweening in while I am here.

Card Swap card and Costco

The theme for next months card swap is chipboard. I have never done a whole lot with chipboard, I thought the purpose of chipboard was to collect the cute stuff in the drawer to get out and look at every once in a while. That always makes me feel better, but anyway.......back to the swap card. I have a very talented sister-in-law who got me hooked on the carousel notes in the Stampin' Up! catty. Then she introduced me to the classy brass that co-ordinates with it. You would think she is the Stampin' Up! demonstrator, not me. I wanted a card that wasn't the same ol' thing so I decided I could make my own carousel notes with the classy brass template. This was quite a project, but I am excited about how it turned out. My 12 year old approves too and that is always a bonus. I just hope the gals in the swap like it. I have to say I LOVE the snowflake die from the big shot machine. I am going to have to spend a lot more time figuring out fun stuff to do with that.

The other exciting thing going on at our house, ok maybe just to me, is the opening of Costco last week. Wooo-hoooo! I wasn't going to go opening day, but when my hubby asked if I wanted to go I just couldnt' resist. It was WAY too crowded, and worth every minute, and every dollar we spent. This is monumental in our town. Most stores choose to locate about 45 minutes away, but not Costco. This could be a beautiful thing. Hopefully it will draw a few more businesses into our neck of the woods. I have been twice now, just because I could. This morning was much better than the madness last week, but to think I can go any time I want just makes me giddy. Now if only we could get a real craft store and a Target, my life here would be just about perfect.

Christmas card class

These are the cards I made in my class last week. I enjoy the opportunity to spend time with my friends doing what I love to do. I do need to give credit to Gabby-Believes and mom4cuties on www.splitcoaststampers.com for their inspiration on the second and third card. I can take credit for the first card and have to say I had a lot of fun cutting all the snowflakes with my new Big Shot from Stampin' Up! You can't really see in in the pictures, but there is a lot of glitter on the Let It Snow card. I still have it all over my dining room.

I hope everyone who came had a good time and I am looking forward to my next class in November. Let me know what you think of the cards!

It's all about keeping them happy

Today actually started several weeks ago with a phone call. It went something like.....
Hello?
Hi Julia. How bad do you not want to be an art mom for school?
I really don't want to be an art mom.
Ok, great. Which class do you want to be in?
I really don't want to be an art mom.
Good, I will put you in the 6th grade. I will get you the lesson plans and then you can coordinate a time to get with the teacher. Thanks so much.

End of conversation. I stood there thinking, "didn't I just say I don't want to be an art mom?" So I guess I am an art mom and after much dragging of my feet I scheduled with the teacher and went in and did my first lesson today. I almost hate to admit it was actually fun. I have an awesome person who has volunteered (by choice) to help me and the class is a great group of kids. They wanted to stay and do art instead of go to p.e. I think that is quite a compliment coming from a 6th grader. The best part of the whole thing was seeing my 6th grader happy to see me there. I even managed to get through the whole hour with out embarassing her. So after much agonizing I realized it is all about keeping them happy and knowing there are little things we can do for them so they will always remember mom loves them.