OK I just realized that I haven't posted here since April! Umm Ooops. Sorry about that.
Ok the last 3.5 months in a nutshell.
May - took K to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. She had a great time! We ate lunch at Phillips and that was a huge hit, of course K orders her normal kid type cuisine (hot dog if I remember correctly) but then decides to try my Crab cake. Guess which one she liked better??? Yup, my $15 crab cake LOL she even asked me if I would order her one. LOL
June - K finished kindergarten. WOW I can't believe how fast time has gone by. This was a tough month for me, I had to drive K out to spend the summer with her Dad. Divorce sucks sometimes. But she needs to see him too, so it's only fair. I get some much needed me time as well, so that's a good thing.
I went wine tasting with a friend from work, that was fun. I'd never been before and my experience with wine has been somewhat limited (ok non-existent!) LOL but I did find a few that I really liked. It was a neat experience, I think I'll do it again.
July - Work has been interesting. Since writing here last I have been with the 2 year olds. I was subbing for a girl who went on maternity leave early. I really enjoy working with the other teachers in this room and the kids are really fun. However the girl came back to work after the 4th and I am back to floating around in different rooms. While I like getting to know all the kids in the center, I did like having a set place to be each day.
I had a week off (no pay) this month. The center was closed for the 4th. While having the time off was nice, not getting a paycheck wasn't.
I went to Community Days a couple of times that week, and let me tell you it hasn't really changed since I was 13 LOL. I felt really out of place and WAY too old to be there. Now if I had K with me it would be different.
Went to some different wine shops with the same girl from work. We had a nice time. There were some really good wines (Berried in Chocolate :) ) and some very odd wines as well.
August - Now it's August and I really can't complain. We've had great weather so far this summer (knock on wood) I haven't even had my A/C units put in the windows yet! I get to pick up K in a couple of weeks, I can't wait.
So that's my summer so far. On the crating front, I haven't really done much. I'm making a Diaper Cake for the girl from work, her shower is this Thursday. Hopefully I can post a pic of that when it's done. It's gonna be really cute. I'll do a card to go along with that. I haven't stopped working on my Disney album, but I have slowed down a LOT. My main computer's mother board bit the dust a few weeks back and I've been using my laptop it's old and SSSSSLLLLOOOOWWWW, so I don't really like to use it, but at least it gets me online.
Ok well hopefully I'll be better at this blogging thing LOL we'll see. TTFN
Hawk Mountian Day Trip
Sorry for the non scrapping post, but I wanted to share some pics of our outing today. We had a gorgeous day today and I wanted to spend it outside and not cooped up in the apartment, so we went to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. It's about 45 minutes from here and it's just beautiful. Over the next few weeks the Spring Migration starts and there will be quite a few raptors flying overhead.
The absolute best time to visit Hawk Mountain is in the Fall (mid October) You get 2 treats for the price of one. First off there's the foliage. OMG is it something to see. Every color imaginable can be seen, especially when you're at the top and have a 200 degree view! Then there's the Fall migration. You are almost guaranteed to see some birds. It's really a neat trip.
So here are a few pictures from our visit today.
Yikes! That's a lot of stairs, especially after you've just hiked a mile through fairly rocky terrain. Oh BTW, Up is MUCH easier than Down. LOL
Turkey Vultures, nothing too terribly exciting, but K thought it was WAY cool to see them. "BIRDS!" she shouted each time she spotted one. LOL
K was very proud of herself. It was a 2 mile hike round trip, quite the trek for a 6 y/o. Of course she asked for a special treat for doing it, so I had to explain that the experience itself was the special treat. I don't think she quite got it. LOL But she had fun anyway.
The absolute best time to visit Hawk Mountain is in the Fall (mid October) You get 2 treats for the price of one. First off there's the foliage. OMG is it something to see. Every color imaginable can be seen, especially when you're at the top and have a 200 degree view! Then there's the Fall migration. You are almost guaranteed to see some birds. It's really a neat trip.
So here are a few pictures from our visit today.
Yikes! That's a lot of stairs, especially after you've just hiked a mile through fairly rocky terrain. Oh BTW, Up is MUCH easier than Down. LOL
Turkey Vultures, nothing too terribly exciting, but K thought it was WAY cool to see them. "BIRDS!" she shouted each time she spotted one. LOL
K was very proud of herself. It was a 2 mile hike round trip, quite the trek for a 6 y/o. Of course she asked for a special treat for doing it, so I had to explain that the experience itself was the special treat. I don't think she quite got it. LOL But she had fun anyway.
K's First Scrapbook Page
My daughter decided that she wanted to try her hand at scrapbooking, so I let her :) LOL Here is her very 1st page. She chose the papers and the embellishments. Plus I "made" her write some jouraling *hehehe* I know she'd love to have feedback on her page!
If you can't read her writing, it says... Dreams do come true at DISNEY
Oh and she's 5 3/4! LOL I think she did a great job for her first try. of course now I'm going to have to create a scrapbook area just for her and the supplies I KNOW she's going to start collecting! LOL
And for you seasoned scrapbookers out there... notice she even followed the rule of 3! All her Blue items are in a triangle too. That was all her idea. I guess she was born to this huh?
If you can't read her writing, it says... Dreams do come true at DISNEY
Oh and she's 5 3/4! LOL I think she did a great job for her first try. of course now I'm going to have to create a scrapbook area just for her and the supplies I KNOW she's going to start collecting! LOL
And for you seasoned scrapbookers out there... notice she even followed the rule of 3! All her Blue items are in a triangle too. That was all her idea. I guess she was born to this huh?
2 more Disney LO's
Here are 2 more LO's that I've finished. I think I have about 5 or 6 more from Magic Kingdom and then I get to start on my Animal Kingdom pics! I can't wait! I have a bunch of new goodies that I'm itching to use. But first things first :)
The first one I have tried and tried to get a good picture of, but just can't seem to do it justice. It looks MUCH better IRL. These pics we taken at the end of Main St, just as you're coming up to the Castle. K saw the Mickey Ears hats and just HAD to have one! Of course she picked the one with Tinkerbell.
The hidden Mickey is pretty well hidden if I do say so myself. I'll give you some help.
This LO took me the better part of a week to do. I just couldn't get it right (in my head there was always something wrong with it) But it FINALLY came together last night. I guess watching Jack Sparrow helped ;) LOL
I just LOVE how the hand stitching came out. I followed the swirls on the patterned paper but just made them bigger. Then I took some embroidery floss and went to town. I think it added the perfect touch.
The first one I have tried and tried to get a good picture of, but just can't seem to do it justice. It looks MUCH better IRL. These pics we taken at the end of Main St, just as you're coming up to the Castle. K saw the Mickey Ears hats and just HAD to have one! Of course she picked the one with Tinkerbell.
The hidden Mickey is pretty well hidden if I do say so myself. I'll give you some help.
This LO took me the better part of a week to do. I just couldn't get it right (in my head there was always something wrong with it) But it FINALLY came together last night. I guess watching Jack Sparrow helped ;) LOL
I just LOVE how the hand stitching came out. I followed the swirls on the patterned paper but just made them bigger. Then I took some embroidery floss and went to town. I think it added the perfect touch.
Disney LO's
I've been scrapbooking again! It feels good to get some more LO's done. These are more pics from our trip to Disney World last January. I have been reluctant to scrap these pics because I want the album to be "perfect". So anyway, I went on a search for Disney LO's and I found a scrapper on 2 Peas that is just fantastic! She does the most amazing Disney LO's that aren't overly "Disneyfied". So I've been CASEing some of her LO's and I LOVE the results. Of course I change things around to fit my pics and my style a bit, but the main inspiration is from her LO's.
Here's K enjoying a very rushed visit to Minnie's house. There was SO much to see and we were trying to get in line to see Mickey so we didn't have much time.
The next 2 are from our dinner at the Crystal Palace. Considering how fast we made the plans to go to Disney, we were lucky to get the reservations we did. K loved seeing all the Winnie the Pooh characters wandering around. There are more pics from the Crystal Palace, so stay tuned :) !
And then there's my favorite LO of the group. This is my Dad being, well, himself! He put on K's Mickey ears to try to get K to laugh. She thought it was very funny to see Grandpa wearing a kids hat!
And don't forget, there's at least 1 hidden Mickey on every LO! Can you find them?
Here's K enjoying a very rushed visit to Minnie's house. There was SO much to see and we were trying to get in line to see Mickey so we didn't have much time.
The next 2 are from our dinner at the Crystal Palace. Considering how fast we made the plans to go to Disney, we were lucky to get the reservations we did. K loved seeing all the Winnie the Pooh characters wandering around. There are more pics from the Crystal Palace, so stay tuned :) !
And then there's my favorite LO of the group. This is my Dad being, well, himself! He put on K's Mickey ears to try to get K to laugh. She thought it was very funny to see Grandpa wearing a kids hat!
And don't forget, there's at least 1 hidden Mickey on every LO! Can you find them?
2 more hair-dos
I promise I will stamp again (eventually). I'm just having fun playing with K's hair. Here are two more hairstyles we've done recently. She's getting a bit better at sitting still. So that helps, but I still need a lot of practice LOL.
The first one is really cute and fairly simple to do. I made 4 ponies across the top, then split the middle 2 and made another row of 3 ponies, did the same again and made 2, and then 1. The bow is my 2nd ever homemade bow. I think it turned out pretty cute.
While I like bows in little girls hair, I do NOT like them to be as big as their heads! I think that looks silly. I know in the bow community, the bigger the better is usually they way of things, but again I must go against the grain ;)
The next one we did today. It starts with 6 ponies, 3 on each side. Then you make a twist out of the top and bottom one on one side. Take those 2 twists and secure them to the center pony on the other side. Repeat with the second side.
It sounds a lot harder than it is. I think this took us 15 minutes to do today. The hardest part is getting the 6 ponies straight and getting all the hair into them while dealing with a wiggly kid! LOL
So far I've been doing her hair at the kitchen table while she eats. Having her eat works out well, but the the chair with a back isn't helping me be able to maneuver around her. I need a stool! LOL I think that's one thing I will try to find this Spring when garage sale season hits!
The first one is really cute and fairly simple to do. I made 4 ponies across the top, then split the middle 2 and made another row of 3 ponies, did the same again and made 2, and then 1. The bow is my 2nd ever homemade bow. I think it turned out pretty cute.
While I like bows in little girls hair, I do NOT like them to be as big as their heads! I think that looks silly. I know in the bow community, the bigger the better is usually they way of things, but again I must go against the grain ;)
The next one we did today. It starts with 6 ponies, 3 on each side. Then you make a twist out of the top and bottom one on one side. Take those 2 twists and secure them to the center pony on the other side. Repeat with the second side.
It sounds a lot harder than it is. I think this took us 15 minutes to do today. The hardest part is getting the 6 ponies straight and getting all the hair into them while dealing with a wiggly kid! LOL
So far I've been doing her hair at the kitchen table while she eats. Having her eat works out well, but the the chair with a back isn't helping me be able to maneuver around her. I need a stool! LOL I think that's one thing I will try to find this Spring when garage sale season hits!
Another new "do"
Playing with K's hair is fun! Ok not so much when I hear "Ouch Mom, that hurts!" "Stop pulling so hard!" "Are you almost done yet???" LOL But everytime we're done, she goes running to the bathroom mirror, grabs the hand held mirror and Oooos and Ahhhhs over her hair for the longest time! LOL It's so funny.
So here's what we did today. At first I tried an inside-out braid (yanno like cornrows) but I need more practice (and a more willing subject ;) ). Anyway I went with a normal french braid just down the side and then pulled it back into the pony. She got the streamer pony holder for X-Mas so we had to use it! I also curled her hair before I started. It's normally stick straight, so this gave it a bit more "fluff".
I think the whole thing is just adorable!
So here's what we did today. At first I tried an inside-out braid (yanno like cornrows) but I need more practice (and a more willing subject ;) ). Anyway I went with a normal french braid just down the side and then pulled it back into the pony. She got the streamer pony holder for X-Mas so we had to use it! I also curled her hair before I started. It's normally stick straight, so this gave it a bit more "fluff".
I think the whole thing is just adorable!
Trying something new!
As I find myself with some extra time on my hands (losing ones job has that effect :( ) I've been playing around with different hairstyles for K. I found this one at The Story of a Princess and her Hair. At first glance it looks VERY complicated, but it's really just a bunch of braids that are woven to form the "net". It's SO cute! K just loves it!
Here's another shot but from the front. This took about 20 minutes to do. I worked on it while she ate her lunch! That seems to be the best solution we've found. Eating keeps her occupied while I work on her hair. I also get fewer "ouch"es that way too ;)
You can do this same style with twists or just with sections. We'll have to try some other variations.
Here's another shot but from the front. This took about 20 minutes to do. I worked on it while she ate her lunch! That seems to be the best solution we've found. Eating keeps her occupied while I work on her hair. I also get fewer "ouch"es that way too ;)
You can do this same style with twists or just with sections. We'll have to try some other variations.
