Back to School

Hey ya'll!  Boy, I know I'm behind, but my house is busy-and my first responsibility is my family! : )

We've had a great week-all the kids have gone back to school-Ethan on Monday, and Clay and Mary Claire on Thursday.  Ethan is going to the preschool where both kids went a few years ago, to our church's preschool, St. Raphael's:

I can tell you how bad I feel, but it won't do me justice.  I didn't take pictures of Clay and Mary Claire on their first day!  We got up early, left the house at 7:30, I helped them carry their long list of school supplies (in extra bags!) to their classrooms, took water bottles by the nurse's office, and simply lived in the moment-no pictures.  We're going to fake one one day this week-at least I'll remember how they looked at this age-in these classrooms. : )  It's not perfect, but it'll do.  So..I do have some from previous years-lucky you! : )

This is last year-August of 2009.  Clay was starting third grade, Mary Claire was starting second grade:

 And this is August of 2008 (first and second grade):

And even further..August of 2007 (kindergarten and first grade):

And here's even earlier!  (Now I only go back as far as digital photography, so there won't be many more)  This is August of 2006-the year Clay started kindergarten:

And then I have one more..the year we moved to this house, and the kids were headed off to preschool, August 2005:

Oh, what fun it is to scroll through pictures on iPhoto!  I went through Halloweens, Christmases, Ethan's birth and baptism, Easters, vacations, and lots of hairstyles!


So..back from Memory Lane..Ethan kept telling us on Sunday that his ear wasn't working.  We took him to the doctor Monday-his ear was leaking fluid by then, and the doctor thinks his tube just opened up.  So he's been on antibiotics since then.  He has no pain, so that's the best thing.


Then Tuesday was our last summer Bible study, so we all exchanged cards for the secret prayer partner we'd been praying for-remember my book?  I got to give it to Tiffany!  I put a lot of time in on it, I wish I'd taken more pictures-it was so fun!  Maybe I will help our girls make little paper bag books for our prayer partners this fall.  We're picking a study, and we haven't decided yet.


I got my hair changed up on Wednesday-better!  It was highlighted-I needed to go lighter-I was feeling so down in that darker color.  It's all layered up again-I like it only when it's curly, so it'll be a long affair with my curling iron over the next month!


We had a back-to-school get-together at Ches' department head's house Thursday-and got to see so many people!  We found out that Ethan's assistant teacher (don't know her title!), Andrea, was there, and her husband is starting his third year in Recreation, but they didn't come last year, so I totally didn't know them-but what a small world!  The kids love to go to Sharon's house-they actually love her backyard!  They roll down the hill, run through her ivy, and after an hour or so-the boys and girls had divided!  Clay was leading the boys, and Mary Claire the girls-don't know if that's good or bad.


Yesterday was my first big day too-my first alone.  I was fine-I prioritized and had to get to work.  My first to-do was thank you notes!  I've had checks come in for the JDRF Walk, and we were going to have the kids write the notes, but they only wrote one sentence, so I had to go back over and write more!  I also went by the church and refilled envelopes and straightened books, got a nap, and got my nails done!  Then Ches and I had a date night-PF Chang's and The Switch!  (The Switch was great by the way!  I liked it better than Eat, Pray, Love.  I think it's cause the book was so much better.  And Switch had a happier ending-I'm a girl at heart)

What a week.  We are ready for some serious playing this weekend!

Sugar Makes Me Crafty

GrEaT photo shoot, thanks, Jeremy Cavness!

Here is the picture from the photo shoot:

At some point, they'll get the quote added and send them to be printed (this is where I want to get in on it!)
Then, we did something even BETTER!  We walked down to the corner, and enjoyed a small reward for our good deed (well, you know).  We each had a specialty cupcake at Kupcakes and More on the Bentonville Square!

 They were absolutely scrumptious.  I had Chocolate Peanut Butter, Mary Claire had Red Velvet (with cream cheese frosting), and Ethan had a chocolate Army Man (from Toy Story) cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting.  All delish.  And then we got to sit at one of the tiny, child-size tables.  It reminded me of when I was little, and my brother and I would go to our friends' house-they had this tiny table set in the kitchen, and I loved to eat in there!  So, I sat on a teensy chair, and we had a cupcake party-fun! 

(I only wish Clay had been with us.  I missed him so much today!  He's staying with Gigi.  I called him when we left the cupcake place, but he's still having fun, and not wanting to come home yet.  Grandmas are always better than home.  He says I'm no fun-I make him clean his room, make his bed, and get dressed-I'm so mean!).
So, then we went back home, got our library books, and went to the library.  We read books and checked out new ones.  I helped Mary Claire this time-she got too many non-fiction last time!
Then we picked up Ches for lunch and went out to US Pizza in Fayetteville-so good!  I must be having a great day-cupcakes and pizza, in one day!  We were all tired after that, but the day must go on.  We headed home for a little bit, then made our way back to Mary Claire's orthodontist appointment.  Just a check-up, so it was pretty fast.  She doesn't go back until August, but we are supposed to do ten more turns on her palate expander.  She wasn't worried-she wanted me to do two tonight-Ha.  Strange girl.  She used to hate it!

Then, our relaxing included some crafts...
I have a prayer partner (a Bible study friend I'm secretly praying for-we drew for names), and I wanted to keep track of all the times I'm thinking of and praying for her.  I resurrected an old idea-paper bag scrapbooks!  I made these for each of the kids in Clay's first grade class, but as I discovered today..that was before I was blogging.  So!  I took a couple pictures so you could make them too.  Super Easy.
You use two or three plain paper bags (you can use white too, if you have them), some ribbon, a hole punch..

Stack the paper bags end to end, with the bottoms at opposite ends.  Make a cardstock cover that is the same size as your bags.  Hole punch through the cover PLUS the bags in the center fold.  Run about 14" of ribbon through the holes, and tie on the outside.  Now, you can get creative, or keep it simple.  I add little matching ribbons tied on the spine ribbon, knotted-add as many as you like.  I usually add at least three or four.  Then, when you close the "scrapbook", you'll have openings in the bags on the right side.  I make tabbed pull-outs to journal or put pictures on.  Cut a piece of cardstock to fit inside the "pocket" (end of a bag), and put a stapled tab on it.  (I have a nifty little punch from Stampin' Up, that I LOVE!), then punch holes (I used this punch), and tie a ribbon through the front and back, to hold all that fun inside!

Here are a couple I made (I had to make Mary Claire one as a bribe for her to go get an old one upstairs-so I could remember!).  You can see the tabs on the pull-outs in the above picture.

I had to cover my prayer partner's name, since it's supposed to be a surprise!
Ok, so it wasn't quite dinner (and I was still sugared up?), and Ethan was still begging for his own backpack (see yesterday!).  I was resisting, since they were a little girly, but I made him one.  He was so happy to see it stitching his name-he is just precious.  I didn't do all the process pictures, but took one of the end product!  His name is in green (his choice) on the tractor fabric, so it's hard to see.  He wanted me to combine fabrics, so here they are:

Then we had dinner, swam, and I researched *wait for it*...going back to school.  I have some time this fall, so I looked into finishing my masters degree.  Except, I have 18 hours in one subject, and am thinking I would switch majors/areas.  Umm..only three hours would transfer, and it's a Maybe/Probably.  So, it'd be at least two years.  But..what else am I doing?  (besides making backpacks and scrapbooks...)