"Berry" Good

Felt inspired by this paper(MAMBI)...
You know I can't resist Cherries.

This is either a Valentine or Friendship themed card.
Clear acetate card inspired by these cards by "theValerie" found
on Two Peas in a Bucket. Acetate requires a little bit more advance planning...
I think it's well worth the effort.

Front of Card

Center of Card

Back of Card

Sydney took one look at me as I loaded the girls

into the car for errands and announced....

"Mom your too Sparkly. I think the guys at the store might throw you out."

Well I guess she's a little embarrassed by her mom.

Poor Kid!

I would only make it worse with my pat answer

to all who ask "Why are you so sparkly?"

"I've been playing with fairies."

Yep, I'm 34 real grown up aren't I?

Happy Birthday!

No one's birthday. Just a fun card I made today.

New I better share something crafty soon.

Card reads....

"So many Candles...

So little Cake."

Enjoy!

A little bit of Heaven...

Today my Cosmos bloomed.
I am in heaven.
Searched for in grey and dreary January.
Ordered in cold and snowy February.
Two of these hard to find beauties,
appeared at my door a couple of weeks ago.

Why would anyone mail order a flower?

Well, because it smells like chocolate of course.
Yummy, irresistable dark chocolate.



Want to order your own?
Pay a visit of surf the web
to the Chocolate Flower Farm, in Washington State.
Road trip anyone?

I'm serious!

Sydney was yelling from the back yard yesterday.
Just so you know Sydney and Kate yell for me all the time and now so does Paige. I have decided to ignore them unless they come and politely ask for what they need which obviously they aren't catching onto quite yet.
As my dad would say, "Unrealistic Expectations Susan."
So, Sydney was yelling from the backyard.

"Mom! Mom! Come HERE!"

I continued folding laundry.

"MOM COME HERE RIGHT NOW. I'M BLEEDING!"

I couldn't help myself I laughed out loud as I started walking out the door all to here.

"MOM I'M SERIOUS I REALLY AM BLEEDING."

Sure enough she had skinned her knee.
I held in my laughter while applying to band aids to the cleaned scrape.

Then heard Kate chime in...
with all the sass and knowledge of a 9 and three quarter year old.
"MOM that REALLY doesn't NEED a band aid."

Nope she didn't really need a band aid. But it was nice to be able to fix her up and send her on her way happy and proud of her new "injury".
Wish I could patch everything else up as easily as her knee.

One heck of a weekend....

Heck yes I said heck. Please, please, please don't tell the proper language policewoman, who is nine and lives in my house.

We were busy. We had fun.

Sydney proclaimed three days in a row that,

"This was my best day ever...."

Love that quirky kid. Friday, we had Anna one of Kate's best friends over.

This was "way cool" because Anna's dad Todd has recently married the amazing Lisa (who from now on will be called Lisa L.) and they now live in Temperance, Michigan.

Which is not super far, but it's also not exactly around the corner either.

Kate, Anna, and Paige washed the car.

"We" have decided to call the grey car Larry Boy Junior, Mom.

We like him just as much as Larry Boy, but he is little-r."

Only Sydney could put it like that.

This is great news since we will be turning our leased Larry Boy in and I was afraid we were going to have serious Syd separation anxiety.

Okay back to Friday. I know, I know focus.

Syd came back from a fun day at the pool with her buddy Cami. (Thanks to Lisa K., who is not Lisa L.)

Next thing I knew I heard a lot of laughing and SPLASHING!!!

Good Lord No!

They can't be in THE POOL.
Have you seen my pool???

Oh, for the Love of Pete!

Why?

What on earth possesed them to climb in?

Anna explained that she thought it would be good idea to help us drain the pool so that next time she came over she could swim.

Well, throwing buckets of mucky water is obviously way fun.

Note...When I signed up for motherhood the "job description"
did not include smelling like swamp water.
I figured on scrubbing nasty things,
but that pool was more than I bargained for.
(Before and after photos posted.)

You can see the water here right?

Yep, Paige is mostly naked. You remember two don't you?

Saturday was cousins day. Usually I crop at the library the first Saturday of the month. But due to high gas prices Brandy and I tried creatively figured a way for the cousins from Ypsilanti to see the cousings from Toledo, while also not requiring an overnight visit. Hence a Saturday cousins day.

All of the girl cousins came over to play.

NO BOYS ALLOWED.

(Not really they just didn't want to come.)

FUN, FUN and More FUN.
We also had some serious sunburns on my girls. I mean duh! How could I forget to put on the sunscreen. Well I did, and it's way, way, way to late.

(Lisa Miller, who is not Lisa L. or Lisa K., did give me a bottle of Aloe Vera on Sunday. Thank goodness she has my back.)

Oh but the girls did have fun despite the blisters they would develop than night and next morning. Brandy and Denise scrapbooked, Laura sewed, and I benefitted since Laura made me a bag and Miss Paige a dress.

I accomplised nothing crafty.

We had a great day. Yummy grilled cheese burgers for dinner by chef John we had invited four of our missionaries to stop by to eat too. I heard them say"I didn't know we were coming to a party." Sorry guys no party, just the infamous cousins day.

Paige hates the pool but loves her little bucket.

Only problem we saw with this was...
she loves to stick her head in the bucket too.

Sunday was Sunday. I taught Sunday School and Relief Society and had fun teaching both. The the air conditioning wasn't working in the chapel which did not make it easy for the Rapplings to be quiet during Sacrament meeting.

Soooo, I snuck out with Paige since she was being two
and I was definitely starting to feel a little drowsy.
Good afternoon home.
I love Sundays.

L is for Lettuce.

This was my lettuce at two weeks old. I've been waiting, watching and watering. This week I deemed it tall enough to eat. I love salads. I hear I make a great salads. I can think of all sorts of yummy goodies to put in salads. My favorites, none of which I have on hand right now, garbanzo beans and baby peas. The secret ingredient is always yummy cheese(don't worry that I do have on hand.) One of the many reasons I love salads is I met my future husband while working at a resturant as the "Salad Girl". I refilled lots of condiments, cut a lot of carrots, and tossed a lot of lettuce and mini bagels. Another favorite memory including beautiful lettuces is while growing up I would make the grown ups,(of course I thought I was one) a yummy salad Sunday nights after all the younger kids were in bed. So I guess my parents found a way to make lettuce a privelege. Hmmm, I wonder if I can pull that one on Kate? Yeah, probably not.
Don't you love my little gaurden frog?

I finally finished the package I needed to send for the apron swap I am in.

I decided to decorate the inside of my box, alas no tissue paper so I got busy with my creative lettering. My book for this months Scrapbook Book Club is all on how to create fun lettering. I like that I'm done with my apron swap EARLY and my bookclub homework EARLY. I've always had a tendency to work until the very last minute. All I can say is YEAH ME. Don't worry I'm sure this isn't going to become a habit.

"I just like to SMILE! Smiling's my favorite. ~Buddy "Elf"

This qoute was under the apron, cards, and recipe cards I sent.

It left us speechless.

Quite speechless I tell you and we have not stopped talking of it since. ~"Emma"

This qoute was the one you would open the box and see. It reminded me of well me and I hope the qoutes will make you giggle. ~Susan

I'm back!!!!

I spent my day encouraging this...

and this,

and this.

I think it was officially called "Peru's Popcorn Game" on my field day instructions. Three hours of hilarious parachute mishaps. Lost a lot of my voice by the end of the day. Now I feel like my legs and arms are going to fall off. No real winners or losers just a whole lot of fun.

I have been busy sewing an apron and shorts for Miss Kathryn along with other projects and layouts. Here is the apron. I have to say I learned a lot about sewing around curves.

These are my mother's day gifts. Kate had all of the girls dress alike and they went on a photo safari the Saturday before Mother's day. I love seeing all of the fun they had! Here are a few quick shots of Kate's Mother's Day Coupons. I LOVE them!

Now I promise to stay up to date. When I get behind it is too hard to start again without including all of the fun things I didn't get a chance to record. See you soon!