Heritage Class

Saturday, Lynn & I went to Violette's in Lakeland for another Heritage Scrapbooking class. We have taken many of them over the past few years and love to take classes from Florence. Some day I may actually put old family photos on all the lovely pages we have made. These are the ones we made this Saturday.

Sorry this one is sideways but I couldn't get it to come up the right way.
We planted some flowers last weekend out front and around the pool. Here are some pictures of the front walkway.

The purple ones are a type of lavender. I really like them. They are full of purple flowers and smell so good.
Here is a close up of one of them.

We also created a flowerbed around one end of the pool in the back. I love it and want to do one on the other end too.

I can't wait till they all grow big and into each other and create one massive flower arrangement.

April Card Class etc.

Sally, RuthAnn, and I went to card class this past week. As usual, we had a great time (though we did miss you Lynn,) went out to eat afterwards and I drove everyone to Lakeland and back in my new car. I really am in love with it. I have been waiting 15 years for a new car. This one has everything on it, navigation, bluetooth, music box (I can record my CD's into it and then don't have to have them with me), a fabulous 10 speaker stereo system, duel air, and it seats seven-room for the grandbabies-yeah.

At card class we made two cards using a different type watercolors. They were in small jars and we had to add water to them. They have a shimmer to them when they dry. They are really kind of neat.

I went to Tallahassee last weekend for Bennett's first birthday. It is hard to believe he is a year old already.
He is so cute and such a happy baby. The party was going to be a picnic at the park but the weather was not going to cooperate so they had it at the house instead. It was a wonderful party. Brooke had the cutest decorations, everything picnic oriented. She does and excellent job and maybe when she goes back to work she should think about changing fields from teaching to party planner.

Rice Crispie Treats flavored with Kool-Aid and made to look like a watermelon slice.

Bennett's smash the cake outfit. What a stud!

Bennett enjoying his cake.

Bennett's other outfit for the party.

Bennett mowing the lawn with his new lawn mower. Now Jack and Bennett can help daddy.
I had such a great time with Adam, Brooke, and the boys. Alex and Jessica came up too and Jessica you better watch out because it looks like Alex has a new girlfriend. I don't know her name, but she sure is adorable.

This is Jack telling me "No, Grandma, don't take my picture!"

What a little imp!

 Jack is a better mood. We went out for breakfast and had a window table overlooking a small pond. Jack loves to go out to eat.
I bought myself a new camera like Brooke's, a Canon Rebel 3T and am enjoying getting used to it. It does take great pictures. I want to get the other lens, but it will have to wait for awhile. It is almost as expensive as the camera.
These are pictures of my Easter cards. I just love this honeycomb stuff.

Darla, Dale and the twins came over yesterday for dinner. We had the best time. The girls are so sweet and so adorable. Seeing them helps me not miss Jack, Bennett, Sasha, and Francois so much. They brought us all kinds of refrigerator artwork and a plastered square of their hand prints. I was going to do those of Jack & Bennett, and Sasha & Francois when they come, so now I have one of the girls too.

Emma with Katy and Gampy Spicer. She is partial to dogs and men.

Lily showing me her painted nails for Easter.

They love these dresses because they are great for twirling and we girls know how important that is to us.

Our Easter gift from the girls. They also gave me this beautiful box with, of course, Paris, all over it.

March 2012

For card class this month we made an Easter card (which I forgot to take a picture of before I sealed it in  an envelope, sorry) and we made this cute little bag to hold candy.

 I used my Silhouette to make my decorations on my St. Patrick's Day cards.

The last time we babysat Chelsea, Katie decided to take over Chelsea's bed. Chelsea is so good she didn't even get mad.

We went to Darla's and Dale's for the twins birthday. They are so adorable. It is hard to believe they are 3 already.

I worked on two pages this weekend for the magnetic frames. This one is for Frances.

This one is for me.

We celebrated Dr. Seuss and his birthday for a whole week this month. Here are my reading coach and myself dressed as the Cat in the Hat.

We had guest readers on Friday and my good friend Sally came dressed for the part. She read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Sweet little Bennett has his first birthday in 2 days.

These are the sweet little shoes Grandma and Grandpa are giving him. Aren't the adorable?

February 2012

We had a great card class in February. We made two cards. The first one was made by using matching embossing folders and stamps. I really like the effect.

The second card was done with stamps and matching die cuts.

I managed to get my Valentine's Day cards done too. I didn't think I would because I have been so busy but I finally finished them in time.

I used a new stamp set I purchased in January. I really like the set.
For my birthday, James and I went to Fort Myers for the weekend. We went on the Murder Mystery Dinner Train on Saturday night. It was a blast. We had a wonderful dinner and the actors were really good. I want to go back and do it again. They change the plays every two months or so.

We went to an Art's Festival on Saturday also. Here are a couple of things we saw.

These guys were actually siting on a piece of metal in front of the canvas and the shadows etc. were painted on the canvas.

This would be a cool little guy to have.
We went to two really great restaurants. At Parrot's Cove we got to sit right on the waters edge and look at all the boats in the marina. No James, we can not buy a boat!

Last weekend we went to Tallahassee to see Adam & Brooke and the boys. We went Saturday after James got off of work and came home Tuesday afternoon. We got to babysit on Monday night when Adam & Brooke went out for a pre-Valentine's Day dinner and a movie. We had a blast with the boys. They are so adorable.

 Jack kept wanting James to read books to him. Chelsea and Katie got in on the fun too.
On Tuesday, we went with Jack to his preschool for Grandbuddies Day. We had a wonderful breakfast and the children sang a song and we had our picture made. We got to go to Jack's class and meet his teachers too.

When Jack got out of school we all went to lunch then it was time to go. We had such a good time we hated to leave. Jack even cried when we said we had to go bye-bye. We will see them soon though.

Photo album for trip to France

Finally I finished my photo album from our 40th wedding anniversary trip to France this past summer. I made it in StoryBook Creator 4 from Creative Memories. It is very easy software to use. Ordering presented challenges since I had changed email addresses a few months ago and I had preordered an album several months ago when they had a sale. But the problem was finally settled today and my book is on the way to the printers. I can't wait to get it. Here are some copies of the pages.

 

There is another page from Normandy but when I uploaded it to facebook it didn't load so I don't have a copy right now. I will try and copy it from my Creative Memories software.

There are 14 more pages but they didn't upload to facebook either. Will try and get them later.
Oh, here is a picture of our Christmas card for 2011. I thought that since we went to France, it should have a French type of scene on the card. I stamped the Eiffel Tower and embossed it with gold. I know it should have been copper colored but the gold looked better.