ScrapMatters Birthday Blog Train!!!

Welcome to the next stop of the ScrapMatters Birthday Blog Train! We are so excited about ScrapMatters' turning THREE years old!!! ScrapMatters is one of my all time favorite digi places and I feel honored to be a part of the Creative Team! You'll definitely want to head over to the shop and the forums ... there is lots of birthday celebrating going on over there!!
You should have arrived here from Cheryl's blog! Wasn't her Quick Page freebie fantastic?!?!
Given that we're celebrating a big SM birthday, we thought we'd all share a favorite birthday memory so, here is mine ...
My favorite birthday memory is from when I was very young. I believe it was my 3rd birthday. I don't have a lot of firm memories of the day itself but I do have a few. The rest of the memories of the day were filled in by the numerous photos in our family albums. Those photos always make me nostalgic for that time in my life. When everything was much more simple. The reason that this birthday is particularly special to me is that I remember it as being one of those 'perfect days'. All of my favorite people in one place. A Holly Hobbie cake. A crown on my little blond head. My cousin and partner in crime, Tracie, being there for every minute of the day. Playing ring around the rosy. Opening presents on a quilt in the backyard.
It was just one of those magical days that you can look back on and remember how wonderful your life was as a child. I could look at these photos ALL day long. So, I thought I'd share a few of them here to give you a sense of what that day looked like ...

And, now, on to my FREEBIE for the Blog Train ... a cute Stacked Paper! It will only be available for ONE WEEK so grab it up as soon as possible before you miss it!

 

I'm sorry but the download has now expired ...

And your next blog train stop is at Natasha's blog, located HERE. Don't forget that, if you get derailed, you can always head over to the ScrapMatters blog for a full list of the blog train stops!
Thanks so much for stopping by - leave me a comment to let me know what you think of the stacked paper freebie!  Have a great weekend (and don't forget to stop over at ScrapMatters to shop the Birthday SALE!)

June 2010 Musings

Yikes. I'm two MONTHS behind in photos now! Okay, so here's some photos and commentary from June to get the updates started.

First up - June was the St. Louis Komen race of which Wells Fargo Advisors was a sponsor.  Although I wasn't able to make the actual race, I did help the team dye a downtown fountain red to commemorate Komen and the fight against breast cancer. It was fascinating to see it happen (and it was MESSY)!

 

June was also the beginnings of some Kindergarten stuff for the kids. They are so excited about starting Kindergarten in the fall. We had a play based screening which the school system does each year to evaluate the incoming Kindergarteners for readiness for school. Meighan and Alex did a fantastic job! The assessment was extremely complementary as to their skill sets and their abilities. We were two very proud parents!  These are some photos from the screening session.

Another big thing in June was the kids starting Kindergarten Summer School which is focused on preparing the kids for the upcoming Kindergarten school year. These are photos from their first day! They love their school and their new classroom for the next month or so! Their teacher is Miss Lemmons and they seem to really like her a lot. They are having a blast and learning a great deal!

During June, Sami also came for her summer visit with us in St. Louis! We had a blast with her. The kids basically worship her and think she's the best person EVER. And, Paul and I are so proud of her. She's such a great kid! We did a lot of stuff while she was in town but one day while I was at work, Paul took the kids over to Creve Couer Lake for an afternoon of fishing. Everyone had a blast and these kids are all great fishermen (and fisherwomen)! Everyone caught some fish - most of them small but the kids LOVED catching them and releasing them back into the lake!

Here are some random photos from the month.Nothing exciting but definitely cute!

Alex was obsessed with this Batman book after he found it during a library trip with me and Sami. He read it constantly and begged us to read it to him over and over. I think that he just might end up being quite a reader as long as we can keep finding books that interest him!

Meighan is obsessed with Justin Bieber. She has his CDs, sings his songs constantly and assures us that she plans to marry him one day! Her new fascination is those teeny bopper magazines which happen to be full of photos and posters of none other than Justin Bieber!

Paul was nice enough to take some photos of me and the kiddos ... I love these pictures especially because they are imperfect and wonderful!  It was so nice to have all of our kids under the same roof for the month!

And, last but not least, we went to play mini-golf with the kids. It was the kids first time golfing which was interesting. I think the twins might be slightly too young to play but they seemed to enjoy themselves. Although I have to warn you that mini-golf with 5 year olds is pretty chaotic! After our game, we played in the arcade for about an hour which was fun!

Okay, that's it for June! I'll be back soon with more updates!