Friends!

A few weeks ago, me and three of my most favorite friends got together for our October birthday celebrations. My friend Mary and I both have October birthdays.

We went to Fancy That Scrapbook store in Hummelstown, PA, had lunch at The Wick and stopped at the Fractured Prune and picked up some of the most delicious donuts on the way home.

We always have such a wonderful time together. We made sure to set our next date already since we are always having a hard time coordinating schedules anymore!

I'd like to share the card I got from them. If only you could do this! It's totally us!


Mary's card had a picture of a lady in a lingerie store. The lady was holding a fancy bra and was saying "do you have this in a 34 LONG"! Ha!

Soooo, Twilight hits the theatres on Friday!! I'm going with a bunch of friends! I'm hoping they will not disown me when I show up with my TEAM JACOB shirt on!! They are all for Edward! I loved him in the first book, but after that, I just couldn't stand how possessive he is! Anyone else on TEAM JACOB? They seem to be rare!

I've finally uploaded the pics from our last camping trip of the season! I just need to go through them and I'll post them in a few days!!

Shockingly, I also have a half completed layout sitting on my desk now! AND, I am actually really liking it! Perhaps I'll have some artwork to share next time!

Have a great rest of the week!!

Halloween 2008

This year we decided that we'd throw our own costumes together instead of spending $100 plus on store bought ones! That was so much nicer!!

Macy decided she wanted to be a witch - perfect! Jack wanted to be a train engineer, then decided a few hours beforehand that he wanted to be a banana! Well, it was too late to rig up some kind of banana costume, so we stuck with the engineer!

Macy had the usual school Halloween parade. There were a ton of witches this year! I went in to help out with her 1st grade party after I dropped Jack off at school. Let me just say that I am SO glad I do not have to do that everyday!! I stayed and ate lunch with Macy. We had the choice of eating in the hall at a special table or eating in the caf with the rest of the kids. She wanted me to sit in the caf. Oh. My. Goodness! Can you say loud??? Wow! I was glad to get out of there!! They have a traffic light in there. It's on green when the noise level is acceptable. They move it to yellow when it gets louder and all the kids put their hands up to hopefully make silence. Well, it got to yellow while I was there and I don't even want to know what red sounds like!! Here she is in the parade.


Here they both are, in separate pictures. Apparently it is just wrong for them to be in a picture together without one trying to beat up the other!



I totally forgot to put on Jack's red bandana! Chris was working until 7pm that night. If he was home, I know it wouldn't have been forgotten!

Here is our jack-o-lantern. We actually had another to carve but we ran out of time! Nothing fancy! We do it the old fashioned way like we did when I was a kid - with a paring knife!


Hope everyone had a fun night!! Thanks for reading!

No scrapbooking!

I have no scrapbooking projects to do!! Still have no motivation for that! We've been having fun with our new camper still, so that has been occupying our time!

Last weekend we went to Elk Neck State Park in Maryland. We went with another couple. What a beautiful place! It is on a penninsula at the top of the Chesapeake Bay.

We had some heavy rains Saturday afternoon and through the night, but other than that it was beautiful.

Friday we went into town, North East, Md. It's such a cute little town that I wish we would've had a longer time to explore. It reminded me a bit of Jim Thorpe or Cape May. We ate at a cute crab place called Woody's.

Saturday, we got up and went for a hike to the Turkey Point lighthouse. It's a cute lighthouse, I think it's a 37 foot climb to the top. It's not your usual tall lighthouse. The kids got a kick out of climbing to the top!

Saturday afternoon and evening we stayed in and did crafts. The electric to the campground went out for about 5 hours. Yay for battery backup!

Sunday we went and explored the penninsula. We saw a ton of sailboats, a huge barge and a boat that looked like it could've been from Goonies! The kids enjoyed walking along the coastline and finding shells and old bones, climbing the rocks and getting through some six inches of seaweed!!

We'd love to go back and visit again for a longer period of time so we can explore more!!

Here are some pics. Click on them to make them bigger!
The captain and his ship:




On the way home, we stopped and got gas for $2.29!!! Then, we went down the road and spotted it for $2.17! I was happy when I got it at BJ's for $2.69 a few days before! It was still $2.55 when we got home!


There were also a ton of these signs on the way there!


We're heading out on Friday again for our last trip of the season!! Can't wait!!

I'll update in a few days with our Halloween pictures!

Hike pictures

Chris and I went for a hike yesterday.

We went up on the mountain by our house. There are a bunch of lookouts up there as well as an old fire tower that they are restoring and the Pagoda. The Pagoda is also being fixed up, it had scaffolding all around it, so I didn't get any pics of that.

Here are some pictures. Maybe tomorrow we'll go get some pictures by the lake and waterfall.

Isn't this bird hole neat?

We love fall!!

It's been so beautiful lately!

There are so many fun family things to do this time of year! We love going on hayrides, pumpkin picking, hiking, camping, hay jumping and anything that has to do with fall!

Saturday we went for a quick trip to a local farm and did their fall festivities. They have some great things for kids as well as for adults. Chris even did some scootering!










We'll probably go pumpkin picking and through a corn maze one day after school this week or next. I still need to get the corn shocks and hay bale for the front porch too!

We've got a week and a half until we go on our next camping trip! We can't wait!! We're going to Elk Neck State Park in Maryland this time around with some friends! All that family time is the best!! I wouldn't trade it for anything!

I'll leave you with a layout. I don't think I posted this one before. I did it for one of the September sketches for Scrapbook News and Review.



Have a great week!

Sadness

A very, very dear friend of mine lost her husband yesterday morning.
He was 38.
They have two children, ages 4 and 7.
No words can express how sad I feel for her and her family.
I wish I could take away all of their pain.

There is a group of us that talk several times a day on a message board. We are all trying to pull together for her, to help her and her sons. Everyone has made such generous contributions.

Lisa Pace has an auction up on her blog now. 100% of the proceeds will go to our friend. I ask you to please check it out right here.

Thanks so much!

Maiden voyage and a new layout!

Last weekend we had the maiden voyage with our new camper!! Tropical Storm Kyle was trying to ruin our weekend, but we didn't let him! It actually wasn't so bad, the heavy rain was at night and we just had some showers during the day. The clouds broke away for some blue skies and sunshine a few times too! I didn't take many pics, only 18 to be exact! I know I've said it before, it's so nice just enjoying the moment instead of trying to stop things and take pictures constantly! All I need are a few pics to go with the eternal memories!

We went to a campground called Spring Gulch which is in New Holland, PA. It's only about 40 minutes from our house. It was very nice there, we had a great site and were right in the heart of the campground. They had tons of activities including candy bar bingo, hay rides, ceramics, scavenger hunt and even a live band on Saturday night. It was 50's and 60's weekend. Because of growing up with a motown loving dad, I knew all the songs! I actually enjoy that music much more than what is on the radio these days! So much more danceable! LOL

Here are a few shots from the weekend!









We were in an area with a ton of walnut trees. The kids loved collecting them and then playing store!

I almost forgot to report that we had no incidents this trip! No falling out of the camper, no kid deserting another kid, no riding bikes off of a cliff! The truck handled the camper well too! And, of course, it's always a great bonding time!! We are so excited for our next trip out in a few weeks! This time we're going to Maryland!

No other news to report except for this:


Yep, that's our boy! Jack came home from school with this last week! Puts a smile on my face every time I read it!

I managed to get a layout done this week too! I snuck it in one day right before I went to work! I gave myself a time frame and stuck to it! It took me about 45 minutes.


That's all for now! Chris and I have a debate date for tonight! I need to go finish prepping the food!

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend!