Happy Mother’s Day to everyone!  I hope you were able to do something special for yourself — scrapbooking, time off from the kitchen, brunch out or whatever floats your boat!  In my case that was cleaning out the toy room and organizing the hall closet.  Pathetic, I know.  BUT, I really hate it when the toys are disorganized.  It used to be that I couldn’t go to bed without picking up every single toy.  And not just picking up — every single toy, game etc had to be reassembled correctly and put in it’s proper spot (now if only I could instill that in my little darlings). Fortunately/Unfortunately, Cocoa Daisy has cured me of my somewhat overanal qualities — there’s only so much time in a day!  So, to be able to devote an entire morning to reorganizing, weeding out and reassemblying (much more tedious since Playmobile entered our lives!) was a luxury in my book.  And I did get to do it while sipping my yummy latte!  As far as the coat closet is concerned, I assembled some shelves for the floor and everything now looks so beautifully organized!  So much so that I’ve walked by twice and opened the door just to admire the organization!  A sickness (I know) that I rarely get to indulge anymore!

Speaking of toys, I just had a really remarkable experience.  A couple of weeks ago, Jack lost the “shooters” from his Ninja Turtle Action figure.  He was sobbing as if he just lost his dog (oh, except he didn’t even bat an eyelash when Hannah died, but losing a “shooter,” that’s a whole different story!).  To cheer him up I told him I would email the company and see if they would send new shooters.  I emailed Playmate Toys fully expecting never to hear back from them.  What a surprise when I got up in the morning and there was an email awaiting me.  She said she didn’t know if they had any missles (aka “shooters”) left for that particular toy but that if she couldn’t find them she would definitely send something else instead.  WOW!  That was amazing, but still, I wasn’t holding my breathe.  What do you know, this week there was a nice little package in the mailbox addressed to a certain Jack Canonico.  Inside was a brand new, fully equipped orange Ninja Turtle (the last one was blue) AND there was also a pack of 4 small Ninja Turtles as well!  To say the least, I was very impressed and will certainly go out of my way to purchase their products when we are in the market for a toy.

My inlaws who live in New Hampshire rented a time share right outside of Blaine, WA this past week.  It’s right along the Canadian border on the coast.  We drove up and met them there.  There was supposed to be just one nice day but the entire week proved to be gorgeous!  What a lucky break for that area this time of year!

We went to Richmond, BC one day, did some picnics, some hikes, hung out in the pool, walked on the beach, went to Bellingham, and basically had a very nice visit.

Birch Bay at sunset…

This bald eagle just hung out at the top of this tree most of the week.  It was right beside the building we were staying in and from the rooftop you could get about 20 feet away from it.  And. it would just sit there.  Very cool.

Lots of hiking (or what can be considered a hike with a 3 & 5 year old).

Love the photos that show the sweeter side….

Alice with grandma and grandpa.

Flowers at one of the playgrounds we visited…

One of the beaches they hit was covered in these enormous purple starfishes!

One of the highlights of the trip for me was having a bit of free time for scrapbooking!  I was on a roll this month with old photos of Scott’s grandparents.  I just wish I knew more about the photos…

I took the idea for the cutout of the cherry branch from Kim.  The brads, buttons, paper diecuts are all from the Cherry Blossom add-on.  The stamp is from the June Birdcage add-on and the journaling is from the Making Memories Spiral Journaling Notebook in the Teahouse add-on.

And this is the other layout I did (remember — I’m in contention for the world’s slowest scrapbooker!)

I had so much fun doing this one!  The wings from the main kit I covered with Stickles (Lisa Pace’s favorite product!) and the Krylon silver leaf pen.  I then embroidered around the edge with silver embroidery thread.  The dot patterned around it made for a perfect template!  The flowers, buttons and “How Lovely” diecut are from the Cherry Blossom add-on again (it was definitely my favorite one), and the Fontwerks Blue Label stickers are from the Anna add-on.

As all the kits had to go out this week, I took the train home on Thursday while Scott and the kids drove home yesterday.  I have to say that traveling by yourself is such a marvelous thing and I loved taking the train.  I splurged on First Class (ok, it was only $15 more) and it was really a great way to travel.  And, with gas prices these days, a very economical way to get about.  I got in Thursday night and packed kits.  Friday Kelcey and I spent the entire day and night packing kits and then yesterday Lisa, Pam and I finished them up.  WHEW!

On the train I was reading the lastest edition of Lucky, and saw these wide leg denim-ish linen pants that I needed. Unlike 98% of the products in Lucky, they were actually affordable and I think they were even under $40.  I never heard of the company they were made by before, twelvebytwelve so I checked out their site in hopes of getting the pants.  No luck on the pants, but the site had some really fun stuff at some remarkably low prices.  It turns out to be a sister company to Forever21 and as I am nowhere near 21, it was nice to find this site with fresh, fun clothes that seem to be targeted to women who want to have fun, inexpensive clothes without looking like they are trying to look 21.

I love, love, loved this trenchcoat!  Now I just need to figure out how to justify one more coat….

Enjoy your special day!