Something Fishy

Just back from vacation, I'm finally going through our pictures from the trip and wanted to share a few. Our visit to the Georgia Aquarium was actually one of the last things we did, but we had so much fun - and I didn't think anyone would protest the lack of chronologicality. Yes, I made that word up. And do forgive the photo quality - - I ended up taking my P&S camera with me and leaving my SLR at home.



Can I first just say that we loved the Georgia Aquarium. It's fab - - and the largest in the world. Being there made me miss Atlanta so much. So much to do, so much energy in the city....oh, I really do miss home.



One of the first things we saw were these amazing jellyfish. They were stunning! The girls were mesmerized immediately!




The next exhibit was super-awesome. We got to walk through a winding tunnel in this large tank. The sharks were amazing. The hammerheads darted back and forth and sometimes looked as if they were coming right for us.




And swimming right above us....this scary fellow! Check out those teeth!

Surely the most spectacular thing in all the aquarium was the wonder that Lily had upon seeing all those fish. It was incredible. I had not expected her to be so captivated by the fish, and I just enjoyed so much watching her.

We loved the grouper. They were seriously huge! (and, yummy if you must know)

To put that delicious, er, I mean, impressive guy in perspective, just check him out swimming above Brandon and the girls :) eek!

After our visit, the girls were completely exhausted. We headed from the Aquarium to search out a place for dinner. Something local & unique. As it turns out, several of my old favorites were not where they used to be.....alot changes in 10 years, I guess.

Because the girls had quickly fallen asleep in the car, we opted to drive around some of my old neighborhoods instead. It was so great - reminiscing, seeing how things had changed. Atlanta really is such a beautiful city. Brandon remarked that if he had to live in a big city, Atlanta would be it. Hmmm.....I think I'm gonna hold him to that ;)

Before & After

Since you gals asked, I thought I'd share the before and after of my master bedroom paint job. Now, the window treatments are still in the works - not all the decor is as it will be, but you can get the general drift.

The before was a really lovely pale sage color. It went great with the bedding I had when we had our queen size bed, but when I changed decor, it just didn't go as well.

So...BEFORE....
And, AFTER: This is "Muted Gold," and I'm really liking it. It's a little more orange-y than I would like in certain lighting, but it's on the walls, and I'm not changing it anytime soon~! LOL! ;)

I've got lots of pics to share from our trip, but I'm tired, and a certain little redhead is in need of some lunch :)

Engaged!

Brandon's sister, Melissa, and her boyfriend, Brian, got engaged this week! They're the perfect couple and we know they're going to be very happy together! We're so excited for them - no one more than Camille. She is crazy about Uncle Brian :)

Her ring (that I should've gotten a pic of!) is gorgeous. They designed it together and it has the coolest thing - a tiny blue diamond inset on the side of the band.

So, congrats, Melissa & Brian!! We love you guys and wish you every happiness together!

Pretty Little Clips

Jacque Larsen is among my digiscrapping idols. She's so amazingly creative. Her designs rock. Her photos are fantastic. Her LOs are gorgeous. And, she's about the sweetest thing ever!

This weekend, she's giving away some super-cute felt hair clippies. Go check 'em out and enter her contest. Jacque's BLOG & her designs at The LilyPad

I'm Her Best Mom Ever.

This post is a wee bit belated, but no less well-intentioned.... This pic is of the girls and me on Mother's day morning. So stinkin' cute :) And, yes, Camille frequently tells me that I'm her best mom ever. Being her only mom ever, I guess this makes me both the best and the worst.

Having been shopping earlier in the week with Brandon, Camille was insanely excited for Sunday to roll around. She kept dropping hints all week long and trying her bestest to get me to play a Mother's Day guessing game with her. She needs to work just a bit on her clue-forming skills as to leave just a bit of suspense in the game. Case in point:

Camille: Mom, when you go in the office, you're going to smell your wonderful present from me.
Me: Oh that sounds delightful, honey! I can hardly wait.
Camille: Don't you want to guess what it is? I'll give you a hint. It smells good.
Me: Then it must be perfume!
Camille: No, not perfume. But, it smells good and when you burn it, it will melt.

Just in case my deductive reasoning skills weren't completely in check with that little tidbit, Camille helped me along just a bit more by proudly announcing "We got your gift from there!" when we passed by Yankee Candle. Oh, the little darling! ;)

Another thing that's been totally getting me about Camille is her card-selecting skills. She is absolutely adamant about choosing her own for me. Now, she can read the cards just fine, but she doesn't always "get" the humor in some of them. This year, my card read something like:
"You're such a great Mom. You deserve so much more that just a card for Mother's Day!"
and inside: "So, I'm going to get you a card for your birthday as well." hee hee....

Hi Mom!!! Some new pics of your girls :)

I've been scrapping again & wanted to share a few pages:

Happy Scrappy

A few pages I thought I'd share....

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Camille attended a little garden party a few weeks ago, and little did Daddy know how that would all pan out! Camille got to plant a few seeds and bring them home to care for. Her seeds grew into little plants, and we needed a place to put them. A couple weekends and a few trips to Home Depot later, and Brandon had built his little honey her very own garden patch!

It's the most perfect size for our yard. About 4x4' square and we've planted squash, beans, tomatoes, cilantro, basil, cucumbers, oh dear....just a whole mess of stuff!! It will be lots of fun watching our little garden grow!

Some Pages to Share :)

I've been scrapping a bit this weekend & thought I'd share a few LOs. Mom, we're gonna miss seeing you next week & hope that you're feeling better soon. Love you!!

This last LO is from our Family Movie Night this past Friday. Watching movies together is nothing new, but I've added some hype to the whole affair. We plan on having themed movie nights - and will have dinner, snacks, props, whatever to go along with that movie :) Some of my digi pals have been doing this and it looked like so much fun that we had to give it a whirl.

Our first FMN with Doctor Doolittle was a huge success. Since Dr.D can talk to animals, our edibles were animal themed (hot dogs, animal crackers, monkey's banana pudding). Okay, and I know the monkey looks like a bear. So what. Bears are animals, too, right? And, I'm pretty sure they like bananas. Camille had an absolute blast with our first FMN, and I can't wait until our next one!

A Swingin' Spring

I happened upon a super-fun contest over at Dad Blogs . It's the Dad Blogs Big Spring Contest. They are giving away an awesome swing set from Kids Creations.

What incredible fun that would be to win this awesome prize! Our sad little yard is in desperate need of some fun for our girls. Camille has long outgrown the little plastic climber/slide that we have and we had hoped to "upgrade" for her, but it just hasn't happened yet :)

I would love for our backyard to be a place for the girls to explore and have fun - together and with friends. We're gradually incorporating a bit of that. Today, Brandon and Camille finished up their garden patch - a little 4x4 plot where they planted the seedlings that Camille grew. I can't wait to see what things grow and to enjoy this little project with Camille.

Now, all we need is a big ol' awesome playset to make our backyard even more fun! **Can you tell that I'm hoping that we win the drawing?!?!**

Learning is Yummy

I asked Camille recently what she'd like to learn about. Her reply was "college-ology" or something like that. Baffled, I asked her to describe what she was meaning. "You know, Mom. Like rocks and dirt and stuff." Ah, GEOLOGY!

So, off to the library we went. We grabbed a ton of books on rocks, the earth, minerals, etc.. and we've had a blast learning about our world! What incredible fun :)

Today, I surprised Camille with a little science lunch. We ate hard-boiled eggs which represented the earth. The shell was the earth's crust; the white was the mantle; the center was the core. We didn't eat the crust ;) She even winced and let out a big "OUCH! That's hot!!!" when she gobbled up the core! Too funny :) We also talked about the composition of the earth's surface - land & sea. Pickles and Berry Blue Kool-Aid were our props.

She doesn't know this, but tomorrow we're going to go mining. I've got chocolate chip cookies and I'm going to have her excavate the chips with a toothpick!

I just love these tangible discussions - I think learning is so much more fun when it's hands-on. I also love that with homeschooling, we're going to have more freedom in structuring our studies around Camille's interests. I would've never thought to develop a geology unit study for my 5 year old, but she showed an interest, and I'm able to go with her on that. Oh, what fun days lie ahead!!

Breakfast, anyone??

Oh. my. stars! I have found a new obsession! Felt play food! How crazy-cute is this?!? There are so many amazing food stuffs out there! I am loving creating a few for my sweet girls. The breakfast above is my first endeavor - - I'll be trying some more edibles soon, I'm sure!

I simply cannot wait until Lily and Camille are able to play kitchen & have tea parties together. On second thought, I guess I can wait, right? Don't want to rush my sweet baby into growing up too fast! But, I'm so looking forward to the fun times ahead - that sounds much better!

Just look at this YUMMY inspiration:

I think this one is going to be my next project:

All the fun and none of the calories!

I am totally diggin' those chips, cucumber & pickles! How cute?!?

Crafting & Thrifting - what else?

This morning, Camille and I hit the road to do a bit of garage sale-ing. We had SO much fun! I am really enjoying getting to spend a bit of one-on-one time with her, and she loves it too. Although, when it's just the two of us, she really misses Lily. This morning, she said, "Mom, I miss Lily. There's no one else to talk to but you." Thanks, honey! I do love that she and Lily are already so close! And....without further ado - - our scores!

From the left, kinda clockwise:

Mini wall pocket - $2 (euclyptus is going in the trash)

Set of 12 new Miss Spider's Sunny Patch books - $4

...sitting on top of two chapter books - 50 cents each

gymboree poppy bag 50 cents

two easel/plate stands - 50 cents each

usborne spanish flash cards - 50 cents

little ceramic stand - I'll use on a tablescape after I spray paint it 25 cents

perfection game - $1

little ladybug hair clippy *NEW* from a bowmaker having a garage sale - $2.50

...

Not pictured: several shorts for Camille (50 cents each), a couple outfits for Lily (50 cents each), a Polly Pocket house (50 cents), a witch costume (75 cents), and a little stuffed frog (free cause Camille is so darn sweet, people just want to give her stuff)

...

Seems like 50 cents was the price to be today. Like everything was 50 cents it seemed. I LOVE those easels. I've been needing a couple more. The gal at the garage sale had them out with two plates. The plates were NOT my style - like grapes & pears or something. She was selling them as a set and I negotiated with her for the easels alone - - and she only charged me 1.00 for the pair - SCORE!

...

We did have a near score - We passed by a sale and I saw that they had a globe there. I turned around, hoping it was one of those interactive LeapFrog globes (that would be SO perfect for school next year!). We parked, got out of the car, were almost to the table, when another lady swiped it up. Camille was heartbroken! She's been wanting one of those for awhile. So today she learned one of the hard parts about garage sale-ing: that someone else can get it first!

....

Hoppity Hop-Hop.....

I saw a little stuffed bunny garland at another blog last week, and about peed my pants! How stinkin' cute? What says Easter better than a bunch of cute bunnies all strung together? Well, the gal didn't have a pattern posted, but I thought I could figure it out. I made mine in patterns of pink & brown and I just love them!! They were totally fun to make & I even made Camille one to play with. You know, cause she needed another stuffed animal and all.