Sunday afternoon

So, we all slept in today, D & I til 8 and B til 9!! Then we had a leisurely morning reading the paper and having breakfast. Around 10:30 we decided to go to the beach and rushed into action with a flurry! Bags were packed, bathing suits found and donned, a picnic prepared, a quick stop at the convenience store for supplies, another stop at the gas station, and we were OFF! Like a herd of turtles. We finally arrived at Kensington Beach at about 12:15. What a blast from the past. Neither B nor I had been there in at least 10 years. It was nice. We played in the lake, (seaweedy and stinky), built sand castles, had a picnic and took one last dip before we left at about 2:15. A fun family afternoon! Of course we took my new camera (despite serious reservations about sand and thievery). Here are some pics from today. None of me, of course, because I had on a bathing suit and I won't be posting any of THOSE anytime soon! hee hee Hope you are all enjoying this delightful Sunday afternoon.

Fun With Friends

A little layout featuring Declan and his friends from the parent group when we went strawberry picking a couple of weeks ago. They are so cute and all born within two weeks of each other!

On a different note, Brian and I are dealing with a huge mess in our basement and backyard. We finally bit the bullet and are getting our plumbing gutted and fixed so that we won't have any more problems in the basement when it rains. It is gross, and EXPENSIVE! We will have more plumbers over tomorrow - hooray.


And on a happy happy note, I GOT MY CAMERA today!!! Canon Digital Rebel XTI with the 17-85mm lens - fan-freakin-tastic!!!

Here is a pic I took with it - completely UNTOUCHED by photoshop!!!

more Alaska

Happy Birthday America!!!

Yes, Happy Birthday to America and in honor of this special holiday, I made a firecracker hat for Declan to wear to the parade! And I had to make a special page for it too!!!

Two More Alaska pages and one Deco page

As promised, here are yesterday's two Alaska pages and a page about my guy too!

Two more Alaska pages

So, I am done with this crazy contest at scrapbookgraphics that was eating up all my time, so now I am committed to finishing the Alaska book by the end of the month. A minimum of two pages a day! So look for more awesome Alaska pages and lots of bears coming soon!!!

Reach

I love this pic of sweet Sophie running and reaching - she looked so cute that day! She was actually reaching for Monique - she was kinda unhappy at that moment, but man is she cute!!

Strawberry Picking

Well, Tuesday was a banner day for Declan - we went strawberry picking with LOTS of his friends - Joey, Lara, Sol, Macy from the Parent Group and ever-popular Sophie (and Simon and their cousin Emma)! So many of his "girls" - I thought his little heart would explode with excitement. To my surprise, he spend almost all his time and energy on Macy, who he rarely sees. They were so cute together - both running and playing! They have similar temperments and similar modes of play - they played a crazy game of tag that Declan called Polka Dot Punch! Hee hee. Fun day was had by all, despite the 95 degree heat! ;)

Calder-inspired layout

This layout was inspired by an art challenge at scrapbookgraphics. They posted a couple of wire sculpture pieces by Calder and asked us to make a layout that was inspired by his art. Here's what I came up with:

Different

Happiness

Shiny Happy Family

We went to the Balloon Festival in Howell over the weekend and although we saw ZERO hot air balloons, we had the BEST time! They had a free kid's tent, in the shade, with no crowds, face painting, crafts and games. It was heaven to Declan. Then we got to see skydivers parachute to the ground right in front of us and Declan has been talking about the chuters ever since!!!

Ja!

So Brian and I were going to try to avoid Yeah when teaching Declan to talk - we thought it would be better if he said "yes" (for some reason!!! LOL) but then we met our good friends Las Marias (and Mark) and Sol and LuzMaria speak Spanish and they say JA! for yes, so now Declan says Ja (EXACTLY like Sol, same inflections and everything) and now Brian and I find ourselves saying JA (Exactly like Sol) and so we have given up on YES!!! :)

My Cute Guys

Took this fun pic of Declan and Brian at the Detroit Art Fair a couple of weeks ago - they were playing in the fountain outside the DIA! Very cute!

And here are some pics from Andrew's Alaska trip!

Heritage - Aunt Hon

This is my Aunt Hon and Uncle Tommy's wedding pic from 1929 - I added a little pink to the bouquet - aren't they sweet?

Color Storm

Zoo Happy!!!

Another twofer

A couple of layouts today. The one of me was for a "challenge" to scrap the body part that you love the most, so I chose my smile! The other layout is of Irene and Grandpa Carlock from 1969. I have always loved this picture and they had a very special relationship!

Happy Father's Day!!!!

Since my dad already saw the layout I made for him, here's the one I made for Declan's daddy! (Brian)

Photos of Brian and Declan over the last two years...what a dad!!

Happy Anniversary!!!

To my wonderful husband Brian - and six years of marriage and two years of parenthood! You caught my eye in college, stole my heart after we graduated, made my dreams come true when you asked me to marry you, and became a more wonderful husband and father then I could have imagined! I love you!

Twofer

And now for something completely different:

Alaska Day Two

Here's another Alaska page for Andrew's book!

Detroit Art Festival

Brian and I took Declan to the Detroit Art Festival This weekend and these are two of the layouts that I did from that day! It was a HOT, beautiful day and we all had so much fun!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Birthday to Terry!

Have a great day Terry!
Love, Melinda, Brian and Declan

Walk on Water - REVISED

I redid the Walk on Water page - I like it much better now!

Queen of Miracles

This layout was inspired by the Queen of the Crop contest that I was entered in at scrapbookgraphics.com. Although I didn't make it to the top ten, we were encouraged to compete in a "home version". The final challenge was to scrap a page based on the title Queen of __________ where you fill in the blank. I chose Queen of Miracles, because we are queens (and kings) of only one thing and that is our attitude. I am grateful to have my family and this page reflects the miracle of that.

Daddy's Here

We took Declan to the trains at Starr park last weekend and Declan had a mini-meltdown because just as we were about to get on the train, they decided it was too full and sent us back to the line to wait for the next one - well, that broke his heart and he was very upset! So, I took a picture (typical)! :)

The Look

This was a fun page to make! I took two photos (one of the croc and one of Declan) and blended them together in Photoshop - how cool is that?!? These are from the zoo on Monday. Declan loves the reptile house. He runs in checks out the snakes and then he remembers the crocodiles and runs to see this guy!

Aint We Got Love

I really like this photo of Declan and I, especially since most photos around here are taken BY me, so I'm not likely to be the subject! hee hee So, I made a layout out of it!

Declan is TWO!

Ok, so he's actually 26 months, but here are his two YEAR pics!

Alaska Day One

Second completed page for Andrew's book. Any comments out there, Merrie? ;)

So you think you can dance...

Declan loves to dance, anytime, anywhere to any music. On this day, he was dancing to a song that he was singing and I couldn't resist taking some pics!

Shyness

Just playing around in Photoshop, practicing my MASKS and converting photos to line drawings and this crazy thing is what I came up with. The journaling consists of lyrics to a song by the Smiths (Ask) and it's one of my favorite songs and motivational quotes.

My Brand New Gardening Hat

Which I love, and apparently Declan does too! hee hee

Kenai Fjords - ALASKA

(I CHANGED THE TITLE A LITTLE!)
Merrie - this is the first page that I've completed - let me know if you like it. If this is a secret from Suzy, let me know and I'll take it down from the blog (although, I don't think I even sent her the link, so you're probably safe...)