Paxton

Day one of my Spring 2011 "Week in the Life" is complete--at least as far as getting to the kids' bedtime.  I may have to retire my camera at that point each night this week...I'm beat. A day full of activities (some normal, some extra) plus photographing them, and writing 'em all down will wear a person out.  Now I'm off to watch some TV and veg...okay, maybe I'll get one shot of that. :) 

Here's what today looked like at our house (you can click the photo to view the images larger):

The stats: 

• 128 photos saved to my hard drive (35 shown here).
• The first three lines of photos in this collage all occured before 8:30am.
• Notable differences about today compared to every other normal day - We went bowling & Ben gave blood.

If you joined me...how'd you do?  If you didn't, why not?  Give it a try.  Do a "Day in the Life" instead of a week and give it a shot. :)

My mom brought the kids some flat, colored stones from Florida a few weeks ago.  I wasn't sure what we could do with them that would allow the kids to enjoy the stones, without them becoming a tool of mass destruction in our home or another "something" to pick up. (Who am I kidding?  everything becomes "something" to pick up)....

Side note: I LOVE grandparents and the gifts they give to our kiddos.  And the kids LOVE the gifts.  However, said grandparents may need a lesson or two in age-appropriate gifts.  :) Breakables = no nos.  Kids don't understand the difference between "decorative" and "toy".  Sadly, we've lost several sweet and sentimental gifts to because-they-loved-them-so-much-they-broke-them "accidents". 

Anywhoo...truly there's nothing wrong or breakable about these stones, and Ayla especially was very excited about them, so I wanted to come up with a good way for the kids to use them.  Together, we came up with pendant necklaces.

Originally I was going to drill a hole in them, but my drilling skills are limited, the stones are SOLID, and my efforts did NOT produce anything more than a slight scratch.  Plan B.  Washers & E6000 glue.  Yeah, that'll do it.  Then I added some cute rub-ons (hearts for Ayla & a dinosaur for Paxton) and a ribbon, long enough to go over their big ol' heads!

The kiddos were pleased.  I wouldn't call this the most quality jewelry designing, but for a 4- and 1-year-old...it was just right:

Nope, that's not a basketball, that's his belly... :)

I *so* wish I could find the website that inspired this idea -- because it was NOT my own.  But I failed to save it, and now I can't find it.  Just know it was from someone much more clever than me. :)  Happy Halloween!  

After months of Paxton wearing pink & purple sunglasses (having snatched Ayla's), I figured it was time to get him his own.  He wore them ALL day long (inside too). 

Today's article at Scrapjazz.com is all about the P-man!  Well, really it's about a layout about the P-man...but you get the idea! :)

Step-by-Step: One Party

You can see more scrapbooking articles by me here...

I finished up this 3-6-9-12 month framed collage this afternoon, displaying Paxton's first year portraits.  Rather than matching Ayla's framed collage, I ended up going with a completely different frame style and photo opening layout.  I figure...different kid, different project.  Separate and unique, but equal.  Paxton's pictures were all horizontal anyhow, so it was kind of necessary to do something different. :)

Initially my intent for doing this was to show how much each kid changed over their first year, wearing the same white onsie with a black background (and I tried to include a prop - flower for Ayla and stuffed monkey for Paxton...but that didn't go over well after 3 months!).  It's funny how in the end, these portraits actually ended up showing how much they looked the SAME all year! Though Paxton does get a little rounder in each photo! Perhaps if I had to do it over again, I'd choose to dress them differently each time...nah, probably not.  I still think it was a good idea even if it didn't turn out quite like I planned. :)

Here's Ayla's, which I did several years ago - the openings are wallet sized w/one 5x7:

And Paxton's - which has four 3 1/2 x 5" openings:

So there we go.  Two kids, two frames, two first year collages -- done, and hung. 

With all the pictures I take, it's about time I framed a few. :) 

I've had this collage frame sitting in my "to do" projects forever, and finally decided that a bathtime baby bathroom collage would be the perfect use for it.  So, I printed several bathtime baby photos of both of our kids in black and white, added some patterned paper & Imaginisce "Splash Dance" rub-ons and stickers and viola!  A cute little bathroom collage.

While I was working on this project, I flipped the Splash Dance packaging over and was surprised to see a familiar face looking back at me! 

Cool, huh? :)

For Paxton's 1st birthday party, I continued (and maybe concluded?) his monkey-themed year with monkey decorations.  I kept the decorations very simple, using his banner, some stuffed monkeys from his bedroom hanging from the chandelier and candle holders, and a bag of balloons.

We had a very low-key party.  Just the local aunts, uncles and cousins over for dinner (shishkabobs) and dessert (monkey cupcakes of course).

I can't claim credit for the design of the cupcakes, though I did make them.  I just searched Google images for "monkey cupcakes" and I got LOTS of ideas. :)

Since Ayla has a birthday banner, I knew I'd need to make one for Paxton as well and since his birthday is only two weeks away...well it was time to get crackin!

This canvas pennant banner from Maya Road was the perfect product to make it with (especially since his name fit so perfectly on six pennant triangles!)

I painted each triangle either orange or brown with acrylic paint, and then alternated colors to create the background for the banner.

I added his baby photos, chipboard letters to spell his name, and used the Little Sprout collection kit from Crate Paper as well as several zoo stickers from Doodlebug and monkey stickers from Reminisce to decorate each triangle. 

Since Paxton's nursery is decorated in zoo animals, and his monthly photos are taken with a stuffed gorilla, I figure it's only natural that his banner have the same theme.  I plan to use the banner every year on his birthday -- maybe not for party decorations (because I doubt the zoo theme will keep his interest for much longer), but at least I can use it for family birthday breakfast decorations!

And the other side:

Ben took the kids with him grocery shopping this morning so I could hang out alone and do some scrapbooking (I know...I'm VERY lucky).  I managed to get caught up on Paxton's album, at least through the end of January.  Only a couple months left before his year is up!