Summer Days on the Rail Trail

Not sure how many of you stopped by and caught my weekly Lazy Days of Summer posts last year. Once a week, I highlighted our summer adventures ... whether it was exploring some place new, a trip to the beach, or just lounging out by the pool. This year, I want to keep that tradition up, but maybe post more often than just once a week. No schedule, ('cause that is not very Lazy Days of Summer-like to me) ... just a post whenever I have a moment. I still have a bunch of photos to share of things we did during our final week of school. But tonight, I just want to post photos from our day. I'm so proud of these two. :)


You see, yesterday I bought the girlie a new bike. It was really time. She had outgrown the old bike by at least a year. And today we went out on our local rail trail for a 14 mile bike ride!



I am so proud of my two kiddos. They did it without complaint and with just a brief stop for a granola bar.


Looking forward to many more bike rides this summer!

The girlie is happy with her new ride.


Cool helmet. Right?

Somehow my kids clothes match their bikes. I swear I did not plan that!


Getting ready to head back.



This says SUMMER.

BlogHop Time ...

Here we go! It is Blog Hop time Jessica Sprague style. Oh yeah!



Hopefully you arrived here from stop #25, Jen P's blog. I am stop #26 on the blog train. If you are just joining in now, please click on the image link below to go to Jessica's blog and grab your very first freebie. This way you can start at the beginning. :)

Here is the Quick Page freebie that I created. Please click HERE to download. Hope you enjoy the train ride.

And a closer look at the Layout.

Your next stop is #27 , Jennifer H's blog: http://jenniferhignite.blogspot.com/

Have fun! :)
-xoxo Jenn M.

School's Out, Rains In ...

Usually on the last few days of school, (we have half days), the kids have friends over to swim or are going to someone else's pool party... but this year, our last week of school (and half days) was marked with lots of rain and cloudy weather. There was no pool fun this week. :(

So we went out for lunches, shopped the mall for teacher gifts, hit the craft stores, and browsed Barnes & Nobles for hours. (It is impossible to walk out of B&N without buying something ... right? I can't be the only one?) Anyway ... here are some of the goodies we acquired this week.

Books for Summer reading: Fantasy Adventures for the little guy and Mysteries and Girlie Girl for the little lady.



The little lady had to have this craft kit because she is all about the animals in her life. (I can hear our Shih Tzu groaning already.)

Embarassing, but yes, why yes I did. I did buy a new binder for the little lady for the next school year on the last day of the current school year. (Totally crazy.) But its from Justice and according to her that means she has to have it. Along with the smelly pens ... one wild cherry and the other bubble gum. I'm sure the smelly pens will be very conducive to learning. (Though I have to admit, its a pretty rockin' binder! The only thing the smelly pens rock is a headache.)



We picked out some mind puzzles and games from B&N ... I was hoping for more traditional style board games that we could play family style, but they couldn't seem to agree. Hopefully these will keep them somewhat busy after long days in the sun.


This little gem is from Target. And I'm not gonna divulge the amazing things we are going to do with it just yet. I can give you a hint and tell you it won't be used in the kitchen. You'll have to come back soon for a future blog post on this one. I promise it involves the following ... summer days, kids, crafty fun, outdoors! Sounds good doesn't it! ;)


And these sweet little candy caps were spied on Bakerella.com. We ... the little man, the little lady and I made these the other day for the little man's class on the last day of elementary school. I'll share the photos from this fun, kid-crafty moment with you another time. I don't think it was meant to be a kid craft, but my kids were master chefs in the kitchen with this project. They had a blast!

That's about it ... just wishing for some sunshiney days ....

Sniff, Sniff ...

Hard to believe but my little man is moving on to Middle School in September. Today was his last day of elementary school. It was weird when he entered the double digits in age last year and now it won't be long before I have a teen living in my home. Gasp! And ... for the first time ever, my kids will have two different bus pick-up times in September ... I thought our morning routine with one wake-up and one bus pick-up was difficult enough. September is going to be a big time for changes for all of us. But enough about that. I'm getting dizzy just thinking about it and it's months away.

I need to just celebrate the here and the now. And so I leave you with a quick set of photos of his moving up ceremony yesterday.

Here he is getting his "diploma" or whatever you call it at this age. I honestly don't remember having one of these ceremonies when I left elementary school, but maybe because that was back in the Dark Ages.

And he won the President's Education Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement and finished off the year with straight A's. Yes, yes I am ... A Happy Mama!

(And did you happen to notice his lovely attire. uh, huh... he wore that skull shirt for the Moving Up Ceremony. The dress attire was "Neat Casual" or something like that. We barely got out the door that morning and by the time I noticed what he was actually wearing, it was too late to change and I was too rushed to care. Only my son.)

Just a few days left of the Summer Sale & count down to BlogHop TIme!

Summer sale at JessicaSprague.com ends June 26th! Don't miss out on a great deal for self-paced classes. Did you hear Digi in Deeper just went self-paced! That class is not to be missed!

The bloghop starts Friday at 10pm EST! Make sure you visit all the trainstops, 47 freebies will be waiting for you. The designers did an amazing job on the collab, you will not be disappointed!

My latest layouts:

Butterfly Hunting
Gorgeous New Kit by In The Making - Valpolicella ... LOVE!

Valpolicella Paper Pack
Valpolicella Elements Pack
Budoir Solids Paper Pack
7 Days in May Template

Lego Guru
New Cogsmo Kit from Cosmo Circket ... a must-have if you have a boy!

Cosmo Cricket::
Cogsmo Paper Pack
Cogsmo Elements

In The Making Design::
A Wonderful Day Template

Creativity by Crystal::
stitches from {Inspired by Susan Weinroth} Template 6

Sale, Speed Scraps continue ... plus a BlogHop full of Freebies!

Don't forget the JessicaSprague.com awesome summer sale is still going on through June 26th!
And every Friday and Saturday in June is a Speed Scrap with a freebie for participants. All are welcome! Come play ... just look for the Speed Scrap thread in the General Forum! Today I am hosting at 12pm EST. That's 30 minutes from now. :)

And everyone loves a bloghop right? How about one with 47 amazing freebies!! Here are the details, you will not want to miss it!

Amazing Summer Sale at JessicaSprague.com

JessicaSprague.com is FOUR! To celebrate, they're throwing a HUGE Birthday Bash & Summer Sale. From June 14-26, you can save 20% off of every self-paced class, and 35% off of ALL digital products. In addition, grab all 27 episodes of Jessica's amazing Photoshop Friday tutorials for just $1 each before they're retired on June 26! As part of the celebration, starting on June 24, you can participate in an incredible 49-person blog hop, picking up a sweet digital freebie at each stop! Best of all, on June 26 Jessica will be making a special announcement of a brand new class coming up in July. We only put our site on sale two times a year, so don't miss out on this GREAT savings opportunity! For all the info on the Summer Sale, Photoshop Fridays, blog hop, and the new class, just click here!

And here's the latest layouts with new store goodies:

Sweet Surfin' Shih Tzu
splendid fiins::
Make a Mess - masks vol. 4
very krafty-the neutrals
very krafty-the ledgers
border bits: @ the office
Make a Mess - splatter overlays v2
decorative bookplates - set 1

Memorial Day Poolside
Elle's Studio:
USA Vintage Journaling Tags
Monogram Tags
Vintage Daily Photo Tabs

splendid fiins:
love yooo - photo frames
very krafty-softly now
@ the office supplies 1

Cosmo Cricket::
Joy Ride Candy Candy
Lil' Man Alphabet (recolored slightly)

liv.e designs::
Needs+Wants: Stitchies Vol.1 {The Crayon Box Collection}

Banner made as taught in Jessica's Digi in Deeper Class. String from class download.

Digi Challenges!

Lost your mojo? Looking for a push over the edge back to that creative side of your brain? Make sure you join us over at JessicaSprague.com next weekend for more Speed Scraps. So fun! We just finished our first challenge weekend and it was a blast! And in about an hour, you'll have a finished page for every Speed Scrap you participate in, plus a freebie!

(click on titles or photos for credits)
Here is the layout I finished on Saturday evening hosted by CT Chrissy:

Shades of Bling

and the one finished today, hosted by CT Jana:

4 Seconds

We have experienced scrappers and brand new digi scrappers joining in the fun. Amazing! Meet us in the General Forum. The next one is Friday June 10th at 7pm EST.

Did you join us at the end of May? Here are the layouts I did from the 7 Days in May Challenges from last week, hosted by the lovely designers Linda & Liv.

Annuals for Memorial Day


4th Grade Class Trip



My Birthday Boy


And Then ...


This is Love

Closed my Website

Just wanted to let you know I closed my website this week. I just have not been keeping up with it and life has taken over in many other ways. I still have my Etsy shop and am happy to take any orders over there ... wholesale or retail. Just let me know what you are looking for, and ask if you don't see what you need! Thank you for many amazing years!

On a much more fun note: The Jessica Sprague Creative Team will be hosting Speed Scraps every Friday and Saturday in June to celebrate our 4th birthday! Head on over to the site to find out more about Speed Scraps ... freebies will be available to those who participate! ;)


Here is the schedule for our birthday month. The first one starts tonight at 9pm EST! Hope to see you there!