Friday Layouts

What a week. The first week of school for the kiddos is coming to an end, we are settling into the routine and looking ahead with some new experiences on the horizon ... the after school hours will sure be busy this year! Still trying to figure out how exactly we fit in a few weekly runs, with the kids, into the schedule with school, homework, and after school activities. Hopefully it all works out.

Today I have two pages to share with you. The Ardent Sparrow released a set of templates at the Lily Pad on Wednesday. These layouts are perfect for a clean layout, but can also be used to create a really layered & clustered look as well. So versatile.

available at The Lily Pad

The Ardent Sparrow | The Watercolor Templates

The Ardent Sparrow & One Little Bird | Going Places Collab

I also have this page to share, made with Legacy, a gorgeous collaboration that is on sale now at The Lily Pad.

available at The Lily Pad

The Ardent Sparrow & Valerie Wibbens | Legacy Collab

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Memory Keeping Monday ... a little late!

Happy Monday evening! Today I spent the day with the kids getting organized for school. School ... not a word they are happy to hear. While so many of you are already sharing "first day of school pictures" on social media, we are still enjoying 2 more weeks of summer vacation & freedom from the back to school routine.

But today it was time to do a little preparation for the big day in September. It will be here before we know it, like it or not!

We have an old armoire that we use as command central for school supplies and project related storage. It had not been cleaned or organized in at least 9 months! So we tackled it today and found more pencils and loose leaf paper than Staples. OK, maybe not that much paper, but still, there was so much, I had to devote a whole shelf just to loose leaf.

This made it easy to see what was needed and what was not. Then we set out to buy the remainder of the items on the school supply list. I'm happy to report, one store ... and we are done. Except for the 18 boxes of tissues that my two kids need to bring in. No comment. 

After our school supply shopping & organizing of the armoire, I treated to the kids to ice cream cones  ... all was good, and the big bad word ... school ... was soon forgotten again. Happy to report, we are back in summer vacation mode for two more weeks.

Speaking of summer vacation ... check out this Digital Project Life layout from our island vacation last week:

available at digitalprojectlife.com

Becky Higgins Digital Project Life

Ledger Cards

Lined Cards (will be available in the store as a freebie!)

Cobalt Edition Extras

Cherry Edition Extras

Clementine Edition Extras

 

Man, I miss that island already! And I have this layout of my Dad enjoying one of his favorite things to do on the island, fishing! This is using a freebie template created by KerriAnne Phelps, a CT with Designs by Dani. You can grab the template here!

available at jessicasprague.com

Designs by Dani

Campout Complete Kit

August Freebie Template

Thanks for looking!

Adorable Dear Lizzy mini kit for Digital Project Life

Did you all tune in to HSN when Project Life was featured? Well I did. Not only did I purchase the Jade Edition, but I also made sure to get the auto ship with the mini kits/albums. It included a darling, summery themed Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Mini Kit, which I adore. This very kit is available now in digital format! Here is one page I did with this mini kit:

available at digitalprojectlife.com

Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Mini Kit

other products:

Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Element Pack 1

Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Paper


The theme is to die for and the colors are so sweet ... like a pastel dream! Here is another page with the kit:

available at digitalprojectlife.com

Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Mini Kit

other products:

Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Element Pack 1

Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Paper

Patti Knox Brad Bonanza

It's on sale through the weekend, so hurry! Sorry about the late notice, but I was on vacation last week.

Friday Foto Frenzy summer photo share ... week 7

Getting this up a little late.
Our word of the week was Re-lax.
We tried to stay home as much as possible.
Enjoyed the house, the yard, just being in our space. Needed it.

 The girl making some handmade cards for friend's birthday parties.

 

Spending lots of time chilling watching the Olympics.

Women's soccer has been our absolute favorite to watch.

 Enjoying the Citronella Torches we put up all around the pool area.

 The boy just loves anything having to do with fire.

Since hanging around with the nephew at the race tracks, the boy has his heart set on a dirt bike. (We owe this all to my brother. Thank you D.)

Making waffles for brunch ... 'cause we can wake when we want. ;)

Family movie nights. 

Loving swims at sunset.

Loving swims in the dark.

And loving swims with friends.

Loving pups. We have a pet store near our house that lets you touch and pick up the little loves. We have a bad habit of going in there (a lot) to cuddle the poor things. We fall in love quickly and leave in tears often. 

Loving this ...  fun at soccer practice.

Our summer project this year is planting the slope on the side of the pool. Lots of nice trees, shrubs and grasses going in ...

A little sibling rivalry with a game of volleyball.

Not loving this! Remember that saying "Talk to the hand" ? Well I feel like these days it's "talk to the iphone". I see more of the back of their iphones than I do their faces some days. 

Now that's a face I could look at all day. She's kinda got that "talk to the hand (or ... err... paw)" thing going too.

And loving cool beams of light at sunset.

-xoxo jenn

Friday Foto Frenzy summer photo share ... week 6

Yeah, so camps finished up last week, but we've been non-stop since last Friday. I think I have sun-overload, if there is such a thing. My body, my skin, just want to snuggle up on the couch with a good book and a soft blanket and hide from sun exposure for at least a day. I take that as a sign that we we are having a good summer! ;)

So ... here's what we've been up to this week!

 We hit our local water park with some friends ... twice.

Tubes, slides and water = FUN!

 

Gotta love the lazy river.

The girl had an orthodontist appointment. She kept busy waiting for the Dr to come in by singing along with the classical music.

We also had a dentist appointment, same day. She kept busy waiting for her turn, by dancing in the middle of waiting room to the music. I don't know when she became such a character. The boy pretended he didn't know his sister.

Despite a good bit of rain during the week, we managed to have plenty of bright blue skies and fluffy clouds when we were out and about. Gotta love considerate weather. 

 We headed down to NJ again for a long weekend. The 4 yr old nephew now races MotoCross. 4 years is the youngest they let kids race. His class had 4, 5 and 6 year olds ... so some of these kids had been racing for 2 years. That didn't stop him from getting noticed. During one race the announcer must of said his name at least 4 times. He called him "one to watch out for in the future".

 In between races, he'd go from one set of wheels to another. True motocross boy.

I'm told he usually races on hard packed surfaces, not the loose, soft dirt of this track. That didn't stop him from tearing up the track. Just look at him! 

 

We all got really into it, and had such a fun day cheering him on. 

This boy came in 2nd overall in his class. He went home with a huge trophy and even received a medal for his efforts racing in the older class! Ah-mazing!

It started raining right as the races ended. It was a heavy but quick rain. We headed back to the parents house for a BBQ that evening.  And by the time we were ready to husk corn, the sun was shining. Again, love the considerate weather.

We spent the evenings watching the Olympics. And eating popcorn. Oh, and eating fresh berry pies from the local farm market. Melt in your mouth yummy. 

 

(Sorry no pic for the pies, trust me, you'd be drooling all over your keyboard anyway. )

The next day we went to a small local zoo that we had never been to before. You can buy a basket filled with popcorn, pretzels, animal crackers, nuts and some fruitloops. (??? not sure why fruitloops, but the animals loved it.)

They had spotted hyenas! These animals are so not pretty. Sorry, they just aren't. But very intersting to watch how they behave and walk around with their hunched backs and short back legs. Fierce!

We nicknamed this zoo, Monkey Zoo, because I have never seen so many species of monkeys in one place, ever!  They were so friendly, playful and fun to watch. 

 

The animals would come right up to us, waiting to be fed .... hoping for Fruitloops no doubt!

Even the sly fox came up to check out our loot and see what we had to feed him.

 It was a fun, relaxing way to spend a few hours, together.

Just don't feed the animals your fingers!

By the time we were ready to leave, it was so hot and sunny. We cooled off with some ice coffees and oreo coolattas. And stopped in for some pickin' at a local Flea Market and Antique Fair.

It was a fun day. None of it was really planned. We just drove around and went to where ever inspiration hit. We had a lot of laughs. Sometimes those are some of the best days.

The next day we hit the beach. 

 

For more sun. And surf and sand. Lots of sting rays spotted in the warm waters. 

Shore birds hoping to steal a snack. 

Back home for our second trip to the water park.  Love seeing them smiling and having fun. 

And then we enjoyed a day at the lake with friends. Once again the rain held out for us, until we were all ready to leave. 

They took turns burying each other in the sand.

Snuggling with pup after a long day. Very necessary after a busy week on the go!

That's it for this week. xoxo -jenn