Finally some time...

I'm back and feeling like myself from a crazy week.

We had the kids down for another week. I love it when they're here. I know I complain a lot more, but I do adore those kids. Monkey certainly loves the extra playmates.

My mother and I even took all the kids for a day trip down to Waterloo Park. We picniced, met some new duck and butterfly friends, glazed at animals (the web site said petting zoo...It is not a petting zoo when you can't touch the animals!) and played in the water activity area. My sister tagged along too. I think everyone had a good day. And we had some pretty tired kids by the end of the day.

This past weekend was chaos; and fun. We went to Stoney Creek on Saturday to visit family. 4 couples and five children make for a very busy household. The kids had a blast in Poppa and Grandma's pool. Even Monkey took to the water like a fish.

Sunday was a driving day. We drove to Belleville to drop the kids back home. We did some visiting while we were in the area before heading back home. Monkey was a great traveller. I was not.

I'm guessing from the lack of sleep over the weekend and all the traveling we did, I was not feeling too great yesterday. I feel a ton better today. Perfect timing too. Today is Steve's birthday. I have the cake in the oven right now. Monkey and I have a couple of surprises for Steve up our sleeves too. Nothing much; just enough to remind him we love him very much.

Because of all the activity and not feeling well yesterday, I didn't get around to posting this yesterday...

My last layout for this month went up on So Sketchy yesterday.

I love doing layouts of my sister. I tend to pull out all the pink I love but don't use on Monkey layouts. I know tons of people have no problem using tons of pink, lace, flowers and other frilly pretties on boy layouts. And they always look great! I just haven't found that free zone in my own creativity yet. Someday I'll get there....Maybe...

Anyhoo; check out the adorable sketch by the talented Allison Cope here. Did you notice the cute little girl on the cupcake on my layout? That's a stamp (which I stamped and embossed many times over on different papers and then pieces together). You can have a chance of winning some adorable stamps too just by sending your creations inspired by the sketches to Ally.

I love working with Ally's sketches. She's super talented. I was a follower of So Sketchy long before I managed to get on the design team. If you're a fan of So Sketchy too, why not try out for a guest designer spot? Ally's got a call out right now. Check out how to apply right here.

Before you go running over to So Sketchy, I have a couple of pictures to share with you.

Here are all three of the kids, playing around the water's edge, checking out the ducks. I think this was when I sent Monkey down to tell the kids we were leaving. Monkey came back alone. The other two decided to take off farther down the water's edge. Instead of getting mad, I just packed everything up, loaded up the van and made like I was going to just leave them there. Wish I got a picture of them running! Hope it taught them a lesson.

I love, love, love this shot of Steve's oldest boy. He was finished eating his lunch and settled down to watch the ducks swim. The scenery was just too beautiful to pass up capturing. This boy is super active. He cannot sit still for the life of him. He's also a noisey guy. Always screaming; for good or bad. And there he sat, very quietly. Every time I look at this picture (over the past 5 days!) I'm reminded of how sweet he really is. Under all that energy and noise is a complete sweetheart who just needs to be reminded he's loved...And given tons of space to just burn up that extra energy.

Until next time...