Spells...

At the store, we are focusing on Halloween and Christmas!  I KNOW!! By the time Halloween and Christmas have arrived, I am so done with the holidays!!

Anyway, this weekend,, while the boys were away playing,  I created a Halloween Spell book.  I got the idea from Kellie, who works at Memory Bound, and ran with it. The "spells" in the book are actually Halloween recipes! Fun idea!!

 
I bought an old novel at Goodwill for 99 cents and "junked" or decorated it...Halloween style!

I tore, burned, punched, stapled and taped pages. (sound like a fight!)

I used the Halloween collections from Carta Bella and Echo Park. Both collections have tons of little elements and stickers that made this book super easy to create!

I knew I wouldn't be able to do the entire 200 some pages for the book so I tied I decided to tie 30-40 pages together at a time by punching holes with my corp-a-dile and then tying them with ribbon or twine.  I actually tore a chunk of pages out for this section, and then stapled the torn pages together.  On the back side, the backs of the staples showed, so I covered them with Washi tape.

 

For this section, I tore out pages, folded journaling cards and glued them into the book on each side.

Some pages I would staple together, but fold over the corner and stick recipes between the pages. (Hard to see, but that's what I did in the lower right corner.  I put in recipes from the Internet and from magazines. (No I haven't tried them all!)

This is what the side of the book looks like...nothing better then the look of a junked up book to make me happy!!

I have gotten "into" making these banner type table displays after seeing some at CHA in July.

I had plenty of "leftovers" from the collections I used for my Spell book to make a creepy display.

 

Hope you have a Happy Halloween....yea..it's way too early for that!!

(Oh..a plug...you can find all the collections (and ribbons and punches) at Memory Bound!)

Creepy Clown...

Sam is playing with the idea of being a clown for Halloween.  He remembered that a friend of ours has a clown mask and asked if he could borrow it.  When he put it on, I (obviously) took a picture...this is the conversation that followed:

Me; Check out how creepy your are!!!!
Sam: Oh. I had forgatten how scary this mask is.

Quiet....for a bit...

Sam: Do you think it would be ok if we kept the mask in the garage tonight?

First Vikes Game....

Jason took Jack to his first preseason Vikings game!

Love this picture!
Preseason games are perfect for Jack...Jason doesn't need to stay for the whole game and they could leave at any time!

Jack scored some horns! Skol vikings!!
(not a very crowded game...)

After the game, Jason was hailing a cab and Jack asked if they could take THAT cab. "THAT" cab was a two seater carriage pulled by a bike rider.  Jack had a ball riding the "cab" back to the hotel! 

Jack put his horns on for me when he got home...I discovered that there are braids attached to the hat!!! At the game, he had just tucked the braids in the top of his horns...how funny!!! Oh..he's been working on his football face!

Ready for More Football...

Football is almost in full swing at our house (Iowas State and the Vikings haven't kicked off yet!)

Sam is playing for the orange team this year...his "number" (which is usually 55) wasn't offered this year, so he went with the next closets...54.  It was funny to watch and hear why the boys on the team picked certain numbers.  One boys always picks his dad's age..another one picked the year his dad was born...(good thing the kids' a lineman!) and another kiddo always tries to get the lowest number !!

This year is Jack's first "real" year of football. he will play flag football and Jason won't be on the field with him this year.He's pretty excited about the whole thing!

Lucky number 7!!!

 

Mean football faces...Jack needs to work on his!

Every year, at the first high school football game, all the boys that play junior football get to run on the field and make a line for the high school football players to run through.

I apologize for the pictures..I took them from the top row of the bleachers!!  Sam is in one of the orange jerseys out there!  The "line" that the football players run through goes clear across the field (the long way) and then wraps back around again..it's crazy long!! I was concerned the players would be too tired to play the game!!!

Here come the players...Jack is on the right shoulder of #74.  He was amazed by the players!

Sam has had his first scrimmage of the season...check that off the worry list!! (for him and me!!)
Get ready to see more football pictures!!! I told myself that I will keep up on the boys sports albums...this year...better get these photos printed off and scrapped!! Let you know how that goes!

Waiting...

Moose waiting for her boys to come home from school.

First day of School...Check!

So all the nervous jitters and nights of night being able to sleep (and that was just me!) are over!! We can check off the first day at a new school. Check!

Sam is off to fifth grade and Jack is starting first grade.

It is the last time that these two will be at the same school together.

Jack said he had a terrific day and Sam gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Nothing like blowing off some nervous energy with some jumping photos before heading to school!

Jack looks a little winded from jumping...and...are those grandpa pants he has on???

This is the first year Jack has had a locker. Last year he had a cubbie.
 A quick little lesson on how to open a locker and Jack was good to go.


I have to admit, I missed the little guys while they were at school. It was so quiet!!  I am sure I will get back into the swing of having my own time...real fast!!!

The Last Supper..

Last night was our last evening of summer...

The boys got to pick what they wanted to have for their last supper...

They wanted Jason to smoke hamburgers and Schwan's curly fries...I KNOW..REALLY...no Cazador...no Culver's??? You want a dad made meal? (Why don't my food pictures look like the ones in the recipe books!)

Jack tried to like corn on the cob....he ate a little, but it's still "too sweet" for his tongue and he didn't like how he got "stuff" caught in his teeth.

Sam was very intent on telling me something...

Jack told Moose how he won't be around all day and she will be okay! 

Sam demonstrated how he can change a sad face... 

 

to a happy face with the wave of his hand! 

 

And then back again. Magic!!
LIke his new hair cut...he keeps getting it shorter and shorter!

jack had the last ice cream cone of summer.

then we decided to play catch.  I love this smile on Jack..it's pure and so genuine!

 

Intense throwing!

 

Sam looks so grow up in this picture. *sniff* IN the background you can see Moose intently sniffing around the burn pile..which freaked me out because who knows what could be in there!!! UGH!!

Sam caught the ball with the tips of his fingers.  Love the look on his face!

We then went inside and started a game of Risk (started because it takes about 4 hours to play one game!).  Jason and I use to play Risk all the time until I finally decided that I didn't want to play with a rule bender! (Jason will adamantly deny this!) So we are playing and Jas seems to be bringing up rules while it's HIS turn. Both Sam and I called him out on this...I think I even dropped the dreaded line, "I TOLD you so, Sam!"  Jason still turned it around that we weren't listening to what he was saying...UGH!! Rule bender!