I Got it!

Well, a picture of Darren and his teacher.

ha ha

I also loved these fun pictures I took of Darren enjoying his cotton candy at last weekend's A's game (I think 'enjoy' is not a strong enough word to describe his love of this sugar fix!)

How many more days 'til Fall Break? 61

but who's counting????

Officially a First Grader

Time sure does fly the last few days before school! I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post. We spent our final week of summer vacation at swim parks and a 2-day getaway to Sacramento to catch a Sacramento Rivercats baseball game (the Oakland A's minor league team) and 4 hours the following day floating down the American River in a raft. Talk about sun, sloth and relaxation!

Sadly, our summer came to an end this past weekend.

Today was Darren's first day of first grade. I thought I'd enjoy a day free of work or other commitments but I found myself constantly looking at the clock and counting down the hours until I could pick him up from school.

Here are a few photos from this morning. Unfortunately, I couldn't sneak in a picture of him and his teacher so I'm going to try again tomorrow.

Scrap for a Cure online crop going on now!

Head on over to Scrap for a Cure for our first anniversary online crop. There are challenges, games, fun and prizes to be had!

Here are a few more pictures from Tahoe. The wildflowers surrounding me were gorgeous so I thought I ought to try my hand at some close-ups. I know I have room for improvement but it's a start! Enjoy the weekend!

Back home again

Just got back from 5 days of camping in Lake Tahoe with Ginger and her family. Boy, what an adventure! Where do I start? It was H-O-T so we either biked or drove to the lake everyday and soaked up the sun, cooled off in the freezing water and got a bit of a tan despite the SPF 30.

Our last day at camp ended with a downpour complete with hail (I know!) Thankfully the rain subsided after about an hour but our campsite turned into a muddy mess. I've posted a few of my favorite photos of the 100+ I took.

I can't wait to work on a mini-book to put them in!

So it FINALLY feels like summer

It's nice to be home and enjoying a bit of free time. I finished this layout last night. I love this photo because it was so spontaneous! I was picking up Darren from school and one of the boys went to give Darren a hug. I whipped out my iPhone to take a photo and before I knew it there was a group hug going on!

I have to say that I am loving my Basic Grey magnetic mat. I can lay everything out with the little magnetic tacks so nothing shifts and when I'm happy with my layout I adhere it down. No more blowaways!

So tomorrow I'm going to take Darren to see Wally-E. It got an "A" in the paper. I find it interesting that there isn't a lot of dialogue but yet the reviewer said it's the best Pixar moving since "Finding Nemo." Wow! That's some statement!

Mmmmmm!!! The taste of summer...

Just got back from a quick trip to the U-pick strawberry stand and Tachella Family Farm just down the road. I think Darren and I picked 5 lbs. of strawberries. LOL

One of the best things about living in Brentwood are the local farmer's markets. As soon as we got home Darren probably ate 1/2 lb. of strawberries. I am a strawberry smoothie kinda gal so I whipped up a strawberry and blackberry (yup, bought a basket of those too!) smoothie.

Delicious...those strawberries are sugary sweet!

Now I can't wait for dinner so we can chow down on the Brentwood white corn I bought at Tachella's.

Ya gotta love summer!

A Blissful Saturday

I was finally able to enjoy a much-needed "down day" yesterday. I slept in, enjoyed numerous cups of coffee :) and went to the gym. Hey, I can't be a sloth ALL day. ha ha

Darren and I finished our ongoing Monopoly game after cooling off with a little trip to Jamba Juice and finished off our day with dinner of his choice at a local taqueria. I put him to bed early since he was up LATE the night before with me hosting a slumber party with his "wingman" Hayden.

Then I got to scrap! Yay!

Here's what I pulled off in a few hours. Enjoy! Tomorrow it's off to Reno for a few nights. Can a girl dream big of hitting a jackpot??? Or perhaps just returning to the LSS? It's a small store but a goodie!