pumpkin picking

columbus day was cloudy and cold but it didn't stop ava, santana and i from taking a trip to the brightwaters farm for some pumpkins.


ava tried to carry as many pumkins as she could.


santana wasn't sure if he liked the pumpkin farm or the pumpkins for that matter.


of course the playground is always fun.



nothing beats a wagon filled with pumpkins!



this year we made sure to save time for the hayride. santana wasn't too sure about it, but ava loved it!


now getting the pumpkins and two tired kids to the car was another thing. luckily grandma had a big helper...ava pulled the wagon with our pumpkins in it and i carried one tired little boy.

hectic few weeks

i can't believe that it's been almost a month since i updated my blog. the summer came to a quick end and brought us into a very hectic september.

santana loved spending labor day at the spray park.


ava took a break from the spray park to enjoy the sand.


we decided to look for a house and of course we found one right away that we loved. after about two weeks and frequent viewings of the house we decided to make an offer. unfortunately, someone made a higher offer than we could afford, so we are back to house hunting. i decided that after a few weekends of appointments and open houses, house hunting is not as fun as it looks on HGTV.

bear has been having a tough time these last few months. his arthritis has been getting worse and now to make things even harder for him he apparently hurt his front wrist. he is now sporting a new look in the hopes of healing his leg.

at 115 pounds it is a bit hard for his mom to bring him outside. hopefully the bandage as well as the new medication he is on will heal his leg. he is getting older and we are greatful for the little time he probably still has with us. it's important to us that he isn't in pain and that he has quality of life.

ava started dancing school and she loves it, though she is not a fan of the tights. as i sat a june clair school of dance, watching ava, i felt like i never left there. twentyfive years ago i was sitting there with missy at the same age that ava is now. some of the faces have changed and some are the same, but the best one is ava's smiling face looking back at me in her little ballet slippers., though for some reason i couldn't get her to smile for this photo.

book of me

i am working on a "book of me" challenge over on the ckmb. i had so much fun completing the first layout of the challenge. the subject was 10 things that make you happy. it was harder than i thought it would be to narrow the list down to only ten. i used pattern paper from a K & Co scrappad to go, k & Co chipboard sticker butterfly and flower, jenni bowlin bingo card, and american crafts rub-ons. i added some bling to the bingo card and i made the die cut shape behind the photo.

hot, humid summer days

i can't believe that august is almost over. where did the summer go? the past week has been hot and humid here on long island. santana, rene and i spent some time at the track watching the sayville fire dept. racing team. santana had lots of fun! this is my favorite photo of the week. you can see how much fun santana was having.

some days have been lazy and santana took advantage of that! ava spent some time harvesting her tomatoes.

A bike ride on a hot summer night is always fun and everyone knows to you have to wear a helmet!

ava was very excited to go on a school bus for her first class trip to the zoo. we celebrated with girls night at friendlys. ice cream for all!

bear seems to be doing a little better, so he got to enjoy sometime in the yard with us!

thanks for visiting!

blog hop update

thank you everyone for visiting my blog during the cards for heroes mini blog hop! http://cardsforheroes.org/about/ so many talent crafters participated! it was so inspiring to see everyone’s designs. if you didn’t take out blog hop you still can by following this link.

http://letsgetcrafting.blogspot.com/2009/08/happy-holidays-for-our-heroes-mini-blog.html

many of you inquired as to how I made my card. I would love to be able to tell you what papers I used, but I can only guess. I am using my holiday scraps from my 2008 december daily and when I went back to look at them, none of them had the names on them, though I think they my be figgy pudding, BG or MME. the star was cut with my slice and the word joy is done in thickers.

thanks again for visiting!
diana

cards for heros mini blog hop

not too long ago, i became aware of a website called cards for heros. its’ mission is to support our armed forces by providing blank greeting cards to write home on as well as cards thanking them for all they do for us. thousands of cardmakers and scrapbookers across America are joining forces to share their gifts and talents to bless those deployed far from home, and in return are bringing smiles to families and friends across the country! our troops overseas do not have the luxury of running to the nearest target to purchase cards. to date more than 172,000 handmade cards have been made and donated to our troops. you can learn more about this organization by going to: http://cardsforheroes.org/about/.

on august 15, 2009 cards for heros will be doing a mini blog hop. I am so excited to participate in my first blog hop. take a few minutes and follow the link at the bottom of this post to the next blog in our blog hop. hopefully the talents of these cardmakers and scrapbookers will inspire you to make some cards for our heros! please join in the fun and support our troops!
here is my holiday card for the cards for heros mini blog hop. i know that there is not alot i can do for the men and women in the armed forces, but i hope the few cards that i can contribute will bring some joy to them, than i will feel like i reached out and touched them.

the deadline for making holiday cards for our heros is november 1, 2009. if you would like to participate, you can do so by going to: http://cardsforheroes.org/bloghop.

please let me know you stopped by, by leaving me a comment.

the next stop on the blog hop is Christina's blog at http://letsgetcrafting.blogspot.com/2009/08/happy-holidays-for-our-heroes-mini-blog.html

you can find more holiday cards for heros at
http://stampingupastorm.blogspot.com/2009/08/christmas-mini-blog-hop.html

thanks for visiting.
diana

sisters weekend and more

it's been a busy two weeks. i can't believe that it is august already! it seems like summer just got here. last weekend ursula and i went to valley forge PA for CKC and we had an amazing time. two full days of creativity, inspiration and yes shopping! we took five scrapbooking classes while we were there. we learned some new techniques, got plenty of new supplies ( which i promise to photograph to share with all my scrapping friends) and just had a lot of fun. on saturday night we made time to finish some of our class projects so now all we have to do is put the photos in them .

here i am at the button farm class. angela from the button farm gives an amazing class. we made a beautiful mini album, and right after class, we just had to do some shopping at the vendor faire!

i love this road sign that was just a short distance from our hotel. who wouldn't want to live on mall blvd?

this is a great photo of three friends; joann, karen and myself. we have been friends going back as far as elementary school and jr. high school. karen is in from indiana so we had lots of catching up to do.
bear is doing better since his visit to the vet. now he can get around a bit better, so hopefully we can have some more time together.


ava is so excited to finally get some tomatoes from her tomatoes plants, few as they may be.

santana is learning to love books.

and this is one of my favorite photos of the week.

have a great week everyone and thank you for visiting!