Feeeeeeeshhh!

We'd been planning to take the girls to the Georgia Aquarium for a while now. It was part of their birthday present, but we've just been so busy lately that it got pushed to the end of February. We drove down on Saturday morning and got there around 10. We used the DVD players in the car, and the girls did great. Emma saw the DVD player when she got in the car, and I asked her, "You know what this means?," meaning a long car trip. She said, "gamma?," as in, the last time we used these was on our car trip at thanksgiving to see grandmas and grandpas. Smart kid. And I'll have to say I'm pretty happy with how long my $5 Curious George video was. I kept waiting for the DVD to end, but it kept going.

The girls were super excited by the idea of seeing fish. In fact, when we were driving into downtown Atlanta and the aquarium came into sight, Emma yelled "feeesh!". I'm actually not sure what she saw, if it was the logo for the aquarium or what. As soon as you take the obligatory green screen photo and enter the museum, there are large fish tanks on both sides of the hallway, and I think that's when they "got it".

We decided to do the tropical fish first, since we thought they'd be colorful. It was pretty crowded, so we skipped some of the early, smaller displays that we'd have to pick them up to see. When we got to the first huge tank, though, the girls were mostly just scared. I don't think it helped that there was a diver right up against the glass, cleaning.


Once we got past that, there was a more kid size tank that they could stand and look right in to. We spent quite a while here while they warmed up a little bit. Lots of smiles here.



Next we did the part that had the tunnel through the tank. I was a little afraid they were going to freak out in there, and it was packed, but they did great. We took it slow and waited a bit for the crowd to thin out, and got further down the tunnel to a place where they could get up against the glass and watch the fish.



I love this one of Becca's reflection.


Emma discovered the air vents.


Lunch break after that, and it's good we ate when we did, because a line backed up
all the way through the cafeteria while we were eating. We thanked Julie for her foresight by dirtying her diaper when she did and forcing us to take a break that turned into our lunch break. The big new lunch adventure was that the girls had to drink their milk out of bottles - no straws allowed in the aquarium. Apparently they are bad for fish. (But it was still a little weird when they searched our bags when we got there and they asked if we had lighters, matches, or anything with a removable straw.). They did ok with the milk bottles, though Becca really wanted to just stick her tongue in the bottle.

After lunch, we hit the cold water display and saw otters, beluga whales, and penguins.
This is one of my favorites.


She had to get down on the floor and get nice and cozy to talk to the fish.


penguin


Things were starting to go downhill at this point. Julie didn't want to walk anymore, so she just starts going limp while holding your hand and makes you drag her. Becca started running away from us. She thinks it's sooooooo funny. We pressed our luck and went to the Georgia area next, thinking it was a bit more kid friendly, but they were still really too young for it. They had a shrimp and horseshoe crab tank that Becca was enamored with, but Julie and Emma wanted no part of. A quick "bye bye fish" and we were out of there.

Well, after stopping to get the photo.

And getting 3 little penguins from the gift shop.

They were asleep before we got on the highway.

Personality and Developmental Notes 2/26/11

Emma and Becca can reach and open the handle on the storm door (at least from inside the house), so we've started locking it. All 3 of them can reach the lock. It's just a matter of time.

Ever since we went to the inflatables place, the girls like to bounce. Julie in particular (big surprise, I know) likes to jump in place.

After we took the girls to the park last weekend, when we got in the car it was getting dark. The interior lights on the car were on when we put the girls in their car seats, but when they went out, Emma kept saying "Lights on. Lights on. Lights on." I told her we couldn't turn them on while we were driving, but of course that didn't satisfy her. "Lights on. Lights on. Lights on." Finally, Julie said "Hush, Emma."

The girls like fish... and somehow, whenever they are coloring, they want us to draw fish for them. I don't get it. I really don't. But they hold out the crayons and ask for fish.

One of their Christmas presents was a phonics toy that goes on the fridge. There are magnets for each letter of the alphabet, etc. But there's also a button on it that just plays the ABC song. And that has been playing non-stop at our house. And I know they do it at daycare, too, because they have a thigh-slapping hand motion that goes along with it. Anyhow, they are starting to catch on to bits of the song. Emma says "A-B-C," and intermittently, other phrases. Actually, the first one I heard her say was "W-X" and then "T-U-V." I think she's got an "H-I-J-K" all blended in together there, too. Julie just likes to repeat after the song, so when it says "Q-R-S," she says "S." Becca? Not particularly interested.

Julie and Emma have been asking to go potty more recently. I think it's primarily a stalling technique, but Julie did actually go in the potty once last weekend. Becca? Again, not interested. She's the type of kid that, it seems to me, is a late bloomer, but when she's ready, I think she'll be the easiest. Does that make sense?

I think I mentioned that I caught Becca shutting our dishwasher door with her foot. Well, the other day, I caught her closing the dishwasher door on the girls' kitchen with her foot, and I just had to laugh.

We are pretty much done with sippy cups now, but I can't quite bring myself to get rid of all of them. We're considering holding on to some of them for car trips and stuff.

Sometime last week, we also pretty much gave up on high chairs. I decided the girls were going to sit at the table for dinner one night and eat off of real plates. They did fine, and that was pretty much the end of that. Becca was really cranky about sitting in her high chair at the end. Of course, we give up some control, but the next 16 years are kind of like that, aren't they? The next day, Greg put the leaf in the table and we've been eating there ever since. Of course, we only have 4 chairs...

Books Update

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest was my first Kindle book that I read over Christmas vacation. I'll have to say, I didn't like it as much as the other two, but it was still really good. If you've read it, what are your thoughts on the whole sister thing? Did I miss something? Do you think he was planning another book?

I read The Hangman's Daughter on my kindle, mostly when I went out to LA for CHA. I liked the first half better than the second half... towards the end, it just seemed to get predictable, and a little weird. An interesting read, though.

I'm slowly making my way through paperbacks, too. I think I'm forgetting one.

I just finished Alice I Have Been last week. Good, but again, at the end, I almost wanted to stop reading.

Right now I'm reading Her Fearful Symmetry. Very good so far.

It's been nice to read, and to get caught up in books again. Slowly making my way back into the world. Heck, I'm even considering subscribing to Newsweek again.

Hair Cuts

I blame Facebook.

Someone posted a link to a livingsocial coupon for $10 kid's hair cuts. I was trying to figure out which place it was for, and found their website... which said that they do first haircuts for a penny. Greg and I talked about it at lunch time and decided we'd try to do it over the weekend. So, after lunch, I called to make an appointment, but the only thing they had was Friday at 5:30.

We picked the girls up, and pulled into the parking lot to cheers of "pizza!". They got right down to business playing with the chairs and toys in the waiting area. We decided against having their hair washed, because they hate it so much. Julie went first and they tried to put her in a little race car, but she wanted none of that and ran away. When I finally caught her, I held her on my lap, and she got her hair trimmed in about 5 minutes. She still doesn't have enough hair to have bangs, and the back and sides just got a trim. She still gets a rat's nest on the back of her head every morning. I'm not sure if it's the curls or just how fine her hair is, but it just gets all mangy and matted. She's the only one that uses "product" - some leave in conditioner. And at the moment, she doesn't really mind having it brushed, but I have a feeling that won't last.

Anyhow, while I was sitting with Julie, Becca and Emma got up into chairs (with toys) with no complaints. I was totally shocked! I was prepared for a full out, three way screaming contest. But they did great!

Emma's all business.


Becca got to hold the brush they use to brush the stray hairs away at the end. When I asked her what it was, she said it was a "fow-wer" (flower).


Julie got her hair cut. Can you tell?


I don't know where that scowl came from.


Because she was certainly a happy girl.


Much better with a balloon in her hand.


I don't really like Becca's bangs this short... I think she looks prettier with her bangs held back with a clip, but it will grow out. And we can save those $10 coupons for their next haircut.

After the haircuts, we went to Moe's for dinner, and the girls got their first kid's burrito. We had been getting them just some rice and chicken. Julie put a good dent in hers, but Becca put away the whole thing. Emma, as usual, took a bite, spit it out, and made a face.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. You know, by comparison. Saturday was just gorgeous and about 70 degrees. Greg took the girls out back to run around in the yard for a bit.

They raked.


And collected acorns.


Then we went to an early dinner at Sticky Fingers. They had us at a booth with chairs on one side and a bench on the other. It was weird to actually sit next to Greg.



The girls did pretty well drinking out of straws. They wanted to run around when we got there, and were a bit wound up. Becca got away from me and did a lap around the restaurant (squealing) before I caught her. When we were leaving, Greg had Emma and Julie, and they like to just go limp and hang there while you're trying to walk. It's nothing new; they do it out of day care all the time. It's insanely aggravating, especially since picking them up is not an option anymore. But all of the people in the restaurant, and those waiting outside as we tried to get across the parking lot, got a good laugh.

It was barely still light out, but the reason we went to an early dinner (besides annoying fewer diners) was to try to burn some energy off at the park. There were lights on, but plenty of people still there. (Rebecca started cheering once we turned onto the road to the park.). They mostly played on the slide, and despite one face-first-into-the-mulch run by Julie, they were doing a good job getting up into the tube slide that's got a 3" step to get in.

On Sunday morning, we took a family trip to the grocery store, with Becca and Julie steering the cart and Emma in the basket, responsible for grocery organization. I'm glad she's content to be back there (for now), because there's no way I'm dragging two of those beasts of shopping carts around the store.

Ten on Tuesday

1. and 2. New shoes from Target... these and these.

3. and 4. This sweater and these boots on clearance from Crazy 8 for the girls for next winter.



5. Ancient Grains granola from Costco = yum

6. Just got plugged in to Groupon and Living Social. Ooooh, this could be dangerous. So far, we've scored coupons for haircuts for the girls.

7. I'm probably in the minority, but I'm really not ready for this warm weather yet. I had to go through the girls' wardrobe this weekend to start cleaning out and making room for short sleeves again.

8. We got a new point-and-shoot camera at Christmas time. It's my first Nikon, so maybe they all do this... but when we ran down the battery this weekend, it showed an error message that said "Battery Exhausted." You're preaching to the choir, battery.

9. I am so addicted to Law and Order. There, I admitted it. And I'm considering a subscription to Hulu Plus so I don't miss any more episodes.

10. Consignment sale is coming up in 2 weeks, and I've got a lot of work to do. I've got a huge hamper full of the girls' summer clothes from last year. And you know how small summer clothes pack. Plus, we're finally able to get rid of some baby toys.

Coordinates Collections February Blog Hop Challenge

This month's challenge was to scraplift a layout from the CC gallery. I knew exactly which layout I was going to use -- this one by nataliabdh was the last one added to my "Favorites" folder:



And here's my interpretation, rotated the original 90 degrees.


Some blurry phone pics from September that Greg sent me while he was home with the girls and I was in my photo class. They liked to be pulled around in those (super cheap, flimsy) baskets like race cars.

Personality and Developmental Notes 2/18/11

The girls definitely know the word "candy" now ("kha knee").

Emma still insists that diaper cream is "eye (ice) cream.". Lately she's come around to "diaper ice cream," which is somehow worse in my mind.

One of the new words they seem to have picked up in their new class room is "go". Now, they knew the word before, but has taken on new meaning. Julie in particular will get right up in someone's face and yell "GO" in her nastiest voice. It's usually come up with the shopping carts, when someone is in the way. We're working on "cue me, Becca" because I really don't like the nastiness. And Julie's certainly not the only one who does it, but she does have the shortest fuse.

Becca loves to close the dishwasher for us. Earlier in the week, I caught her closing it with her foot. I certainly don't know where she got that from.

Uncle Steven got the girls a set of wooden "cutting" vegetables for their birthday, which they just love. Now they walk around saying " cuddit" (cut it).

The girls really like to wipe their own faces and hands after we eat. They also like to have their own wash cloths in the bathtub. Emma will wet her own hair (but still hates when we rinse it), while Julie tends to focus on wiping her heiny. So we're at dinner on Saturday, and the girls are wiping their faces and hands with their napkins, and I catch Julie wiping off her bottom, too. So hard not to laugh.

All of the girls are really working on putting together a couple of words at a time. Some of Julie's right now are "Here, mommy," and "Here you go, Becca.". Of course, "here" is one of her favorite words right now, and she uses it whenever she wants to give you something.

Emma is most adventurous when it comes to new things and experiences, like the bouncing. But she is not adventurous with food ... Becca and Julie are much more willing to try new things.

They love bracelets and necklaces. They have been fingering my necklaces since they were tiny babies, and I swear one of Julie's first words was "nek as.". But they're so happy when they get to wear their own bracelets and necklaces. They get this cute, smug little looms on their faces. They've also started saying "pretty neck-as" and "mommy pretty.". Awwwww.

The girls used to be terrified of the vacuum, but apparently, when it's off, it's now hilarious to push the vacuum around. Becca started the giggle fest. They say "back oh." That's Becca in the video, with Emma giggling with her at the beginning.


In addition to "don yike it," they also say "don wan it."

Becca's favorite phrase now (other than "I silly" and "I funny") is "I foun (found) it" (she finds my shoes and coat for me every morning. She also likes "I dih (did) it" typically followed by a giggle.

Becca also likes to throw away trash for us. She doesn't get to do it much any more now that we've got a lock on it, but when she does she'll say "I dih it" and I find myself running over to see what she threw away. All 3 of them like to say "trash" and give us their trash. "Mommy trash" doesn't have quite the same ring as "mommy pretty."

The girls have started recognizing places, like when they say "pizza" as we get closer to the pizza place. I took Becca to the grocery store on Sunday, and she started squealing before we got to the door, in anticipation of the shopping cart with the steering wheels. And then, when we were on our street on the way home, she started saying "housh" (house). They all like to clap whenever we get somewhere and/or yell "yay!" like they're glad we made it there safely.

How to Wear Out a Toddler

My weekend got started a little early last week, which was just such a nice break. Work has just been draining me lately. Things are going ok, but I'm juggling so many different things during the day that I'm just completely worn out at the end of the day.

Anyhow, I had made an appointment to get my hair cut at 4, and I had the March of Dimes lunch at noon... which gave me the chance to run to the mall and Costco. Nice.

We took the girls out for pizza on Friday night. It's so funny - we turn at this one traffic light and they start yelling "pea-tha!". And they cheer when we pull in the parking lot.

And then they turned into little monsters. Julie refused to sit in her booster seat and insisted on sitting in Greg's lap. And as soon as the pizza comes out, they all start screaming, and continue until it is in their mouths. We go through the same thing every time - "It's hot!", "I have to cut it!". But still they act like we're the meanest parents ever because the food is not in their mouths the minute it hits the table. And then they start running around like crazies when we try to leave. It's nearly impossible for the two of us to drag out 3 kids who don't want to go. And Becca insisted on sticking her hands in the trash can every time she wiggled away.

I fell asleep on the couch on Friday. I really like to just grab a blanket and lay down and fall asleep in front of the tv on the weekends right now. Life of the party, that's me.

We went to our Moms of Multiples winter party on Saturday morning, at one of those bouncy inflatable things places. We tried this about a year ago, and even though we got on their with them, they screamed the whole time. Then, sometime over the summer, I tried taking just Emma (back when she seemed really bored and needed some attention). She yelled and cried for me unless I held her on the edge and bounced her, and she was really more concerned about someone taking her shoes than anything.

So my expectations were low, and for the first half hour, they really weren't interested in anything but playing with the baby toys, or running the length of the building in their socks. Eventually, Emma was okay bouncing in the doorway of this massive inflatable in the back corner. It was a big square, with a track around the outside with a blobby mountain in the middle. Then Emma took off running and laughing.

Still, Becca and Julie weren't buying it.

Greg put Julie in once and she crawled forward a couple of feet, and then she backward crawled right back out again.

Eventually, Greg convinced them Becca and Julie to get in. I was too busy taking pictures.





Ohmygoodness, when they got going, they were having a blast!


We took the girls to Chick-fil-A for lunch, and they got kids meals. We actually planned to *not* bring our usual arsenal of supplies, and we dis just fine, even if we did have to buy the girls a second round of juice boxes. It's a small price to pay.

And then they took a 3.5 hour nap. So, um, we will surely be doing that again. Soon.

The rest of the weekend kind of paled in comparison. After the girls finally woke up, we went out to dinner to our favorite kids-eat-free-on-Saturday meat & 3 place. I guess actually it was meat &2. I didn't know that was a type of restaurant until I moved to the south. But again, no diaper bag, no sippies. The girls got their own cups with lids and straws, and did better than usual with the "don't tip it" thing.

Sunday was the usual trip to the grocery store, and then lots of playing with our new shopping carts. (And that's Julie in the new Bilibo seat, thanks to Em's recommendation. Although the pink is a *little* much.)




On Sunday afternoon, we busted out the Valentine's Day gifts from grandmas and grandpas. Heart glasses, sunglasses, bracelets and a necklace, cookies, cards.




We also taste-tested some of my chocolate covered pretzels (for daycare teachers and to take in to work). I think they were a hit.



The girls had a "Valentine's Ball" at daycare on Monday. I'm not sure how it was different than a party, but I do know that they each came home with a gallon size bag of candy. They can now unwrap candy, for the most part, so by the time we got home, they were covered in lollipop. Who's idea were the blue lollipops???



They sure are something.

And we sure are lucky.

Happy Valentine's Day

From our hearts to yours.

Emma's

Julie's

Becca's

E saying "cheese" with a mouthful of chocolate pretzels.

Voluminous Noggins

Greg and I both have big heads. And the girls heads' are pretty much off the charts every time we go in for a check up.

But how big are they?

Well, after the March of Dimes lunch on Friday, I took a half day off of work, and since I was right there, I went to the mall to use some coupons, check the clearance racks, etc. I got some great stuff for next winter, but in Gymboree, I spied some of the new collections. Nothing *really* grabbed me, except these hats:



So I look at the size marked "2T-3T." And I know it's going to be way too small. (Mind you, they *just* turned 2.) So I bought three of the "4T-5T."

And they barely fit.

Be a Hero for Babies

I had the privilege of attending the March of Dimes kickoff lunch today for the March for Babies. Our walk is coming up quickly, on April 30, and we've increased our fundraising goal 50% to $1500 this year.

Many of those who read this blog know that our baby girls were born at 33 weeks and spent about a month in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before they were big and strong enough to come home with us. The care they (and we) received in the NICU was second to none. These doctors and nurses are the reason that our babies are here and thriving now. And many of the tools that the doctors and nurses have to treat these special, fragile patients are a direct result of research done through the March of Dimes.



We're walking for our daughters. We're walking so that other parents won't have to go through the trials that we went through. We're walking for babies who don't have a voice themselves.

Won't you please consider helping us?

Personality and Developmental Notes 2/8/11

The girls have a "kink" (sink) in their kitchen.

Emma was carrying something and trying to get between Greg and I and kept saying "cue me, cue me" (excuse me). Grandma G said she taught her that.

Julie is a mini mommy at the moment. Whenever I'm yelling at someone, Julie likes to repeat. If I say "Emma, stop," Julie will say, "Emma, Emma, Emma. Emma, stop!"

We were looking at some picture books, and there was a picture of a cat and a dog, but Emma said "two cat."

Becca and Emma are obsessed with having their hair in "piggies." They grab at their hair when they're asking for them, and like to check periodically to see if they are still there. And then, when they get bored, they pull them out.

The girls have started saying "don wan it" (don't want it) if you try to give them something they're not interested in.

Emma is still in love with pink. She still demands the pink fork. She's got a decent grasp on colors right now... Becca and Julie can name some colors, but I'm not sure they quite get it yet.

Since Thanksgiving, we have kept 2 car seats in the very back of the van, with just one in the middle row. Lately, the one seat in the middle row has been THE seat. Emma knows enough to charge for it. Part of the reason she wants to sit there is because, when I'm in the passenger seat up front, she wants me to hold her hand. It's terribly sweet, if a little uncomfortable to reach back there.

Coats are "cokes."

Grandma and Grandpa G taught the girls to say "ready," and now they say it more as a command, as in they're ready for you to do something. They'll get in their cars and say "ready," which means you're supposed to push them around.

Grandma and Grandpa S taught the girls to say that they are "two."

Grandma and Grandpa G also taught the girls to beg for our cereal in the morning. "Say uhl?"

Over the weekend, Becca somehow accidentally hit Julie's finger. Julie came over to me crying, and when I asked her if she had an ouch, she said "Beh-uh did it."

They had their first peanut butter and jelly sandwich over the weekend. I knew they weren't severely allergic to peanut butter, since they've been around it, but I'll admit I was a little bit nervous giving it to them. They weren't crazy about it, but they all lived to tell about it.

Since they turned two, the girls are officially transitioning to the 2-year old classroom at daycare. Lots of changes... the girls are now using real cups (bye bye sippies!). I had to order some when they said they were starting them at daycare. I feel like I'm never quite prepared. There also isn't a changing table in the new room, so they have to wear pull ups... So not ready for this. They've got to be potty trained to move up to the 3 year class, but they said to just let them know when we're ready to start potty training. I'm SO not ready for that.

Becca's been really whiny for a few days now. I'm not sure if it's due to the stress of changes classes or what. I think she's got all of her teeth for now, but she's constantly got a finger in her mouth.

Bye bye weekend!

The girls now say "bye bye" to everything, so it's a fitting way to end the weekend.

I always have such grand plans, and always seem to end up just getting by.

We picked up the girls from daycare on Friday afternoon and went to Panera for dinner, with the intent of going to Target afterwards. Panera is a big accomplishment in itself, because they only had 2 highchairs the last time we were there, and so we hadn't been back for a while. But the girls are doing really well sitting on benches and chairs, even without booster seats. They were just behaving pretty badly, though, so by the time we survived dinner, we just wanted to go home. I ended up falling asleep on the couch, semi-intentionally. It feels like such a luxury right now to just grab a fleece blanket, cover myself up, and fall asleep watching Dateline. Julie woke me up around 4am, though, back to reality. And that was a much better night (in terms of the girls sleeping) than usual.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day. Greg ran some errands in the morning, and I went out in the afternoon. Did some shopping for my Valentines. :) We tried a new place for dinner (Sticky Fingers), and the girls did great ... much better than Friday night. Apparently Julie's new favorite food is ketchup. She kept asking for more, and was dipping just about everything in it. Part of the way we gauge how well dinner goes is how long we get until we have to pull out the goldfish (which sounds like "go peesh" [Emma] or "guppies" [Julie] depending on who is saying it.)

I forced Greg to take a day to himself on Sunday and go skiing again. The ladies and I went to Target and the grocery store in the morning, with no one getting locked in the car this time. Success. I brought bribes this time, too... these little gummies that they were screaming for. They did really well holding hands in the parking lot, though they were screaming about the red "balls" (those huge concrete ones) out in front of Target. And when we got to the door of the grocery store, they quickly broke ranks and RAN for the car shopping cart. Emma had to sit in the cart part, and I thought she'd be mad, but she loved organizing all of the groceries, and handing me everything when we got to the checkout. They took a good nap this afternoon, and I swear I was up and cleaning the entire time they were napping, but you sure can't tell by looking at the place.

I didn't take any pictures this weekend, but I did discover a few that I hadn't seen from Grandma and Grandpa S. They brought the girls these cute new barettes.

CC February Kit

I got to work with the Blue Skies kit this month. I just loved the bright colors in it, and the mix of the American Crafts City Park and Echo Park Little Boy lines.


I've been waiting for just the right kit to do this layout. I've been collecting tags for a while, and between the buttons in the kit, and the button paper, and the brown pinstripe paper, I decided to go for it. I spent a long time pushing things around until I was happy. I printed my journaling on the green cardstock that came in the kit, and used some Making Memories paint in Celery to paint the corrugated buttons, as well as to "ink" the edges of my page. I finished it off with some red zig zag stitching and some hand stitching through the buttons on the button paper.


This layout was about our trip to the zoo. I wanted to use the brown alpha that came in the kit, but had already used up the full sheet of brown paper that came with the kit, so I just used some brown cardstock from my stash to matte my photos and pull the brown back in. I did matte one photo on the pink paper (on the back of the AC cloud paper) for a little punch of color. I cut out some clouds to use for my journaling. I also punched some clouds using the Fiskars cloud punches, for more journaling.


A super quick, super simple layout that I had to do when I saw the planes in this kit. Emma loves spotting planes and pointing to them. We stop in parking lots all the time for her to show us planes. I used the red ledger paper as a background (I told you that you'd need an extra sheet!), the plane strips from the strips page, and hand cut plane from the strips page. When I cut out the clouds in both this layout and the previous zoo one, I purposefully left a little bit of a blue edge around the edges of the cloud, so they'd pop off the page a bit more. It was especially important in this one, with the white background.


To add some more depth to a simple layout, I added some glossy accents to the plane (not sure if you can see it) and pop dotted it.


I also used some Candy Cane Stickles from my stash on the red airplanes in the border strip.


I knew these pictures from the Children's Museum would be perfect for the colors in this kit. I used the acrylic stars over the green polka dot paper for interest. The top left star holds my title, and the bottom right has the journaling. Because there are so many pictures, I wanted to keep enough "white" space in here to not make it feel too crazy. Besides the one 4x6 photos, the others are 2x2 and 2x3. The blue scalloped border was hand cut from the border strips page, and the red scalloped border strip was a sticker from the Echo Park alphabet sticker sheet.


I used some Adirondack paint in Lettuce on the corrugated star, and then used the Fiskars star punches to create a couple of extra accents.


I feel like I need to preface this project by telling you that this was not my original plan for a banner. I had a canvas banner that I wanted to use. I used up the WHOLE bottle of Candy Apple mist that came with the kit, but it wasn't enough... it was still looking too pink, and I really wanted red. So, I got a bottle of a different kind of red mist and went over it again. I let them dry for a few days, and all was well until I went to get them and the paint was coming off all over my fingers. I've heard that the Tattered Angels mist is good on canvas, so I know it was the stuff I had put on top. Grrrr...

So, after pouting for a week or two, I came up with this. I used a sheet of red paper (it's actually one of the solid color papers that goes with the Little Boy line) to cut the pennants, and then used my Slice (Animal Crackers card, 1.5" letters) to cut "happy birthday" letters our of all of the bits of the leftover papers. I ran the whole thing through the sewing machine, and then just added a few AC flowers. It wasn't my original plan, but I love how it came out.