Weekly Photo Challenge - Detailed, Walk, & Of House and Home

Well, here I am behind by two weeks on my "weekly" photo challenge, again! LOL

Here is my picture for DETAILED:

I was quite impressed with myself for capturing such a good picture of the frog and water droplets!
First I was took this picture, of the grass, but didn't like it.

Then I decided to try this, but didn't think it was detailed enough.

So, I finally had decided on this close up of my rose with the water droplets! But, after finding and photographing the frog, it was a no brainer!

Last weeks challenge was WALK. My picture for this is not as good! It was taken last Sunday, on our way to check out the Blimp.

This week's challenge is OF HOUSE AND HOME!

Not a great picture! I will work on getting a good one this week, well in the next 3 days! :)

Today is the big day for Nathan

Today is the day Nathan gets to go in the DirectTV blimp! We have to be at the Philadelphia airport by 6:00 tonight. Amy from Believe in Tomorrow sent t-shirts for all the boys. We are just praying and hoping that the weather holds up and the blimp ride won't be cancelled. I will post pictures afterwards!

I have a busy week coming up. Tomorrow I work and in the evening I will be helping put baskets together for the Chinese Auction that will be held at the ALS on June 9th. Wednesday I have an IEP meeting for Nathan for next school year then I have to go to work and after work I will be delivering food to my friend who is struggling with some health issues. Thursday I work and in the evening we will all be going to the clinic for a game night of In It to Win It! Then Friday is Nathan's class trip to the Discovery Museum in Cherry Hill! Somewhere in this week, hopefully Tuesday if I'm not called in to sub for Buena, I need to work on stuff for Nathan's birthday party.

Nathan goes in for a spinal tap on the 29th or 30th, then on the 31st we are having a Bake Sale/ Alex's Lemonade Stand at the church...I am still in need of baked good donations! I ordered t-shirts so we all have a t-shirt for this lemonade/bake sale and for the big one on June 9th!

The kids only have 19 more days of school!!!!!! WHOO HOOO! We have lots of stuff planned for the summer. June 10th Tyler leaves for vacation with Greg's parents and the lil boys will head to Ohio with my mom. June 16th, Greg, Tyler, & I will head to Ohio to visit with my parents, brother, sister in law, nephew, & niece! I can't wait to go see everyone! While there we have a couple short trips planned, like Niagra Falls, Canada side! We'll be back home July 1st, then Tyler will be leaving for camp on July 7th, he'll return home on July 14th. July 13th is Nathan's birthday, so I told him we would go to the beach that day! July 16th starts VBS at church and the 21st is his big Beach Bash Birthday Party! July 30th Tyler leaves for Teen Camp. Somewhere in here I would like to send the lil ones to camp, go to Hershey Park, and hit the beach! Summer is booked!!!! August is busy too, but not quite as much as June & July!

Oh, the boys just had pictures done Saturday. They turned out so good!!!! I will definetly post them when I get them! I found a Groupon deal, $25 for a portrait package worth $125, from Target studios. So I bought it. I initially wanted to use it for Easter pictures, but that didn't work out, and the deal was going to expire in June, so I didn't want to lose it! The boys did a great job! They were being silly and having fun and the pictures reflect that!

I am a week behind on my photo of the week challenge. Last week was Detailed. So I need to try to get a picture with detail. I haven't checked this weeks photo challenge yet. Guess I better get on the ball!!!

Have a great Sunday!

Nathan's Beach Party ideas

I am looking for ideas for Nathan's beach party and I came across this party at Candy and Cake: Dessert Table: Surf Party with such cute ideas. We have already bought the plates and napkins and since there are surf boards on them I've been thinking about doing a surfboard cake. I also found this awesome party http://candyandcakes.blogspot.com/2011/01/dessert-tables-pool-party-first.html and will definetly borrow some of these great ideas!

Exciting news for Nathan

We have some exciting news for Nathan! A few weeks ago the school nurse called and told me that there is a family in the school who will be running an Alex's Lemonade Stand and they would like to honor Nathan on that day so could she share our phone number with the family. Of course I said yes, and I am now helping to plan and get things together for that day. So if your not super busy and can take a few minutes to stop by, please stop in to the Minotola Fire House and buy a cup of lemonade and maybe some tickets for the chinese auction! Then the other day the social worker, Joan, from the clinic called and invited Nathan and a parent (Greg volunteered already) to go up in the Direct TV Blimp next Sunday afternoon! He's so excited, and we are excited for him!
Lincoln just had his class moving up performance on Friday. It was so cute! As I soon as I download the pictures I will post some. I can't believe my baby will be in first grade next year :(
Well, I need to get dinner started, I just wanted to post the exciting news!

Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis

I found this post...it was saved but never posted
Isn't it crazy how this weather is? The kids have been wanting to wear shorts again, but this past week has been cold. So Friday morning I dress them in pants, again, only to find out that it turned out to be a beautiful, warm, sunny, shorts kinda day! Saturday we were heading to Ocean City to walk in the Great Strides walk for Cystic Fibrosis, (we walk for my 4 year nephew, Chris), and seeing how it was so nice out Friday, we all dressed in shorts and I grabbed the suncreen. Greg did mention to grab long pants for the lil guys and everyone's sweatshirts! Thank Goodness, because it was FREEZING down there! I quickly put the lil boys pants on and we all put on our sweatshirts and braved the winds and spitting rain! The kids love walking for Chris, but they also know that they get wristbands that day for the rides, so they couldn't wait for the rides! I, however, was so cold, all I wanted to do was go home! But we stuck it out and waited for the rides to open. I was glad we did, because it wasn't that cold where the rides were. The kids had a blast! Nathan tired out quickly, but we took the stroller, so he chilled in there. While we were waiting for the rides to open, we took the kids into the new YOGO Factory. It's self serve frozen yogurt with all the fixin's! The kids thought that was pretty cool...well, so did I! Because it's a new business and they are promoting it, with every cup of yogurt you buy, you got a free t-shirt, so each of the kids picked out a free orange or lime green YOGO t-shirt! There's a YOGO factory going up in Millville near the Target, in the same set of shops where the Moe's is! I've been excitedly waiting for it to open so I could take the kids there to try it, so I was super excited when the one on the boardwalk was open!

lots of pictures

I have tried to write a post several times, but for whatever reason the site wasn't saving my posts. So I am back to try again, but I have several things to add this time! 

First I am adding my week 1 portraits that I took of Nathan & my cousin's daughter while we were at her son's birthday party.

I also have some pictures of the Flip Flop Wreath that I made using an idea I found on Pinterest. The original idea is from Jessica at http://usasillyyaks.blogspot.com/2012/03/flip-flop-wreathperfect-for-summer.html

Now I have week 2 pictures for Downward

And finally, this week was Teacher Appreciation Week and I found TONS of great ideas online (mainly on Pinterest) and decided that this year, and every year from now on, I wanted to give the teacher's a small gift as a thank you for all they do throughout the year for my boys! On Monday, I sent the boys to school with monogrammed notepads, mini notepads, and a weekly notepad for each of their teachers and aides. Attached was a note that said 'It's Teacher Appreciation Week! Just sending you a "NOTE" of thanks for all you do! We love you!' and then I signed the card as well as each child for their teacher. I did, however, forget to take pictures :(! On Tuesday, I found some spring candle holders that I had bought on clearance a while back and I put tealights in the holder for each teacher and each aide was given a bag with 3 small votives, all bags had a note that said "Thanks for helping me SHINE!" I found this idea (and free printable) on http://blackberryvine.blogspot.com/2011/05/teacher-appreciation-week-day-3-thanks.html. Again, no picture :(! On Wednesday, I gathered some Smarties out of the kids candy buckets and attached a free printable found at http://www.itsybitsypaperblog.com/2012/05/smarties-teacher-appreciation-download.html.  

On Thursday, I found this links page http://www.itsybitsypaperblog.com/2012/05/teacher-appreciation-linky-party.html and from there found an idea and free printable at  http://www.crystalandcomp.com/2012/05/teacher-appreciation-free-tea-riffic-teacher-water-bottle-printable/, so I grabbed a couple water bottles, some Crystal Light tea mixes and the free printable and made these for the teachers and aides

Then for Friday, I made a pencil vase for each of the teachers. I used empty Crystal Light containers and hot glued the pencils on. I was able to purchase the flowers at Michaels for 1/2 price. The whole thing only cost about $6. I found the idea here, http://nf1andpre-kwhisper.blogspot.com/2010_05_07_archive.html
and I added a note that said "You were the 'write' teacher to help me 'grow' this year"! These were all very easy, simple ideas and crafts to put together for the teachers and aides. Thank you ladies from all these other blogs for all your wonderful ideas and free printables!!!! Here are the pictures of the boys vases for their teachers