just like my mommy....

The other day we went to Michael's to get some ribbon. We passed the dollar section as we made our way to the ribbon and Charlie noticed this little book that said Scrapbook Kit on the cover. He grabbed it and just squealed "Mommy, can I pleeeeaaase get this scrapbook kit? Please, please, pleeeeaaasse?!" I didn't look too close at it, but said sure since it was just a dollar. His face lit up and then he yelled "Oh my goodness! I am getting this so that I can scrapbook just like my mommy!" He carried it around proudly showing it to every other customer we ran into. As we made our way to the register he said "I am probably going to need you to give me some scrapbooking lessons since you are the best at it!" How could I turn down that request?

Once we got home he asked me all day when I was going to give him some lessons and when I was going to print some pictures for his book. He requested the Rafiki pictures from Halloween and one for Michael Jackson (side note: He is now completely obsessed with Michael Jackson and even went to see the movie last weekend. I must post more about this later!)

He was very particular about which pictures he wanted on which page and where he was going to put the stickers.







He LOVES this book. He wanted to take it to school the next day to show his friends and teacher so he set it by the door so he wouldn't forget. He also likes to put it on his nightstand at night just in case he wants to look at the picures.

He was also very excited that I was going to put pictures of it on my blog and has been visiting it all day to see if I posted them yet. He was pretty dissapointed they weren't posted by the time he went to bed so I promised they would be up in the morning.

Here they are buddy. So happy that you wanted to scrapbook just like your mommy. Love you!

freehand scraps november gallery....

Like I said before, I really liked this kit...And I was especially happy that I liked the pages that I made with it. Sometimes, I have such great products to work with and it seems like my projects just don't measure up in my mind.

I have been holding onto these pictures of Charlie's Lion King experience for a while. I would have never thought originally to use this color scheme for this event, but I think it ended up working out.

I just knew I had to use this little elephant embellishment on a page of Cannon. So cute! I just love that patterned paper with the little birds on it in the bottom right of this page.

The cloud embellishments and the Crate Paper diecut paper was so fun to use! This page really was a struggle to put together with lots and lots of rearranging. I think this is the only page I did not do any stitching on this time.

On this one, I did some hand-stitching around one of the clouds and a few raindrops. It did not take all that long to do, but I don't think it really stands out so I am not sure it was worth the time.

Check out the rest of the gallery and the kit at Freehand Scraps. The rest of the designers did an amazing job!

I really have been in the mood to scrapbook since I made these pages last week, but the holiday bazaar is in 2 weeks so I must work on those projects instead! Isn't that the way it always goes!?!

rafiki was a hit....

So yeah, despite vowing never to do it again, we got talked into another costume that requires face painting. Ugh. Luckily, Eric doesn't mind doing it because I don't think I could have handled this squirmy, impatient little 4-year-old for as long as he did.

Once we started putting the costume together, we made the decision that we weren't going to get too particular on the details. We all knew that nobody was going to recognize him as Rafiki anyway, so we weren't going to get called out on missing something, right? After we got all the pieces on him I have to admit that it came together better than I was expecting.
He was a very happy and proud Rafiki.

Singing the "Circle of Life".

We almost forgot to take pictures of Cannon the Monkey. Typical second child! This was Charlie's halloween costume when he was almost 2 years old. It is perfect for a baby, warm and comfy for a chilly night. He just tagged along with the rest of us soaking it all in. He wouldn't crack a smile to anybody all night.

Charlie was done holding his staff after the second house, so I was delegated that job. He was a lot more scared of the decorations this year and insisted that I walk up to the door with him at almost every house. He would not even consider going to a house that he thought may have a dog or cat. Absolutely out of the question! He just took his time and was ready to quit after about 20 houses. Even with all the candy, his very favorite score was a little flashlight that our neighbor Ben gave him.

Pretty much everybody thought he was Indian and a few even called him a witch doctor. Nobody guessed Rafiki from the Lion King on Broadway, can you believe it? :) He did get lots of great comments though. Despite not knowing who he was, everybody loved the costume. Even other kids were saying how cool it was. So I guess just maybe it was worth all the time and hassle!

It was a great evening. So happy to fulfill my little guy's halloween dreams.

I will say it again. Next year we are not going to do any face make-up!.....(I hope!)