Carter turns 3!

A few photos from the birthday party!

At the morning party - sidewalk chalk! Carter and Joey
Wow! Look at that cool cake!

Blowing out the candle!

Checkered flag!

Exelixis party - another cake! (okay, leftovers from the morning!)

We had a bouncy house to play in - sooooo fun!

Playing with tons of new toys! Thanks everyone!

Mom, I'm done with the photos! :)

We had Carter's friends in during the morning for a party. Basically just fun playtime, and some jump time in the "Cars" bouncy house. In the evening we had the Exelixis team over for a BBQ and some more fun. It's been a long, but very fun day!

I can't believe he's three....sigh....

STRUTTING MY STUFF!

My Scrapbook Nook is having a month long contest...and I'm running late on entering. Late...but not too late!

The contest is to use their amazingly awesome kits and create with them. I have been subscribing to these kits for a few months now and I am in LOVE. Great value, super products, and everyone is my new favorite!

So, in order for me to win, I need YOUR help! I was supposed to make at least 3 projects with kits from the last few months. Then I post that I'm "strutting my stuff" on their message board. For every vote I get I get entered to win...and so do YOU!

What do I win? A $75 GC to the store. Ahhh sweet scrappy goodness. What do you win? One of their amazing kits! If you don't scrapbook, this is a great chance to get started...or if you really don't want to start, it would make a great gift.

PLEASE vote for me! Here's how to do it:
Go to: http://www.myscrapbooknook.org/forum/
Register for a new account: this is a basic MB forum, you will not get spam from them
Go to this thread: http://www.myscrapbooknook.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21275
Post a reply: I saw Victoria strut her stuff at http://vjlau.blogspot.com/

For every person that votes for me I get my name in the draw. You get your name in too!

So, now onto the STRUTTING! :)

I made this layout with the August kit - love this new travel line. I also love this adorable photo of Carter and Uncle Neil in the redwoods last spring.
I actually made this card for the neighbors who were moving (and driving all their stuff up) to Canada. However, they seemed to move out so fast they never said goodbye...so humph...they don't get their card. Moving soon? Going on a road trip? Maybe this baby will be yours! ;)I made this banner with the BG Lemonade kit. This was for Gabby's baby shower...and I am now pleased to announce that Baby Colette arrived on Weds afternoon safe and sound! Congrats Gabby, Sam and big brother Bernard!The CC Early bird kit was my favoooorrite. I love CC and this line is so cute! Here are some cards I made up with it!

and lastly, my hanging organizer made with the same kit!

Can't wait to get my September kit - full of Pink Paislee goodness!

Please go vote for me! Many thanks :)

Check it out!!

Even if it doesn't make it on TV next week....Carter's bday card is there for viewing online!

http://www.sproutonline.com/sprout/gallery/BirthdayCards.aspx?date=9/2/2009

Wanna win some stamps??

Better be quick, but My Stamp Box is giving away a set to a lucky winner this month!

Check it out here:

http://mystampbox.com/blog/?p=1380&cpage=2#comment-1295

The rest of our trip in photos!

I just downloaded the rest of the photos from the camera...over 300! So, here is a verrrry small sampling of some of the highlights from San Diego!

The Harbour Cruise. Carter waving goodbye to the shore as we pulled away.
Checking out the water...

Carter and Mom on the boat.

SD skyline

More waving (I think this was to the coast guard)

Back on shore and checking out the USS Midway. Carter thought this was really cool!

He had to sit in alllllll the planes that allowed you to!

Here we are at the Wild Animal Park. Very fun...and VERY hot.

Petting Zoo

Carter loved the tram ride the best

Daddy and Carter chilling in the shade

Posing in front of the elephants - Carter's favorite animal

Carter's first go at Mini Golf...he was not good...and likes to cheat!

Our last day - at the San Diego Zoo.

Got some good shots of the polar bears.

Checking out something... :)

Mommy and baby having a drink.

A hippo shot - just for Nancy!

Panda Bears - baby is still off exhibit. Oh well.

The double decker bus tour

Got some good shots of the koalas too - this one was winking at me!

All in all, it was a great trip. We explored, relaxed, ate junk food, and had a great time. Good to be home though. Laundry and unpacking...not so good!

Southern California Adventures - Mon/Tues

We're having lots of fun on our vacation! Monday was a bit of a bust by the time we flew here, and got our rental car (never rent from the SD airport Thrifty's...they suck...45 mins to get a car, and we had a reservation). Checked into our hotel which is great, and shopped for some basics. Then we got a bit of sightseeing in!

This is the USS Midway aircraft carrier - Carter thought this was so cool, so we are going on a tour tomorrow! There were a few other pics here...but blogger, a slow laptop, and crappy Wifi are giving me grief...

Today was Legoland!

In this photo, Carter is driving to get his driver's license. This is for ages 3-5. Umm..we lied, since he's close to 3. It is not for kids under 3 though. He was BAD! lol. They did pity him though, and he got his license anyways.

Funny thing is, he didn't want the ride to be over. So, when the car stopped, instead of getting out like the rest of the kids and leaving he decided it wsa out of gas, so he got out and pushed it to the fake gas station. Crazy kid! We caught him before he was too far though.

Carter and Bob the Builder!

For the rest of the narration you'll have to wait till we're back, but there are a few pics!

I won! I won!!

If you remember from a month or so ago, I entered some stuff in the county fair. I had resigned myself to not winning (since the drop off was about a month ago, and I never heard a word).Went today though, and decided to see what DID win...well...

I did!!!!

I won first place and third place in the layout competition!
I won second place in the paper arts division
and a few other things I entered got honorable mention ribbons.

I am soooo excited! :) Had to share!

Elmo!

Carter's favorite TV station here in the US is "Sprout" (for Canadians this is pretty much identical to Treehouse...yet Treehouse seems to have a lot more variety). Every day Sprout announces birthdays and Carter is quite anxious for his birthday to arrive.

They give you three options to get your child's bday on the show. 1. You can send in their name and bday and it'll run along the bottom of the screen while they're doing the bday segment. 2. You can email them a photo and they might show it on the screen. 3. You can send them in a card that features a Sprout TV character and your childs photo and they'll show the card.

In order to give Carter the biggest chance, I entered him in all three catagories. I put a little work into the card though, so I'm hoping that'll be the winner! Here it is!

I put the most work into the outside since it says on the submission form that showing the inside is rare.

But I decorated the inside too...just in case ;).

The photo I sent in is the one of Carter inside the Thomas pedal car. Since Thomas the Train is one of the shows they put on, I figured it had the best chance.

Who wants to bet we don't even make it on!! Oh well, we'll be watching September 2nd to see!

Birthday mode!

Sorry, I've been slow on the updating this week...but I've been hard at work! I'm in birthday party mode right now! I can't believe Carter will be 3 in a little more than 2 weeks!

He has asked for MONTHS to have a "Dean" party. "Dean" is what he calls Lightning McQueen from "Cars". He can quite easily say and remember his full name now, but he prefers to stick with "Dean". Crazy kid! Anyways, Mommy and Daddy are delivering the asked for party.

We're going to have a few kids over on a Sunday afternoon, have "Dean" cake, a "Dean" bouncy house, and of course lots of "Dean" favors etc! Below is pictured the invitation (minus the wording), a few diecuts I made, and Carter's current favorite favor - the Piston Cup medals. I just finished them, and I think they turned out pretty cute. I didn't put a ton of work into them since I'm sure they'll be destroyed in a matter of minutes by 3 year olds...but at least Carter recognized they were the Piston Cup.

Steve and I are also planning to make each kid a personalized T-shirt to wear at the party...everyone will be in the "Pit Crew". Hopefully the RSVPs start rolling in though so we can start working on them! I'll be back over the weekend to show a few other non-bday items I've been working on, so check back!

More Cards!

I'm still all about the cardmaking this week! Although last night I started playing around with some flower stamps...and a stamped layout is in the works!

I love this card. It's another one that the photo doesn't quite do it justice. In real life it's pretty spiffy! The bottom layer of the candles is embossed with silver, then a layer stamped on white with black ink and colored in with just a tinge of twinkling H20's to match the teal. Then a third layer on top, stamped on a transparency and then embossed with just a touch of sparkle to add a little bling. The flames are two layers. The first embossed with gold. The second, stamped on a transparency, and then offset just slightly so they look like they're flickering. This one I just went to town with. I love these flowers. Some are colored with watercolor paints, some with H20's, some with pearl X powder. The butterflies are embossed, and I added a little bling!

I can't take credit for the design of this one. I saw a card like this a few years ago. I love using stamps for a purpose other than they are meant for! The background is versamarked. I kept it pretty simple since it's a card for one of Carter's friends...and I'm sure it won't look like this for long!

Lastly, here are just a few others I made up while I was getting all inky at my desk!