How can it be Back to School Already??

We started back to school this week, as you saw in my last post, and after the first three days, I am exhausted!!  Was it really only a three day week?  We did have a great start.  I'm loving both the 7th and 8th grade classes, and I think it's going to be a great year for me.  I can't believe this is my 5th year at the school.

Austin is in 5th grade, and it's kind of a shock.  I was on recess duty and he came over and gave me a hug.  I asked him what in the world he was doing out there and he looked at me funny and said he was at recess.  I didn't even think about him being out there with the middle schoolers this year.  Two more years and he'll be in my class--wow!  He likes his teachers this year.  He actually has 4 teachers this year.  Three of them are male, so I think that will be great for him and his class.  He's excited about all the field trips this year!

My baby is in 2nd grade this year.  It seems like he just started kindergarten.  He's definitely not a baby anymore.  He is loving school so far, although he wasn't happy that he had homework his second day and big brother didn't.  I told him not to worry, fifth graders have plenty of homework.  This year his class is buddy classes with my seventh grade class.  This means we walk to church with them, read with them, and have activities together throughout the year.  That should be fun.  He was so cute.  When I asked him if he had someone he wanted to be his buddy from my class, he pointed at me.  Awww...I'll cherish that knowing that someday that won't be the case.

It's scary how fast these boys are growing up.  Other teachers I work with are sending their kids off to high school and college this year.  Before I know that's going to be me.  I don't know if I'll ever be ready for that.  I love that they are getting so independent, but it still makes this mama sad!

We ended the week by going to the fair with Grandma and Papa.  We had fun, but it was crazy packed.  We ended up getting home at 12:30 am.  The boys went on several rides and there were lots of laughs.

Swings

  Scrambler

Getting a lift from Dad on the way out.  He was soooo tired!

First Day of School Labor of Love

I don't know what I was thinking.  As if I didn't have enough to do to prepare for the first day of school tomorrow.  Today I found a fun starter/ice breaker activity using Skittles.  Now I could have just handed out candy at the beginning of the activity, but I decided that I needed to make something cute to hold the Skittles and brighten their desks for the first day of school.  

I whipped out my Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge and cut these fun little bags.  The half circles were the inside of the handles.  Originally I also cut little tags to go on them with their names, but decided tying all those on would be too time intensive for tonight.  I just wrote their names on the bags.  In addition to these, everyone will get a bookmark and maybe a pencil (I have to see what I have when I get to school tomorrow.  

I'm hoping for a fabulous start to the school year tomorrow!  

At Albertsons on the way home tonight (when I stopped to pick up the Skittles), I saw this in the parking lot.  It made me smile, and of course started the jingle running through my head.  The only bummer was that by the time I picked up the boys and went back, it was gone :(  They did tell me they saw it driving down the road on the way back from the movies with Grandma.  

Cards From Dakota Scraps

Remember last week when I posted these cute little bags I made using the Artiste Cricut cartridge and Dakota papers?  Each little purse used most of a sheet of 12x12 paper, but I had some left around the edges.  I didn't want any of this cute paper to go to waste.  I looked through the new Make It From Your Heart book for a card pattern to utilize the scraps.  This great new book has 16 two page layouts and 12 card patterns.  The best part?  It's only $7.95.

I found one that utilized 1 1/2 inch squares--perfect for my scraps.  I had enough to make  eight cards.  Not bad for leftover scraps.  

All eight cards

 Design one using Whisper card stock and black hemp.  I did have as Thank you cards and half as birthday.

Design Two using Barn Red Cardstock and the star stamp from the Dakota WOTG.

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August Club Layouts--Dakota

I'm a little behind posting the club layouts for August, since we met last week.  I posted the first layout here.  The next one is the Workshop on the Go layout with very few changes.  The flowers were a little time consuming, but I think it's worth it in the end.  The cuts were made with the CTMH Art Philosphy Cartridge and the alphabet was Plantin Schoolbook.  The photos were from last year's Museum Comes to Life.  The Idaho History Museum fills the park with activities, games, and people in costume to teach about Idaho's history.  It was a lot of fun.  

This last layout is the second WOTG layout, but I changed it up because it seemed too plain to me.  I added more photos, changed the title placement, and added more embellishments.  I used the Stickease, our new Burlap Ribbon, and the stamps that came with the workshop.  I thought these papers were perfect for our trip to Idaho City.

In September, we will be using the Scholastic papers and embellishments.  I'll post those layouts next weekend.

Fun with Artiste Cartridge

Yesterday I got the fabulous new CTMH Artiste Cricut cartridge in the mail.  I just had to play with it.  As a thank you, I bought each of my club members one of the new Monogram stamps.  Aren't the cute?  At $2.95 they make a great gift.

Of course I had to put them in something cute, so I put the Artiste cartridge to work.  I used Dakota papers  It took about 5 minutes to make each bag and tag.  I love it!

Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park

In all the years we've lived in Idaho, we've never been out to Bruneau Sand Dunes.  We had planned to go camping in the mountains over the weekend, but all the wildfires dashed any hope of that.  We wanted to go somewhere we could see the Perseids Metweor Shower.  My mom came up with the brilliant idea of heading out to Bruneau to the observatory there.  

Mike and I decided to take the boys out a couple hours early to explore the sand dunes.  It was hot (about 93 degrees), but fun.  The boys loved climbing the sand dunes.  They were a little jealous of the people who brought sleds to slide down, so we had to promise we'd come back in the fall.  

The boys climbing up

The view from the top.

 Sun setting

 The boys at the lake.  Who knew there was water in the middle of the desert.

Once the sun went down, we watched a cool astronomy video in the education center, and then we headed out to look through the telescopes.  We saw the Dumbbell Nebula, Swan Nebula, a double star (can't remember the name), a star cluster, and many more.  They had the huge observatory telescope and about a dozen other telescopes pointed various places in the sky.  We also saw a number of meteors.  It was amazing.  The boys didn't last long, and we headed out about 11:30.  

We definitely want to go back there camping when it cools off a bit.