Creative Complexion

Printable car travel games for kids. Going camping!

We are going on a little camping vacation soon :)  YAY!

We will be traveling about 5 hours to get there. But, the problem is, that my little guy isn't exactly the most ideal traveler.  Right from birth he disliked being in the car.  Now he usually lasts 30-40 mins before he starts complaining, 1.5 hours before he really starts his squawking.  It certainly doesn't help that his brother gets a bit car sick so, he is quiet in the car.     

Although we have a DVD movie player and a bunch of movies set aside to take, Laine isn't big on TV/Movie watching so, I need to have a plan. I needed something to keep us all sane and keep the whining to a minimum, if that is even possible?

While surfing around on the internet this morning, I stumbled on a few great sites with tons of printable games.  So Many Great ideas here to keep the kids busy!  I love it!

• Moms Minivan - I liked this site the most.
• Crayola Printable Travel Games - Mostly for older kids
• Family Education - This site has LOTS!  You must register before you can print. 

What I printed:

• Cootie Catcher, I used to love doing this as a kid!
• Car Bingo
• Road Trip battle Ships
• Some Scavenger hunt ideas and a few other little things :)

This should help with the traveling blues.  Have any more Tips or Activities that could keep a 6yr old and a 11 yr old busy in the car?  Please Share :)

Yup, its all about the candy. LOL

Oh my! LOL
For weeks after Easter the kids have been allowed to pick from their bag of candy after dinner - If they ate their veggies.

Laine is a candy monster. That child would put himself into a candy induced coma if we let him have at it whenever he wanted.

Well, I just went and looked through that child's backpack tonight, and found a book that was dedicated to me,

Here is the dedication page...

I laughed so hard. What a kid! Its not because she gives me lots of hugs, plays games with me or kisses me when i fall down..... LOL Its just about the candy......

Our 7 year anniversary

Happy Anniversary to the man who stole my heart.  Its been 7 wonderful married years!  We have shared good times and bad and will share many more together.   One things for sure, after knowing you for all these years,  I am so thankful that I met you and to have you in my life for these past 12 years ;)  

~Love you long time baby!  Here's to 60 more!

(this picture is a terrible scan... It was scanned at a low resolution, I really should get them all scanned soon!) 

I will never regret having a destination wedding.  The only thing I do regret is that my mommy wasn't there and that we didn't have more time to spend on the island of Barbados.  It looked beautiful but, because we were on a cruise, we didn't have much time after the actual wedding to look around the island.

Not only that but, we were totally exhausted from being up all night the night before. On the cruise we had some really rough nights at sea and the night before our wedding was the worst!

But, It was beautiful and perfect.... 

Top 13 Reasons why my husband is the bestest!

1. He loves me!
2. He is super hot!  (Especially in a suit!)

1. He is my best friend
2. He will do almost anything that I need him to do, run errands, cook dinner, clean the house.. all without much complaint.
3. He is committed and loves me no matter what.
4. We think alike - sometimes even communicating without speaking
5. He can always make me laugh.

1. He is a great dad!
2. He is smart and successful!
3. He is the BEST at fixing my computer and helping me problem solve.
4. He almost always lets me pick the movie or TV show that we are watching and doesnt complain even when he doesnt like it :)
5. He lets me think that i can beat him at Texas Holdem.

My Photo Christmas Card...

My To Do List - (From last week)

1. Create and print Christmas Cards  (First i need to talk my kids into letting me take their picture) - Then send them out.    

Okay, this is DONE.  Now I just have to slap some addresses on some envelopes and send them in the mail.    I was so inspired by a photo at twopeas by cbaase .. I finally talked (okay, bribed..LOL)  my kids into letting me take their picture with duct tape on their mouths.  (nope, it didn't hurt them, i didn't press it down, it was just sitting lightly on their faces.)

Here is my Christmas card of 2008

Front                                                                                                        

Back

2. Finish up my new matchbox advent calendar

I WILL take photos of this today. LOL  

3. Spray Paint Vase

Okay, tip... Just incase you ever want to Spray paint in the winter.   Spray paint does NOT work in the cold! LOL   Who knew?   I didn't!  I called my friend and started grumbling about my faulty can of spray paint that i just got all over my hands and she laughed.  Apparently spray paint doesn't work when it is too cold, it just doesn't spray.  Instead it was just pooling and running down the can.   I made a mess, a really big mess.  I will have to paint it with a brush instead. 

4. Paint inside of back door (hopefully it is not too cold to do this?)

Going to wait til spring to do this.

5. Make a few more Christmas crafts, I haven't decided on what yet, any ideas for me?

My DH just went away for 5 days on a work trip.  I have decided that I need to just give up on doing any more Christmas crafts this year.  I don't think I will have time.  I should have started earlier on this.  Live and learn :)

6. Sort and Wrap Presents (We are all done with the kids! YAY!)  This year i am wrapping early!

I got a TON of wrapping done and tonight, I am going to go finish the rest of my shopping.  I have a couple things to get but,  I plan on having most of my stuff wrapped and ready to go by the middle of the month.  :)

7.Finish gathering anything else and figure out what in the world i am going to get my mom!   My mom loves reading,  I have decided that i will get her a gift certificate for the book store.  I think that will be perfect, This way she can just pick out what she would like to read :)  its also really easy for me! Mothers are so difficult to buy for! LOL

Time to get a move on now that I finished my breakfast.  I only have 5 and a half hours til the kiddos come home from school and it is AMAZING how quickly those hours can FLY by! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing a VERY happy Thanksgiving holiday to all of you in the United States! 

I am suddenly craving turkey and my mother-in-laws stuffing! LOL  She makes the BEST stuffing!  We already had our thanksgiving here in Canada  :)   I will have to wait until Christmas for more turkey and stuffing...  

I can still reflect on what I am thankful for,  though :)

• I am thankful that I have a husband who listens to me (even when what i am saying isn't making much sense) and loves me anyway.   I am thankful that he has a fairly secure job in this stumbling economy.  I feel sad for all of those who have lost their jobs at the last company that he worked for.  (Related to the auto industry)
• I am thankful for my boys!  Although they can stress me out at times,  I couldn't imagine my life without them, They are the reason for everything that is good. I am thankful that they are strong and healthy.
• I am thankful for my mother.  She is so helpful, She is always there for me when I need her and I love her for that.
• I am thankful for my creativity (when she comes around. LOL)
• So thankful to have health and dental coverage.

So much to be thankful for... I need to reflect on that more often rather than on the things I want but, I do not have or have trouble working hard enough for...  ie: A skinny behind ;)   Getting myself to the gym, that is a whole other blog post in itself. 

So,  I have been having troubles with my wisdom teeth,  My wisdom tooth got infected and was causing me lots of pain for about 2 weeks.   During that time I did learn something very interesting about peppermint extract.   Did you know that you can use peppermint extract to curb a toothache?   I didn't!  I was searching out home remedies while I was waiting to get in to the dentist and if you put peppermint extract on a q-tip and apply to your gums, it actually works better than Oragel!  Totally numbs it up! 

So after visiting the dentist and then the oral surgeon..... I am getting 2 of my wisdom teeth pulled out.  Not looking forward to that at all!  (Not that anyone would..LOL)    I am really nervous.     I have had a tooth pulled before but, I hear wisdom tooth extraction is more painful afterwards. Looks like I need to step up this Christmas stuff a notch so i am ready!  Scott is going to be gone for 4 days in DEC so, maybe that will give me some motivation to get it done while he is away.  Hopefully when he comes home, he will have a happy wife with everything crossed off her list ;) 

My To Do List

1. Create and print Christmas Cards  (First i need to talk my kids into letting me take their picture) - Then send them out.
2. Finish up my new matchbox advent calendar
3. Spray Paint Vase
4. Paint inside of back door (hopefully it is not too cold to do this?)
5. Make a few more Christmas crafts, I haven't decided on what yet, any ideas for me?
6. Sort and Wrap Presents (We are all done with the kids! YAY!)  This year i am wrapping early!
7. Finish gathering anything else and figure out what in the world i am going to get my mom!

LOTS more stuff to add to this list but, right now, I need to go play with Laine.  He is finished what he was doing and now, I have to get him busy doing something else :)

Hopefully Dalyn's papers arrive soon so we can start putting those together for him.  Dalyn delivers the "flyers"  around the neighborhood.  Once a week.  But, we accidentally ended up having scouts and papers on the same night.  That combined with possible homework, makes for a VERY chaotic Thursday evening.  I put the papers together for him so he can do his homework if he has any and then run out the door to deliver.  

Or, if the papers are not here, Maybe he can help me clean a bit, that always works for awhile.  Especially since he is trying to earn money for his beaver troop so that they can use the money to purchase Christmas gifts for boys and girls who otherwise may not receive any gifts.    He is VERY excited about doing this and is trying to earn money any opportunity he gets! 

Growing Up... and hard lessons learned....

Wow, I remember when i was 11 years old, I got my very first job as a ad delivery person.  I delivered the grocery store ads to houses around my neighborhood and now....  My son has his first job doing the same thing!  I am really hoping that this shows him a little responsibility and helps with his value of money.

The other day his dad took him for an appointment to one bank to open a bank account but, they only offered 0.5 percent interest on children's savings accounts.  Another bank offers much more.  So, he took Dalyn to both banks and told him about the difference in interest rates, After looking into both, Dalyn chose to go with the bank that would give him more bang for his bucks :)  A little research lesson,  an obvious choice but, it was still a choice that he had to make.  Better banking hours (The bank that offered 0.5 interest proclaimed)  Or, more interest on savings.   The lesson was, always make sure you look at your options before settling.  Today he will go sign up for his bank account and deposit his "passing"  money that he still has not spent yet :) 

So, After i feed the kids lunch, Laine, Gracie and I will be going with Dalyn to deliver his papers.  I think i will go with him at least a couple times so he gets the feel for it before i send him out on his own.  It is only a once a week thing and it will give us something to do :)   

Summer is flying by,  I am looking forward to the kids getting back to school though.  It is VERY hard to work at home and find balance with the kids.  Most days i feel like an entire day has slipped by before i have been able to accomplish anything at all.  Then by night time, i just don't want to be sitting at my computer.   I am grateful that my mom has vacation every other week for the entire summer (isn't that awesome?????  She banks all of her stat days and vacation and takes 4 days off plus her regular 2 days off every other week)   She has been taking the kids for several hours on the days that she has off plus, the kids go to their other grandparents here and there, it helps :)    Although, today has been great! it is a GORGEOUS day outside, Not too hot, perfect day for the kids to play outside.  That is what they are doing, they have been out there for over an hour, only coming in a couple times for drinks.  So peaceful. LOL 

In other life news, I know i haven't really updated my blog in a long time, it is in major need of some renovation. I have that on my BIG list of stuff to do. Hehe...  I will get there!  If anyone knows how to insert the graphic look custom categories headers (im not sure if that would be how to explain it even..LOL)  I would LOVE some direction on that.  I don't even know where to look to figure out how to get it done.   

In general I have been pretty down in the dumps since I made a bad decision about my digital designs.  I am not going to go into details.... All i can say is that it has sucked the motivation right out of me. I don't even know where to begin picking up the pieces.  I feel like i have to start all over again!  But, that is what i am going to do.  I have to.  Designing is something i once had such passion for.  I still have it when i work for a particular scrapbook company, They give me motivation and inspiration and it all just comes to me.  I love seeing my work in print.  Its an amazing feeling to get that finished album kit into my hands.   
I love my digital scrapbooks  and, i haven't even made a layout in ages.  I started a couple but, that's about it..  I never did get them finished.  They just sit on my hard drive waiting for me to go back to them. 

I know what i need to do, I need to get rid of the negativity and self doubting thoughts and just MOVE ALONG....  chalk it up to a lesson learned, next time i will learn to not be so trusting and naive.

One of my other goals is to start taking pictures again.  I really dont have any interest in my camera.  I have the nikon d70s but, i dont know how to take good pictures out of auto mode.  I really want to learn but, that whole idea of messing up all of my pictures scares me.   i need to get over it though, i really do.   So, that is also on my to do list.  Im sure once i get it, i will have it and then i can improve on it from there.  I just need to get the whole aperature, white balance, iso, etc.  Right now, i have no clue. 

I will leave you with one of my recent favorite shots though :) 

Bragging Time

Last week Dalyn brought home his report card.  It was the last day of school. (Here in Canada school goes til the end of June)   When i looked at that report card i was SO stinkin proud!   My boy got 1 A+,  6 A's and the rest B's!!!!   wow, what a great report!  he always brought home a great report card but, this one was just over the top great!   I am so proud of him, and his love for reading and math.

The day before i went to his end of month school  assembly  to see him get a student of the month award for participation.   I had to really laugh when his teacher talked about him and how he always had an answer for things even though he ALWAYS looked like he wasnt paying attention.  That is Dalyn, always staring off somewhere else, thinking about other things.   yet he just continues to absorb the information and says that he is bored in school.  She also said that Dalyn is the first one to tell her when she is wrong.  Thats my boy! LOL  Dalyn is a bit of a know it all.  :)  We are just SO proud and happy for him!  My baby boy is moving on to grade 4! 

I still remember his first day of junior kindergarden like it was yesterday.   That day i had dropped him off at school, shed a few tears and went home to await the time when i could go pick him up.  i missed him alot that day.  It was a hard day because that day was actually one of the most horrible days as well.  it was september 11th, the day the terrrorist attacks on the world trade center happened.  I was just so happy to pick him up from school safe.  I will never forget that day. 

I hope that he always continues down the right path but, no matter what i will always be proud of my boy :)

For the layout above i used my Digital Scrapbook Kit - Balance. 

Zoom Zoom

These photos Bring back memories!  This was the last camping trip that we went on as a family.  Its been awhile,  5 years ago!!  We had a blast!!  Hopefully this year we can take dalyn camping again (i don't think that laine would do well. He can stay with grandparents.)  The extra little bit of attention will be great for Dalyn!