Holiday Tree Festival

Sophia and Rachel got to spend the day together. I love when they get to be together because they are such fabulous friends. They have such affinity for each other, and have such great times. They no longer attend the same school, but they had been together for kindergarten, first and second grade. I heard Rachel tell Sophia, "I love you Sophia, you're my best friend".

We took them to the Holiday Tree Festival which is a yearly fund-raising event here for Children's Hospital. They spent time looking at the trees, talking to Santa, and putting their raffle tickets into the box for the American Girls dolls "Sleigh Bells Ring".


Christmas Remembered QC - Lauren Bavin/Elegant Christmas - Elizabeth Weaver/Font Gingerbread House

King Zak's Birthday Party

Credits: At the Playground - Jamie Rousselle/Distressed Designs - Valerie Brumfield/Blooming Beauty and AOP - Valerie Brumfield/Rusty Nail - Lauren Bavin

This is from Zak's party in October, I actually did post a couple pages from it, but then I did this one for my Layout and Design class. I haven't gotten critiqued on it yet, so you may be seeing a different version of it at some point.

Note: I did repost this after making corrections.

I also note that I haven't been posting credits on this blog because I had posted the sites for all my layout where I have posted the credits. I have changed that now and will be posting credits with each layout. I will be going back and adding the credits as I go to my previous posts.

Birthday Parties

Well, Sophia and I were both struggling with our allergies this weekend, but she did manage to get to her bowling birthday party for her friend Emily. It was the first time she's ever bowled, so it was an interesting experience for Sophia. She had a lot of fun. I figured I better catch up from Rachel's Tae Kwon Do birthday party while I was at it. Sophia is playing with her cousin Matthew today. She made a puppet theatre from an old box and they were making puppets out of old socks.

Queen for a Day

I did this as part of a challenge about what I would do if I were Queen for a day. I wrote that "If I were Queen for a day I would go back to where I was born and be able to see this outside my window every day. I’d go back to a simpler way of life and a slower pace in time. I’d go back...but only for a day. (Greece circa 1988)" This photo was taken by my late second cousin (actually, it would be a cousin three times removed) Tom Praskis, who taught me a lot about photography and computers. Granted, I am NOT a very good photographer, but he did spark my interest in photgraphs and heritage, and definately computers.

The Pumpkin Walk

The kids had their Pumpkin Walk at school last week which was a lot of fun. Sophia carved a pumpkin for the first time, and got to wear a costume and do a little bit of the, uh, well, let's say the PUMPKIN thing. She was excited and had a good time. We don't celebrate or observe Halloween, so we'll just call it an Autumn or Pumpkin Harvest celebration, she understands that Halloween is not acceptable for us, but that she can still have fun with her friends at school and enjoy the time in a different way.

The layout of Emily and Sophia is actually part of a new class I started this month on layout and design. This was my first homework assignment. It's actually been redone after being critiqued. I think in the next few layouts, I will scan some of Sophia's artwork and use it in some of the layouts from school.