catching up still...

whew...

last post of the day...LOL!

had to fill you in on our weekend!

(as brief as possible...)

Monday..

went to TINKERTOWN for the afternoon with the kids and pal Rachel...met with Nikki and Taylor there for a fun, fun ride day!

( and what would tinkertown be without cotton candy, mini donuts, slushies and gigantic pickles? )

"rockin" on the ferris wheel....

...scootin' on the coaster...

rachel, courtney and i went on this bigger roller coaster together a couple times...the first drop is actually quite a drop when you're in the hotseat!!!

Monday late afternoon:

grabbed McD's (yuck) on our way out to the cabin at Gull Lake and arrived at our cute little cozy cabin around 6pm for 3 more fun filled days!!!

( sorry,couldn't resist the "call of the geese"...had to grab my camera )

Tuesday was a little cooler out so we stayed close to the cabin with lots of bike rides on the roads and the bike trails...then we baked choc.chip cookies ( yummy ) and made some fun crafts using fusing perler beads...the girls wanted to get their swim suits on for a dip and to try and catch some minnows...

Rachel-4

Courtney-0

heeheehee...

we later had a bonfire with marshmallows and a late night movie of "surf's up" before bed!

Wednesday was a busier day...after pancakes and eggs for breakfast, we headed out to Beausejour for the afternoon. stopped at Prairie Scrapbooking, and then off to Great Woods Park for some exploring! the kids LOVED the suspension bridge over the river, climbing on rocks IN the river, catching frogs and seeing lots of turtles...we stopped at Robyn's DriveIn for lunch and then on our way back to the cabin, we stopped at a farmer's field of sunflowers for a photo shoot...of course!! ( wink )

and then when we got back, the girls wanted to catch some minnows again

Rachel-0

Courtney-1

and then have another dip in the lake! too cold for me but they had a fun little swim!

...and yet another bonfire! but this time we cooked our dinner ( hotdogs ) on the fire and had S'mores for dessert!! (yummy stuff) we ended our last night with a game of Aggrivation (have to play that at least once when you're at the cabin ) and then another movie (Fly Away Home-i love this movie) with LOTS of treats and WONKA candy, popcorn and chips...sooooo bad, but soooo fun and relaxing!

(sigh)

and now we're back home to hustle and bustle...did 5 loads of laundry today and finishing up my September newsletter for my classes....got a BIG order in the day we left for the cabin so i went through it all last night...getting my september kit ready to photograph and post tomorrow...planning lots of projects and finishing up lots of others...

yep, gonna be a late night of productivity, i hope!!

( man, i could go for this right now....)

...thought of you Leigh-Ann Keffer...

teehee...

we were at Tinkertown on Monday (aug.27) and i saw THIS horse on the merry-go-round and Leigh-Ann AKA: FRECKLES came to mind and made me giggle!!!

:O)
check out all her beautiful and fun talent at

www.frecklednest.blogspot.com

...at mom's...

WhooHoo....

he's outta there!!!

(second post today)

mike went around lunch time to go get grandpa from the hospital and to bring him to mom's house for some more recovery time!!! hopefully now things will be a lot more relaxed for everyone without all the hospital trips several times a day ( grandma and mom spent sooooo many hours up there...what troopers!)

we all went to mom's for the evening and ordered in supper....

"how about chinese food grandpa?"

"oh ya, that sounds great!"

...and almost a whole plate full later....way to go grandpa!

(told him the food would be better at mom's! )

...awwwww...here's grandma and grandpa's "new accomodations" until they're ready for the next step...my old room at mom's! which, of course, has actually been my niece Airiel's room for the last 14 years, but still...those curtains and that peach colored lamp used to be mine!!!
{GIGGLE}
grandma on the left...grandpa's new stylin' electronic bed on the right...( complete with bedrails!)
...sleep tight tonight kids!!

gettin' outta here!!!!

guess who's going home???

well, i guess technically not HOME but outta the hospital and on to my mom's house to continue his recovery!!

we've been at the lake since courtney's birthday party and came home last night. i went up to the hospital right away for a visit and was told that grandpa was being discharged tomorrow....TODAY!!!!

do you think he looks happy with this news??

all the arrangements have been made and i'm sure there will be a few things that need to be ironed out along the way, but this is a MAJOR step for us all!

home care had an electronic hospital bed for grandpa delivered to mom's house this morning, and a wheelchair is coming....already got the walker and bathroom neccessities for him and then i suppose arrangements with home care workers will fall into place soon enough!!!

his stay at mom's will be indefinate as he still has lots of physical therapy to undergo...but their own house is an impossibility right now as it's a 2 storey house with their bedroom upstairs...as well as the bathroom...so off we go onto a new chapter/adventure with grandma and grandpa!!!!

...sooooo happy for him to be getting out...

:O)

LOVE YOU!!!

Willy Wonka

...today was party day!!!

and here's my own little "WILLY WONKA"!!!

( THIS ONE IS FOR MICHELLE NYHOF!!! COURTNEY LOVED THE PIRATES CLOCK!!!

THIS IS AN ACTUAL "COOOOOLLLLL" MOMENT!! THANKS SO MUCH!!)

...see next post for more party pictures!!!

:O)

a success!

WOW!!!!

courtney's birthday party today was a FUN, FUN day!!

and man, was it a hot one too! too bad we had the pool down in exchange for the castle bouncer ( it's been getting pretty cool at night and the pool water was just not warming up enough during the day )...but i wouldn't have minded to just jump right in that cold water today...oh well! the kids loved the bouncer just the same!

how do you like our hand made/painted lollipop & balloon entrance??

...this was the main "CHOCOLATE FACTORY" where the kids came when they arrived...

they dipped their own plate of treats into the chocolate fountain! strawberries, bananas, pretzels, cookie sticks, honey cookie bears, and marshmallows!!!

they also got to pour their own chocolate into candy molds to take home ( or eat at the party! )

they also had their own PURPLE plates and cups with a KIDS ONLY grape fizzy punch!!!

...i had a ton of WONKA candy throughout the house to grab and nibble whenever they wanted...i have never seen so many GOBSTOPPERS, RUNTS, NERDS, BOTTLECAPS and other treats in one day as today in my own house...it's now 10:15pm and the house STILL smells like chocolate!!! )

...present time...
courtney received MANY awesome gifts today!!! new clothes, toys, books, and her very first TEEN MAGAZINE!!! ( thanks rachel! )


...the purple cake, topped with GOBSTOPPERS on the trim...
{GIGGLE}

we played a couple games today too including a sour gumball bubble-blowing contest, a 'fizzy lifting drink' burping contest ( can you imagine encouraging a bunch of kids to belch it out? ) and also a few surprise draw prizes and 'guess the gumball' jar...

what a FUN, FUN day for us all!

i hope everyone enjoyed themselves!!!

( and because i PROMISED and she didn't have one last year...i will still have to do a small party for courtney with her dance pals and a few school buddies too...it's just hard to invite everyone to her family party as most of the above mentioned kids are still away on summer holidays at this time, so it's hard to have a fun party with only a couple of her pals available...so, i suppose we'll be doing another little something for her in a couple weeks after school and dance start back up again.... )

WHEW!!!

:O)

had to share...

..some pictures i took from kim and calvin's wedding on august 11...i had 'natural beauty' to work with and the utmost cooperation while i 'did my thing'!!!
thanks you two for a fun day and i'm so happy you love your pictures! i must say that this was the first time i had anyone meet me at my work for a 'snack' to pick up their album!! sorry i couldn't sit with you for a visit...


i don't know how good a quality they will look if you click on them to enlarge as i had to SCAN them all in....but they look pretty good here!























...beautiful...















































...just look at those eyes...i hope your (someday) babies inherit those!!! heeheehee...:O)

...what would be a "kim wedding" without some playing around??? i love this shot!!!

thanks for having a peek!!!

:O)

...and just so you know, and if you are interested, i also will do FAMILY, ENGAGEMENT, KIDS, ANNIVERSARY, AND ANY KIND OF CELEBRATION PHOTOGRAPHY!!! i've done many family photo shoots, new baby pic's, engagements, PETS and more, besides wedding photography! i have 7 years experience in photography and i am always happy to accomodate your requests!!! if you are interested in checking things out, give me an email and i'll be happy to chat with you!!!! thegriffs@mts.net

g'night all for now!!!

happy 9th birthday...

....MISS COURTNEY!!!!

I can't believe that you are NINE whole years old already!!! where oh where has that precious time gone???

you woke up this morning wanting birthday pancakes for breakfast...so that's what we had. and then we got a phone call from heather next door saying that Jordan ( her son) wanted to come over to give something to courtney!

while shopping in the morning with his mom, he saw some flowers and said he wanted to buy courtney some flowers "because i love her mommy"....

HOW CUTE IS THAT?

jordan is only 4 years old and just the sweetest little guy!

so, courtney got her first 1/2 dozen red roses from 'the kid next door'...too cute!

...then we were off to go see grandpa at the hospital! to our wonderful surprise, we found grandma, grandpa and mom outside the front doors getting some fresh air and a little sunshine!

grandpa is doing better day by day...not ready to go home yet but getting there. he still has lots of physio therapy to go through, and they've still got to start him on some stairs, but his spirit is his usual chipper self....witty and smiling and all! a good visit!

...and not even an hour after THIS above visit, we had a downpour of hail and heavy rain for about 10 minutes and then it cleared right up and was gone...how unusual!!
HOWEVER...i photographed these shots of the hail storm because it HAPPENED ON COURTNEY'S BIRTHDAY!!!...for those of you lucky ones who were at our house for her party last year, we ended up having to cram down into our basement due to the pending "tornado watch' and funnel clouds that were forming over our heads!!! there ended up being an actual tornado that hit down in St. Andrew's / La Broquerie areas...
...something about courtney's birthdays i guess...
we'll see what this sunday brings weather-wise at her family party!!!

...and we finished off her special day with her choice of restaurant for dinner...

but first we had to stop in at Sugar Mountain Express at the Forks to buy a few goodies for her party prizes....

( lots of Willy Wonka goodies there....yummy )

CAN YOU GUESS BY TYLER'S FACE WHERE WE WENT FOR SUPPER?

...The Old Spaghetti Factory...

one of our family favorites!!! mom, curt and erith came along with us too...

happy 9th birthday punky!!

i hope you had a fun, fun day!

( don't grow too fast okay?)

:O)

genevieve simmons scrapjack...MY WAY!

...i had fun doing this one...

not only because i pulled out some happy YELLOW paint, but i did the layout on a cut piece of cardboard for a change of texture too!!

hope you like it!

quiet weekend...

wow...haven't had this quiet a weekend in a LOOOOONNNNGGGG time!!

we were planning to go to the lake with the kids friday morning, but after working late thursday night and not being ready friday morning ( laundry to be done, groceries to be bought...) we decided to have a weekend at home with the kids!! so friday i was inspired to "clean up" a bunch of stuff ( which is now 11:24pm sunday night ) and it's STILL not all done!! does anyone ever really catch up on their "to do" lists? man, i would love to do that some day!

anyway, friday was kind of a write-off as the kids and i actually stayed in our jammies until about 5pm ( i love those kind of days ) and then mike BBQ'd some yummy steaks with corn on the cob for supper and then we watched the original Willy Wonka movie for some more great birthday party ideas for miss courtney!!

saturday was a little more exciting for us all...we went out for dinner with our friends Nikki and John and their little girl (and also my little god-daughter) Taylor...we met up at Boston Pizza for some chow and then went to the movie theatre to see Spiderman 3!!! they came over after the movie for a little backyard bonfire at our house and the kids were playing 'pirates' and getting into all kinds of mischief...a fun night!

...miss courtney and miss talyor...

...taking in a little 'game time' before the show...

( sorry nikki that my kid kicked your kids butt just like i kicked yours at air hockey!

MOI HA HA....)
tee hee.

...boys being boys...

...and today, being sunday, i had to work. for a nice change i didn't have to close or pre-close tonight so i was off a little earlier than usual and actually got to get some bedtime kisses 'n cuddles from the kids!!

i was all inspired and motivated to do a layout today and i actually squeezed it into about a 1/2 hour play time right before i went to work...literally!

i mentioned a while back on my blog that i found this really fun and inspiring blog called

www.scrapjacked.blogspot.com

that i look at often to try and motivate myself...i seem to always be making projects and plans for my own classes and never really "PLAY" for myself anymore, so i like to to there and THINK of trying out there 'jacks' that they offer!! i entered a layout only one time before ( probably because the artist that they jacked was Heidi Swapp ) but none-the-less, i was motivated to use their sketch and did a pirate layout from courtney's birthday party last year...anyway, i entered it and it made it to the 10 finalists...WOW! i was impressed! i felt good about spending some time and effort into my own layout and i have wanted to enter several times since then but haven't found the time...

well, i really liked the 'jack' again this time, so i will post my entry in a few minutes...i'm trying again...and if anything, i am having fun with it and it's NO PRESSURE on me to play and make something fun!!

check back soon for a peek at it!!

( go to their above noted website so you can see their take on the original "scrapjack"..)

wish me luck!!

( and hey...try it sometime yourself...it's free and it's fun to do...especially if you're ever 'stuck' like i get sometimes )

:O)