airiel's grad...and a new toy!

18 years.

1 month.

16 days.

13 years of K - 12 school

and a high school convocation later...

CONGRATULATIONS

to my lovely niece who celebrated her high school graduation this morning!

WooHoo!!!

your family is very proud of you and your first major milestone achievement in your life...

finishing two times on the Principal's Honor List...

way to go kiddo!!!

...airiel plans to attend U of W in the faculty of graphic art design and also plans to take ESL courses to travel to Japan next year to teach English!!

GO FOR IT!!!

...and on another "note" ( no pun intended! )

here's our 'semi new' toy!

tyler and I met OUR piano teacher monday night and will both be starting our piano lessons in september!!

we bought this used keyboard for now to practice on until we decide at a later date how far we plan to go with it....

WAY COOL!

...as for miss courtney, the girl who wants to start guitar lessons in the fall, she is pretty

keen and crazy about the keyboard!!!

I am going to LOVE hearing my kids playing music in our home!!!

:O)

...planning on scrapbooking tonight, gotta finish off the kids' teachers gifts for next week!

and mike and i are going to work on finally finishing off the living room renovations with baseboards, ceiling and corner mouldings....AT LAST!!

:O)

What a week so far!!!

...going to be quick here as there is still sooooo much i need to get done around here,

it's

CRAZY

this week!!!

( are you feeling it too? )

SOOOO....today our little girl had her Grade 5 Farewell at school this morning.

( already? )

it was a very nice little ceremony in the gym with prepared speeches by the students, music and slide show presentations.

very nice.

~sigh~

why do they have to grow up so fast?

courtney and BFF Rachel,

going to Grade 6 in a new school together!!!

:O)

...i am trying to remember all we've been doing all week, so these following pic's are really in no order...just as I remember!! hahaha...

last saturday was my little Goddaughter's bday party...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS TAYLOR!! i hope you had a fun party...i know your mom sure enjoyed cooling everyone, well, I mean...ME off with a nice bucket of ice water!

( how was your swim in the pool Nikki? )

teehee.

nikki's niece brought over her hedgehog, Sawyer, and tyler took a real interest and liking to the prickly, tickly little guy!

...oh yes, on monday, I did a family photo shoot for lori and her family...here's just a sneak peek for you lori!!! they all turned out great and I'm very happy with them!!

...and last night was my beautiful niece, airiel's , grade 12 Grad dinner...here's a few shots before she left for the big parTAY!

:O)

...and just a little scrappin somewhere in there too...

...more to come soon!!!!!

:O)

Keeping my promise...

...aside from just being "busy" with life, and some scrapbooking, there isn't really a lot to tell from over the past week....

Mike took the kids out to our family cabin at Gull Lake saturday to sunday and were joined with the Malinowski gang on sunday. they all went for their first official swim of the summer, tried out the M's new inflatible boat and of course, played on the jetski too!!

( the cute, cozy little cabin...can't wait to go out myself too! )

...and I went to Tara's from saturday until sunday for a girls scrapbooking weekend!
Woot Woot!!!
I picked up Grams on my way, stopped at tara and johnny's in morris to unload and start chillin' bevvies in the fride, and then the 3 of us were off to winkler for lunch at twisters and a pit stop at My Scrappe Shoppe in town there....lovely stuff, as always!
www.myscrapshoppe.com
upon our return back to tara's, we commenced the scrappin' evening with the traditional playing of many seasons of FRIENDS on DVD to entertain while we played!
I was feeling particularily inspired this weekend as I don't often find time to scrapbook what I WANT to do without any deadlines or certain purposes for classes....
so this was a most enjoyable overnighter of free time for scrappin' the night and next day away!

THANK YOU tara for being the usual perfect and cheery host and for offering " CASA LECLAIRE-ELIAS" to us for a very hospitable stay!
( and i totally agree that next time should be the whole entire weekend!! )
:O)
so, here's my creations from the weekend!!

( this one was the very last one i made...after 24 hours of Friends, I was completely inspired via CHANDLER BING to mark the weekend somehow...teehee )

( AND YES!!! I did get a variety of new Kraft Kuts papers from Fancy Pants Design...here's a sample layout with the new edge shaped papers...)

( what happens when you forget your circle cutter at home? Half of tara's coffee cups and glasses serve the purpose!! hahahaha...good times... )

AND.......

HALL CROP DATES FOR THE SUMMER HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED!

FRIDAY, JULY 10 : 6PM - MIDNITE

AND

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7 : 6PM - MIDNITE

CROP FEES $10

please email to register at thegriffs@mts.net

:O)

I promise...

...to give you a longer post soon...

i miss you blogworld friends!

been very busy and scrapbooking!

sketches class tonight to finish getting ready for so

" I'LL

BE

BACK "

:O)

Seriously...

...it IS june, isn't it?

we spent all day saturday and sunday shivering in the cold at the Forks for Courtney's last dance competition until the fall...in sweaters, jackets and blankets!!

BRRRR.

anyway, despite the wind and cold "summer" temperature this weekend, courtney had a great weekend of dance.

on saturday, Mid Canada Championships, she won 2nd Runner Up in her class and was awarded this winnipeg artist "Art" trophy and won three 3rds and one 4th...

...today was another day shivering in the cold and she won 4 more medals ( one 3rd, one 4th and two 5ths )

all her dance friends worked really hard this weekend and our tight family of 'dance moms' are soooo proud of you all for all your efforts and enthusiasm!

Congratulations to you all!!!

....In SCRAPBOOKING news...

I sent out the June class newsletter tonight. if you are not currently receiving the newsletters and would like to be added to the email list, you can contact me at thegriffs@mts.net and i will be happy to get you started!

I am expecting an order arrival monday with some new goodies that will be available at

this friday nights hall crop...

i hope you all had a fabulous weekend!!

:O)