The Other One

Sam's Bar Mitzvah is fast approaching, which means he is getting a lot of press in my scrapbook, blog, and Instagram world. I find that that happens a lot. There will be periods where every layout seems to be about one of my children, and not the other. I used to worry about this, but have come to accept it as the natural ebb and flow of life.

Before the mad Bar Mitzvah rush, though, Max had a big event of his own- performing in his high school musical. He performed last year too, though this time he had a larger role, which required him to work even harder at the singing and the dancing. Any time my children work hard at something, and they get to enjoy the rewards of their labor, I am a happy camper.

We all enjoyed the performance of 13 The Musical, and we have been listening and singing to the music ever since. It's pretty catchy.

Preachy Scrapbooking

I sure have been preaching a lot in my scrapbook pages recently. Not too long ago, I even wrote about using scrapbook pages as a way to record lessons for your children, over at Write.Click.Scrapbook. And since then, I made another page filled with wisdom for Max.

I am well aware, that my kids are not reading my scrapbooks, soaking in all my words of wisdom. In fact, I seriously considered using this photo for the above layout:

But I decided to keep the tone a little bit more serious. I have no expectations that Max is going to read my scrapbook page, and suddenly realize that I am a fountain of wisdom that he has been ignoring all these years. But, I do think the things that we tend to harp on with our children-- it goes in. It just takes a while. 

Write. Click.Scrapbook October Gallery

This month's Write.Click.Scrapbook. gallery theme is "Happy Scraps." Everything on this layout was made with  scraps and  older products. Some of it is just a few weeks old, many are a few months old, and some I have had for a quite a while. 

It is almost always easy to create something with some brand new supplies. You reach into the box, pull out your favorites, move some things around, and voila. (Sure, that voila can take hours. Sometimes days. But still. Voila.)

As the days go by, and the easy products get used, and then the slightly harder ones, at some point you are left with everything else. It is harder to find inspiration with those items. At least for me. But if you stick with it, if you are determined to keep going without the immediate gratification of something new, you can often make something wonderful. 

Which is why I really liked creating this layout. It took several days, and sometimes I was down right stuck. But I think I am rather pleased with the results.

The end.

Sometimes I Repeat Myself. Repeat Myself.

I have a really hard time making layouts that don't contain a story of some sort. Which is fine, because I find I have lots of stories to tell. But sometimes I just love a photo, and I just want to scrapbook it, and there simply is no story. I see other people do it all the time, and the results are fabulous.

Recently, I took a series of photos in front of this very blue wall. I had been admiring this wall over the course of the summer, so I was glad when the boys and I were walking to do some back to school shopping, and they were in a good mood, and I thought I might be able to convince them to let me take some photos. So I led them to this place.

They were somewhat cooperative. Which for them is very good.

I really wanted to scrap this photo, but the story of how it came to be was simple not inspiring to me at the time. Mom wants to take picture. Boys don't usually want to have their picture taken. Mom convinces boys to take picture.

I tried very hard to scrap the photo without any story. But I just couldn't do it! I know it makes no sense. 

So, I told the best story I could, even though it is one that I told before. Almost exactly. Namely, that even though they think I take too many pictures, they have no idea how many times I don't take pictures because I don't want to bother them. And, also, because sometimes we have to get places.

See?

Oh, well. So sue me.

(Please don't sue me.)

Still Sixteen

As I mentioned on Sunday, Max has turned 16.

Now that it has been scrapbooked, it's official.

Yes. That is the second time I've scrapped this photo this week.

And I used it in a blog post.

And I posted it in Instagram.

'Cuz he just looks so good.

The August Cocoa Daisy kit had some perfect items for this photo. Namely, those alphas and this Basic Grey paper. Also, in the last week or two I began using printable elements from Cocoa Daisy, and also these from Kaitlin Sheaffer. I am hooked! You never run out--you can always print more! I always doubted that printables would look as good when I printed them at home. But, they do. Another little tool in my belt.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Max.

When he was little, he cried whenever his parents left his side (like every day at preschool). He hid behind his parents when people came to visit.

Well, Max grew, and grew, and grew until he became a very large teenager. (He barely even fits in this picture.)

And he wasn't scared to leave his parents anymore. (They were happy if he said goodbye before he left for school in the morning).

And he didn't hide from new people anymore. 

In fact, by now, Max was so big and brave and not shy anymore that he was in his school play. A musical. He danced (sort of), and sang, and wore a skirt. (I mean a kilt! a kilt!)

And his parents were kind of amazed and excited and proud of the whole thing. 

P.S. On the morning of the play, Max did say goodbye to his mommy. And then he just stood there for a few moments, not going anywhere. And his mother (who is quite fetching, I might add) realized that even though Max was big and brave and not shy anymore, he was feeling a little nervous, and so she gave him a hug and a kiss. And then off he went.

The moral of the story is: Even though you might think you don't like the music of Gilbert and Sullivan, after watching Pirates of Penzance, you will come to realize that their tunes are quite catchy, and that's probably why everyone likes them so.