Crafty Goodness: Wedding mini-Album

With all the extra time that I have in the summer, I have been busy in my little studio making new things for the store and website and putting together little projects like this one. I love to make mini-albums. I have made them for family and friends before and I am constantly on the lookout for excuses to make more.

The papers are all from Pink Paislee and the Nantucket line. I also used bits of Washi tape, October Afternoon journaling cards and other little treasures that I had hoarded away in my drawers. The pages are 8.5"x5.5" and bound with circle clasps on the side. The pages speak for themselves. This little book is about to be stuck in the mail and is ready to be filled with pictures, notes, and any other little keepsake of the day.

Summer of Adventure: #5 Graham and Bekah's Wedding

This sweet couple is my younger sister, Bekah, and her husband, Graham. Bekah and Graham have been a special part of our family for quite some time. (Well, Bekah since she was born.) They started dating in high school, graduated together as valedictorian and salutatorian and went to University of North Texas together. Since we were still in Fort Worth, we saw lots of them. Bekah and her twin Esther would come and babysit for me all the time. Ahh...those were the days!

Anyway, I digress.

Bekah and Graham, at long last, got married and my kids got to add them to their adventure list for the summer. When Grace was little, she was in or attended a whole slew of weddings as our friends and cousins all got married around the same time. There has been a very large wedding drought for quite some time, now. This was the first wedding that most of my kids even remember attending. Grace and Landry were flower girls. Actually, Landry was the bell ringer. Gibson and Hayden were both ushers and did a fantastic job of handing out programs before the ceremony.

In preparation of the ceremony, Landry got new princess shoes. She couldn't have been happier with the sequins, bows or pink.

She was still in anticipation of the "princess" aspect of the wedding. She hadn't realized yet that she was going to have to walk down the aisle while everyone was watching. During the rehearsal, she laid down in the middle of the aisle and screamed. The day of the actual wedding, she cried to whole way down.

Of course every rehearsal is a little chaotic, but we had so much fun seeing family and hanging out, that we didn't mind.

Please excuse my photos. I realized halfway through our trip that I left my camera on the shelf. Shane said that he would turn around (not.)

Hayden happily finished his duties as an usher. I only saw Gibson from a distance. His other aunts and uncles were around and it is not cool to hang out with your mother when you are 8 years old.

The day of the wedding, Bekah and Graham went with their wedding party out to this old barn and took all of their photos before the wedding. Don't be fooled by these cute photos. It was hot! Every little bit, they would have to stop and pick bugs, grasshoppers, grass, and other things from Bekah's dress. After the wedding, dancing, and dinner were over, my youngest sister, Judith, was putting up the dress at the end of the day. As she lifted up the skirt, there was a GIANT grasshopper caught up in the inside of the skirt. He had taken a wild ride all day and night. I laugh every time I think about what would have happened if he had started jumping around in the middle of their ceremony!

The wedding was beautiful. Purple and green were the colors and everything was a rustic country. She had twig trees covered in lights and tulle, the girls all wore cowboy boots to the reception, and the favors were s'mores.

Waiting with all of the girls and getting pretty before the wedding started was very fun. Actually, while they were taking pictures, we (half of my kids and myself) were out at the farm seeing my aunt, uncle, cousins, brothers, sisters, grandparents, and parents. Half of them had flown in from all around the country, so we were having a really great time. We looked up and realized that we were about to be very late.

They are such a sweet couple and I got all teary watching them take their vows. It was very special.

This is the Nicks/Grace/Mize/Pieprzyca clan for now. Still growing... My brother Dan and his fiancee Naomi are getting married in September.

After the ceremony, we all headed to dinner and dancing at the reception. Once again, I only saw Gibson in passing. He was making his way through all of the bridesmaids on the dance floor.

It was a really great weekend and we wish Graham and Bekah all of the best!

Summer of Adventure: #4

This particular adventure wasn't just one day, but a week. Our church put together a VBS and while signing up my kids, I realized that they needed volunteers. So...I volunteered. I had visions of dropping off my kids and experiencing what other people do when they leave their children at school or take them to camp and have a couple of "kid free" hours, but decided that once again, I will experience this someday. I had a group of first graders and Hayden was in my little crew. Thank goodness, because he cried three times before the first day was over. Landry was in a kindergarten crew and I am a little concerned what kindergarten will actually be like this year. By the second day, she declared that she was tired of her new school and couldn't we just stay home. Of course, Gibson being the people person that he is, was in hog heaven and loved every second of it. He told his whole prayer group that he had a girl friend. This was news to me. Evidently, the "girl" doesn't know either. Grace was too old to participate this year, so she was a "teen helper" with the kindergarten. She had Landry in her group. She told me at the end of the first day that she never intends to be a teacher...ever. Haha! She had to take a nap every afternoon to recover.

Hayden got a chance to help reenact a Bible story. Here, he is Lazarus. I think that he may be a budding actor. He had to die, and then stay dead for a long time, and I have not laughed that hard, silently, in a long time.

Summer of Adventure: Day 3

The most fun thing about moving to a new area is exploring and trying all the things that are unique to the region. My friends have laughed at me as I've gotten excited about things that they have all grown up doing. Our newest adventure - crabbing.

We picked a spot next to the coast and armed ourselves with chicken legs, string and a net. To crab, the string is tied to the end of the chicken leg and then dropped in the water. When the chicken leg hits the bottom, you can feel the crabs pinching the chicken leg. When they grab hold, you gently lift them up and scoop them out of the water with the net. (Crabbing also happens with a trap, but this way is much more fun.) This is my kind of fishing. We were catching crabs within the first five minutes of hopping out of the car.
The kids were all having a blast. Gibson has found his new calling in life.
We caught lots of crabs, but they were all little ones and we had to let them go.
This was the most fun part. The kids picked favorites and laid down bets. We dumped them out next to the water and cheered as they scurried back to their home.

Until next time...

Summer of Adventure: Day 2

I am definitely not posting our adventures every single day, but when we go out and about, I am recording and sharing. (You might see some at home adventures too, but I don't think that you really care about the days that we don't get out of our p.j.s until after lunch or (gasp) never get out of them at all.)

During my research of fun things to do in Houston, I found a blog that is completely wonderful. For my friends in the Houston area, you definitely need to check out Houston On the Cheap. This blog lists TONS of free and very cheap family activities. I am now checking her blog daily. I found it, initially, because I was looking for movie theaters with free and cheap summer movie series (which there are lots of), but she also had listed a free day at the Houston Zoo. The first Tuesday of every month, the zoo has a completely free day from 2 p.m. until closing. Because I hadn't heard anything about this particular promotion, I naively hoped that maybe others hadn't as well...I was wrong! It was very crowded and warm, but the kids had a good time and we got to see lots of the animals.

After all the heat and crowds, we hit up our favorite ice cream place, Hank's Ice Cream. This place is a Houston institution and is a favorite of many celebrities, including Beyonce. The little store is very unassuming and they only have 10 or 11 flavors at any one time, but this is the best ice cream that I have ever had. They have a banana pudding ice cream that is just heaven! Since it was so late, I decided that we were having ice cream for dinner. Of course the kids didn't mind.
Grace and Gib are both huge fans of the cookies and cream.
Landry got her customary chocolate. She ends up wearing just as much as she eats. :)
Hayden had his ice cream in a cone for the first time. Normally, he gets his in a cup. Not being in complete control of his situation can be very stressful for him and ice cream dripping down the side of a cone can send him into orbit. He decided after this cone that he will never eat his ice cream in a cup again. It was a magical moment.

After ice cream, we headed back to our little oasis and jumped in the pool until after dark. My back and shoulders are sore from rowing across the pool 4500 times in an inner tube giving rides to the younger two and racing the older kids. I think that I may be too old for this.

We finished off the day with pizza that Dad brought home after he got off work. It was a late night for him, so the pizza hit the spot after a late night in the pool for us. It was the perfect end to a pretty perfect day.

Summer of Adventure: Day 1

Today was our first day of summer and it was bliss. We kicked off the day with breakfast with Dad and then we were off! I have decided that our word of the summer is adventure. We have not even come close to exploring and experiencing all that our region has to offer and we are going to do our best to have lots of adventures over the next several weeks.

We headed over to La Porte and met up with my friend, Amber, and her son Spencer. La Porte has a fantastic city beach that we enjoyed very much. There weren't many people out this morning (I'm sure that they are packed on the weekend.). The whole park is fenced in, allowing the city control over who has access to the beach and other park properties after hours. There is no alcohol allowed, a roped off swimming area (only chest deep), lots of sand, a really nice play park behind the beach, kayak and canoe rentals, a skateboard park, and a boat ramp (far away from the swimmers). My kids had a blast!

I could barely get them all together to take a picture. They were really not interested.

Spencer is in Landry's class at school. She was really excited about having one of her friends to play with for the day.

Barbies were buried, at one point we lost a dragon and dug up half the beach looking to find it again.

Grace was hanging out under the umbrella and reading her favorite book series. (I probably should have been under there with her. I'm a little pink.)

We almost made it out of our adventure without anyone getting hurt, but not quite. On our way to the car, Landry tripped on her towel and busted her nose and lip. Thankfully, my friend Amber was there and she is our school nurse. There was a lot of blood. Poor little Landry's lip is pretty fat.

After our beach escapades we headed over to Chick Fil A for some lunch and then hit up the fish market. I really wish that I had taken pictures of the fish market. There were bins and bins of whole fish (the smell was incredible - and I don't mean in a good way.), shrimps, clams and even baby octupus. The boys got the biggest kick out of the tank of lobsters and the huge bin of live blue crabs. We are going to have to head back there again.

After all of that, all the kids looked like this on the way home. I count that as a successful first day of adventure!

The Strawberry Farm

I have been on a quest to find or grow as many fruits and veggies as possible and can or freeze them this year. Our family is growing and eating lots and it gets expensive! (I'm sure that is not news to you.) We go through tons of frozen berries in smoothies, cereal and just eating them by themselves. So, this spring, I spent one of the most wonderful afternoons by myself and went to a strawberry farm.

For two glorious hours, I was hunched over rows and rows of berries and picked four buckets worth of berries.

Landry was REALLY excited about all of the strawberries. They are her favorite! After I brought them all home, I hulled them, set them out in a single layer on cookie sheets, and froze them for about 30 minutes. Then, I took the berries and sealed them in gallon baggies in the freezer where they are ready when we are.
I do have to say, I really did enjoy myself. Eating warm berries straight from the plants was a wonderful experience and being ALONE was even better! I may have to go back. ;)