More Aquarium fun.......

Also meeting us there was Joyce's sister Nellie, her son Lendel, and husband David.

Jacob admiring the shark's teeth.

 Touching the stingrays and feeding them.

Jake, Britton and Emily looking at a gigantic eel.  And then we were off to lunch..........all 17 of us!

A Day out at the Aquarium

On Friday Ru and I took all my grandchildren to the Tulsa Aquarium for a day of fun.  From left to right:  Jacob, Meleah, Emma, Cody, Dillon, Alana, and Mason.

We met my cousin Joyce with her three grandchildren:  Emily, Jake and Britton.  Emily had her own transport that cousin Jake very kindly pulled and pushed around the aquarium.

Art journaling pages

This was the first page I painted in this journal.  Now it's all ready for writing, stamping, drawing and/or added papers, text or embellishments.

Here's another of Emma's pages.  I love the bright orange and the darker mist she used over the butterflies.  Can't wait to see what she does with this page!

Art Journaling with my Granddaughter

This is my granddaughter Emma.  She is always working in some kind of journal.......which just warms my heart!  I have always been writing in at least one journal,  if not two or three.  I have gone crazy over art journaling.  I'm very new to this, but wanted to introduce Emma to this wonderful medium, too.  We spent all day Saturday a few weeks ago using watercolors to paint pages in a spiral-bound pad of watercolor paper.  It was such great fun and she was so creative and inspiring to her Nana.  ")

This time we used a spiral-bound pad of sketching paper.  We glued three pages together and then tore out the next three pages and continued throughout the pad in this way.  Here is one of the pages Emma painted.  We were using acrylic paints, glimmer mists and stencils.  We painted pages for nearly eight hours!  It was so amazing to get lost in the process that we just lost track of time.  We finally stopped and drove into town to pick up some supper.  Emma stayed the night with us and we just enjoyed her so much.

Christmas Eve Game Night!

 We are a family that loves games!  We had been wanting to have a game night for months, but everyone's schedules plus sickness in the family had prevented it.  So, due to forecasts of ice and snow for our area, the adults decided that Christmas Eve would be a good game night and then we could all stay snuggled in on Christmas Day.  We had all been cooking in preparation for Christmas Day anyway.  So we gathered at our house, built up the fire in the fireplace, laid out the food and drinks and enjoyed the feast.  Then we settled in for a great time of competitiveness!  No TV, no texting, just fun!  We all truly enjoyed it!  Took me back to a time when the girls were young and we had fun evenings around the fireplace and around the table.  ")

Rachel bought us some Who-style headbands to wear!  Here you see JP and Ru modeling theirs.  (Doesn't Ru make you think of Cindy Lou Who?!! LOL)

Reluctantly, the girls lined up for me to take a photograph of them with their darling head gear.  Ru has the droopy candy cane with mistletoe on the end, Rachel has the lady antlers with tiny red bows, and Sharla has the striped hat with a twisty end topped off with the white pompom.  Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here's most of our grandchildren.  Ru and JP were not able to have his girls due to sickness.  We really missed those little sprites!  Seated here are Jacob (celebrating his 6th birthday Dec. 26th), Cody (11yrs), Mason (8yrs), Emma (13yrs), and Dillon (15yrs).  Cody and Dillon are brothers and the other three are siblings.  We had our Christmas with all the grandchildren on Sunday as they all had to go to their dad's house for Christmas.

Mail Art for Minori

My Mail Art for Minori had to be something sturdy enough to endure international mailing.  I chose to do a Christmas "CD" for her.  I know it was a November swap, but she loves Christmas and I just had to choose that theme for her.  I started with blank paper and used my Glimmer Mist Candy Apple to cover it.  I then tore a strip of music paper and glued it across the CD.  I cut out an angel and added the red wings and tucked her inside the music paper.  Next I added the "tree" at the left:  I tore a strip of brown paper for the trunk and green strips for the tiers and then added the red rhinestones and bow at the top.  I used a file label to add the sentiment:  "Joyeux Noel!"  I added the "believe" sticker at the top and a thin layer of cotton and at the bottom and stamped two little red birds, cut them out and added them to the snow.  The address label was added to the spine of the CD holder.

For the back I added the two-sided paper from 7gypsies......red for the back and green to show through to the front.  I again spritzed blank paper with Glimmer Mist Candy Apple and placed a musical score made with washi tape strips across the circle.  Next I placed strips of green polka dot washi tape on the right side of the circle.  Then I tore the picture of the little girls singing Christmas carols from a postcard and placed it above the musical score and over the polka dot washi tape.  Then I added more polka dot washi tape to the left side of the circle.  I stamped two red birds, cut them out and added them to the left side of the circle.  Next I cut out the pink rose and added it to the bottom of the CD and added a faux postage of the little girl writing a letter to Santa over the rose and musical score.  Finally I added the rhinestone star beside the faux postage.

 

Minori received this Mail Art fully intact!  She was very happy with it........which makes me happy!