{Ari}zilla

The conversation after Ari's bath tonight:

Me: Matt, go get the camera, I have an idea
Matt: Ok, now? It's his bed time...
Me: Yeah, just go
Matt (returning with the camera): Here, why??
Me: I'm going to do a layout called {Ari}zilla because he looks like a giant crushing the airport. Can't you see it?

I've been there!!

I found this cool map on Alexis' blog and thought I'd see where I've been. Not bad, not bad at all!

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

I wanna see where you've been too, link me to your blog in the comments!!

Colors of Summer Challenge

I am honored to be the Designer of Month over at Crop Addict for the whole month of June! This means I get to come up with the weekly and monthly challenges. I put a lot of thought into what I love about the month of June, and summer as a whole, and this week's challenge is to scrap the Colors of Summer. Head over to the forum to see what it's all about, I'd love to see you participate! Anyone can play, all you have to do is follow the rules and upload your creation to the gallery by the end of the week!! You have until the 13th, plenty of time!!!

Here's mine:



On another note: It seems Ari was a little more traumatized than we thought about the whole playground incident yesterday. At Gymboree this morning he was fine until about halfway through, then all of the sudden he just clung to me and wouldn't let go. I had to hold him the entire time, he just put his head on my shoulder and whimpered. He wouldn't even go to Matt, it broke my heart. Next time not only am I going to say something to the mom, I'm getting security to monitor the playground. Rules are posted for a reason, he could have really been hurt!

Anyway, enough of that. Be sure to check out my challenge, I'd love for you to play along. The prizes are super fun ;)

Playground Violence

I had to wear my "mean mom" hat today. It's SO hot here, over 100 again today, that Matt and I decided to take Ari to Northlake Mall. They have a little indoor play area for toddlers that's fairly new and clean. When I say toddlers I mean that you're supposed to be under 42 inches tall to play. Well, apparently either no one can read or they just don't care because it was overrun with older kids today. Most of the time Ari just stood along the benches watching, afraid of getting plowed over by the bigger kids running around like crazy people. Some of the bigger kids left so he felt brave enough to play, he had SO much fun! There were two or three other kiddos his size that he was running around and climbing with, it was so cute to watch! A few minutes later I look over when Matt says Ari's on his hands and knees not moving. Of course I freak and run over to see what's wrong. He's just kneeling, staring at the floor. I ask him what's wrong and he looks at me with the most sad face I've ever seen. I'm not exaggerating, his whole bottom lip and chin was quivering and his eyes were about to spill over with tears. I scooped him up and he squeezed his arms so tight around me. I asked what happened (we couldn't see him, he was behind one of the climber toys) and one of the moms said the bigger girls hit him in the head. Seriously, who does that?? I marched straight up to their mom and totally ratted them out. I said "one of your girls just punched him in the head" and she looked at me like I'd gone nuts. She said "not my girls". Um, yeah. How would you know sitting all the way over here completely oblivious to where they are?? Oh, and they aren't even supposed to be in here. We left after that, poor Ari. I could see him thinking why would someone do that? He's definately a lover not a fighter. He was so hurt and sad. Not physically, but that's worse. Argh. Why is it that you have to have training and pass a test to drive a car but any yahoo can pop out as many kids as they wish???

it's hot.

Seriously, it was 105 today. For the third day in a row. Enough is enough. I was dead set against paying $250 to join the pool this summer but if this is any indication how our summer is going to be I'm doin' it. I'll sell stuff on eBay if I have to, we can't even be in the back yard. Ari's toys are so hot it melts your skin. The low this weekend is 88, the LOW...

Anyway, we've been hanging out in the house for the past few days. Poor Ari is going stir crazy I think but we built a few tunnels and a fort in the living room the other day, he had fun. Oh, big news. The little man can eat off a fork! We were at PeiWei for an early dinner after PlayGym the other day, I gave him a fork to keep him occupied and he went to town. So cute!




In other news: he's movin' up! To the guest room. It's bigger, more room for all his junk. I'm getting excited about it, this room has a huge vaulted ceiling and neat lines, we're going to paint some murals and such on his wall. I'll take plenty of pictures when I get started but I think I need to finish some other projects before I start anything else. I'm good at that, the starting. It's the finishing that I seem to have issues with. Our bathroom floor still isn't done. Oh well.

No plans for the rest of the weekend. We may head up to Northlake tomorrow to go to the inside playground and fountains. I don't know though, Ari was terrified of the fountains this Florida trip, I'm not sure I want to drive up there only to chase him through the parking lot. If we go you'll definately see pictures.

I think I'm going to start a few scrappy projects tonight. I started re-reading New Moon, I see myself finishing it in the bubble bath tonight with a bowl of muddy buddies. Good thing I bought a one-piece bathing suit with spandex for the summer!!

Don't you just love it

When things turn out the way you intended?? It's so rare for me, I never count on it and tend to ready myself for the impending disappointment. This is not the case with my Twilight ATC cards for the swap I'm in at Scrap, Etc.



I had an idea in my head from the beginning and was so unsure of how I was going to make it work that I waited until the complete last minute to start. With the help of my dear husband (he was the final editor) all 12 of these bad boys are nearly done! I love them, it's going to be the "cover" for the other 11 cards that I will be getting in the mail from my scrappy Twilight lovin' friends. I'm so excited right now, I think the only thing that can top this is the fact that while I was busy crankin' these babies out my dear husband (did I mention that he is totally awesome??) made chocolate chip cookies for me to enjoy in my bubble bath while I re-read Twilight for the 4th time!

Beach Babes!