Labor Day weekend wrap-up

This weekend ended up being a very productive one for me & a fun one for the campers, judging from just how dirty Skylar was upon their return!! Let's just say candy suckers & lots of dirt are not a great combination for a 3-year-old!!

The crew got home early this afternoon and got busy cleaning up, then it was time to get ready to return to "real" life. Karstin had x-country practice & Kody had flag football practice this evening, so they ended up going back to their dad's a little earlier than usual. Judging from how sleepy Jacques was all evening, there was not much sleeping done on the camping trip and he & the girls hit the sack soon after 9 p.m.

My weekend went well, too. Karstin & I had lots of time to hang out together with Danica. We ended up taking a couple nice walks, one of which was spent getting some nice local photos of the downtown area & the very ripe chokecherry bushes.
 

We also watched a movie (17 Again), as well as spent a fair amount of time on the computers chatting with friends & playing around online. With the relative calm in the house this weekend, I also managed to get several pages scrapped, as well as lots of progress on my business planning.
I was thrilled to discover this morning when I checked my inbox that a layout I did yesterday highlighting how Karstin likes to spend his free time was featured at Gallery Standouts. This website picks a handful of pages from around the virtual scrapbooking community to feature for various qualities they think are worthy of mention. Here's the page of mine that was featured (click on the image for a larger version) ...

And here's the link to the page & comments at Gallery Standouts.
I made another exciting decision today regarding my scrapbooking and an opportunity that recently presented itself, but I need to wait a day or two until the details have been worked out. More on that later... :)
Another page I did yesterday was one I've been planning in one way or another all summer. I made a concerted effort to take photos of each type of flower in our yard as they came into bloom. I then featured these photos in this two-page spread...

Now I can't take credit for anything beyond the photos. We are fortunate to have some great perennial gardens that basically came with the house when we bought it five years ago, plus a great flowering crabapple tree & lilac bushes. The few annuals we have were planted & cared for by Jacques, so if anyone gets credit, it would have to be him. I'm just glad I remembered to take photos this year, since I really hadn't done it any of the summers prior to now.
Now I'm thinking about calling it a night, so I can get some "real" work done tomorrow after sending Skylar on her way back to preschool and be ready for another busy week. Karstin has his school open house on Thursday, as well as his second team x-country dinner. Kody's first flag football game of the season is also on Thursday. Kody's busy taking hunter's education classes this week, too, and it's school & team photo time again already... then the annual Chokecherry Festival is next Saturday, as well as an all-day chat at Designer Digitals. Lots of fun on tap ... and lots of memories to scrap!! :)

Kicking off a busy weekend...

You might say we started celebrating our Memorial Day weekend a little early today - or at least it felt like it. For starters, it is Karstin's 14th birthday today.

He was the first one up this morning, as usual, and Danica was soon to follow. So we took a few seconds to pose for a birthday morning shot before Karstin headed off for school. A couple hours later, the girls & I did a little running around to finish up the birthday preparations, including delivering a coffee shop gift certificate and balloon to the school for their big brother.
For once, I actually had the cake done ahead of time. Knowing that this would be a busy week - and that of all my kids, Karstin is most interested in upholding traditions like being "surprised" by what his birthday cake looks like, I actually had it all finished, decorated and hidden from sight by early yesterday afternoon. A guitar seemed to be a pretty fitting theme for Karstin's cake this year, considering how much music dominates his existence.

In fact, music was pretty much the theme of most of his gifts, too. But more on that in a minute... 
After school, Karstin was pretty much bouncing off the walls ... or at least bouncing off the tramp! Whether this was a result of all the candy he'd eaten during the day or the cool new drumsticks and guitar picks from his girlfriend, I'm not sure ... either way, he was a happy camper - and that's what I love to see, especially on his birthday!

How that kid can talk on the phone and jump on the tramp at the same time, I do not know!!
Anyway, we had an early dinner of shrimp scampi, corn on the cob, garlic bread, etc. and then had to dash off to Kody's last band concert of the year. Kody did a great job and was relieved to have it over, since he was pretty nervous about this concert. I think with all the attention Karstin gets on the drums, his little brother was feeling the pressure to measure up.
After the concert, we returned home and showed Karstin his cake. I say "showed" because he is having several buddies over tomorrow night for a sleepover and he decided he wants to save the cake until then so they can see it, too... We did light candles and sing, however, and Karstin posed for a traditional birthday shot. The foot is intended to represent the extra digits to get to 14, by the way... done in true Karstin humor!

After cake, it was everyone's favorite ... presents. Karstin was a total ham and really managed to get me giggling with all his theatrics as he opened his gifts.

We gave him a digital camera, as well as a microphone & stand, a charger for his iPod, and a framed photo of him with Jacques & the deer Karstin shot last fall, which is now hanging upstairs with the mount Jacques also put together for him. He also received a guitar-themed t-shirt from gramma & grampa, as well as an iTunes gift card - always a big hit - and some little gadget type stuff like a flashlight (I think... I hardly got to see it!).
As I sat here watching him wander the house for the next hour or two singing into that microphone and being goofy in general, it dawned on me ... a microphone is not going to make things any quieter around here!! But that's okay ... he loved it and it supports his passion, so that's what matters most.

We eventually did get to eat cake ... I had frosted a chunk of cake left over from trimming pieces for the guitar and we ate that before sending everyone off to bed. The birthday is over, but the busy-ness is just getting started ... Jacques & Kody are heading out around 5 a.m. tomorrow morning for a guys' fishing trip to Devils Lake, ND with several of Jacques' buddies & relatives.
Meanwhile, Karstin's friends will come home with him after school tomorrow and celebrate his birthday again with a sleepover in the camper. Jacques helped him set up the propane fire pit tonite and in the morning, I'll stock up the camper with the tv from the garage, a cooler of root beer, a bunch of junk food, and at some point we'll order a couple pizzas ... party prep is pretty simple for teenage boys!! The girls and I will hold down the fort in the house ... and then hopefully after the dust settles and Karstin catches up on the sleep he won't be getting Friday night, I can get him to lend a hand over the weekend so maybe I can catch a little "me" time somewhere in there!!
Jacques & Kody will be back Tuesday sometime and then it's the countdown until school ends June 5th. Then soon after that, we'll have the Montana Newspaper Convention in Kalispell, Father's Day, Jacques' birthday, Danica's first birthday, swimming lessons... like I said, the busy-ness is just getting started!! :)

Three years old.

It's official. Skylar is now three years old. We celebrated with a fun little "girly-girl" party with her neighbor friend plus all 5 of her cousins on my side of the family, as well as Gramma & Aunt Sara, and of course, her sister and brothers. It was lots of fun ... jewelry making, fingernail painting, dress up ... and of course, lots and lots of presents and a cake made especially for the birthday girl. 
This year's cake was my first real attempt at fondant. It didn't turn out quite as I had envisioned it (Karstin kept saying it looked like a hat!), but it was cute anyway and tasted pretty good, too. I learn a little more every time I make one of these special cakes ... someday I'll have it down!! 

After the "party" was over, the kids all enjoyed playing outside on the tramp, in the sandbox and on the various riding toys. The bigger kids took a jaunt over to the park to play a little tennis with Jacques while the babies slept (and the mamas rested!) and then later we all filled up with pizza and more cake. 

The final special treat of Skylar's big day was a bit of a campout in our pop-up trailer, with Jacques serving as willing chaperone to five of the nine kids.



The day went fast but Skylar seemed to have fun and hopefully will have happy memories of her third birthday when she is older. To help that along, here are the scrapbook pages highlighting her celebration, which will go into her birthday album ...
 
 
 
 
Thanks to Nana & Pop, Skylar even managed to spread out the birthday celebration a couple days longer with the arrival today of her final birthday gift... a child-sized play kitchen. It was delivered while she was napping and I managed to get through all 10 pages of instructions and get it assembled in two hours, just in time for her to wake from her nap and discover her new toy. She was thrilled ... and I'm sure will enjoy many, many hours of pretend play in the days and weeks to come.

Now it's time to catch our breath, but not for long. This weekend is Mother's Day ... and as Karstin keeps reminding us, his 14th birthday is less than three weeks away, followed by Father's Day, Jacques' birthday in June ... and then Danica's first birthday. Whew... makes my head spin just thinking about it! 
 
Here they are ... all nine cousins on the Gunderson side of the family! :)

Trying to get back in the swing of things...

For some reason, I'm having a tough time getting back in the swing of things after returning from our Easter weekend. First the boys had Monday off from school even though most people had to go back to work, which I think threw me off a bit. Then Karstin ended up staying home from school today because he didn't feel well. I think this feeling of being just off balance is probably a combination of these scheduling variations and the fact that the weather has been pretty dreary. In fact at this moment, I am looking out at a whole new layer of snow. The forecast for later in the weekend is warmer, so hopefully this is more temporary than it feels.
In an attempt to get back into routine, I did manage to get two sets of scrapbook pages done - basically a set for each of the girls highlighting their Easter. The boys were with their dad this year, so I don't really have anything to scrapbook for them - at least not for this year. I have piles and piles of stuff from prior years, when I get around to getting it all organized ...



The album I'm using for Skylar's birthday book also arrived and I assembled her first birthday pages this afternoon. Check back in the next few days for pics of that... it's coming together quite nicely.

A quick look back...

We made it home from our Easter weekend in Minot. About a 7-hour trip ... not too bad but definitely glad to have arrived back home safely! Now to the task of unburying ourselves from the piles of stuff we brought in from the car...
But first, here's a few highlights from our weekend with Nana & Pop...

Skylar really enjoyed coloring eggs with Nana on Saturday evening.

Doesn't Danica look cute all dressed up Saturday to go to church? Too bad we missed the service because of a schedule misunderstanding, but we had fun going out for dinner instead at Up A Creek. We also ran into Jim Harris and his wife while we were there...

Each time Sky found an egg, she would rush back to empty the candy inside into the bowl.

Danica checks out her basket of goodies left by the Easter Bunny.

Not too sure she likes the extra long ears!!

A moment together before another egg is spotted...
Hope everyone had a nice Easter!!

She's my friend...

Just wanted to take a quick break from the Easter morning action to say hello and record a cute thing Skylar did... she had just found about the 40th egg and came running in, as excited as if it had been the first.

"I found one!!!" she squealed.

"I think the Easter Bunny likes you, Skylar," says Daddy.

With the cutest little smirky grin, Skylar turns around and says...

"She's my friend..."

Happy Easter!

Good to be (related to the) Irish...




Since I couldn't get on the road today, I decided to put together a double-pager in honor of the holiday. Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

It's our lucky day ... I hope.

Are you wearing green?? Thanks to Pop, our kids always have something festive (and usually a bit crazy) to wear for St. Patrick's Day.

This year was no exception ... Kody spotted the package from Pop - addressed "to the kids at O'Ruttens" - on the table as soon as he got home from school yesterday. They managed to wait until after dinner before tearing in and were delighted to discover an assortment of green headbands, stickers, fake mustaches and beaded necklaces. Thanks, Pop!!

As for me, I'm hoping the luck o' the Irish comes my way today as I attempt to make the trip home to Polson to spend the week with my family. The girls and I had planned to leave Monday, but Old Man Winter had other plans for us. Here's crossing my fingers that the weather report is more favorable today or we'll be postponing again until tomorrow.
In the meantime, here are a few pages I put together yesterday while stuck at home ...







UPDATE - 8:55 a.m. Tuesday: Well, it's gorgeous outside here in Lewistown but the picture isn't so pretty over Rogers Pass. So, we'll give it one more day ... but we ARE going tomorrow!! Guess I'll have to do some more scrapbooking ... :)