goin' to the slammer...

Yep, they're finally locking me up. (I'm such a bad girl, you know.) ;) LOL!

I can't wait until tomorrow! I really AM heading for The Slammer... it's a Bed & Breakfast place in western IL, in what was once the county jail. I'll be meeting several of my good friends there for a weekend of scrapping. It is sure to be a blast! :)

I've been there once before, and had SO much fun! Here are some layouts of my previous visit:

Who would've ever thought that you could WANT to go to jail? LOL!

happy birthday 2 you!

I cannot believe that it's been two whole years since Benjamin was born. Really, where does the time go?? He's not a baby anymore... (though will always be my baby)... he is a "big" boy who's becoming more and more independent every day! When I start to do something for him (like put on his shoes), he points at himself, as in, "I'M going to do it!" If I ask him to do something that he doesn't want to do (like come and get ready for his nap), he will shake his head, say, "Uh-uh!" and run the opposite direction, LOL! He has definite likes (Hop-hop, zooms, grapes) and dislikes (any "suspicious"-looking food, being left out when his brother and sister are playing, someone taking his toys), and it is so fun to watch him growing and learning every day!

We'll be celebrating tonight, just our family and Marissa. We've got some Thomas the Tank Engine decorations, and I baked a cake earlier today. I think he'll be happy with his presents, too ~ some new Cars vehicles, Cars shoes, a toy helicopter, and a new trike!


Happy birthday, little guy! I can't believe you're two!!

Ben at 2 weeks old:
Ben at his early birthday party on the 1st:

surprise!

I'm not sure how we managed it, exactly, but all of us... even the kids!... were able to keep the secret and surprise Mom and Dad with an anniversary party over the weekend! :) They drove out here, along with Christine, because I told them I wanted to throw an early birthday party for Benjamin. (We did in fact celebrate with a party for him on Saturday, but my real objective for getting them here was the surprise party on Sunday.)

The party was thrown together very quickly, and many of the invitees already had plans for the holiday weekend. We did have a few guests, though ~ Grandma, Aunt Jeanette and Uncle Ronnie, Aunt Bernice and Uncle John, my cousin Debbie and her husband Mike, my cousin Peggy, and George's brother Nathan were able to join us and make the surprise even more special! (Many of the people who couldn't be here sent notes or cards for Mom and Dad, which I know they really appreciated, too.) It was wonderful to see everyone, even if it was just for a short time. We took lots of pictures, but of course, I still need to get mine developed before I can share them....

I made a scrapbook for Mom and Dad, using some of the pictures that Christine had emailed me, plus others from their 40 years together. If you are interested, you can view the pages here. I plan to make a few more pages with pictures from the party to fill the book....

The weekend went by way too quickly, and we were all wishing that we could've spent more time together. Isn't that always how it goes...?