School Work Photobooks

Two years ago when Marley was in preschool, she was bringing home tons of papers every day.  I hated to throw them out so I decided that I would make a school work photo book from Shutterfly with them.  Every few weeks I would just scan in her papers, and then that allowed me to recycle them without feeling bad about it. 

Once I had them all scanned in I just uploaded them to their website and kept them in order of when she did them.  The first 20 pages are included with the book, then it's an additional fee per page. I didn't want to go way overboard, since I actually got her preschool book free from Pamper's Rewards.   To help figure out how many photos per page, I just divided the number of photos by 20 pages.  Since it was an uneven number, I did add some photos from her field trips and class parties in there too.  

Some of her larger art projects required more space on the page so I just chose a different layout.  

I just finished her kindergarten book too, following the same steps as before.  However, this time I didn't have a free code, so I had to wait for a good sale.  Shutterfly's sales usually last a day or two so I really had to hurry to finish scanning everything and uploading it and rearranging it on every page.  

I had 23 pages and it was about $30 for the book and shipping.  Not too expensive for a whole years worth of school work.  

I think for next year, I will scan and upload as I go so once a good sale shows up, I won't be rushing to make it before it expires.  

On the front cover of the book is her picture from the first day of school, and on the back is her picture from the last day. It's so crazy how much she's grown in just 9 months. 

On the spine I just put her name and the grade so when they're on the shelf I can keep them all in order. 

I don't know how long I'll continue doing these for her because once she gets into higher grades they bring home less fun projects and more work. I will start making them for Mason though in just a few short years. 

Kid's Pirate Party

Marley turned 6 at the end of March and Mason turned 2 at the beginning of April.  With us moving and my parents also moved I decided to wait until June to have their birthday party.  Marley decided she wanted a penguin party, then it was hello kitty, then something else, and then I finally talked her into having a pirate party.  We only invited family this year so the party was a bit low key compared to previous years, but we all had fun and the whole family got to see our new house too.  

I got all the party supplies at Party City and Meijers.  I put the table cloth on the counter and wrote what everything was with arrows. Thought it was sort of like a treasure map?  I made cannon meatball sandwiches, ranch bean dip, fruit kabob swords, deviled egg pasta salad, veggie pizza, and goldfish and chips.  

I got the cupcake toppers on clearance for 50 cents, what a bargain! I made strawberry cupcakes with butter cream frosting, and white cake with s'mores frosting. I used crumbled graham crackers to make the X on the cake. 

We played ladder ball, catch and the kids swam. It was a great party and the kids got lots of great outside toys like chalk, bubbles, and pool toys.  

I can't believe my babies are so big already. =(  Time to start planning next years party. =)

First Day of Kindergarten

How can Marley be old enough for kindergarten already?! She started this past Monday and so far things are going well. 

 She goes from 8-3:30 everyday except Wednesday's she gets out at 1:50 so that's nice to have some extra time with her after school.  Her teacher is really great and her school is a perfect fit for her.  

She popped right out of bed on the first day, but the rest of the mornings have been a little slow moving for all of us. Here's hoping that things continue on this well for the rest of the year.

Cousin Fun

A lot of the month of July was spent with my niece, Maliyah and my nephew, JJ.  My oldest niece was in Texas so we didn't get to spend much time with her, but she was out this week and we did some shopping.

When JJ came out we went to the Indianapolis Colts Day at Fair Oaks Farms.  The weather wasn't all that great so they actually starting packing stuff up as soon as we arrived.  The two football players that came were over an hour late because of the weather too.  The kids still had fun though.

When I took JJ home then I brought Maliyah back to stay the night with us.  We went up to the splash pad and out for lunch and just played outside. 

 She came back a few weeks later and stayed with my mom so we went to Bellaboos to play.  

Marley loves spending time with her cousins so I'm glad she got almost a whole month worth of time time with them. 

Summer Museum Trip

We made another trip up to the Museum of Science and Industry a few weeks ago.  It was a fun trip and we finally got ice cream from the ice cream shop that Mike always begs to eat at.

 We always get a picture in this tire when we go.  Crazy that the first one we have of Marley is when she was about the same age that Mason is now.