{FREEBIE!!!}

To all my digi scrapping friends out there, I'm giving away a template on Sarah Bennett's CT blog today. Here is the template:

It really is a 12x12 template - I used a white background that you obviously can't see - whoops!

Anyway, check it out and get the download link HERE I included an example layout using the template there as well. Hope you enjoy it and USE it!!!

{Dutch Wonderland}

Sasha and Clara both had another successful school year, so Cory and I decided to treat them to a special, fun-filled day at Dutch Wonderland. Neither Cory nor I had been there since we were kids, so we were excited to see how much had changed and how well we remembered the park.

The girls were ready to be princesses and entered the castle gates very excited to ride some rides! The first ride they chose was the Space Shuttle. I happily stayed on solid ground with Dixon to take photos. My daredevils scored the front seat!

Next up was the froggy ride.

A few rides later and it was time for the ultimate . . . the ride Cory and I remember best . . . the FUN SLIDE!!!

I lost count of how many times the girls raced back up to the top for another slide downhill. I went down twice, too! FUN!!!

Then it was time for one of my personal favorite rides - the Flume. Sadly, I couldn't participate because Dixon couldn't ride, so I just took more photos.

Cory was in his glory!

Both the girls LOVE roller coasters, and there are two at Dutch Wonderland. They happily rode them both!

While Dutch Wonderland is completely geared towards the younger kids, there really isn't anything for kids Dixon's age to do. He was big enough to ride a couple of the rides, but because he isn't walking yet the ride attendants wouldn't let him. Boo!

One thing he definitely CAN do is eat ice cream! It was a hot day, so this mid-afternoon break was refreshing. Sasha's blue raspberry ice turned her entire mouth Smurf blue by the time she was done. She was a bit mortified when she finally saw her reflection in a mirror!

There is a nice little waterpark that cooled us off even more. It was a bit tough to keep track of the girls as they ran around from slide to slide, but they had so much fun and we managed to snap a couple pics, too.

My boys. I adore this photo! Such joy!

This girl could have stayed in the water area all day. Aside from hitting her head on one of the slides, this was a perfect afternoon spent.

And my boy thought these water spouts were neat-o. He kept sticking his head in them and trying to catch the water. I think he was just so hot that the cool water was heaven for him!

By the time we were done, he was tuckered out. He fell asleep about 30 seconds after I sat him in his stroller. As it turns out, this was a mistake. He has been battling a nasty case of diaper rash ever since due to sleeping with his wet swim diaper on. Poor guy. I feel so bad for him and learned to NEVER leave a wet swimmer on him again!

While Dixon slept, the girls and I took the Skyline across the park and back again. It was a nice way to relax and see parts of the park that we had missed. We even caught part of a diving show!

While up in the air we caught sight of the Princess, Prince, and Dragon behind stage getting ready to perform. Sasha and Clara kept yelling, "Hi Princess!" and they all looked up and waved to us. The girls thought that was amazing!

We had the obligatory carousel ride.

And a few fun pictures to remember the day.

We went back to the Fun Slide, and this time there were different attendants who let Cory take Dixon down the big slide. He LOVED it!

Our final ride for the day was on the train.

Farewell, Dutch Wonderland! What a fun way to spend a summer day!

We actually left the park just before an ENORMOUS storm hit. We were actually driving on the highway and looking at huge black chunks of sky trying to see if there was a funnel somewhere. It was one of the most ominous looking skies we've ever seen! It poured SO hard and we were grateful to find a restaurant to stop at and get out of the rain.

If you get a chance and are in the PA area, head to Dutch Wonderland. It's a great family spot!

{Just the Highlights}

In an effort to share with you some of the things that have been happening in the lives of the Meyers clan during the past month or so since I've blogged, I've decided to post just the highlights. One photo of each of the more standout events and that's it. Let me tell you, narrowing it down to just one photo was hard! But here we go . . .

My grandmother, Mom-Mom, has been a member of the Calamity Kitchen Band for as long as I can remember. It's been a while since the band has played together, and in fact, only two of the original members are still in the band. My Mom-Mom is one of them. Her church has a Mother - Daughter banquet every Mother's Day and this year her band was asked to be the entertainment. Fun! She was really nervous, but they all did great! It was very entertaining. In between songs they would tell jokes that were hi-lar-i-ous. I have some great video of their performance, which is cool because this was their last one ever.

Mom-Mom is the pianist. She also did all the speaking for the group. Proud of you, Mom-Mom!

Sasha had a couple of field trips this spring and I was able to chaperone one of them. Her class walked down the street to our local bank and learned about money and how banks operate.

On May 15th, one of my cousins got married. It was a beautiful wedding - the bride was stunning! We went to State College for the event and got to spend several hours with my dad's side of the family who we rarely get to see. I wish we could do that more often!

Clara enjoyed the end of another preschool year with a class party at a local park. They played, participated in games, and had a picnic lunch. Because Clara's birthday is in the summer, we sang Happy Birthday to her and had cupcakes. That was followed by the graduation ceremony (Clara determined she wants to be a mommy when she grows up) and a candy scramble.

A couple of my friends and I took our girls to a tea house for a very special and very girly tea party. We each had our own pot of tea (or hot chocolate) and an array of gourmet tea sandwiches and scones. The girls were in heaven!

Perhaps the most important event in our recent lives was the birth of Emme. I'm still wrapping my brain around the fact that my little sister is a Mommy! Becky is proving to be an amazing mom and Emme is a fantastic baby. We are very blessed to have this little girl join our family.

After a loooooong year of dance classes (three hours of studio practice every Wednesday evening), the girls finally ended the dance year with a recital. This year Sasha danced in two numbers - jazz and ballet - and Clara tap danced in one number. Thankfully, they were in the same recital this year. They both did a wonderful job and looked adorable in their costumes. We're so proud of them!

This Thursday Sasha graduated from kindergarten. She had a great year and absolutely loves her teacher. We were thrilled that she was recognized as being one of the top readers in her class. She loves to read and she spends just about every waking minute writing stories and illustrating them. She has learned so much this year! We are extra proud of her because she is one of only two or three students in her class who didn't pull a single ticket all year for discipline problems. She may not always listen at home, but she listens at school! Love you, Sasha!

Yesterday we took the kids to Dutch Wonderland to celebrate the end of their school year and the end of dance. I promise I will be back soon with some pictures!

{Still Alive}

What happened to that resolution to blog more frequently? Ugh. I sit down to blog and a hundred other things steal my focus. I'll be back soon . . . I think. . .

{Choo Choo! It's the SM iNSD Blog Train!}

Welcome fellow digi scrappers to my stop on the ScrapMatters iNSD Blog Train! What an awesome ride it is, huh? There are so many fantastic freebies to be had with the new SM Design Team Collab, "Moments That Matter" and I'm excited to be a part of this special day. You likely just left Stephanie's blog HERE. What a great freebie she has!

If you don't already know, Scrap Matters is giving away a HUGE collab kit called "Moments That Matter" when you purchase $20 worth of products during the iNSD celebration going on now. The kit is beautiful! It is perfect for documenting engagements, weddings, baptisms, and every special moment you can think of. The colors are soft and tender and the elements are original and simply perfect.

Since we are celebrating special moments in our lives with this kit, here is a moment that really mattered to me in my life.

My husband and I were given an adorable puppy by one of my students about two years into our marriage. The puppy was a mix of Chihuahua and who knows what, but man was she cute. We named her Rafiki, or Fiki for short. Fiki quickly worked her way into our hearts. She had so many little quirks that we loved and her personality was one of a kind. My husband had an especially close bond with her. Fiki would sit on the top of the sofa and watch for him to come home when she knew it was about that time. She waited at the top of the stairs for him to finish showering and changing for the evening and then followed him downstairs for some lovin'. She was a joy in so many ways.

Sadly, one evening I let her outside to do her business and she never made it inside again. I heard people shouting outside and just knew in my gut that she was hit by a car. My husband cradled her in his arms and we showered love and tears on her as she left this world. We said goodbye to our friend of almost eight years. The pain of losing Fiki was unbearable. Not only were my husband and I heartbroken, but our little girls were devastated. To this day, over a year and a half after Fiki died, they will break out in tears and say they miss Fiki. I suppose it's good for them to experience loss, but it sure is hard to deal with as a parent.

Although we swore we wouldn't get another dog for a long time, the emptiness that we felt without our Fiki was overwhelming. We started looking at rescues online and quickly found a cute little Chihuahua mix puppy who had the most soulful eyes ever. I knew she was meant for us. After contacting the rescue and going through the application and interview process, we drove several hours to another state to bring our new puppy home. As it turned out, there were two puppies available: the one we had claimed and one of her sisters whose original adoptive "parents" had to back out of the deal. My husband and I agreed to take both puppies and our girls were thrilled! This moment, seeing how excited our girls were to have two new puppies to love and feeling the excitement ourselves, was monumental. Although we would give anything to have Fiki back in our lives, we know that she would be thrilled to know that we are now sharing our home with two puppies who almost had horrible lives. Out of loss comes new life, and in our case it was new life times two!

Our sweet Fiki, just a few months before we lost her. How I miss that adorable little face!

Our girls and new puppies the day we adopted them from the rescue.

Well, now that I've shared an important moment in my life, how about we get on to the reason you're here? The freebie! I had a lot of fun making this gift for you, although it was hard to stop myself from making an entire layout with all the gorgeous elements and papers!

Here is the preview of the "Moments That Matter" kit and my freebie:

And here is the freebie: one 12x12 layered paper! All you have to do is add your photos and elements and you'll have a gorgeous layout!

Download the free layered papers HERE.

*** Download link has expired.***

Now you must chug along to the next stop on the train ride around the world! Your next destination is Cyndi's blog. Click HERE to read about her moment that matters and pick up your next freebie.

Happy iNSD!

{Let him eat CAKE!}

It started out innocently enough. A little boy celebrating his first birthday with a chocolate fudge cake.

By the time he was almost done, this was the result.

Want to see some of this enjoyment in action? Here you go!

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that my baby is now one. I can still remember what it felt like when he moved around in my womb, and can still feel his warm dampness when he was placed in my arms for the first time. As exciting as it is to watch my children grow, I am sad that they will never be my itty bitty babies again.

Happy Birthday, Dixon! We love you to the moon and back!

xoxo

{A Challenge and a Freebie!}

I'm hosting a fun challenge at Scrap Matters called Roadmap To Scrap. I give you eight instructions and you create a layout follow the rules! Here's the layout I made for the challenge:

You get a point for completing the challenge (plus an extra point if you use a newly released product!). At the end of the month you'll get a discount at the Scrap Matters store based on the number of points you've earned! Awesome, right? Check out the challenge HERE.

I hope all you digi scrappers play along!

I've also created a free template for you!

Check out THIS post to grab it!

Just a reminder, International Digi Scrap Day (IDSD) is coming up fast! May 1st is the official day, but Scrap Matters and many other great digi scrap sites will be celebrating all week. You'll definitely want to stop by and see all the cool events and specials being offered. They are AWESOME!!!

And now for yet another offer . . . I've had two people contact me recently (actually on the same day!) to inquire about digi scrapping. I'm going to put together a "lesson" night soon for anyone who wants to learn how to scrap digitally. If you are interested, please leave a comment so I can send you the info you need. And don't worry, it's NOT that hard! Trust me, if I can do it, so can you! :)

Have a great weekend!