Pool Time!

Summer is here! The pool is officially open! Of course, it has been unofficially opened since the first day it turned the least bit warm. Drew is always chomping at the bit to swim and has been sneaking dips for a few weeks now. Keith finally got around to getting it all vacuumed and sparkling clean. He still has to pressure wash the patio and a few other things, but at least now the pool is clean. Now if school would get out, it would really feel like summer. (Yes, we here in good old Paulding County still have another week of school left). This is where Drew spends most of his time in the summer (just like I did as a kid). He loves it and swims like a fish! Some days I tell him when it's bath time..."either get in the tub or get in the pool". Of course, he chooses the pool!

Bowaholic!

I have an obsession! I know...you're all surprised, right? Janell James obsessed with something? Never! Ok, for real....I am addicted to hair bows. Not drugs, gambling or alcohol....but hair bows. I know most of you are thinking "Boy, did I see this coming". And you're right. I just can't get enough hair bows for Addi. She looks so cute with a bow in her hair. So I was tired of searching through the messy basket that they were all kept in so I decided to make something to keep them organized. I made this cute little hair bow holder for her room. I started with a wooden "A", painted it green and stamped some pink dots on it. Then I added those cute little ladybugs.

Then I added 2 long strands of ribbon...and viola......a place to neatly display her huge collection of bows.

The problem is.......if you notice in the following picture, it's already full. Hi, my name is Janell and I am a bowaholic!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Hannah!

Where does time go? It just can't be possible that Hannah is 5 today! She has turned into such a sweet little thing. I can always count on her to come running to give me a hug when I see her! I just love her cute little face with those blue eyes and white blonde hair. Just precious! Happy Birthday, Hannah! We love you very, very much sweet girl!

Flat Stanley Visits Massachusetts!

The 2nd grade classes at Drew's school read the book Flat Stanley. It's about a little boy who gets flattened and gets mailed to different places. Each child had to make a Flat Stanley and mail it to a friend or relative. Said friend or relative had to take Flat Stanley to visit different places and take pics with him. They then mail FS, the pictures and any other info they have gathered back to the student.
The day the assignment came home, Drew had 2 places in mind to send his. His choices were Uncle Jeff in Alaska or Emily in Massachusetts. He pondered the situation for a bit and decided to send it to MA because according to Drew, "Uncle Jeff might not do it because you know how guys are about stuff like that" (boy do I ever).

So after getting the OK from my friend Karen, FS was off on his adventure. FS returned home a few weeks later (along with a box full of goodies for Addi & Drew, thanks, Karen) with tons of cool pics and other memorabilia. Emily and Karen took him all kinds of fun places.

So then Drew and I put together a display with all of the info. Drew had to present it before the class and Mrs. Chapman said he knew all about the places that FS visited. His grade, you ask? A 100! Thanks so much to Ms. Karen and Emily for hosting Flat Stanley and doing such a good job of entertaining him!

Disclaimer: Drew doesn't normally carry a "Nemo" lunchbox in 2nd grade. He actually had a really cool Batman one (thanks, Aunt Jackie). But since he lost it several weeks ago and I refused to buy a new one this late in the year...we had to resort to his one from pre-school. Not even sure why I still own it.......

Duck, Duck, Goose!

I'm still alive...promise. I started back subbing this week and worked 3 days. Combine that with having a baby that is not sleeping through the night again. She did great for 2 nights and then on the third day, she got her shots. That ruined it for some reason. She is almost there again though....she's definitely sleeping longer at night so it is getting better.

Today we went to our 2nd annual Duck Derby in Cartersville. It is such a cute little festival. It's a benefit for foster children. People buy ducks (you don't really get the duck) and then at a certain time a dump truck dumps them all in the river. The first duck to the finish line wins a car. They also have lots of other prizes. I think there are something like 20,000 rubber ducks making their way down the river. It is so cool to watch.

Drew watching for the ducks! Daddy watching and waiting.

The first of the ducks to appear.....look closely.

A few more appear.
And then it was a sea (or river) of yellow.
The funniest thing happened. I just happened to glance behind me and noticed my friend Katy (hey, Katy) and her family. She said they were on their way home and just decided to stop by and see what all the fuss was about. These are her 3 kids with Drew.

Drew waiting........ and climbing, and waiting and dropping his whole red snow cone on my feet, and waiting, and slipping in mud.................you get the picture.

Lunch time for Addison.

Addi waiting for the ducks. Maybe next year she will be more interested.


Mr. Quacker walks around taking pics with all of the kids. Notice Addi's dress? I bought this at Gymboree way before she was born for next to nothing. I had this day in mind when I bought it.

The finish line! There is a tube that the winning duck goes into. These teenagers are waiting with laundry baskets to scoop up all of the ducks. I haven't heard if we won the car yet or not. If you see me driving around in a brand new Kia....you'll know we did!!!

Appreciate Your Teachers!!!

I made these cute little candy buckets for Drew to give to his teachers for Teacher Appreciation week. They were super easy to make and turned out so cute (if I do say so myself). Hopefully, Mrs. Chapman and Mrs. Vaughn know how much they are appreciated!

Now, I wish I could say that these were my idea...but they're not. My good friend Michelle (hey, MM) made these and posted them on Facebook. I quickly stole her idea and made some of my own.

Did you appreciate your teachers this week???

Guess Who............

......slept through the night 2 nights in a row? Yep....Miss Addi. She slept from 10:30-5:30 and 10:00-5:15. I know that's not all night to some....but the James household is not complaining one bit. She also had her 2 month check up today....and shots :( Poor thing. The doc says she is perfect (we knew that) and is growing like a weed. She is up to 10 pounds now. She smiles and coos. I just love her to pieces. Can you believe it has been 2 months already!!??

Sex Scrap And The City

What a fun weekend! I went to my first crop since Addi was born. It was nice to get away, but I really missed her and Drew. The crop I went to was in Carrollton and put on by this store . Erin and her mom Carolyn are the owners and believe me........ they know how to put on an event. It was 36 hours+ of scrapping, lots of yummy food and we got to make a cute little book about the weekend.

Me and some of my MAGS!

Michelle, Me, Reagan. Reagan is Michelle's friend and is pretty quiet. I hope we didn't scare her off by the end of the weekend.


Angela......not sure what she was doing UNDER the table!!

I am not even going there about this picture! All I will say is that what they were looking at on Jennifer's phone is just wrong.
Some of the girls had stayed the whole time without going to sleep at all. By the end of the night on Saturday, they were getting very sleepy and things were getting quiet. Well, Michelle and I were not having any of that, so we decided to perk things up a little. We started doing our own contests and had the girls scrambling for all kinds of silly pictures just to win prizes that came out of the junk basket. You would have thought we were giving away laptops or cameras! This was the last contest of the night. A physical challenge. Each person was given a severely deflated balloon and had to be the first one to bust theirs. (Not sure why this is a different color, but I can't get it to change).

Everyone busted theirs except Robin, who needed a little help.


Since it was a tie, we had to get help from the audience to see whose bottom was bigger.


By the end of the second night, someone (can't imagine who) had removed the "S" from Scrap. I think this is how we all felt by this time anyway, due to no sleep, too much food and fun.

I know the burning question you want to ask.....did I get anything done. Well, a little maybe. I did catch up on Project 365, got Addi's book up to date, wrote a few thank you notes and did 3-4 pages for Drew's book. It wouldn't have mattered if I didn't get anything done......these things aren't really for scrapping anyway.

So, how did you spend National Scrapbook Day?