Hot weekend!

The weather has been amazingly hot this weekend, a really summery spell which is wonderful.  Yesterday Alex and I went out to the Oughtibridge Gala with some friends from work and their families.  We all have children ranging in age from 2 to 8 so it was great fun to have all the kids together, even though Alex did keep running off on his own!  Alex's favourites were the bouncy castle (no surprises there),

the little train ride (this is both of us on the train - I don't yet trust him on his own),

the fact that he was allowed to sit in the fire engine (I was hard put to get him out of it again!),

being swung round in the air by Carlos,

and of course this ice lolly which got amazingly sticky!!

Today we decided to go and find some water to try and cool down so went to the Rivelin valley playground where there is a permanent paddling pool.

It is the first time that Alex has been there and he absolutely loved it - within minutes he was splashing with the best of them and sitting happily in the water.

One very kind girl gave him the ball to play with and that was an instant hit as I then paddled with him and we played catch - this is the first time he has ever managed to catch a ball!

Crafting wise I made this card for my design team entry for Quicky Crafts where this fortnights challenge is ribbons.  I used ribbons in two ways: a) across the card, and b) in the ribbon flowers.  This card also fits with the stamp something 'something vintage with flowers' challenge (for me these papers are very vintage), the crafty creations 'shine' challenge, and the Magical Crafts 'flower power' challenge.

I also made a scrapbook layout following this weeks Unscripted sketch, entitled 'Sticks'.  I used Crate papers and making memories cardstock, DecoArt Acrylic paint (soft green), Kanban stamps, an X-cut punch and emboss for the leaves, and some pressed flowers.  The journalling was done in the style suggested in this weeks Sketches by Tamara challenge, and reads 'Alex and Daniel enjoyed picking up sticks with Grandma, but most of all they enjoyed having time to play with the wheelbarrow'. This layout also fits with the Scrap and Stamp challenge of using acrylic paint, CCT theme of 'reuse, renew, recycle' (in my case the pressed flowers), and loosely with this weeks Scrap it with a song (I took the line 'time to do the things I like', and based the idea around the fact that the two little boys enjoyed the time they had to do something they liked i.e. playing with the wheelbarrow and Grandma).  I hope you all have a good week.
Love,
Caro
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