Scrapbook Extravaganza - 2009

Our long awaited scrapbooking weekend finally arrived, and the girls and I were so excited! Karen arrived at my house around 5pm on Thursday, and Amanda and Libby arrived much later that evening. Even though none of us got much sleep Thursday night, we were all geared up and ready to go Friday morning!

We were running late, so we sent Ellie in to save our seats. She was a much better "early riser" than we were! The line was incredibly long, so it was after 10am when we finally got to our seats and managed to start getting unpacked. This year's extravaganza was the first big crop that Ellie, Amanda and Libby had ever attended, so they were impressed, as were Karen and I! The Scrapbook Attic, our local store, had set up everything just right for a 1970's shindig! There was a huge stage with tie died columns and flowers everywhere. I loved it!


We sat down and started cropping, but for some reason I just could not get "in the zone". Karen and Ellie were tearing it UP! They both managed to get several layouts done before lunch time! After eating our frugal lunch of sandwiches and cokes that we brought from home we cropped until about 5pm. In an effort to save money, I made a big pot of chili for everyone to share. We went to my house for a short break and had some supper, but didn't stay long... We were too eager to get our hands back in the paper and tape! The night ended about 1am, and we all headed home to crash into bed. We knew Saturday would be an early morning!


We all headed to the fairgrounds around 7:30am so we could get there with plenty of time to set up our tables for the 8am classes. That was the biggest thrill of the whole crop! We took nine classes between the hours of 8am and 5pm. All of the classes were double page layouts. I loved most of them, and actually managed to get pictures on some of them, too! I was proud of myself!


Ellie and I also entered the costume contest. I wore a pair of pants that my Meema made back in the 1970's. She actually WORE those things! They were ugly, but I got a lot of compliments on them! I made a green fur vest with yellow pom-pom trim. It was truly ugly, too, but it worked with the pants. Ellie dressed up as the perfect hippie! She had on a brown tie-dyed maxi skirt with a denim vest and a LOOONNNGGG straight blonde wig. She wore flowers in her hair and HUGE round sunglasses. The best part was her "protest" sign. It said, "MAKE SCRAPBOOKS, NOT WAR". It was awesome! Ellie actually ended up in the top two finalists in the early costume contest. I was thrilled for her! They did another one that night, and though she was in the top two again, she didn't get number one. The person who beat her was cute, but I thought Ellie looked way better!


After the classes were over we headed out to Mi Ranchito for dinner and then went back for the crop party. Due to our dinner being delayed, we missed the evening door prizes, which was a disappointment to everyone, but we did get back into cropping mode. I ended up with thirteen finished double page layouts. That isn't as much as I usually do, but it was OK. I got quite a bit done in Reese's 2008 book and some done in the 2009 books for both girls.


The girls and I are already asking, "When is the next one?!?" We can't wait to go back! Look out scrapbook world, here we come!

P.S. To all of my readers: The girls and I are trying to come up with a name for our group so that we can have t-shirts made to wear to the next crop. I've seen everything from "The Paper Sluts" to "Team Scrap" to just about anything else. I need new, original ideas! Help me out!

Halloween fun!

For Halloween this year we just had a small trick-or-treating party! Several of our friends joined us and we made the circuit of our neighboorhood together. It was great fun, and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Katie went as a 50's girl.

Reese went as a green & blue spotted monster.

Both of my girls seemed to have a great time getting ready to leave to go trick-or-treating with all of their friends.

Serena brought Avery and Aiden over to play with us that night. Avery made a beautiful Snow White...

and Aiden was a FABULOUS little dwarf!

Miss Emma Bear was a great pirate, too!

Katie, Maddie and Brooke all posed for a picture in front of some of our neighbors' yard decorations.

Reese loved trick or treating this year!

The kids couldn't get to the doors of the houses fast enough!

Brook and Maddie were acting crazy!

Reese found a new way to carry her bucket.

Maddie had a ball pretending to be "in the chalk lines".

The rest of the kids got a picture with the neighbors' setup.

This is a picture of all our munchkins gathered in my living room.

We had such a good time hanging out with everyone! Halloween is always more fun when you can share it with good friends!

What a smart girl!

The Cooan family was very proud of Katie this week! She made honor roll (all A's and B's) for the first quarter! She is doing great with her 3rd grade teacher. We love her and Katie thinks she's AWESOME!

Katie's Rock~n~Roll birthday party

For Katie's 9th birthday we decided to have a Rock Star party. It started out as a small idea and blossomed (or should I say EXPLODED!) into a big idea! My friend, Ellie, and I went all out to make it a great party.

The first thing our guests saw when they arrived was our blacked out front porch with the "Katie & the Rock Stars" logo on the outside. We had red velvet "ropes", which were really pool noodles wrapped in red shiny fabric, along with a star studded walkway and strobe lights to mimic photographers flash bulbs. The front of the house, like most of the other things about the party, looked SOOO much better in real life! The photographs don't do it justice!


Inside the blacked out front porch everything glowed! We had it lined with black lights just like the entrance to a cool nightclub. The front door had a sign marked "STAGE DOOR" that glowed bright white under the black lights. There were also stars that glowed all over the inside of the porch.


After coming in the front door the guests immediately saw the stage and the sign above it. It was at the end of our living room in front of the fireplace. We used my oak buffet, my coffee table and my two end tables to create a solid place for them to stand above the crowd and sing their songs.




We set up a corner in the living room for make-up and hair-dos. The girls loved getting rock star tattoos and having their hair sprayed green or pink. We also had a basket full of dress up clothes including tutus, dresses, scarves and hats. There was a full length mirror so they could see themselves and some feather boas to complete their transformations.






One of Katie's coaches from Gym Stars, Coach T, came by and partied with us. She and Ellie did hair wraps for the girls and made them look even more beautiful!



We played Guitar Hero, Pin the String on the Guitar and karaoke all night. Katie's two cousins, Caleb (age 10) and Nathan (age 9) were the only two "big boys" there. Aiden was there, but he's less than a year old. Caleb was a big hit with the ladies, and he got to show off his Guitar Hero skill to everyone. Nathan just wanted to play with Reese. Everyone had a turn singing on stage. It was tons of fun!






The last thing we did was open gifts and eat cake. Katie got TONS of awesome stuff, and the girls all loved the cake. All in all, it was a wonderful night, and I hope it's something Katie will remember for a long time!

Our last day on the Cape

We really wanted to go on a whale watching tour while we were in New England, but Mother Nature conspired against us. We took off for Provincetown once again to catch one of the whaling tours, but they were all closed down because of the surf advisories. The waves were reaching 6-10 feet tall, so it was probably a good thing we weren't out in them!

We were disappointed about missing the whale watching, but we were able to get a seat on a schooner and get out on the water. She was a beautiful ship, and I was glad for a chance to ride on her. Our itinerary for the day was to follow the Great Provincetown Schooner Regatta. We were actually watching the 2009 Fisherman's Cup Race. You can read more about the boats that were entered in the race here. We decided to root for the Alabama and the Virginia since they are both Southern states. I don't remember who won, but we had a great time sailing in the harbour and watching them!

Here are some of the photos we took from our seat on our ship.









After a couple of hours on the schooner, Rhonda and I were pretty much done. It was raining and it was COLD! We did see a shark in the water, and the rain made a beautiful rainbow to cap off our day. If you look really hard you can see the rainbow in the pictures of Rhonda and myself. It was a wonderful end to a long boat ride!






After we got back to the pier we saw another rainbow! It's hard to see in the picture, but it was pretty, too!




All that sailing makes for two hungry girls! On our way back to Boston we once again stopped in Eastham to eat at Arnold's. We'd heard good things about the place, and we weren't disappointed! Since there were no fast food restaurants once you got to Eastham, we decided that this was their version of fast food. We both had the hot lobster roll, and it was DELICIOUS! Basically you get a hot dog bun filled with chunks of lobster. There was a side of melted butter served with the sandwich, which made it totally sinful! We also tried the clam chowder. We both liked it, too.



After getting our bellies full, we knew that our time on the Cape was pretty much at an end. We headed back to Boston in the rain. We did take some of the smaller highways so that we could see some scenery. Our detour through Hyannis was sorely disappointing. It wasn't nearly as picturesque as we imagined. We passed through several other little towns and thought they were beautiful. We are already planning another trip into that part of the country for next year. Who knows where we'll end up?