Feeling Crafty

I went to Michael's last week to pick up some adhesive and made the mistake of walking down the ribbon aisle. I found an entire section of burlap with lace and cork rolls of ribbon. I loved their textures and had to pick up a couple of rolls.

 

 I took out a few Stampin' Up stamp sets, inks, and cardstock to made these cards.

I recently bought the Moon Lake stamp set but had not yet used it. The images in this set are so peaceful. I liked the monochromatic look of this card. If I make this card again, I may chalk the image. The greeting is from the retired Birthday Greetings set.

I pulled out my retired Definitely Daisy stamp set for this card. It was one of the first sets I ever bought. When I used it this week, I noticed there was an extra stamp in the box. It turns out it was the letter "O" from an alphabet set. I lost that "O" about ten years ago. I can't believe it has been sitting in this box. I used the happy birthday stamp from Teeny Tiny Wishes on this card.

Story Themed Lunches

Boogs is reading chapter books and graphic novels on his own and I read chapter books to him before bed. Occasionally, I am able to sneak in a picture book for our bedtime reading. I came across this Battle Bunny book and thought Boogs would really get a kick out of it.

Battle Bunny by Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett

Alex receives a simple and sweet little bunny book from his grandmother for his birthday. Alex alters the story by crossing out words, adding words, changing pictures, and adding-in his own illustrations. He turns the book from a sweet story into a story about the Bunny's evil plan to rule the world. Alex draws himself into the book to stop the evil Battle Bunny and save the world. I thought this was really clever. Boogs was not happy with this book. He was upset the author "felt the need to ruin a sweet little book that was a gift from a grandmother". We read each page twice - first the "real" story, then with the additions made by Alex. Boogs said he wished the authors "had just made their own Battle Bunny book from scratch instead of ruining the Birthday Bunny." I love my sweet boy. A couple of days later, he said he had read the book a few times both ways and decided it was really interesting how the authors twisted the true story. But he would never do that to a book.

In the ELB lunchbox (I used my new black Urban colored lid because of the evil Bunny): pb&j Battle Bunny with cheese accessories, macadamia nut megaton bombs, dried mango with A for the hero Alex, grape mind control helmets, and carrots with hummus.

A Perfecty Messed-Up Story by Patrick McDonnell

Boogs saw this book sitting on the kitchen table. He immediately opened it up and read it. Then he looked at me and sighed, "Another altered book... really?" This book shows Louie trying to tell his story. As he skips along, a great big glob of jelly lands in the middle of his page. Many more things are dropped and smeared onto his pages but little Louie keeps trying to tell his story. Finally, his book is such a mess he gives up. But then he starts to think positively and realizes messes can't ruin his story. Boogs and I talked about little Louie's perseverance and positive attitude that changed the way he felt. Boogs thought it was a cute story. He told me it reminded him a little bit of Bad Day at Riverbend (by Chris Van Allsburg). He has a good memory. We read that book about two years ago.

In the Laptop Lunchbox: book sandwich covered with smeared marker, jelly & peanut butter, carrots with hummus, mango, and yogurt.

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Bike Riding

Boogs is really enjoying bike riding. As soon as he gets home from school on sunny days, he asks to go bike riding. The other day (almost two weeks ago, I forgot these pics were in my phone) we rode to the park together. It was a nice long ride.

 Boogs was a little nervous about crossing the bridge on his bike, but he did it.

 We played at the park for about an hour before heading home.

Most of our park time was spent playing chase. We played on the playscape - up & down the slides, across the wobbly blocks, across the monkey bars, up & down the climbing wall, etc. A little girl about 7-yrs-old came over and asked me what I was doing. I told her I was playing tag with my son. She said, "Oh. My mom is watching you. I asked if she would play with me like that and she said no. She said there must be something wrong with you because you are too active." That made me sad.

 Boogs and I had a great time wearing ourselves out before heading home.

We even stopped at another park on the way home.

I am looking forward to many more family bike rides.

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