Digital scrapbooking even faster!

Close To My Heart has introduced Express Collections that make digital scrapbooking with Studio J even faster! Express Collections are groups of layouts that are designed for you. Examples include "A Year in Review", "Travel", "School Days," Little Miss", "Little Man" and more.

I have been loving these new layouts - I used the Travel collection and within a couple of hours scrapbooked 8 layouts from two of our cross-country trips! I can't do that with classic scrapbooking. Drop in the pictures, edit the titles, add journaling and I was done.

Check out this video to see how Express Collections work:

A Week at One-Room School House

We had a chance to experience 1860 pioneer life at Black Creek Pioneer Village at the beginning of September. The kids and I spent four days in school with seven other homeschool families participating in a one-room school house. There were 35 children altogether, ranging in age from 4 to 17  - a true one-room experience!

Jeremy learning how to spin wool

 

Highlights of the week included a visiting the blacksmith, flour mill, a spelling bee, learning a dance (the girls enjoyed this anyways), and bread, butter and jam sandwiches for our pioneer lunches.

Jeremy during his math lesson

Our group

Dancing

Inspiration from CTMH

Close To My Heart has come out with quite a few new videos showcasing their latest and greatest new products! Here's two of my favourites:

First, learn about our fantastic new alcohol based markers while making a harvest banner:


and second, discover a super simple new stamping technique to add interest and dimension to your stamping!

Day 7 - Toronto, ON

We arrived home in Toronto around 8:30 pm Friday night and unpacked the van. The kids were pretty distracted checking out their rooms and toys again though! No pictures from the day - we basically just drove after doing a little bit of shopping in Kalamazoo. We stopped at one park along the way to stretch our legs but it was another hot day so the kids barely played - the swings were the best part! We're looking forward to attending our church on Sunday and worshipping and fellowshipping with our friends there. This week the kids and I will be at Black Creek Pioneer Village attending a one-room school  - I'll share pictures and let you know how it goes!

Day 6 - Kalamazoo, MI

Here are pictures from our stay at the Kalahari Waterpark Resort:

By the way, the secret to staying at the Kalahari is the "Choose Your Own Adventurehttp://www.kalahariresorts.com/oh/deals/specials/" deals - on certain nights in the month (especially on more off season times), you can get this deal where you choose 3 from 7 different choices for one price - we pick the suite upgrade (three beds, two baths, three TVs), $40 coupon for supper at one of their restaurants, and free breakfast for 4! Plus we can use the waterpark from noon the day you check in until noon the day you check out!

Thursday morning, after a great breakfast buffet and three more hours of sliding we were back on the road heading east to Kalamazoo, MI. We know a lovely pastoral couple in Kalamazoo that are always so gracious to offer us a place to stay. We are always well fed and we enjoy their mentoring friendship.

Friday night we'll be back at our home in Toronto!

Day 5 - Wisconsin Dells, WI

After a long, frustrating day - 7 hours of driving, leaving later than we planned, more stops than we wanted, and grumpy kids we finally reached our destination. We surprised the kids and drove into the Kalahari parking lot! They had no idea that the hotel with a pool they would be staying at tonight would be the same great waterpark hotel that we stayed at in May on our way to Alberta. Noelle kept saying that it was the best surprise ever :) We swam and slid for three hours when we got here and then went for a late supper. Not surprisingly, all the kids fell asleep in minutes tonight.

We could tell it was cooler today - only 33C or 34C most of the day! Although it was more like 39C in South Dakota so we're glad to be moving into cooler country.

Tomorrow is on to Kalamazoo, MI, after swimming and sliding in the morning again of course!

Day 4 - Sioux Falls, SD

Hot, hot hot! We had a good day of driving but it was hot, another 36C day (near record highs) - heat we are not used to :) We are very grateful for our air conditioning and reliability of our vehicle.

We saw evidence of the drought in the many fields we passed by on our way. After our 6 hour drive and supper at Sioux Falls we drove a short way to visit Falls Park and see the falls that gave the city it's name. It was very evident that the drought has affected the Sioux River too but even with less water there is something about the beauty of waterfalls that is captivating.