Wordless Wednesday...And the Tradition Passes On

My husband's proudest moment...his oldest daughter teaching his youngest son how to fish!
For more Wordless Wednesday visit www.5minutesformom.com

Tuesday Tradition #22

A Colorful Fourth of July!

I love the 4th of July! It's another event on "my list" that brings out that warm fuzzy little kid excitement in me. There are 1000's of fun 4th of July Family Traditions! Here is one my favorites that we do every year....

We buy a few very large boxes of sidewalk chalk and each of our kids, usually the neighbor kids too, and any cousins or family that happens to be visiting draw HUGE brightly colored sidewalk murals. Up and down the sidewalk in front of our house, up the large driveway and anywhere they can find a piece of cement, they scrambled to draw, color, and create beautiful sidewalk masterpieces.

It's so much fun to see each little square of sidewalk colored so differently and the creative ideas that they come up with! Plus we always end up with a few squares saved for a game of hopscotch too.

Here a few other favorites!

• Homemade ice cream
• Matching 4th of July outfits for the little ones
• The famous berry Fourth of July cake
• Picnics & BBQ's
• "I Love My Country Because....." finish the sentence
• Declaration of Independence 101 (Educate your family)
• Crafts and Projects for decorating and eating (FamilyFun.com)
• And of course.......THE FIREWORKS!!!

You're invited to my ONLINE PARTIES!

I'm bringing Cherish Bound to you!

Learn about Cherish Bound from the comfort of your own home...even better, your COMPUTER! Yep! Join me for an online Cherish Bound Party!!! They're fun, interactive, you can win lots of fun stuff and you can learn about Cherish Bound and how the process works!

• Saturday, June 28th 12:00 pm EASTERN Gathering
• Monday, June 30th 3:00 pm EASTERN Gathering
• Tuesday, July 8th 12:00 pm EASTERN Opportunity Party
• Tuesday, July 15th 10:00 pm EASTERN Family Story Profile
• Tuesday, July 22th 12:00 pm EASTERN Gathering
• Tuesday, July 29th 10:00 pm EASTERN Writer's Workshop

All you have to do is go to www.momchats.com, select "Chat Room" from the left side and enter a username. No password necessary. Just login and join me in the party room!

Negative Space

Scrapjazz had another "Photo Challenge". This one from Jamie Warren, and I loved it! Her picture samples and info about what "Negative Space" is in photos and how it brings to much more emotion and depth to a picture.

I don't even think I have pictures that are good enough to share...that have negative space, so check out this link! SCRAPJAZZ

Preschool Book...LOOK-LOOK-LOOK!

Here's a sample Pre-school book! This is a Cherish Bound "Legacy" style book. That means that this book is already designed with the colors, fonts, and embellishments/designs. Makes it so easy for you! You just have to drop your photos and text in.

You can also see how there are photos and scanned images as well. You can take any of your children's art work, handwritten letters and notes, drawings, awards, etc., and add them to your books!

Wordless Wednesday...Wonders Under the Water

For more Wordless Wednesday visit 5minutesformom.com

Tuesday Tradition #21

Lemonade Stands!

How much fun are those?? I remember as a child setting up lemonade stands during my mom and grandmother's quarterly yard sales, on hot summer days when there was NOTHING to do, and even in the cold days of December trying to earn some extra Christmas cash. Those were the days!

My 5-year-old has just discovered this idea and is OBSESSED with selling lemonade. At first I thought, "Oh, come on...this is too much work! I have to get the table out, make the signs, make the sticky lemonade...." But I realized that I have some incredibly fun childhood memories of sitting behind my little table and my neighbors dropping quarters into my cup.

So if you need a fun summer tradition....go out and sale some lemonade with your kiddos! Everyone loves a yummy cold cup of lemonade and the sticky smiles that are made!

Here is a link to FamilyFun. They have some cute Lemonade Signs already made up and ready to print. Click HERE!

Product Spotlight - Vacation Dailies

It's summer and that means VACATION! Everyone I know is out gallivanting around the world! Except for me of course....actually, I'm choosing to stay close to home this year. We're taking a year off from vacations and enjoy ourselves at home. But for those of you that are out and about Vacation Dailies are just for you!

Vacation Dailies are a set of 16 story "leaves" that contain multiple questions about your adventure. They are designed to help you write your story ONE DAY AT A TIME! Telling your

vacation story while you're on the vacation...BRILLIANT! The questions are organized i n event/chronological order to help you better record your memories and stories that are happening. You have plenty of space to write your side of the story, but you can also get multiple perspectives on your vacation by having your children, husband or other guests write their thoughts as well.

There is even space for you to mount a matching photo or you can publish our "Vacation" story when you get home in one of Cherish Bound's professionally bound books.

Photographing Babies

I'm intrigued with baby photography. I can look at my children's baby pictures over and over for hours on end. I think it's because those stages of life come and go so quickly. Every time I was blessed with a new little one I would think to myself how can life be so grand, so wonderful, so amazing...how can this sweet little baby bring so much love and joy into my soul? If you're a mother I don't even have to try and explain it...you get it. It's not something you can describe in words...it just makes me smile.

The pictures that we capture of our little ones at birth and during the first few months of their lives help us remember those deep overwhelming feelings that we experience when a new baby has blessed our lives.

I found this article on Scrapjazz called Shake, Rattle & Roll, Photographing Babies. It's a great little article with tips for photographing your new little babies.

The "Landscape"

The beautiful Landscape book...yes, that's probably my favorite style of Cherish Bound book to publish. I gives me a warm fairytale feeling. I have flashbacks of being read to by grandparents and even my own parents and I always picture large flowing landscape style books spread across our laps. It evokes deep nostalgia in my soul. Hummmm.....

So here are a few of my favorite "landscape" style Cherish Bound books that I have published. Of course they're all my favorite.

This is the story about my twins and the stories about their surprise arrival and pictures up to about 10 months old.

For Mother's & Father's Day 2007 I gave each of my parents a book about my memories and stories of growing up with them as my mom and dad. By using the Tribute to Mom/Dad Story Starter I was able to remember memories WAYYY back. It helped me discover some amazing stories and memories that I never knew existed.

This is book was a gift to all the softball coaches on my daughter's softball team. Each coach got a book at the end of the year. All the girls wrote about their favorite memories, stories and what they learned during the season.

This is a book I did for my grandmother who told me stories about her mother and father, her youth and her experiences as a mother.

If you're interested in publishing a landscape book through Cherish Bound contact me today! I'll help you get started sharing your stories!