We love when grandparents visit

We just had a quick visit from my dad (Grandpa Dave) and stepmom (Grandma Chris). The kids and grandparents had a ball playing with each other for a couple days. Yesterday we went and hung out at a mall play area for a while and they were really impressed with Sarah's climbing and sliding skills. Ben had a blast there too but hardly stood still long enough to have his picture taken. We also enjoyed getting the kids a pretzel at the mall. Sarah always gets to have a little but Ben eats most of the pretzel. However, after he was all done he asked me, "Why did Sarah have to have some of MY pretzel?"

Last night the kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while Mom and Dad got to go on a date night (dinner and - gasp! - an actual movie! Ratatouille, so hilarious) and Ben helped clean up the whole downstairs and then insisted that they needed to clean his room. Then he proclaimed, "We cleaned up the whole house - and it's going to stay that way." Uh, good luck on that one, kiddo.

Sarah learned some new skills the past couple days. She can now point to several body parts - toes, ears, and nose (unfortunately usually when she points she does so by sticking her finger up her nose - lovely). She now says "up," "diaper," and "ta-da" (an imitation of her cousin Mary, after Grandma Chris told a Mary story). Ben just knocked their socks off with his verbal skills - and his puzzle skills. He has a huge 48-piece fish floor puzzle that he loves to do, and insists on doing all by himself (just ask Grandpa Dave).

I didn't have a whole lot of time for stamping while they were here, but when they arrived on Monday Chris said she wanted to see my cardmaking space. So we looked at all my stuff and the cards I've made since July, and she ended up buying $40 worth of cards from me! That was pretty exciting. She asked me to make an anniversary card for her brother and sister-in-law, and then it turned out so well that she also asked me to make one for her son and his wife. So here they are.
We did this one first. I had Chris give input on what she wanted - rich fall colors, the large copper brads, and some Hero Arts leaf stamps I have. We found a layout in the '06 Stampin' Up catalog that used the out of the box technique, which I've been wanting to try, so that seemed perfect. First I made the brown card, then Chris chose the background paper from a DCWV mat stack. I inked the edges with paper towel and stamped the sentiment (Stampin' Up All Year Cheer) on the bottom. Next I stamped the leaves on ivory, traced a box around, and cut out as shown. I inked the panel edges, put the brads in the corners, mounted the leaves with foam dots, and attached to the card.

Here's the second one - almost the same, except for a different color scheme and brads. Cardstock by Bazzill and DCWV; inks are Vivid! coffee bean, Marvy English red and ochre, and Stampin' Up cranberry crisp.