Laura Vegas

i have been working on updating the girls school albums this past weekend. i started out taking photos of all the pages, so that i could show you what i've been adding to them since i originally shared the albums (HERE). then it crossed my mind that a video might be nice, to sort of walk you through the album. just a few things before you watch this. excuse the shake. i'm NOT a videographer, and had to steal one of the girls small video camera's to shoot this. and i talk with my hands all the time. so when the camera is shaking, i'm more than likely talking to you with my hands, even though you can't see them. i say "actually" a lot. and apparently, "eventually" is a term i use for when i will finish things that i havn't gotten around to doing. it cut me off at the very end, because the memory card was full. but i was pretty much done, and i'm not good an ending things anyways 😉

i think i covered the set-up of alyssa's album in pretty good detail in the video, so i won't show you pictures of all of her pages in her album. but i did want to point out one of the new things i added to their albums recently.

i added in some 6×12 page protectors. i have a few different brands, so anything will work. i cut some sheets of kraft cardstock in half, so that they were 6×12 in size. i had a lot of band concert programs and play programs, that i've collected over the years. i had been slipping them into the large pocket page. but i thought it would be fun to include them in their own page protector, so that they were more visible.

i used the same idea for both the band concerts programs and the play programs. i simply stapled the second page to the kraft cardstock, so that you can still flip the program open to read inside. and you can also flip the program up, so that you can read the backside. for the concert programs, i stapled two onto each side of the kraft cardstock. i just did the bottom one first, and then layered the top one slightly overlapping it. for the play program, i also adhered some of our tickets from when we went to see the performances.

and i happen to have some newspaper clippings, with photos of the play from the local newspaper. so i stapled those to the backside of the play program. just a really simple way to add these things into the albums.

i can't just show you alyssa's album, since that would NOT be fair. that's how it works here in this house, anyways. lol! here is a look at sarah's 5th grade year, from last school year. this is her pocket page, with a sampling of her work. an additional thing that i added to her pocket, was her medal that she received for perfect attendance. for the record, alyssa got perfect attendance too, but their grade didn't get a medal. bummer.

some of sarah's work that i pulled out, to save. sampling of her work, spelling tests, math sheet, a few journal's, some artwork, reports, etc.

this is something extra i added to sarah's album. it's a CD envelope, that came from the becky higgins baby kit, from a few years back. i just checked the creating keepsakes site, and it actually looks like they still have these in the store, HERE.

a few of the 5th grade classes, did a "thriller" performance at the beginning of the year. it wasn't a special tribute to michael jackson or anything, since these teachers have been doing this for years with their students. but they practiced for 6 weeks, and put on a great show for us. i had gotten a CD of the performance, and wanted to include it in her album. and this little CD envelope was a perfect way to do that.

her class photo, in an 8.5×11 page protector.

report card on the backside of the class photo. and then a few page protectors, to hold awards that she received during the school year.

i also include the report that shows how she did on her STAR testing, which is the california state testing that all students do here, every year.

then i added a 6×12 page protector, with her band concert programs.

next up, is her school photo. this page comes just like you see it, with the grade printed down the side. and i just added an 8×10 photo. 

then the last page is where we'll write down things from the year that she wants to remember. we just havn't gotten to that yet. not sure why, but i don't have a first day of school layout for her. i have one of the girls together, but not of just sarah. when i get around to that, i'll add that after this page. and i want to do a layout with the photos from their thriller performance. and then i'll add in some divided page protectors, to hold any additional photos from the year.

i get asked a lot about these school albums all the time. and everyone wants to know if they can still get the becky higgins school kit. nope, they're not available anymore. those were from a few years ago. well, i take that back. you can occasionally find them on ebay. i searched for them tonight, and found about 4 listed, that have about a day left on their bidding time. so you could check that out. BUT. i do know that she has a new school kit in the works. not because i have any insider info, because i dont. lol! but because i read her blog everyday. i hope she doesn't mind, but i copied this info directly from her blog for you: