<p>While you are all sorting through your pictures, I thought I would share with you what my wife did for our son for a graduation present - she created a scrapbook of his life, ending with HS graduation. We had copies made of the best pictures and she then built a scrapbook - probably 75-80 pages in all - starting as a baby and then pages built around themes like little league baseball, vacations, brother and sister together, shots with our dog (who sleeps in his room), etc. An enormous task - so start early!!!</p>
<p>Most pictures now are either digital or can be scanned. If one has a Mac then one has iPhoto. Apple (no I have nothing to do with the company) provides a feature whereby one lays out an album with text and sends it to Apple, and they and back a bound custom photo album. Makes the project a lot easier.</p>
<p>But before you spend countless hours making scapbook, please be sure your child cares. My son would look at maybe pages 1-15 of an 80 page album, then lose interest. At some stage Iâm sure any kid would appreciate it. But if you have a chld who may not appreciate it until theyâre 30, donât make yourself crazy trying to get it done by the graduation party!</p>
<p>We are a mac family and have made several books like idad describes - and they are wonderful and of extremely high quality. </p>
<p>In the case of the scrapbook, my wife wanted to include things that were tangible in nature and not just photos - airline boarding passes, ticket stubs from his first baseball game etc. thus the scrapbook format.</p>
<p>As Missypie indicates - make sure that son (or daughter) will appreciate it - DS has enjoyed looking at it first with his mom and then again with his GF. Not all kids would enjoy it.</p>
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<p>Yeah, I am just imagining the scene where Mom stays up late for a week before graduation to finish the scrapbook only to present it to a kid who barely glances at itâŠthat could be the last straw in a very stressful week!</p>
<p>And then there are those of us who are craft-impaired, who couldnât make a scrapbook even if we wanted to!</p>
<p>Whatâs a scrapbook?</p>
<p>DB, youâre my kind of woman!</p>
<p>I had this idea in about 1997 to make each child a scrapbook - not a crafty thing, just basically an album with pix, misc stuff. I got them out this morning to get a baby picture of Son. Sonâs has about 15 pages done, D16 has about 10 and D13âs is still in the celophane wrapper! (Something to do when I retire!)</p>
<p>DB - LOL! </p>
<p>In elementary school, my kids were always the ones whose dioramas had most definitely not been made by their parents. I can distinguish a cotton ball from a pipe cleaner, but donât ask me what you actually do with themâŠ</p>
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<p>I have a neighbor who stopped letting her kids do the elem school science fair - she refused to do their trifolds for them, but then theyâd get to school and be humilated because theirs were the only kid-produced projects!</p>
<p>Our elem school gifted program stopped having the 4th graders make models of famous buildingsâŠyouâd go to open house and there would be all these Alamos, Taj Mahals and Sears Towers and the parents would be strutting around because we all knew that the parents made them!</p>
<p>missypie: clarification please: D16? D13? I trust you are referring to their ages and not their birth order?..because if it is the latter, AND you are making scrapbooks for them all, I will be forever in awe.</p>
<p>LolâŠages!!!</p>
<p>RobD - your D has only 13 more days left of school? That just doesnât seem fair! 
My D has to go until the end of June! Well, they stop classes around June 14th for exams, but they go on for another 2 weeks or so.</p>
<p>Congrats to your D on being inducted into NHS. My D was inducted this week as well. :)</p>
<p>Yup, May 21st is the last day of school, but she has a âstudy hallâ exam that day (itâs the way the class periods fell) so she wonât go to school but will instead go to her sisters 8th grade recognition ceremony.</p>
<p>Hereâs my crafty chore that now (1 year ahead of time) I plan on doing but that I will laugh at next year. I had a friend who saved her kids t-shirts from all kids of clubs (sports, church stuff, etc.) and then made a quilt of them and gave it to them for when they went away to school. I have a bag of t-shirts, I have a sewing machineâŠwhy do I think that bag of tâs will still be sitting in the closet 10 years from now 
Does the thought count?</p>
<p>A T-shirt quilt is a great idea.</p>
<p>LOL We have tons of T-shirts, some well-worn and unsuitable for crafts (except as stuffing?) and others hardly worn. </p>
<p>In fact, the laundry room is being rebuilt right now so Iâm taking essentials to the landromat, but we joked that S probably could go another month and not wear the same T-shirt twice!</p>
<p>Great idea, but I donât think itâs likely Iâll make a quilt. Maybe a pillowcase? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I canât believe the end of Junior Year is near.</p>
<p>APs begin Monday. After 2 weeks of that (reg. classes alternating with days when you have only your AP) there are 2 weeks of âschoolâ (whatever for?), then exams, of which my S only has 1, because youâre exempt if you have an A average in the subject. Junior year seems to fizzle out, compared to senior year.</p>
<p>hi everyone, Iâm back home after my grand tour of NJ. It really was a grand tour as it took us, hundreds of other mourners, and half the county police department doing the detail, about an hour to drive from the church to the cemetery yesterday. But I wanted to go wish the 09ers congrats on their decisions but wanted to do my balancing post here first. Good luck to all in H1N1 land (see I am up on the PC terminology) good luck with school closings.</p>
<p>I donât quite get the turn in conversation to craft ideas, but Iâll let that run its course.</p>
<p>jackief:</p>
<p>Those with craft skills (not me, Iâm just crafty ) are just figuring out how to use this down time while their kids are studying for SAT and AP and getting a yearâs head start on scrapbooks and such. Otherwise, with idle hands on the keyboard for CC, who knows what will happen?</p>
<p>I, as a fellow non-crafter, would prefer to see âwhat will happenâ ! I plan to be the whip cracker this weekend as AP (D1) and SAT II (D2) studying overseer.</p>
<p>But PLEASE continue this discussion, the rest of you! ;)</p>
<p>Hereâs another topic- I just realized that the visit day we are attending at Chicago is the day before motherâs day! Last year H went on a trip on motherâs day, I didnât let on before he booked and then he felt bad when he realized. It was all good, as I was able to score three tix to the Red Sox âMotherâs Day Miracleâ game and daughters and I were able to go on the field and run the bases 
But this year I will be on a plane with half my offspring to Chicago. This one is my fault, we still would have gone on the trip but maybe taken a later flight. And I hope we can find a place to eat that night. I will have to smooth things over with MY mother howeverâŠ</p>
<p>So, what are the rest of you doing for motherâs day, and for the dads on this list you many answer for what is going on in your family also.</p>