simple collage

Earlier this week I explained my dilemma in scrapbooking a rough time. And this was the page I was ultimately putting off: the week's overview. I don't want Andrew to look back on these memories and feel bad about them. I don't want anyone to look back and feel bad about them. And so I tried to talk about the challenges of that week in a matter of fact way that will hopefully avoid blame. Time will tell how I did. ;)

Anyway as I was assembling the collage and going through the photos of the week, there were lots of lovely moments that I had forgotten about. It wasn't as gloom and doom as I had thought!

Putting this collage together was really simple. I picked 15 photos, cropped them into squares in iPhoto and printed them all together on one 8 1/2 X 11 piece of photo paper. Then I attached that sheet right to the layout. There were a few photos that came out a little too dark. I reprinted just those and used foamy adhesive dots to lift them off the page a little. I stuck them right on top of their darker selves. You can sort of see what I mean in the photo below:



Anyway, all that worry and this ends up being one of my favorite pages. Go figure.



Here's what I wrote:
This was one rough beach week. When I think back on this week I remember lots of meltdowns and yelling and crying and wanting to run away. This beach week happened to fall the week before preschool started. Andrew was already nervous about preschool and was acting up at home, but bringing him to the beach only made things worse. I thought it would be a welcome distraction from his preschool anxiety, but pulling him out of his routines and putting him in a small apartment with lots of people, ended up being hard on everyone.

When I look at the photos though, I’m reminded that it wasn’t all bad. There were plenty of lovely moments: Katie and I getting our photos taken in a photo booth, the nights at the amusement parks, playing in the water. And I feel like I learned so much about Andrew and so much about myself as his mama that I really don’t regret us going. In fact I feel more stubbornly than ever to make beach week work for us. I have stocked up on ideas for a smoother and happier beach week next time around. So, watch out, Ocean City, come this summer, we’ll be ready for you.