Picture Perfect ... Almost!

We go on a morning walk some mornings and I always ask D if she wants to walk or ride something.  For the past week her answer has been "ride my scooter!"  She got this 3 wheeled Razor scooter about 2 years ago (thank you Pampers points) but has never ridden it much until recently.  She is finally getting the hang of pushing with one foot then riding along.  For the longest time she'd let her pushing foot get WAY behind her and end up falling off.  Now she knows and can keep it closer to the side of the scooter.  On our walk yesterday she really took off!  Boy was she proud of herself, and she should be. Hi Mommy! Push Ride This was bluish originally because I messed up the settings.  I decided to go black and white with a color pop. Now if I could just convince her to ride it on the way back we'd be in great shape!

I'm really bad at remembering to post about my week 52 project!! Week 7 - Still Life There are lots of messes in life (like 5000 tissue paper squares on my kitchen floor), but it's "still life" and I LOVE it! Especially the bright colors and days  Week 8 - Water Week 9 (this week) - Self Portrait According to D this is me ... so taking a photo of it makes it a self portrait  

Not really a park but the playground of our nearby elementary school. On Saturday afternoon we packed up the kids and went over to the elementary school near us.  D had been asking all summer when we could play there.  They had summer school so we couldn't go during the day.  Plus it's hard for me to take both kids by myself.  One wants to slide and the other wants to do the monkey bars.  And both think they are big enough to do whatever without any help! This is a great playground!  There's a lot for both kids to do.  Here are the highlights: A firetruck  A circle with musical instruments to play (D LOVED this part!) Tubes to climb through Slides A balance beam that D did all by herself

I took a free mini class this week called "Shades of Me."  It was presented by the same lady who taught the Momtographie class I took in the spring.  Just like Momtographie, this class was amazing!!  We talked about colors, palettes, how to create a palette, and editing for selective coloring. The first thing we had to do was select a color or set of colors that we can relate to.  I chose aqua colors with a splash of orange.  This was based on an ocean picture I saw with a clown fish.  I LOVE the beach and liked the splash of color the fish provided.  After choosing this palette I took some photos of where I saw these colors.  I was amazed at all the places they showed up ... Suncatcher by D My toenails  Play doh Egg Carton On Thursday we had a webinar about editing.  The focus was selective coloring, where you make the photo black & white while leaving a certain part colored.  We used 2 free websites, picmonkey and pixlr, to do this.  Here are my

... they play with the same toy at different times ... they play with the same toy at the same time ... I smile at the special relationship they have!  Okay always!

I never had Play Doh growing up.  I don't feel like I missed anything but I know I didn't have it.  My kids never showed much interest in until last Fall.  D asked if we could get some and I said sure.  For a while it was an outside only toy.  Then I found some old place mats and decided we could use it on the kitchen table.  She asked yesterday to play with it and I said okay.  S was napping so I didn't have to worry about him eating it or putting it in his hair.  Both of which would have happened.  We played for about an hour.  D was very creative making things and I enjoyed just being with her.  And of course squishing my fingers in the gooey stuff. Maybe next week we'll attempt to make out own play dough?!?! Making a dress for the princess in the window Oh the MESS!  D made this ... she says it's her!

S turned 18 months old today.  We played it low-key and just hung out at home.  There was a lot of playing with the new Jake and the Neverland Pirates Duplo ship.  We played outside (but he didn't cooperate for pictures of that).  There was even cooperative playing between D and S.  I can't believe he's already a year and half old.  It's amazing how he's changed in that time.  He is still laid back and easy to make laugh.  He LOVES to try new foods and will climb anything around.  Thankfully, he hasn't attempted to climb out of the crib yet. Here's some of the latest info: Height - 32 inches Weight - 26 pounds Sleep - 8 to 7 with one 2-hour afternoon nap Language - mimics many new words he hears; just started saying cracker, yes, BAAAA, grandma, grandpa, and more I'm forgetting Likes - outside, climbing, shooting the canon from the pirate ship, anything with wheels, music, saying "Uh-oh" as he brings you something he shouldn't hav

D went to Vacation Bible School from 9-12 this week at her Preschool church.  Each day she sang, heard a story about Paul, made crafts, played games, and ate snack.  When she came home she could explain what she did and the basic idea of the story or theme for the day.   She loved it ... especially the interaction with other kids.  My extrovert daughter has missed this during the summer. On Monday she came home saying she got to make a "plus" and proudly showed me her foam cross.  I tried to explain it was called a cross but she couldn't grasp why it's a cross at church but a plus with numbers.  She even proudly asked her VBS teacher if she could hold the "plus" for the day.  You can imagine the laughs this brought.   Yesterday a farmer came with some animals for the kids to pet, brush, and feed.  D insisted there was a camel until I asked if it had a hump.  She said "Nope ... maybe he left it somewhere."  I went on to explain the animal was ac

I took some pictures of the kids outside in May.  They were playing between 2 trees we have outside and the photos were adorable.  Only problem was I forgot to change the white balance to auto after having it set for incandescent indoor lighting.  This made the photos have a very bluish/greenish tint to them.  I was upset because the kids looked cute.  I decided to keep the photos and just accept the awkward coloring. Toward the end of last week the woman I took Momtographie from posted a blog about quick color fixes.  In her example the pictures had orange tint so she edited them to add some cooler blue.  I reasoned that since mine were bluish (too cool) I should be able to improve them by adding orange to warm them up. I'm super excited by the fix!!  See for yourself how they came out .... Before After After ... already deleted the before Before After Before After