Photo School

In addition to the regular stuff I do, I've been trying to learn how to take better pictures. I've done two online photography courses over the past 6 months, which I've enjoyed and have learned a lot from. Right now I think I know just enough to be dangerous, to occasionally take a halfway decent picture. But there are a LOT that aren't very good which can be frustrating. I've been trying to be better about practicing, because that's the only way I'm going to get better! Due to the practicing, I have a lot of random pictures and thought maybe I'd share some of them. A few random shots of our life over the past couple months, or at least the parts that I have deemed worthy of practicing with (i.e. I remember to have the camera nearby and the light is not too bad). Some I include because I think it is a good photo, some are just funny parts of our life. Enjoy!

Making friends with Sam the cat.

scaling the hill across the street from Grandma and Popop's house

engrossed in a story with Grandma

This is shot I could take EVERY single day with Hayden. She loves to read!

Bedtime story with Daddy (can you tell we like books?!)

showing a surprise (happy?) face with Daddy

Blizz watching over the playground

swingin'

goofiness on the picnic table

more goofiness in the stroller

curly girl

making art (this happens a lot too.)

poking at the left over snow

What? Does my hair look shaggy?

opening a Valentine's card (thanks Grammy and Granddad!)

pensive face

will water help my bad-hair-day? (don't you love the vest and boots?!)

come on Blizz, play with me!

puddle play

achoo!

upsie daisy! little boost!

MOMMA! I need you!

cheese!

naked puzzle time. (M is very into puzzles these days.)

running to the bus stop

does it look like I have a flower coming out of my head? (she really asked that!)

like how the photo looks, and how it captures Hayden. tada!

Valentines

Even though we ended up spending Valentine's Day holed up in the house due to snow, I think it is important to say that WE WERE READY. EARLY! We had handcrafted valentines for all of Hayden's classmates (23 + 3 teachers) and all of Eliza's classmates (17 + 4 teachers) the weekend BEFORE Valentine's Day. Molly's were planned and almost ready, except I didn't want to package them till the day of, so they were put off until Sunday night. The kids did SO great with them! I searched for homemade kid valentines and got lots of ideas and they picked out the ones they wanted to do. We made a trip to Michael's and Target to gather supplies and then we got to work. I did help with cutting and spelling, but they did most of the work for the creation. Eliza was a champ at decorating so many butterflies! I was so proud of their work, I need to show them off here!

Eliza works hard to decorate. Notice how she dressed up fancy to get creative!

Not quite sure why I thought handmade Valentine's was a good idea, given the mess it created. But we had fun!

Eliza's creations: lollipop flowers, lollipop butterflies for classmates and hearts for teachers

Hayden's creations: pencil hearts and pencil owls. Heart pads attached too!

Molly and Eliza work on stuffing the bags for Molly's valentines

Molly's valentines: baggies filled with teddy grahams and gummy bears, with a little note that had a heart cut out from one of her many paintings

 After previous years that felt like such work to get the kids to do valentines, this year was really fun. As I mentioned, H and E were really into being creative, and stuck to it. I enjoyed the experience - though I still need to clean up that art table - UGH! For teachers, they both decorated hearts and wrote messages. I made two kinds of cookies - brownie roll outs and chocolate truffle cookies - to share with the teachers. (Valentine's Day is all about chocolate!) In grand total, we made 51 kid valentines and 10 teacher valentines - plus a few more for family. That's a lot of love to share! Phew!

More Snow

So last week, we got some more snow. You might have heard about it. There was snow, there was ice, there was more snow - which added up to a lot of white stuff. There was a little bit of trouble with traffic when the snow hit. Luckily, we all did just fine, without any power outages or travel problems. Jason left the office about 15 minutes before all the problems began and made it home just fine. Hayden was delivered off the bus as the snow started to swirl so we were able to hunker down as a family and just enjoy it. There was more sledding, some shoveling, and a couple of snowmen. Plus we even managed to celebrate Valentine's Day! We've gotten some good use out of that snow suit and H and E are pros at layering up now.

Molly, as the snow fell Wednesday afternoon. She was not a fan.

Eliza, amidst the blizzard Wed afternoon.

Powdery soft snow meant we got the snow tube out to sled!

can you see what I stamped out in the snow?

our snow tube is big enough for two!

Molly still didn't like the snow, especially as it turned to a wintry mix while we were out sledding.

hiking back up the toboggan run

Thursday morning, all that powdery snow was covered in a layer of ice. pretty, but now the snow was crunchy.

Molly helped to dig us out.

posing on our very own snow bank by our crossroads! I didn't know these were possible in NC!

After the ice came more snow, and then more playtime. We built a friend!

Actually we built two friends! And Molly danced behind them.

Eliza helped Jason shovel around the cars. So industrious!

On our Thursday afternoon explore, we discovered you could sled down the snow bank! A short but sweet ride! 

 

Friday morning was Valentine's! No school or parties for the kids, but we did do pink, heart shaped pancakes for breakfast.

Then homemade bagels for lunch!

Plus we admired the beautiful banner I created. (but wasn't able to take a very good picture of!)

 How did you spend your snow days? I wonder if we'll have any more this winter! I wanted some snow but I think I've gotten my fix for now. Today the weather is sunny and in the 60s - Eliza told me the 6 weeks are done. (referring to the ground hog's prediction). I didn't have the heart to correct her but hopefully she's right!

Giggles and Guffaws

If you are feeling blue or down in the dumps, I hope this will make you smile.  If only they made sit-n-spins in adult sizes!

PS let me know if you can't see the video. I had a horrible time trying to get it uploaded and finally went with a link to youtube. Hopefully it works!

Snow Day!

At long last, we finally got some snow last week. We'd had some cold days, cold enough for a 2 hour delay, but no snow. But last week, with the looming threat of a snowtastrophe for the South (did ya hear about Atlanta?!), we finally got a whopping 2 inches. Those 2 inches were tough though - they closed school for 2 1/2 days! (not to mention getting the kids out early when it was supposed to start snowing at noon, but didn't start till 7 pm!).

Whether it was truly a giant snow event or not, the kids were THRILLED. And there is something fun about a snow day, no matter how old you are! We went sledding in the street, met some neighbors, made snow angels, and then had hot chocolate. Molly was the perfect size for the last of our real snow gear from our time in Pennsylvania, and the older girls bundled up as best they could. We had a blast!

Hayden's snow wish was to make a snowball - we barely succeeded, the snow was very finely flaked.

Eliza's snow wish was to do a snow angel - there was just enough to make an impression!

Once outside, Molly was adamant we clean the cars off.

"I got SNOW in my snow suit! AHHHHHHH!"

This was the first morning. We tested out the sledding potential with Daddy-power.

Say "Snow Day!"

After coming inside for hot chocolate (we didn't last all that long), we all did yoga to help with the extra energy.

The next day we found icicles!

Icicles are awesome!

sledding with icicles may be dangerous but we live on the wild side!

more daddy-powered sledding!

In the afternoon on the 2nd day, we tried a new sledding spot. It went right to the road and Jason had to catch them before they went off the curb.

Cute snow bunny who is ready to go back inside.

Eliza needed some convincing to sled, but she finally came around. (Notice how much snow is left, we made the most of it!)

Even Jason got a chance to sled/snow board!