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| Our little Snow Beauty sitting outside enjoying some March snowfall. |
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Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Ace Makes Dinner
Yes this was a Messy March project, how could you tell? ;-) Ace has been helping in the kitchen for years (literally) now as much as we ever let him to - so I thought it was high time he learn how to make dinner all by himself mostly by himself. Continuing with our theme of Messy March I thought what better time to give him some freedom in the kitchen!
I planned to do this on Friday night and he patiently awaited dinner time that night and after we finished several less than fun tasks we headed downstairs to get started. Mommy fail! I did not have the biscuits that we needed and it was far to late to whip up some of my own dough to make anything. He was disappointed but he recovered well enough with a trip through McDonald's drive thru as a substitute.
Saturday was plain too busy with toilet paper fun to bother getting ourselves ready to go to the grocery store (yes the whole day) and so we did something else for dinner. However, that night I asked him to remind me after church so that we could go to the store to get some biscuits. Sunday rolled around, we went to church, and came home got out of the car and then he remembered - kudos for remembering - but would have been SUPER awesome if we had still been in the car. We went a few hours later. :)
With our supplies ready: Pillsbury biscuits, marinara sauce, shredded cheese, mini pepperoni, and spinach I let the boy get to work. I let Mae play too - but she freaked out when I plopped down biscuit dough on her tray. She has made it bizarrely clear that she is NOT ok with anything dough related. Noted, Baby Girl...
Ace got to work patting the dough flatter. He worked in pretty quick fashion, didn't really lingering or play with it. Really focused on the end goal. I ended up smashing them a bit more for him because he agreed that they weren't flat enough. :)
He did a great job applying the sauce as well and Mae enjoyed that part of the fun - she rubbed her fingers all over her tray and enjoyed sucking the sauce off of her fingers. Ace didn't sample any of that - he was focused on the cheese. Mae the second she saw it squawked her desire for some too!
Finally after cheese was liberally applied to all the pizzas he got to work applying the pepperoni and spinach to the pizzas in whatever way he felt led. It was fun to watch him decide how to apply it. He was insistent that they all have pepperoni and spinach rather than some without one or the other. Well, ok then.
After he declared his work done I cleaned up around the individual pizzas and tossed the extra cheese on top of the pizzas and then put them in the oven. Mae was fidgity in her chair so I let her down to wander while they cooked (which for the record was a total of 9 minutes at 350')
9 minutes later the pizzas came out - and looked delicious - cut one up for the boy and sent it on over to him. He was thrilled. Ate the whole thing and enjoyed it. I won't lie I ate 4. DELICIOUS! Quick, fun, somewhat messy, and a great confidence builder in our young chef!!
I planned to do this on Friday night and he patiently awaited dinner time that night and after we finished several less than fun tasks we headed downstairs to get started. Mommy fail! I did not have the biscuits that we needed and it was far to late to whip up some of my own dough to make anything. He was disappointed but he recovered well enough with a trip through McDonald's drive thru as a substitute.
Saturday was plain too busy with toilet paper fun to bother getting ourselves ready to go to the grocery store (yes the whole day) and so we did something else for dinner. However, that night I asked him to remind me after church so that we could go to the store to get some biscuits. Sunday rolled around, we went to church, and came home got out of the car and then he remembered - kudos for remembering - but would have been SUPER awesome if we had still been in the car. We went a few hours later. :)
With our supplies ready: Pillsbury biscuits, marinara sauce, shredded cheese, mini pepperoni, and spinach I let the boy get to work. I let Mae play too - but she freaked out when I plopped down biscuit dough on her tray. She has made it bizarrely clear that she is NOT ok with anything dough related. Noted, Baby Girl...
Ace got to work patting the dough flatter. He worked in pretty quick fashion, didn't really lingering or play with it. Really focused on the end goal. I ended up smashing them a bit more for him because he agreed that they weren't flat enough. :)
He did a great job applying the sauce as well and Mae enjoyed that part of the fun - she rubbed her fingers all over her tray and enjoyed sucking the sauce off of her fingers. Ace didn't sample any of that - he was focused on the cheese. Mae the second she saw it squawked her desire for some too!
After he declared his work done I cleaned up around the individual pizzas and tossed the extra cheese on top of the pizzas and then put them in the oven. Mae was fidgity in her chair so I let her down to wander while they cooked (which for the record was a total of 9 minutes at 350')
9 minutes later the pizzas came out - and looked delicious - cut one up for the boy and sent it on over to him. He was thrilled. Ate the whole thing and enjoyed it. I won't lie I ate 4. DELICIOUS! Quick, fun, somewhat messy, and a great confidence builder in our young chef!!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
TP Photography
Yesterday, Mae had gotten a hold of a random roll of toilet paper that is our redneck version of Kleenex at the moment. I was busy doing something and she was unrolling it in chunks and sprinkling those around the living room. I tweeted that I should do something about it and Courtney from Click it Up a Notch instead suggested I just capture it! Hmm...
It was an understatement that I was disappointed in my Leap Day pictures. I have taken far better action shots - and it is silly that I failed to get my setting set before I let Ace begin that activity. Just plain silly. Shouldn't be that big of a deal, right? No clearly I'm not losing sleep, but it was still a disappointment - and when Courtney suggested I capture the TP silliness - I snagged the opportunity and created another "Messy March" activity for our Saturday afternoon.
I did a little research on the best settings for 'action shots' not a lot of 'TP Photography' tips out there, but I looked at a few for sports and adjusted my ISO for indoors. I turned on all the lights on, opened all the blinds (although it was cloudy and late afternoon) I set my shutter speed to 1/1000, my aperture I set to f/2.8, and ISO I pushed it until the pictures weren't dark. Unfortunately for the noise factor due to the indoor lighting and time of day conditions required an ISO of 6400 (EEK!) I might have brought down the shutter speed a little been able to drop the ISO as well - but I'll play with those options on another day. I didn't want to pause the shoot to adjust settings. Ace was having too much fun.
I cleaned up the pictures a little in Lightroom and did some noise reduction - I'm still a newb in that area of post processing and I'm self taught in between parenting, cleaning, and sleeping. Also I have to say that the quality from computer to blog post is severely degraded upon upload. Tips on fixing this are welcome, otherwise it's only list to 'seek and find out' eventually. :)
I handed Ace a roll and let him go to town! He needed no instruction other than the reminder that this was a special thing that he only was allowed to do when I said it was ok. If he did it on his own ever, there would be consequences. With the stern warning issues - the fun began post haste!
He got some good height with his jumping. Mae cautiously observed what on earth her brother was doing before I told Ace to take a break and let Mae join in on the fun. She had a blast trying to be just like brother! She was rockin' an aqua headband that she herself had added to her styled look for the day - so she had some 80s punk going on. Her expressions were cracking me up throughout the fun.
I gave Ace a second half-roll of TP and let him continue the tossing fun! He had such a blast. And I was having a great time capturing all the action and I snapped my all time favorite action picture... in fact if he was facing me more it might have easily been a contender for my all time favorite picture. You can just see the joy and excitement on his face, how fitting his shirt says 'Blast Off!'.
When the rolls were all done the fun was far from over. He began picking up the piles and tossing those about and covering his sister which she was ok with... most of the time. Although she did come to tell me all about it a time or two. :)
Eventually we cleaned it all up and now it's a bucket of kleenex. If we weren't redneck before - we certainly are now - but now have a lot of exciting memories to accompany it. Want to find other ways to be messy with the kids? Click here! This mess was well worth an hour+ of fun and only took about 10 minutes to clean up. I think when I go to make snow - this will be the activity that I allow to help break up the TP.
And just because I love it so much....
It was an understatement that I was disappointed in my Leap Day pictures. I have taken far better action shots - and it is silly that I failed to get my setting set before I let Ace begin that activity. Just plain silly. Shouldn't be that big of a deal, right? No clearly I'm not losing sleep, but it was still a disappointment - and when Courtney suggested I capture the TP silliness - I snagged the opportunity and created another "Messy March" activity for our Saturday afternoon.
I did a little research on the best settings for 'action shots' not a lot of 'TP Photography' tips out there, but I looked at a few for sports and adjusted my ISO for indoors. I turned on all the lights on, opened all the blinds (although it was cloudy and late afternoon) I set my shutter speed to 1/1000, my aperture I set to f/2.8, and ISO I pushed it until the pictures weren't dark. Unfortunately for the noise factor due to the indoor lighting and time of day conditions required an ISO of 6400 (EEK!) I might have brought down the shutter speed a little been able to drop the ISO as well - but I'll play with those options on another day. I didn't want to pause the shoot to adjust settings. Ace was having too much fun.
I cleaned up the pictures a little in Lightroom and did some noise reduction - I'm still a newb in that area of post processing and I'm self taught in between parenting, cleaning, and sleeping. Also I have to say that the quality from computer to blog post is severely degraded upon upload. Tips on fixing this are welcome, otherwise it's only list to 'seek and find out' eventually. :)
I handed Ace a roll and let him go to town! He needed no instruction other than the reminder that this was a special thing that he only was allowed to do when I said it was ok. If he did it on his own ever, there would be consequences. With the stern warning issues - the fun began post haste!
He got some good height with his jumping. Mae cautiously observed what on earth her brother was doing before I told Ace to take a break and let Mae join in on the fun. She had a blast trying to be just like brother! She was rockin' an aqua headband that she herself had added to her styled look for the day - so she had some 80s punk going on. Her expressions were cracking me up throughout the fun.
I gave Ace a second half-roll of TP and let him continue the tossing fun! He had such a blast. And I was having a great time capturing all the action and I snapped my all time favorite action picture... in fact if he was facing me more it might have easily been a contender for my all time favorite picture. You can just see the joy and excitement on his face, how fitting his shirt says 'Blast Off!'.
Eventually we cleaned it all up and now it's a bucket of kleenex. If we weren't redneck before - we certainly are now - but now have a lot of exciting memories to accompany it. Want to find other ways to be messy with the kids? Click here! This mess was well worth an hour+ of fun and only took about 10 minutes to clean up. I think when I go to make snow - this will be the activity that I allow to help break up the TP.
And just because I love it so much....
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Playdough!
Messy March continues and this time with playdough! No not Play-Doh - because I'm not positive of what that is made with so I wanted to find a recipe and make my own with ingredients I'd be comfortable with my little girl ingesting if she sampled any. I found a great recipe once again through Pinterest on How Does She? Please go there to get the recipe - it's so simple and it's GREAT! I overcooked it ever so slightly so it did crumble a bit, but it wasn't tacky at all so I'll take a little crumble over stickiness. The food dye is from the blue Neon 4-pack by McCormick. I bought some 8oz freezer jam containers and the above recipe will fill up 2 of those containers. Works great for our needs!
I decided to test out the recipe while Ace was in school to figure out how to get it 'just right' and then in the future I'll allow him to help make more and in various colors. It took 10 minutes total to make it and it's all 'normal' ingredients so no real extra expense was necessary. Couldn't ask for better than that. I thought it would be fun to play just with Mae while Ace was in school just some quiet introduction to playdough. She would not go near it! She touched it once and that was all she was going to do.
I sat down and started to manipulate it and play with it and got out a few of her toys to push in it and make impressions with it. Hoping that having some example of what to do would help. Even tried having her sit in my lap to let her play with it. She touched it for this picture below and that was it. So I tucked it away and hoped the desire to be like her big brother would pique her interests a little more later that day.
Ace came home from school and was so excited. I broke out some tools to play with and manipulate the playdough with and he got started. Mae was excited to play with (plastic) knives and spatulas, but still no desire to touch the playdough. She did have an internal struggle once when I created a ball. She really wanted it - even grasped her whole hand around it before she frantically released her hold and shook her hand wildly. Amusing.
Ace had a good time building and destroying and it was a lot of fun to help :) We built a snowmen and then Ace had a nice running leap to jump up and smash it! Then after that he just had a good ol' time smashing with his feet the playdough. Jumping from high up and going to town dropping it. All the while Mae walked around observing all this frivolity with wonder.
More colors to be made soon and hopefully Mae will warm up to the fun play that comes with playing with playdough! Until then she can observe her brother's delighted excitement in playing with it.
I decided to test out the recipe while Ace was in school to figure out how to get it 'just right' and then in the future I'll allow him to help make more and in various colors. It took 10 minutes total to make it and it's all 'normal' ingredients so no real extra expense was necessary. Couldn't ask for better than that. I thought it would be fun to play just with Mae while Ace was in school just some quiet introduction to playdough. She would not go near it! She touched it once and that was all she was going to do.
I sat down and started to manipulate it and play with it and got out a few of her toys to push in it and make impressions with it. Hoping that having some example of what to do would help. Even tried having her sit in my lap to let her play with it. She touched it for this picture below and that was it. So I tucked it away and hoped the desire to be like her big brother would pique her interests a little more later that day.
Ace came home from school and was so excited. I broke out some tools to play with and manipulate the playdough with and he got started. Mae was excited to play with (plastic) knives and spatulas, but still no desire to touch the playdough. She did have an internal struggle once when I created a ball. She really wanted it - even grasped her whole hand around it before she frantically released her hold and shook her hand wildly. Amusing.
Ace had a good time building and destroying and it was a lot of fun to help :) We built a snowmen and then Ace had a nice running leap to jump up and smash it! Then after that he just had a good ol' time smashing with his feet the playdough. Jumping from high up and going to town dropping it. All the while Mae walked around observing all this frivolity with wonder.
More colors to be made soon and hopefully Mae will warm up to the fun play that comes with playing with playdough! Until then she can observe her brother's delighted excitement in playing with it.
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| She made me wipe off her hand. She was convinced there was something terrible on it. |
Friday, March 2, 2012
Seuss-y Fun!
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss! There will be much silliness to be had in our house today, some thematic, some just plain silly. Perhaps even a Seuss-y movie - or checking in for the PBS Dr. Seuss marathon and most certainly there will be lots of reading!
The other day I put together a craft project for a playdate that we had. I wanted to make something simple that they could sit and focus on and then go run and play. That's when I decided that we'd make The Cat in the Hat's hat. :) I went to work constructing a hat - just free styled it and then cut it. Once I was happy I used that and traced it. For this project I used card stock instead of construction paper. Cut out two strips of white paper for the stripes on the hat and then each unit got a sheet of fun Dr. Seuss stickers that they could put on their hats... or themselves. :)
The example went in the middle, instructions were explained, and glue sticks were handed out. Mae did not participate - although she really wanted to!
This project took no time at all to prepare and the kids had a great time with the simplicity of it and being able to use the glue sticks and stickers!
Happy Seuss-y fun! If you need more ideas - check out Seuss-y School.
The other day I put together a craft project for a playdate that we had. I wanted to make something simple that they could sit and focus on and then go run and play. That's when I decided that we'd make The Cat in the Hat's hat. :) I went to work constructing a hat - just free styled it and then cut it. Once I was happy I used that and traced it. For this project I used card stock instead of construction paper. Cut out two strips of white paper for the stripes on the hat and then each unit got a sheet of fun Dr. Seuss stickers that they could put on their hats... or themselves. :)
The example went in the middle, instructions were explained, and glue sticks were handed out. Mae did not participate - although she really wanted to!
This project took no time at all to prepare and the kids had a great time with the simplicity of it and being able to use the glue sticks and stickers!
Happy Seuss-y fun! If you need more ideas - check out Seuss-y School.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Mae's First Dentist Visit
Yes, our little girl has had another first: her first trip to the dentist! I was planning on waiting until Ace's next appointment in May - but as that second top tooth descended upon us it became more troubling to this mama that something just wasn't quite right. It was chipped? Cracked? Malformed? Unsure - but I thought it best to get her in before 8 more weeks went by and so after dropping Ace off at preschool mommy and Mae headed to her very first dental appointment.
Our big girl strutted into the office as if she owned the place - receiving oohs and ahhs from all around. She was quite happy to be there. She walked back to the dentist chair and since she's small we did a repeat similar to how we did Ace's first visit. We brought along M's lovie for comfort and she received a new toothbrush which she happily took and began chewing on all the while sitting in mommy's lap, while cautiously observing the room.
The dentist came over and checked out her mouth. Mae fussed as she was leaned back and had her exam but recovered quickly when it was all said and done. She received a fluoride paint on her teeth and was given a thumbs up for her dental health. Now about that pesky tooth. It's not a chip and it's not a crack. It is possibly two fused and malformed baby teeth. We really won't know until she can have x-rays to determine.
+Typically the first x-rays are done when they're around 5. My kids however receive theirs early since they've already got 'teeth issues' and Ace received his first set at 3. Mae will have the same done. So until she's three we won't really know the true issue with her teeth but there isn't any reason to be concerned except to be extra cautious with brushing the area where there is the fuse/fold line. This is a 'rare' thing that she has (of course) and this could mean she has an extra adult tooth, fused adult teeth, or even a missing one. We won't know until the x-rays. Nothing to be done, so nothing to worry about for now.
She received a bath toy and we scheduled her next appointment for 8 months out (so that her and her brother's would match back up properly.) After the appointment she was super snuggly and nearly fell asleep on my shoulder. Although when we got in the car she perked up and played (and chewed) on her new toy. It was a good trip and she did great!
Our big girl strutted into the office as if she owned the place - receiving oohs and ahhs from all around. She was quite happy to be there. She walked back to the dentist chair and since she's small we did a repeat similar to how we did Ace's first visit. We brought along M's lovie for comfort and she received a new toothbrush which she happily took and began chewing on all the while sitting in mommy's lap, while cautiously observing the room.
The dentist came over and checked out her mouth. Mae fussed as she was leaned back and had her exam but recovered quickly when it was all said and done. She received a fluoride paint on her teeth and was given a thumbs up for her dental health. Now about that pesky tooth. It's not a chip and it's not a crack. It is possibly two fused and malformed baby teeth. We really won't know until she can have x-rays to determine.
+Typically the first x-rays are done when they're around 5. My kids however receive theirs early since they've already got 'teeth issues' and Ace received his first set at 3. Mae will have the same done. So until she's three we won't really know the true issue with her teeth but there isn't any reason to be concerned except to be extra cautious with brushing the area where there is the fuse/fold line. This is a 'rare' thing that she has (of course) and this could mean she has an extra adult tooth, fused adult teeth, or even a missing one. We won't know until the x-rays. Nothing to be done, so nothing to worry about for now.
Messy March!
I have decided that the month of March is going to be MESSY! Yes, Mae is old enough now to get dirty right along with her brother and she's doing better to not automatically put everything in her mouth, so we're entering a time where we can expand our messy activities. Throughout the month I'll be posting some of our fun activities that involve a MESS! Things that you should equip yourself with for messy play: a splat mat (or a shower curtain works too!), a dustbuster (I love ours, does have some drawbacks, but for our purposes its great!) and a lot of patience!!!! Ready, set, go!
In preparation for the kick off messy month, on Monday afternoon I broke out the mat and gathered some supplies and let the kids go wild with dry oatmeal. Let me just say I was shocked at the staying power of oatmeal. My thirteen month old baby girl not only stayed on the 48"x48" island I had provided her but she stayed fully engaged and playing for a solid 20 minutes. It was amazing.
Mae had a such fun picking it up, making it fall, pushing it around, and after observing her brother she even had fun filling bowls. Ace was very kind in allowing her to repeatedly steal a bowl or cup that he had just filled so that she could dump it all over herself. :)
Ace played for over an hour! Making muffins, pizzas, and various other things. Sifting, measuring, funneling. Lots of fun imaginative dusty play. I finally said it was time to clean up so that I could start dinner. There was a saddened protest, but an excited anticipation for a future opportunity.
It was a lot of fun to play with them and also to sit back and observe their own fun. To see them play together and how to share (or not) and to just be kids that made a mess!
In preparation for the kick off messy month, on Monday afternoon I broke out the mat and gathered some supplies and let the kids go wild with dry oatmeal. Let me just say I was shocked at the staying power of oatmeal. My thirteen month old baby girl not only stayed on the 48"x48" island I had provided her but she stayed fully engaged and playing for a solid 20 minutes. It was amazing.
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It was a lot of fun to play with them and also to sit back and observe their own fun. To see them play together and how to share (or not) and to just be kids that made a mess!
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