Spoiled in Texas

I'm really starting to think that we are getting completely spoiled in Texas. First with all the warm, sunny weather that's nearly year-round (yes there are cold, wet, windy days but not very many) and now with all the new spray parks and water parks to keep us cooled off in the sweltering summer months. Whoever came up with the idea of spray parks is a hero in my book. If you want to be outside in Texas during the summer you really don't want to be far from the water. There are several new spray parks in the area, all free as part of the city parks' departments! Now there's also a brand new city-run water park about 30 min away (and another that will be closer but isn't open yet).

For us to spend 5 fun-filled, water-soaked, exhausting hours at this water park cost us a grand total of $7! Kids under 3 are free, and even kids 4-17 are only $4. You can also bring in all your own food. Such an awesome place to be able to take the kids, for so cheap and so close to home. Its like a mini-Schlitterbahn and has just the right stuff for the little ones. Cali exclaimed "This is going to be so much fun!" as soon as she saw it, and 5 hours later when I finally convinced them to leave with a promise of a cold treat from Sonic she confirmed "Mommy I had so much fun here... we should come back tomorrow."

So much fun in fact that I barely kept them up til 7 that night. I walked out of Cali's room at 6:55, went straight to the couch and fell fast asleep until midnight. I rolled off the couch, took a shower and crawled into bed where I slept like a rock until 8am.

Make sure to click on this slide one to see her expression in the big version.

United Through Reading

Dave has taken part in this wonderful program called United Through Reading where deployed soldiers are invited to choose a book and read it on camera for their kids. Then the book and DVD are sent back home for the kids to enjoy. Today we recieved our copy of Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends (one of my childhood favorites - great pick Daddy!), what a great surprise to end the day.

For more info or to donate to this program visit http://www.unitedthroughreading.org/military/

Pencil Lines Sketch #135

http://www.pencillines.com/

12 of 52

Monday was such a nice day and we had no plans for the day so at 830am I decided it would be a great day for the zoo. By 900 we were in the car headed North. Its about an hour drive one way and the kids did so nicely in the car for me... a bag of cheerios w/ Craisins helped too. We had a super fun time and I was so happy to not even need the stroller anymore. They walked the whole zoo no problem, other than D wanting to be held for a few minutes at the very end.


I didn't think about the back-lighting problem when I set up this timer shot. Lesson learned.. I tried to touch it up with my new Aurora editing program.


And I really like this one taken by a friend in our backyard. It really shows his true personality and its easy to see why he makes me laugh on a daily basis.

*************************************************************************************
Are you the Mom who's always taking pictures and look back only to realize you aren't IN any of them? Do your kids look through photo albums and ask "Where were you Mommy?" Well, Carin over at Forever in Blue Jeans decided to change all that and challenges any one who's interested to do the same. So hand over the camera, or at least figure out the self-timer and get on the other side of the lens more often. Post your photos of you enjoying time with your family every Thursday and share the link with other Mom's by posting it on Carin's blog. You can start any time with week 1 of 52, don't worry about being "behind" just jump on in.

Broccoli on the Grill

Sounds a little crazy? Well I thought I'd try it while I had the grill going anyway. Last deployment I chose to be stubborn and avoid the grill. This time around Dave gave me a lesson so I'd be able to do it by myself. I'm glad I took him up on it, tonight was only the second time I grilled so far but its so nice not to turn the oven on this time of year.

Lemon Chicken Kabobs

Cut boneless, skinless chicken breasts into 1-inch cubes, marinate for at least 30 min in a mix of equal parts Meyer Lemon Oil & Salad Vinegar, sprinkle to taste with coarse salt, ground black pepper and crushed garlic. Skewer with red onion & other veggies to your liking, grill approx. 3 min per side or until chicken is done.

Broccoli on the Grill

This is the same as I make it in the oven, I just wrapped it in foil instead. Place broccoli on large piece of foil, drizzle with Olive Oil, season to taste (I use salt, pepper & garlic). Close the foil packet and place on the grill for 10-15 min, checking firmness until it is to your liking.

The thing is... when you're cooking dinner for the under 4 set its easy to get into a rut. They would be happy with things like chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pizza, eggs & pancakes, PB & bananas... every night of the week. But I do try to feed them healthy. I also try to cook in under 10 minutes most nights. Can you imagine how frustrating it is to spend 30+ minutes on a nice meal (while they drive each other crazy in the other room) only to hear "I don't like it" and see them push it around the plate without eating any. So if anyone has really simple, really quick, really kid-friendly dinner ideas please send them my way!

Here are some of our current favorite meals...

Spaghetti (or other noodles) w/ turkey meat or meatballs

Lime Chicken w/ quesadilla & light sour cream for dip

Chicken in Lemon Oil w/ rice or pasta

and yeah that's all I can think of...

Pencil Lines Sketch #136

I know I've mentioned this site before, but I am always inspired by it. After putting the kids to bed tonight I realized I had already cleaned up all our crafts from today and even the kitchen was taken care of... I was actually bored for a minute until I realized it meant I had time to scrapbook. Check out the inspiration at http://www.pencillines.com and let me know what you think and which sketch inspired you.

Aurora

I recently won a new photo-editing program through the iheartfaces blog, called Aurora. I was hooked from my 7-day free trial and really excited that I won a free copy. Although, I would have easily paid the $19.99 for it.

Aurora is used to "relight" your photos in a quick, easy way. You can adjust the lighting, color warmth, color strength, crispness, convert to black & white or other tints, and of course fix red eye or crop & straighten. It only take a few clicks of the mouse because Aurora shows you a range of changes and you simply click on the one that looks best to you. It always saves your file with an "au" extension rather than replacing your original. When you're done you can print, email, or publish straight to Facebook, Picasa, flickr, etc.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Check their website at http://www.lightcrafts.com to learn more and see exactly how the program looks and works or start a free 7-day trial.

Timer Tutorial

Since joining the "Where is Mom?" photo challenge I've been using my camera's self-timer more often and I thought I'd share HOW I use it and teach you how to set up a really cool feature you may not even know about.

Setting up your Continuous/Custom timer feature. This will allow you to take multiple timer shots without having to go back and press the button after each shot. I can only tell you how a Canon works, but hopefully it will help you find it on your camera too.
Turn on the camera in shooting mode.
Find and press the button that has a picture of a little timer. On Canons its on the arrow buttons.
Scroll over or down to the timer with a C next to it.
On the Canon Rebel you can press the up/down buttons to choose anywhere from 2 to 10 continuous shots. I go for 10, since I figure that gives me the best chance of at least one good shot.
On the Canon Elph scroll down to the timer with a C, hit Func/Set to select it, then hit MENU to change the settings. You can adjust the initial delay from 0 to 30 seconds, and take up to 10 shots.

In using the timer you need to search the area for a good place to set your camera. As I learned the hard way you should be really careful where you take your camera especially if there is any source of water nearby. Possible objects to use include picnic tables, playground equipment, shelves, chairs, backpacks, rocks, pieces of drift wood, a folded up towel... we've even hung our camera from a nail in a tree. Just please be sure its secure before you let go of the camera.

Next, look at your view finder to frame the shot. If you can get one or two of your subjects to stand in the area you want the picture that will be great. Depending where you had to set the camera you may need to use the zoom. Make a mental note of where you will fit into the picture so you know where to run to. Before taking the picture make sure you have it on timer mode still, usually just press the timer button and make sure its on the timer mode you want then hit the shutter button and go get in the picture!

Here is an example gone wrong.. as you can see Diego was not cooperative in coming to sit in his spot. Maybe if it was set to 10 shots instead of 5 I would've gotten a good one. Either way its always fun to go back and see what shots you did capture. I hope you give it a try, and let me know how it turns out.

11 of 52

These first three are from the day we let Zander & Cali play with the cameras at the park. I think Zander took all of these. I like my "Super Mom" pose in the 2nd one. And yes that is Vanessa of Woolverton guys & girl with me (Zander is her son).

The next two are timer shots. I got several good ones here feeding the ducks by the creek. The camera is balanced on a piece of drift wood. The next one didn't work out so well. We went fishing Sunday evening and I thought this would be a lovely shot but D didn't come sit down fast enough. You can see me calling him over. **Check out my timer tutorial**


*************************************************************************************
Are you the Mom who's always taking pictures and look back only to realize you aren't IN any of them? Do your kids look through photo albums and ask "Where were you Mommy?" Well, Carin over at Forever in Blue Jeans decided to change all that and challenges any one who's interested to do the same. So hand over the camera, or at least figure out the self-timer and get on the other side of the lens more often. Post your photos of you enjoying time with your family every Thursday and share the link with other Mom's by posting it on Carin's blog. You can start any time with week 1 of 52, don't worry about being "behind" just jump on in.

Home Sweet Home

This was such a fun project we did today. I got the idea from April issue of Family Fun magazine. You will need:

Fun objects cut from old magazines
Glue
colored paper
cardboard (optional) - mine was from back of construction paper pack
large sheet of paper or poster board for background

I set up the house while they had their snack and watched their new favorite show (Ni Hao Kai Lan). Cut 5 squares for the rooms, and a large & small triangle for the roofs. Have the kids choose what to put in each room. We chose to make each room distinct but you could just put the objects randomly if that makes them happy. For example, ours is red = D's room, orange = bathroom, yellow = Cali's room, blue = kitchen, spare room = garage, and remember to decorate your yard too!


If you try it, let me know.. I'd love to see your houses too. Can you guess which piece is my very favorite in our house?

Big Boy Bed

After nap today Diego decided to get himself out of bed, by climbing out and down from the rocking chair I would guess. Cali was watching him and I heard a lot of laughing before she came and told me "D got out of bed by himself!" I figured it was as good a time as any to just take the side off. You think he was happy about it?

Just Like Daddy

Ok Diego, you are starting to worry me with your comfort level in the cockpit.




See also our Airshow pictures!

Little Miss Observant

Scene 1
Anyone who knows me well knows I talk to myself, probably more than the average person. I tend to have conversations with real people who aren't actually there at the time. So driving in the car this week I get off the phone then start talking again as if to the same person. From the back seat I get "Mommy, are you talking to YOURSELF!?" with half a laugh as in disbelief. I just laughed too and said, "Yes, Cali I was." Next day, same thing, same question from Cali and me again shaking my head and having to admit that "Yes Cali, I was talking to MYSELF."

Scene 2
Doing something in the kitchen, I can't remember what. Cali comes up and says "Mommy you should take a picture of that and put it on your blog for Daddy to see." What?? I had no idea she knew about my blog, much less the word "blog," I guess she just picked it up from an overheard conversation... well now that I think of it I must have been talking to myself about the blog at some point or another.

Photography Lessons

At the park today we let Cali & Zander loose with our cameras for a little bit. Zander has some real talent. Cali is getting there, just needs to practice holding it so her hand isn't over the lens.