Make Your Own Matching Game

I almost forgot I was going to do this as one of Cali's travel activities. It only took me about 30 min. to make a whole set of 18 pairs (36 cards total).



Here's how you can make your own:

1. Gather materials

• Various patterened papers
• Large sheet of thin cardboard
  
• Paper cutter
  
• Craft knife
• Cutting mat
• Glue stick
• Corner Rounder (optional)

2. Cut cardboard into 2"x2" squares. I had a sheet of approx. 12"x12" cardboard that came with some paper packaging. A cereal box would work well too.

3. Cover one side of cardboard square with glue paying close attention to the edges and corners. Adhere to back side of patterned paper*. Trim around the card with craft knife. Make two of each pattern.

4. Round corners if you like**.

There you go, a simple matching game or memory game for your little ones.

Notes:
*Be aware of the pattern, some patterns my be too large and the individual squares won't really "match".
** If the paper and/or cardboard is too thick your corner rounder may not work.

Schlitterbahn: German for "slippery road"

Thanks to our very friendly bus driver I learned what Schlitterbahn actually means today. It also happens to be the World's Best Water Park and its a mere 2 hour drive from where we live. We visited all three sections Schlitterbahn West, Blastenhoff, and Surfenburg. The kids probably did well over 100 slides between them, D took a very peaceful nap in a tube while I floated with him around the Torrent for probably an hour. The Torrent is like a cross between a lazy river and a wave pool, you just float around and around but waves come and push you along. D looked so funny with his head completely covered by his lifejacket and just one foot sticking out. Everyone said "oh look at the baby sleeping in there!" Dave and Cali were off trying to go on the BIG slides but I guess Cali didn't feel like waiting in line so they climbed back down and played at the 5-story Pirate Ship instead. My favorite part was taking the whole family down the Raging River (World's Longest Tube Chute, a 30-45 min ride). The kids had to sit in their own tubes (with bottoms) but they did great and Cali totally loved it, especially the "fast" parts. We also went in the Family Blaster which is a big round raft that we all sat in together; it goes down a fast curvy hill then pushes you back up the hill just as fast. Very fun! Last time we were here Cali was not-quite one and I was pregnant with Diego so it was really fun to do more as a family this time. Not so many pictures of the really fun stuff -- we have too much fun to take pictures here! But here are a couple...

Sam's Club Auctions

Never knew this existed. Figured most people didn't. Went to get a specific camera bag set they had on their website and seemed like they would have at the store; didn't see it so asked someone working in electronics if they had them. He told us they hadn't been selling so they were pulled from the shelf and sent off to auction and we could check for them there. Go to http://auctions.samsclub.com/ to check it out. They didn't have the camera bags yet though.

Kodak Customer Service

My fairly new Kodak EasyShare 5100 All-In-One printer had a problem earlier this week. It started printing streaks through my photos which was so not cool. I searched their website for help, it said they would email me with an answer to my problem. They did right away and I followed the helpful instructions but still had the streaks. At the end of the email they said if the problem still existed to give them my address and they'd send a new printhead within 1-2 business days. No charge. Wow! It arrived today and the box also contained two new print cartridges and a sample pack of their photo paper! Just wanted to say yay for good customer service, since its getting harder to find these days.

Make a Book & Water Your Plants

How to make a little book with one sheet of paper. This is amazing, fantastic, so easy and so cool! Thanks to Alexandra S.M. from Art Scrap & More for posting this link to the Hero Arts blog.



Tip that Dave read in a magazine (or somewhere): quickly and easily water your houseplants by placing a few ice cubes on top of the soil. Clever huh?

Custom White Balance on Canon Rebel

I've already set to work teaching myself about this camera. I really want to use it to its full potential, or at least not rely solely on the Auto function. So here' s the two major things I learned last night (and if you have a Canon Rebel this may benefit you too).

First, on the new XSi model one of the exciting new features is a live-view preview screen. This is a pretty new feature to DSLR so I thought it would be great. Well it is great, but not as simple as you might think. There is a full page of instructions on the Canon website on how to use the Live View feature. The instructions were easy to follow though and I'm now fully informed on this feature. Click here for the link.

Second, I learned a wonderfully easy way to custom adjust the white balance. This is especially useful for bad-lighting situations like indoors in artificial light (i.e. my living room and bathroom). Click here for the youtube video link. Look at the difference in these photos with the white balance on "auto" vs "custom"...


Dave trying to work (notice how yellow the first one is)


Clean laundry sitting next to me I was supposed to be folding (notice how blue the first one is)

Both of the first shots were done on Full Automatic, the Second shots with the Custom white balance set.

Post 100 = Big News

I just saw this was post #100 for this blog. Just so happens I have some very exciting new to share on this milestone. We got a DSLR camera yesterday!!! They had a great deal on the Canon Rebel 12.2 megapixel @ Office Depot, it even came with 2 lenses. Pretty exciting. Thanks to the State of Alaska, Christmas came early for us. Dave has been wanting one for quite awhile but I was nervous to spend that much money not to mention all the crazy buttons and gizmos to figure out. I have a lot of learning to do on it but here are some of my fave shots so far. PS If you have any links to good online tutorials, tips, etc. please share.