To celebrate the first day of summer (and the last day of school!) Amelia and I decided to hang some crepe paper over the front door before we left to pick Oliver up from school. When we got home we unlocked the door and let Oliver burst through!
Not one to be left out, Amelia busted through the rest of it!
I asked Oliver to show me his face of how excited he was for summer, but he told me he wasn't excited because he missed Ms. Mattingly (his teacher this past year) already. Melt my heart!
Tomorrow is the last day of school for Oliver. I can't believe my two biggest littles are going to be a third grader and a kindergartner. Bananas! Since Oliver's Dad lives out of state and isn't able to see Oliver every other weekend, Oliver spends half of his summer break in Indiana. While this really stinks and we miss him like crazy, I still try to make the entire summer fun for Amelia. I've been compiling my summer to do list of fun things we can do together that will keep Amelia (and Violet!) entertained and keep me from losing my mind. I've included links where applicable.
13. Ride the Horse Drawn Carriage
14. Buy a Sprinkler and Play
15. Make Soap Clouds and Homemade Soap
16. Vacation Bible School
17. A Sleepover with Friends
18. Glow Sticks in the Bath
Sadly the daffodils have already all wilted away in our part of the country, but I was able to capture a few daffodilly (totally a word!) photos a few weeks ago. I looked all over for some daffodils that weren't in someone's yard and I managed to find some blooming outside a broken down house on the edge of town.
I had to basically force them to pose together. This was as close as I could get to smiles, which quickly dissolved into this...
I cannot look at this photo without laughing. Oliver's face KILLS ME. KILLS!
Easter season is upon us! The kids began spring break today and, unfortunately, Oliver spends his spring break in Indiana with his father's family. I'm glad he gets to spend time with them and I know it's very special for him, I just always miss to him to pieces when he's gone. Spring break is two weeks long here, which means Oliver will be out of town for Easter this year. Thankfully our town had a little Easter event in the town square this morning and I was able to snap some Easter-y photos with the kids before Oliver left.
The bunnies were such a hit. They were precious!
They also had chicks.
And ducklings!
Violet refused to pose with the Easter bunny. She wouldn't let him hold her and she was basically climbing up my shoulders to get away from him if we went near him. This was the only picture that she didn't look petrified in. Oliver snapped this one for me.
Hooray for new features! We don't purchase a ton of apps for our iPad or iPod Touch, but when we do purchase an app and ends up being awesome, I like to share this information. It's nice knowing the $.99+ is money well spent.
The first app I want to share is Toca Hair Salon by Toca Boca. This was one of the very first apps I downloaded for the kids and it has been a complete and utter hit. It costs $1.9, but it's so worth it. I originally downloaded this for Amelia since a hair salon game seemed right up her alley, but Oliver has enjoyed this game just as much as Millie. Both kids have played this app for than any other app I've downloaded.
Kiddos can choose from six different clients whose hair they can cut, shave, color, wash, blow dry and more. Josh and I have even played with this app. The game is (in my opinion) awesome visually and inspires creativity. My kids have proven the replay-ability (totes a word) of this app over the past 7 months.
If you want to give it a spin without investing the $1.99, Toca Boca put out a free, very similar app at Christmas: Toca Hair Salon - Christmas Gift. In this app you can style Santa's beard and a Christmas tree -- for free!
We love Toca Boca apps in this family so look forward to my next App-tastic! posts also covering some of our favorite Toca Boca apps.
I do post-processing on almost every single photo I take in Photoshop CS5. I am not the most versed in Photoshop, so I depend on actions for almost all the edits I make. I am a huge fan of Paint the Moon actions and use them almost exclusively for my photos. They are awesome for portraits!
This is my before shot of Oliver playing in the snow this afternoon. It's a decent photo on its own, but I wanted to kick up a few details.
And this is my after shot....
I used three different Paint the Moon actions to achieve this after photo. I knew I wanted to bring out Oliver's face, the texture in the hat, the texture of his coat and I wanted it to be more obvious that the snow was still falling when I took the picture.
First I used the Intensity action from PTM's Fresh Wonderland TWO. That deepened the texture in the hat, but made the coat and buttons even darker than before. Next I ran the All Together Now -Vintage action from PTM's Picture Perfect Portrait. Finally, I cropped a wee bit off the right side of the image to help center Oliver in the image and ran the Soft Burnt Edges action from PTM's Picture Perfect Portrait set three times. Ta da!
The second image has more texture, detail and interest than the original and it only took a few mouse clicks. The big challenge with actions is choosing the right ones for your image. Two images taken seconds apart can require two totally different combinations of actions. Some images may even only require use of one action to make them great. It all comes with practice and becoming familiar with your actions.
I'm a few days late posting these, but my first week of Project 365 was a success. I've done a great job remembering to capture a little slice of life every day.
While I'm taking part in Project 365 to improve my photography, I mostly want to capture a little moment of our lives every day. At the end of the year I plan to have all photos printed into a photo book.
Enjoy Week One!
Day One - Traveling with Violet
Violet waking up from a nap on a 3 hour drive to my Dad's house.
Day Two - New Snow
The first snow of the season and of 2012.
Day Three - Squishy Face
Need I say more?
Day Four - Playtime
Playing on the floor with Violet.
Day Five - Floating Away
Playing with my new wireless shutter release.
Day Six - New Shoes
My new shoes, taken by Amelia.
Day Seven - Shopping with Mommy
Just picking up some groceries with Oliver and Amelia.
Last week I volunteered to help out with Oliver's class Christmas party. I had fun, but I was also on day one of a really wicked cold so I was, sadly, in a fog and just generally kind of blah. Oliver was super excited to have me there, so it was worth it even though I was under the weather. The kids got to wear their pajamas to school in celebration of The Polar Express. Oliver and I made melted snowman cookies to share with his classmates.
Oliver with his teacher, Ms. Mattingly
Gift exchange time!
Oliver handing out his cookies.
Oliver reading his book from Ms. Mattingly.
Oliver turning the cheese up a notch with that smile.
