Photoshop Friday

Over at Jessicasprague.com they have something called Photoshop Phriday......For $1 you can download a mini-kit and see a tutorial for photoshop. As long as you pay for it on Friday you can use it whenever you please. Just so happened that I had a lot of Free time this Saturday morning. David was working, Zane was out helping another scout on his Eagle project and the other kids were enjoying the weather by riding their bikes up and down the driveway.

So, I played around a little while with the lesson I learned. Now the lesson, took all of about 3 minutes to view. It said I should be able to complete the layout in 30minutes but let's just say my 30min was times about 3. The lesson was on how to do the semi-transparent photo in the bottom right corner. I succeeded and love the way the page turned out.

A funny thing happend when Mia peeked over the side of the chair. She always lights up when she sees I'm working on pictures of her. So after some initial delight she got a really sad look on her face. Then she said, "Why are you writing in cursive in my book? I won't even be able to read my OWN book." I hadn't even ever thought of that!!!

I assured her that after 3rd grade she would be able to read the book just fine.

Gracious winner?

Last Saturday we were invited over to watch the LSU vs. Mississippi State game. Our friends are State fans, as are the Davis who also attended the soire. In the past the 3 husbands have gone together to watch the game in person. But this year they stayed home. The game was good (or so I'm told, I was chatting in the kitchen the entire time)

So here's a shot of David after the game. Think he was a gracious winner?

I guess we'll know next year....if we get invited back or not.

Minute to Win It

We loved watching the game show Minute to Win it this summer.

For one of our Adult life group socials we played Minute To Win it. It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs. So the next morning we pulled out all the games and the kids had so much fun playing them. What a cheap way to entertain the kids for hours. They all wanted a chance to do each game.

What a fun birthday party this would be. Especially for that tween age. You can go online to the NBC website and get all the rules and videos for each of the games

Noodling Around

Candy Elevator

This one was one of their favorites. It's called Face the Cookie. You start with an oreo on your forehead and can only move your facial muscles to get the cookie down your face and into your mouth.

Look who was the only one out of all 7 of us to actually do the task!

1st Assignment

Last summer my friend Jerilyn asked if I wanted to join in a year long Quilting project. Each month she gives out an assignment and you work at your own pace to get the blocks finished. Then next summer we will meet up to sew the entire quilt top together.

I began working on my August assignment very early in August and then my machine decided it needed a check up. (The feed-dogs wouldn' pull the material through) So after a two week date with the Bernina wizards, she finally came home all spic and span, ready to sew.

Part of the fun of this quilt is that I have no idea what the finished product will look like. The title of the quilt is Colorbox. So my first instruction was to buy a 24 box of crayola crayons. Remove the gray, black and white colors. Then for each block I'm suppose to blindly pick crayons from the box and color the block. Then sort through the fabric and find colors that go with the colored picture.

I was a little skeptical but I am really enjoying this part. It's forcing me to use colors I wouldn't normally put together. And for the most part I really like what I've picked out of the box so far.

Being a former teacher, Jerilyn does a great job of sending out the lessons.

Here's the entire 1st assignment all ready to file away.

to much Spanish?

Kaylee's homework paper....she had to list the 4 figures carved into Mt. Rushmore....Think she's had to much Spanish?

He didn't get this from me...

I don't get a chance to blog about my "big" boy much anymore. For a variety of reasons.
1. He says things like, "Mom you can take this pic but it better not show up on the blog"
2. He's so busy I rarely have time to snap a picture of him
3. It isn't cool to have your Mom show up at school.

This past school year Zane took Art 1 and really enjoyed it. He made the Resse's Pieces papermachie above. It was quite large, but he did a great job on the details.

I'm proud of him....he definitley didn't get his talent from me....and I think I can safely say from David either?!?!?!?

Two-wheelin

Ty just couldn't take it that he was the only one in the family still using training wheels. So he convinced David to take his off too. It didn't take long at all for him to start riding up and down the street on his own.

First rides aren't without incident, but Mom was there on First Aid duty. Sadly he wasn't the only patient of the day.

You know you're old

You know you're getting old when the sight of your new washer and dryer gets you excited.

I'm really hoping these large capacity machines will cut down on my Laundry time. We'll see.....

class pet

In Ty's new preschool class they have a class pet. Her name is Murphy and she's a guinea pig. It was Ty's weekend to bring Murphy home for a visit. He was so excited to be "in charge" of Murphy.

Murphy enjoyed all kinds of tasty treats. Especially spinach leaves and Strawberries, (stem and all) the best part of keeping the pet for Mom was returning her on Monday.

Childhood ingenuity at it's finest....Remember the days when you just went outside to "play" It makes me sad sometimes that our kids don't have this same freedom. But there are times like this when I look out the window and see somthing that makes me smile.

We had moved this swing holder onto the back deck and removed the large swing so we could hang the Pinata for Trent's birthday party. A few weeks passed before anyone decided to move it back out into the yard, and Trent found this rope and tied it to the hooks. Then all the kids took turns swinging on the new swing set.

a way with da ladies

I read a great post by an adoptive Dad. He had the opposite experience as David did with adoptions. But it's an interesting perspective. We've always been told that most adoptive kids bond with one parent and then the other. That it's a more natural progression than to bond equally with each one. I can vouch for this, being the second parent to have the bonding.....BOTH times....not that I still resent it or anything...really I don't.....do I seem resentful?

OK so moving on. Read the article below...I' think you'll like it.


www.nohandscurrentinfo.blogspot.com/2010/09/way-with-da-ladies.html

Whoo loves you

Digital Scrapbooking

I go back and forth about traditional vs. digital scrapbooking. I guess I like them both. Digital is certainly easier. I'm just not sure I want to make the investment into a lot of digital files. However, there's lots of free stuff out there as well. And there's just something about getting to push the actual photos around on your paper.

But I had a little time tonight and I was able to sit on the couch and do these two pages without having to dig anything out of the closet or clean anything up afterward.

cheer camp

Kaylee and Mia had a great time at Upward Cheer Camp. Each day for one week the girls learned cheers, stunts and a pom pom routine. Then on Friday they had a peprally for the parents. The girls learned lots of new cheers and are currently trying to perfect their jumps.

Funny!

While on vacation we stopped at a little BBQ place. Zane saw these Salt and Pepper Shakers and busted out laughing. They made me laugh as well....then we both couldn't control our giggles the rest of the meal. David thought we had lost our minds but we didn't care....I was going through some pictures tonight and saw Zane had taken a picture of them. They brought a smile to my face, even now.

Eight...

Trent had some very specific requests for his birthday cake this year. He wanted a cake with several tiers...and it needed to have different sports on it. I think he really wanted fondant, modeling chocolate and cereal treats too....but I let him know my name is not Buddy and this is not Cake Boss. But after some thought I came up with this cake and he was very pleased.

Of course he is always pleased with presents as well. It doesn't matter what party we're attending, Trent is always watching when the presents are opened. It could be a party for a 3 year old or an 80 year old and he's right there watching. So, this part of the party was what he was WAITING for.

And I'm not sure what this pose is all about but he did the same thing in all 4 of the pics I shot. I think he may go something like this....."Today is MY day.....and these are my Peeps"