Coloring Easter Eggs

Okay, so I'm still trying to get through all of the pictures from Easter weekend. I have given up on editing them and just decided to pick some to share with everyone. 

Love Thursday

Today is Love Thursday over at Shutter Sisters. This is my contribution. I love lots of things outside of the normal kids, hubby, family, etc. Here is my list:

• Springtime with all of the flowers in bloom.
• Sunsets
• Mountains
• Beaches
• A good glass of white wine
• Mexican food
• The art that my kiddos make
• Butterflies - all kinds
• A childs laughter and giggles

So what do you love?

Egg Hunt

Here are a few pictures from the twins club Easter egg hunt this past Saturday. The kids had so much fun finding the egss and then seeing what was inside all of them. This was really the first year that the twins were able to hunt for eggs.

The kiddos checking out their eggs

Garrett did not like the Easter bunny at all. This is the first year that Avary did.

Garrett and Claire on the slide together.

Avary having fun on the slide.

Thankfully the weather turned out nice. It was a little chilly and breezey but the sun was out and everyone had fun.

Better Photo

So far this month I have posted 3 pictures to the BetterPhoto.com monthly photo contest. This is the second picture that has been given an Editor's Pick. Here's to making it to the next round.

Happy Easter

Just a quick post to wish everyone a very Happy Easter!

Egg Coloring, or is it kid coloring?

I just wanted to quickly share a picture from tonight's Easter egg coloring we did with the kiddos.  It was the first time that Claire and Garrett have had a chance to do this.  What a blast they had.  

We started off with Claire trying to help move the bowls of color and she ended up dumping yellow coloring all over her face.  I tried taking a picture, but you can't quite see the yellow.  Then we had Garrett who insisted on using just the blue coloring and doing it himself.  We had many proclamations of "I do it by self".  You can see in the picture that he and his Dad are starting to turn blue.  Thankfully "Goop" along with a long bath gets easter egg dye off of kids.

I'll have LOTS more pictures from today's Easter Egg Hunt and egg coloring later tonight or tomorrow.  

Hello Spring - Good-bye Winter

It is officially spring in Kansas City.  Yeah!  Of course that doesn't mean that we are done with the snow...  They are calling for a 30% chance of snow/rain mix for Easter Sunday.  Oh well stick around and it will change tomorrow - it is K.C. you know.  

But today it is going to be in the 60's - Yippee. That means lots of playtime outside for the kids today.  They will have a  blast.  

Anyway, as a farewell to winter I thought I'd post a few pictures from the lights on the Plaza.  These were all taken in December.

Dinner Time Fun (or is it chaos)

I thought I'd document a typical (not sure what that is) night's dinner time with our family.  Tonight we started eating dinner as we always do, the frenzy of getting everyone seated and eating.  After most of dinner is over we are just sitting there talking with the kids and everyone just enjoying their time together.  The picture above is Claire checking out the mini grocery add that came in the mail that I had been reading.
Then some fun started with Avary (who tonight decided she needed to sit in between the twins) and Garrett sharing lots of hugs.  

Still having fun with the hugs and squishes.

Then notice Garrett's mouth in the picture above and then in the one below.  It was a split second and then...

CHOMP! He bit Avary's cheek.  She was in tears and very upset.  Of course Garrett was scolded and informed about how bad biting is, etc., etc., etc.  Then he had to give his apologies and tell his sister he was sorry.

Here he is going in to kiss her cheek and make it better. I was a little surprised that she trusted him.

All the while, Claire is sitting in her chair drinking her milk.  Then disaster strikes. 

After a refill of milk in Garrett's cup, the lid comes off, Garrett is in tears, his shirt soaked and milk is EVERYWHERE!  Before I know it Avary starts consoling him and Claire is saying "mess" and "clean" over and over.  So, I handed everyone paper towels and they started cleaning. 

I have to say I was very proud of all of them.  They did not stop cleaning until every spot of milk was off the floor and it was dry.  Now, if I could just get them to clean up the living room like this we'd have it made.  I guess a Mom can dream.

Working

It is amazing how quickly the kids can pick up on using the computer. Yesterday afternoon I had stepped away from the desk and came back to Claire and her brother playing with the mouse and keyboard. She was actually clicking away and scrolling through items on the screen. Somehow she had even changed the background picture on the desktop.

I just had to get a picture of the intense look on her face and her holding the mouse correctly. Too cute! (needless to say, she was very upset with me when I took the mouse away from her)

Snow Again

The weather man says that our winter is "normal" but it truly feels like it is the longest one around.  I guess after the taste of spring we had early this week - temps in the upper 60's low 70's - we are all just READY.

We woke up this morning to a snow shower.  The kids were amazed at the huge snow flakes falling.  I wish I had captured their faces.  Too cute. But I did have a chance to capture my budding tulips in the snow.  Thankfully they are still emerging and the leaves are all that are showing. 

 

Here's to another snow day, even if it's only going to last a few hours.  Have a great weekend.

Photoshop Fun

I have been spending time trying to learn more of the features in my Photoshop Elements program.  So I have been scouring the internet looking for different tips and tricks.  

A few weeks ago I learned about textures and how to add them to your photos.  That has been a fun challenge in seeing what pictures look great with textures and which ones don't.  

Yesterday I came across a blog for the Confessions of a Pioneer Woman.  I really enjoyed her entries.  As I went looking through some of them I came across an entry about her favorite photoshop tricks.  So of course I was interested in reading on and giving this a try.

Here are the results of my attempt at using a Hard Light layer in Photoshop Elements.

The first picture is with the Hardlight layer.  The second is the original.  I really like the results of adding this layer.  It just gives the pictures more depth.

Here are a few more:

The first one has a texture layer and a hardlight layer.  The second one is the original.

So what do you think?  Do you enjoy these "after" pictures as much as I do?

Happy Birthday!

Today our sweet princess Avary is 4 years old.  Wow, I can not believe how fast the time has gone by.  It seems like just yesterday that we found out we were pregnant with her.  We have truly been blessed with her in our lives.  Happy Birthday Avary!

Baby E

Well my nephew decided to come into this world 5 weeks early!  Thankfully he is healthy and doing great.  So is my sister for that fact.  Anyway, I just had to share a picture of my beautiful nephew.  You can see a few more pictures here.

Tea Party

Yesterday we celebrated Avary's 4th birthday by having some of her friends come over for a Tea Party.  We asked that everyone come dressed up and boy did they look so pretty.  It is amazing how grown up they all looked.  I still can't believe she is turning 4.  Wasn't it just yesterday that she was born.  Where does the time go?

Anyway, everyone had a great time, drank lots of "tea" (which was actually lemonade), had fun playing stick the glass slipper on Cinderella's foot and all went home very tired.  For me I would do it again in a heartbeat.  The smiles and laughter was worth all of the prep work that it took to put it together.

To see a slide show of all of the pictures from the party click here.

Editor's Pick

I just have to share this exciting news with someone.  So, I figure why not here.  Put it out to the wide open web.  I am just so excited and get this way every time.  What you might ask has me so excited?  Well, one of my pictures that I submitted to an on-line photo contest has been chosen as and "Editor's Pick".  

The on-line photo contest is part of the BetterPhoto.com website.  Each month they have a contest where you can submit one photo a day to various categories.  This month I decided to post a picture that I had taken and applied a texture to.  I was inspired to try this after reading a post on Shutter Sisters.  

Well I popped over to the Better Photo site today and found that the picture below had been given an "Editor's Pick" award.  From what I understand that means that my picture is one of the hundreds, I don't know the exact number, that has been chosen to go to the next round of judging.  If I were to win, I wouldn't win huge amounts of money.  That's not why I'm so excited.  For me it's just the excitement of someone seeing my photos and liking them.  To date I have submitted about 15 pictures to this on-line website.  Out of those this is my sixth editor's pick.  I think that's pretty good and that is why I am so excited!

Making cake

Today I am spending my day making a birthday cake for Avary's 4th birthday.  Her tea party with her four little friends is tomorrow.  She is so excited.  I just hope I can get the cake decorated and everything cleaned up before everyone gets home today.  It is much easier to clean and the prep work for the party when there aren't 3 little kiddos under foot.

So, while the frosting was mixing I thought I'd pull out the camera and take a few shots.  I've been playing with the white balance settings on my camera.  It is amazing how the feel of the photo can change going from auto-white balance to say the setting with the light bulb (sorry don't remember what that is called).  In one everything is a bit yellow, warm toned.  In the one I posted everything looks closer to real life.  

Have a great day!

Love Thursday

This picture is over a year old, but I still love how Garrett and Claire would always reach out and touch each other. Have a great day and remember to reach out and share the love today!

Smiles

I have been blessed with three beautiful children all with really great smiles! It is truly one of the best things to see day in and day out. Here are some of my favorites the kids have given me recently.

Claire on the day she was home sick with the flu

Garrett pretending to "cook" with hotpads

Avary at her BF Jordan's birthday party

Hint of Spring

As I mentioned in another post on Saturday the kids and I spent a good portion of the day outside.  We so enjoyed the nice weather.  While out and about I discovered that some of my tulips are starting to peek from below.  

Oh, how this gives me hope that we might actually have tulips by Easter.  Let's just pray that we don't have a repeat of last year.  Where I spent countless nights trying to keep them covered (I have hundreds under each tree alone) to protect them from frost.  To only start to loose the battle and resolve myself to start clipping them in order to enjoy them.  Let's all pray that it means warm weather is coming and they will all get to stay in the ground.

Here is the hint of a tulip found on Saturday:

Here is what they looked like last year after a couple of nights hiding under a sheet when we were hit with a frost spell in April.  Some were actually frozen little buds.

Here is what they look like in a good year:

Memories of Summertime

Oh what beautiful weather we had this weekend. Yesterday the kids and I enjoyed the weather by going outside 2 different times. In the morning they just kept standing at the window and saying “out, out”. They enjoyed every minute, except for when it was time to come in. We played, swung, ran, blew bubbles and examined the tulips that are starting to sprout from the underground. Of course neither of the twins really knows what a tulip is, but they seemed interested.

Now today we are back to the reality that is winter! The temp dropped 25 degrees in an hour or something crazy like that. It is raining and the weatherman says it will be snowing by the morning!

It seems like this winter will never leave us. I came across this reminder of summertime from last August. These are pictures of Garrett having fun on the slip-n-slide at a friend’s house. He ran across the yard and went head first into the water without even a concern for anything – typical for him and I think standard for boys. While on the other hand his twin sister was happy to sit quietly with her Dad and watch the craziness.





I’m sure weather like this will be among us very soon and then by early August I will be wishing for the cool breeze and snow fall we had today.

Superhero Challenge - Textures

This is my very first try at applying texture to my pictures.  I think I'm in love.  Tell me what you think. 

Here is my second try at texture (with the original below).