Photography

I don't have any desire to be a photographer, yet I want to improve my photographic skills.  I have been thinking about getting a better camera, but have told myself that before I do, I need to improve my current skills.  For now, there are two things that I want to improve.

First, I'm tired of having so many of my images just slightly out of focus.  I'm going to dig out my camera's manual, and really read it.  I do change the settings sometimes, but I don't use the vast majority of them.  I'm going to keep the manual handy to use as a reference and try to trouble shoot my mistakes and play around with the setting I have never tried before.  Obviously, doing nothing isn't working, so I'm taking desperate measures. 

Second, I need to work on my general composition.  Currently, I think, "Hey!  My kid is doing something that I should probably take a picture of.  Hmmm...where's my camera?"  Then I dig up the camera and quickly snap a couple of shots without thinking much about them.  Usually half my mind is focused on what the kid who isn't in the picture is doing.

I'm not serious enough to join any of the thousands of photography challenges, but I do need to be challenged, so here is my plan.  I made up a list of 39 words.  No special reason for that number, it's just when I ran out of ideas.  I ran it through a list randomizer and have saved the list.  Each week, that word will be my theme, and I will try to take some pictures within that theme.  Hopefully, these words will make me actually stop and think a bit about what I'm photographing, try something new, and will get me to expand my subject matter a little.

We shall see.  It could be a total flop, or I might actually improve.  It certainly won't hurt anything, and if I get better, maybe then I will upgrade my camera.  I will post each Monday with my results.  It is near the end of the week, so this will be be a short week for me, but my first word happened to be "faces," so I think I can come up with something by then.  There are a couple of little faces around here that I love to take pictures of.

I don't normally blog without posting any pictures, so here is a recent one in Monday's theme that I took a few days ago.  Expect to see more very soon.

I thought about putting this in my crafting blog since this is more of a creative endeavor, but I'm guessing that most of the pictures will be of the kids, so I put it here.  It really could work in either location and I reserve the right to move it if it becomes more about the photography and less about my two little subjects.

Puddle Splashing

We have been having very wet days lately, but that means puddles!  Today, when we walked home from school, Malcolm saw the giant puddle in our driveway and wanted to splash in it.  I made him wait long enough for me to roll up his pants, then let him at it.

You might notice that he is wearing his snow boots and not his rain boots.  This morning, when I told him to put on his rain boots, he begged me to let him put on his rain boots because they fit tighter.  Whatever, as long as his feet are dry.


Ready...?



...set...



...go!



Puddle splashing is so much fun!

Happy Easter!

We had a lovely Easter weekend!  On Saturday, we colored eggs.  Malcolm requested doing both white a brown eggs.  He wanted to dye brown eggs brown, but I convinced him to use the colors we had.


The eggs, all boiled and ready to be dyed pretty colors.



Our dye: blue, yellow, green, red, & purple



Both kids, excited and ready to get started.



Once I showed him how to set the egg on the spoon and lower it into the dye, Malcolm did a great job and didn't need any help.



Dorothy was having a hard time staying in the kitchen helper tower and was very grabby with the dye, so we gave her her own eggs to do on the floor.



All of our pretty eggs!


On Easter morning, we did baskets first, then I made apple spice waffles. After breakfast, we went outside to hunt eggs.


Their baskets of goodies. Dorothy's (on left) had: dark chocolate bunny, 3 flower fairies I made, 5 bean bags I made, 2 fabric doughnuts I made, a shovel, Little Miss Giggles book, and two egg shaped maracas. Malcolm's basket had: dark chocolate bunny, 5 bean bags I made, 2 fabric doughnuts I made, red baseball cap (like daddy's), black sandals, frog rocking stilts, Mr. Messy book, and jingle bell shaker.



The kids check out their loot. Dorothy is wearing Malcolm's hat and is holding an egg maraca. Malcolm has one of the bean bags.



Found one!



Most were down low, but this one was a big reach.



Dorothy needed a little help to reach some of the eggs.



Looking cute in her Easter outfit. She is wearing a dress that my grandmother bought me shortly before she passed away. It was chilly, so we had to add a sweater and leggings.



Checking out their loot. They were both pretty excited about the candy inside the eggs.

Pigtails

Dorothy's hair is finally long enough for me to get it in to one tiny ponytail right on the top of her head.  Of course, when I did this, her brother wanted his hair done too.  He picked out two black hairbands and I put his hair into pigtails.  Is it wrong to think he looked pretty cute?


Both kids, sorry about the glare from the flash. The lighting is really terrible in the living room in the evenings.



I often wonder if we entertain the neighbors with the antics they can see through our window.



Not much hair fits in yet, but she is getting some wisps in the back.


And just so no one thinks that we are unbalanced by having a boy in pigtails, here is the girl, wearing boy clothes and playing trains.

Box Sale

Last night, Gymboree held a box sale, which is where they haul boxes of old merchandise out of their back room and customers can root through it for bargains. I debated about going, but finally decided to give it a shot because I also had a coupon for 20% off my entire purchase. This knocked most things down to very reasonable prices. I'm pretty pleased with what I found, but am kicking myself because I forgot that their "baby boy" lines go up to a 5T. I was thinking they stopped at 3T like most other stores, so I didn't look in the back section for Malcolm and he is the one I needed to get more for since used clothing for preschool boys is hard to come by. I had more for him to start with, but anything that was over $10 I put back. I was sad that their fleece lined wind pants weren't marked down more. He had a pair this past winter and they were a favorite of both of us.

Here is what I bought. The prices are with the 20% off:

$7.79





$4.79




$5.39




$5.39




$5.99




Malcolm also got a pair or navy corduroy pants and a pair of oatmeal sweatpants for $5.99 & $4.79. I can't find a photo of either though.


___________


$4.79




$2.99




$7.79




$8.99




$2.99




$2.99




$2.10




$6.59




$3.59 (matches the plaid dress)




$9.02




$5.39

My Little Ladies Man

Yesterday I took our rabbit, Fiyero, to Malcolm's preschool class where he hopped around and investigated the kids and put up with all the petting incredibly well. I told the kids a little bit about rabbits and they liked getting to see such a big bunny.

Dorothy was also a hit and several of the little girls wanted to play with her outside. One little girl had a brother who recently died, and she made Dorothy a little drawing and told me that she wanted to, "play with Dorothy outside. I know how because I played with my little brother and know how to play with babies." She also got very upset and pouted if another little girl came and wanted to play with Dorothy too. It was really sweet, but sad to watch. Dorothy had a blast getting pulled around the playground in the wagon by the big kids.

Today, when I went to pick up Malcolm, one of the boys told me that, "Malcolm said you were going to bring his bunny today," and I explained to him that the bunny only came that one day. He then told me, "But two of Malcolm's girlfriends didn't get to see it." Girlfriends!? That was the first time I had heard that word use in relation to my son.

I asked Malcolm about it when we were getting in the car to go home:

me: Malcolm, do you have any girlfriends at school?
him: Yeah.
Me: Do you know any of their names?
him: Nope.
Me: How many girlfriends do you have?
Him: (thinking) Hmmm...I don't know. I never counted them before.

I'll have to see if we can figure who and how many girlfriends he has at a later time. He has just recently started mentioning a few classmates names. All but one are boys though. The one little girl he mentions is always about something naughty that she was doing. I suspect that the stories he tells about her are not entirely accurate.

Giraffe House

Today, we drove by a stone house that is built with large rounded river stones with a fair amount of mortar in between each stone, and Malcolm piped up:

Hey! That looks like a giraffe house! Yea! I bet giraffes live there.


I should mention that the house is not very tall.

Painting

We all have Spring fever, but it hasn't been quite nice enough to be outside. To alleviate some of the winter blahs, I brought out the paints a couple of days ago. It was Dorothy's first time painting and she was desperate to be exactly like her big brother. I really like these dot painters because they are easier for Malcolm to control than an open container and a paint brush.


They were both very serious and concentrated very hard.



Malcolm was a big fan of the blue paint. I'm surprised that there is any left in the bottle.



Dorothy kept trying to eat the red one and couldn't understand why I kept telling her, "No, no."



Painting is messy business.

Fire-marshal Dorothy

Malcolm left his fireman hat in the kitchen and when I set Dorothy down to grab her coat, she descended upon it with glee.


Ha! No brother in sight to take away my new hat.




How do I get this thing on?




Whoops! Too far.




Almost got it.




There! How do I look?