re-do, part II

Let's try the video again.....learning curve.....of course there were more steps than just the simple "post this" button from picasa. Who knew making a movie of an ocarina song could lead to such giggles. He was cracking up, I was cracking up listening to him crack up. Very funny stuff only a parent could love.

I love this kid.

To think 10 years ago we held him so carefully, we thought he was so fragile. First time parents. Overwhelmed by the surroundings of the NICU. So grateful when we were able to take him home with us (about 3 weeks after he was born). We wanted everything to be just so --- so perfect.
And it is.
And I must be thinking this because days like today and days like the ocarina day recording remind me how lucky we are. Even though its definitely not perfect all the time.
And that's okay.

Learning, part I

Learning something new..well actually learning to use some of the features on the picture software (picasa3) that we have had for a while. It took the encouragement of my son and daughter to get me to explore these fun features. I must admit I was somewhat reluctant at first but now I am having fun with it. We have a youtube account now. My setup and email and he gets to have all the fun of filming playing his ocarina. All inspired by his love of the Zelda video games. That's his love right now. One of his favorite things. Glad to help him have fun and learn at the same time.

One thing I noticed is that children are so natural around all the features of any software and technology in general. Its so easy for him to figure things out whereas I might be there for hours hemming and hawing over what if I click this? or that?

This a little movie/practice I made of his bloopers.

Night At The Museum : Rochester, NY

Friday night the Rochester Museum and Science Center and Strasenburgh Planetarium was all ours. Really! Which of course led to all sorts of "Night at the Museum" jokes the whole night long. This was for our daughter's girl scout troop "space explorer" campout/sleepover. What a cool experience!!! Participate if you ever have the opportunity.

I have always loved the Strasenburgh Planetarium and have taken the kids there several times. I have fond memories of school field trips as a kid. But to sleep there all night?! OMG - I was a kid all over again. The Space Tunnel - I was there. The excitement as the planetarium's plain white dome "sky" turns to a twinkling night sky -- had it. This close to a mastodon you can almost imagine it breathing and hear its footsteps - yep.

The scouts get a special Star Show (just for them), hands-on activities that go along with the space explorer theme, Q&A time, and freetime to explore the museum exhibits. The museum at night is just an awesome experience. No one else was around just our troop (plus about three others) and the museum security. There were two employees there to help guide the education part of the program and go through the evenings events along with the troop leaders and moms that came along.

Just very well done. The RMSC is a gem here in Rochester. We are so lucky to have this caliber of exhibits.

Random April

just some photos from the last month or so.
... signs of spring
...favorite shade of blue + yellow
...cool boots for puddle splashing
...earth day poster contest
...Domo? little brown monster (go look it up on youtube. its hysterical)

Spring Cleaning Party

its finally here.....spring cleaning fever is hitting. this doesn't happen often 'round here. so the motivation to help me was found on the simplemom.net blog. if there are any others out there that are challenged in the area of "cleaning" then you should check it out.

discovered: finishing something makes me giddy

my craft table around 30 minutes ago

For the December Journal/Scrapbook (actually the official name is "December Daily") I chose to do a numbered tag for each day 1-25 but I didn't want to leave out days 26-31 since so much goes on that week with the kids off from school etc. I plan on just making a page/place to put those end of year reflections. I find the last week of the year always puts me in a kind of mood where I like to relax, enjoy the kids being home, clean up after the holidays and start fresh.

The whole idea was not to run out and have to buy a whole bunch of products....good thing I didn't have to. Plus, I like tinkering with digital to make my own journaling boxes or number tags. My two minor purchases were binder rings -- a box of 12 and 3" red vinyl number stickers in helvetica font. Office Depot has them on clearance this week. I was lacking in some christmas-y paper until I found my basic grey Figgy Pudding paper that I had purchased last year after the holidays. In fact, it was a little like Christmas as I uncovered a bunch of stuff I had stashed and forgotten about. Clear stamps I had forgotten about. Lots of number stickers I had yet to OPEN. gasp.

One thing, the best of all things I enjoyed, was finding out that I am totally in the mood for all this. Getting the supplies out for this project and the Christmas cards put me in a good creative flow that I haven't had in a while.

oooooh, look, pretty tags I forgot about (gotta love the toys, keeps little guy busy so I can glue things together)

yep, more stuff I forgot about. uncovered in an unlabeled brown box.
sheesh, why do I hoard?

Also tonight I printed off some penmanship paper to use as one of the pages for the journal. So I'll end the post with another very cool site to visit. Here. You can download and print out all types of papers or calendars for free. It gives a nice place to record thoughts, you can print them in smaller sizes for another element in your journal or use them as background paper on which to stamp an image on. When I print these I like to use heavy matte paper specially made for printing brochures and such (I use Epson)

glitter in my coffee

two of the tags that will number the album pages of days 1-25 for a December journal scrapbook

enchanted gold lightly blended with sea green glitter + caffeine = hmmm, yummy
(glitter is more obvious if you click on picture)

That's what happens when you are crafting + drinking your early morning cup of coffee at the same time.

The projects I am focusing on for this month are putting together a journal for December and getting the Christmas cards ready. Last year things got so busy around here that I ended up sending some New Year Cards instead. I just don't want to do that again. Starting earlier this year. Maybe doing a little less of some things to make sure the right ones DO get accomplished.

it is just not possible to get away to my craft table without the little ones following. yes, I know, the force is strong with this one.

The December journal/scrapbook album is inspired from the ali edwards blog....here
There is some really pretty christmas card inspiration at another favorite blog scrapscene... check the : a christmas card a day series.

have a great week.