Tuesday, October 30, 2012

October Photo a Day (Day30)

In case you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed that I don’t have a day 29 photo…I’m blaming it on Hurricane Sandy. I was supposed to get a shot of the moon, but as you can imagine, there wasn’t one to be seen in all that mess. And, I certainly wasn’t about to go outside to try to find it! (I also had my phone on the charger all day just in case we lost power so I wasn’t thinking about getting pictures anyways.)

But, just as Sandy has moved on, so have I. Here’s today’s shot:

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The prompt was “clothes” and what’s better than a photo of a little Minnie Mouse dress? One more day, and then I’m going to try to keep the momentum going for November.

Monday, October 29, 2012

When Mom Visits

Whenever my parents are visiting I don’t do a lot of posting on here. I really try to just enjoy the time they’re here and I figure I can get back to this old blog when I have time…which is why I hardly posted last week. My parents got here last Saturday and left Friday morning. It felt like the quickest week ever.

My mom is so helpful when she’s here, and I always have a long list of things to have her “help” me with. I put quotes around help because she usually ends up doing those things without me. She’s just got a real knack for decorating, and I don’t. Simple as that.

Ever since we had the house painted, I’ve had everything that was on the walls lying on my bedroom floor. Not only do I not have the time to hang everything up again, I had no desire. Seeing all of it lying on my floor made me want to heave. It was just too much to think about…so, I didn't. Then, my mom told me that she and my dad would be coming up to visit and I knew I’d be saved!!

We got the “V” wall re-hung:

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I decided I didn’t want to include the frames with the letters of our first names here again, so we found a new spot for them.

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And, as if that wasn’t enough, we also got the photo ledges fixed back up.

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I’m MUCH happier with the way this looks now! It’s just looks even and full, and there is still plenty of space to add on. Love it.

It wasn’t all work while they visited though. There was some time spent bonding with their grandbabies and Papa even went to watch Landon’s soccer tournament. (Meme and I went too, but it was cold and we ended up packing up the babies and bringing them home before it was over.)

Now I’m excited to go visit them in a few weeks for Thanksgiving!

October Photo a Day (Day 28)

Day 28 was all about “looking back”. There were a million ways to interpret that, but I decided to be very literal.

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Those two crack me up! I love that all I have to do is ask and they’re prepared for me to get their picture. I guess they’re used to it! I used the one above for my daily picture, but I loved this one too:

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October Photo a Day (Day 27)

I was able to get day 27 out of the way early because it was a picture of “morning”. I nearly missed my opportunity on this one because I didn’t even look at the list until after 10:30am…

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October Photo a Day (Day 26)

Today I had to capture a shot of what I was “listening to”.

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It is very rare that it is quiet in my house, and there were tons of photo opportunities, but one of my very favorite things to listen to these days is Dakota cooing to me. Listening to her coo and giggle is awesome and reminds me of each of my other kids when they were babies. Funny how they all make the same types of sounds at this age.

October Photo a Day (Day 25)

Day 25’s photo prompt was “people”. I take pictures of the people in my life all the time, so I decided to do something a little less expected.

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I remember when Harper and I played with these little people on a daily basis. This isn’t one of his favorite activities anymore, but every once in awhile we get them out and think of some silly game to play with them.

October Photo a Day (Day 24)

“Weather” was the theme for today’s photo. Here’s what I got:

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My mom and I took a stroll around the neighborhood with Dakota just so we could get a shot of the days weather. I was pretty sure my photo was going to be a bust, but I actually really like it!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Monday, October 22, 2012

October Photo a Day (Day 22)

Today's photo prompt was “in your town”. It’s a nice time of year here where we live with the leaves changing and falling…

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October Photo a Day (Day 21)

Today’s photo idea was “calm”.

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There aren’t really that many calm moments during the day, but I did grab my phone when Harper settled on my lap to play a game while I watched Landon play soccer. That’s about as calm as it gets these days! Smile

October Photo a Day (Day 20)

I’m a little behind in posting since my family is up visiting, but I have remembered to take my pictures every day!

Day 20 was “4 o’clock”.

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It was exactly 4pm when I took this shot and the funny thing is I could have probably taken this same type of shot nearly any hour of the day! I swear I am forever walking around with this little girl!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

October Photo a Day (Day 18)

Today’s photo needed to be of something that “made me smile'”.

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I got Harper a new game when we went out to the store today. When we go shopping, I always go straight to the toy area first so that I can find something he’ll play with in the cart while I shop. I NEVER actually buy the toy he plays with, and by the time we’re done shopping, he’s usually tired of it anyways, so it works for me. But today, I saw this game Gator Golf and thought it might be a fun new toy for us to play.

It was really funny watching him try to get the ball in the gator’s mouth! He just couldn’t figure it out. He was sitting on the floor next to it trying to use the club to knock it in, and when that wasn’t successful, he yanked open that alligator’s mouth and shoved the ball in! Ha! Definitely made me smile!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Top 6 iPad Picks for Toddlers 2+

Harper is the king of my iPad. I hate to admit how much I let him play on it, but it has become my “babysitter” when I need to take care of Dakota. I try to limit his screen time, and some day’s are better than others, but I’m only human and really trying to do the best I can with two little ones.

Anyways, like I said, Harper is the king of the iPad. He knows how to get around that thing like nobody’s business. Sometimes he’ll even ask me to “see a new game?”  which means to look in the app store to see if there’s anything new he can try. I mean, really!?

Some of the games he plays are pretty awesome, and if you have a kid who loves to play on the iPad, here’s our top six picks that you may enjoy.

  1. Art Maker by ABC’s Playschool Basically, you choose a background, then decorate it with objects like dolls, bears, balls, blocks, fish etc. and then hit the record button to record a story. We started playing without recording the stories, then it evolved into all of us making stories with the objects he chose, and now he actually sits and narrates his own stories! I think it’s completely amazing that he does that and his stories are hilarious to watch!
  2. Letter’s With Pooh This is one of the best app’s I’ve come across that teaches letters. You follow along with a story featuring Winnie the Pooh and friends and there are letter activities along the way. First you learn how to trace with some “tracing practice”, then you move on to tracing letters, and then you have to help Tigger find the letters that fall out of his book. It’s a great app, and Harper has spent quite a bit of time on it. I think he’s actually learned a few more letter playing these games.
  3. Bugs and Buttons This one is intended for an older child, but he likes playing this one too. There are several different games, but some he can do include sorting buttons, making patterns, counting or catching (squishing) the bugs as they crawl across the screen. The letter train is cool because as the train moves along, you have to fill in the missing letter on the platform, definitely meant for the preschool aged child. There are many other mini games to try here too.
  4. Curious George at the Zoo This is a fun app that features Curious George and the man in the yellow hat taking care of various animals. There are four different area’s with different types of animals in each. The four area’s are Sunny Safari, Deep Freeze, Old MacDonald’s Farm and The Outback. In each area the animals need to be woken up, bathed and fed. There are other activities such as making pictures with earned stickers and even some video clips featuring the animals you’ve cared for. 
  5. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Road Rally This is such a fun game. Basically you go on a road rally adventure with Mickey and his pals. You have to perform several tasks in order to reach the end of the race. It’s educational and very fun at the same time. I only wish there were more app’s like this one!
  6. Toca Boca If you do a search for Toca Boca you’ll get several different apps, and there is something for every type of child here. Harper really enjoys each of these games as they are all very unique and interesting. We have nine of these games and he plays each of them regularly. His favorite though, if I had to guess, might be Robot Lab. He gets to create a robot and then fly the robot through a simple obstacle course while trying to retrieve 3 stars. It’s a simple concept, but with each robot he creates, he gets a new obstacle course so the game just doesn’t get old.

* I think these games are really geared for older children (4+) but I know that Harper’s been able to control my iPad and play some of these games by 18 months, so 2+ is just a rough estimate.

October Photo a Day (Day 17)

Getting a photo of fruit is an easy one in this house. Harper eats a big bowl of strawberries or grapes almost every morning, so I knew this wouldn’t be a problem!

Today’s choice was strawberries:

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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

October Photo a Day (Day 16)

Today we had to capture a photo of “something we wrote”. I never realized how little I actually wrote during the day. I mean, I do a lot of texting, I write to do notes on my phone and I blog. It’s pretty limited.

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Touring Towson

After our adventure at the fall festival, we headed out to Towson for family weekend. Zoe was so excited for us to get there so that she could give us a tour of the campus. It was pretty chilly and windy out, but we made the most of our time.

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Zoe took us all over the campus pointing out where her different classes were held, where all the other dorms were located and even showed us all the different places to hangout or eat. It’s a really nice campus and the grounds are very well kept. She doesn’t really have too far to walk from her dorm to any of her classes, but I’m sure those walks feel longer when it’s raining out!

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After having some dinner at Pizza Palace (sketchy looking joint, excellent pizza) we loaded everyone in the van and headed home. It was so nice to get to see Towson from Zoe’s perspective. As a parent, I obviously see it differently than she does, so it was nice that she could show us what it is that she loves about her school.

As nice as it was to see her, it was still hard to leave without her…thankfully she’s only 40 minutes away and we can drive up to see her anytime we need a Zoe fix.

Monday, October 15, 2012

October Photo a Day (Day 15)

Dinnertime:

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Soup and sandwiches for dinner tonight. It was the perfect meal on such a rainy, dreary day.

Kinder Farm Fall Fest

One of our local parks had a fall festival this past Saturday and we decided to give it a try. Admission and parking were free, so we figured why not?

One of the first tables we saw on our walk up the path was one featuring local organic produce. They were giving away apples, and both boys had to have one.

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We stopped to pet the llama’s but Harper decided he’d just look at it instead of touch it.

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There was this really cute little tractor race set up for the little kids, so Harper and I gave it a go.

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We came in dead last.

Landon came across a vendor selling water yo-yo’s and he wasn’t about to go home without one.

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After buying some tickets, we made our way over to the game area. We did some pumpkin bowling:

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Threw some horseshoe’s:

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And kicked some soccer balls:

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Landon saw a mechanical bull and thought it looked pretty easy, so he decided to give it a try:

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When he got off, he said it definitely was a lot harder than it looked!

One of the coolest things they had set up was a corn cob shoot.

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There were bales of hay set up to resemble a rabbit, spider, caterpillar and pig. You’d load your corn cob into this tube and then press a button that made a burst of air shoot the cob into the field. Landon’s second cob went straight into the caterpillars face!

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I know we will definitely go back to this festival next year. I think it’ll be more fun when Dakota’s a little bigger. This year she was awake the entire time and wanted to be held, so it was quite a job trying to keep her warm and happy while letting the other two play games. We sure had fun though!

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Look Who’s Cookin’

I saw a fun (but messy) activity for Harper on Pinterest a while ago, and one rainy day last week, I decided to give it a go.

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Basically, I gave him a muffin tin full of different ingredients that he could “cook” with. Each spot in the tin had something different, like dry pasta, candy sprinkles, cheerio’s, rice etc. I also gave him some cups, measuring spoons and water to mix it all up.

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He LOVED it! He mixed and he poured and scooped and splashed. He was a total wet mess when he was finished, but it was totally worth it. He even learned that cheerio’s soaked in water don’t taste very good…nor does pasta or rice! Smile 

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Anyone hungry?

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Sunday, October 14, 2012

October Photo a Day (Day 14)

Today I had to get a picture of something that makes me laugh. I always love when Harper grabs a pair of my sunglasses and puts them on. They are always upside down when he puts them on, and he just looks so cute with my giant glasses on his little face.

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October Photo a Day (Day 13)

Today’s photo prompt was “landscape”. Since we were out all day, I nearly forgot to get my picture. When I finally remembered, it was starting to get late, and it was quite chilly out, so I just snapped one right where I was standing.

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It really isn’t a very nice picture considering we were walking around the beautiful Towson University campus. There were so many pretty areas I could have gotten a nice shot, but I just wasn’t thinking about it while we were walking around.

October Photo a Day (Day 12)

Today’s photo was “on the table”.

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I went simple with this one. I thought about setting the table, or shooting a nicely set table in a store, but in the end, I just went with my boring old salt and pepper shakers...and, I actually really like it!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

October Photo a Day (Day 11)

Today’s shot had to be “something up close”.

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We were all downstairs playing this morning, and Ginger came down to hang with us. I don’t get a lot of pictures of her, so I thought she’d be a good subject for today.

After getting the photo, I couldn’t help but realize how much older she’s looking these days. I mean, I know she’s getting older, but now I can kind of see it. We got her as a puppy 11 years ago and she’s very much a part of our family. I know she doesn’t get as much attention as she did before we had Harper and Dakota, and that makes me sad, but I do try to make her happy and give her attention when I’m not crazy busy. She’s really a sweet dog and we are so lucky to have such a great pet.

Our New Fridge!!

We got our new refrigerator yesterday! I was so excited all day, and when they called to let me know they were running an hour ahead of schedule, I couldn’t empty out my old fridge fast enough!

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It’s kind of crazy how they moved the refrigerator’s around. They came in and pulled the old one out, slipped a strap beneath it and with one guy on each side, walked it out the front door. Then, they brought the new one in the same way…just a simple strap beneath the fridge and somehow it didn’t fall over. I wonder if they’ve ever dropped one?

The guys that delivered were ok, but I sure do get tired of every delivery and hired “professional” asking me if I mind if they can charge their cell phone while they’re there. What the hell? Charge the damn thing at home, or buy a charger that will work in your truck or something. It’s just weird to me that they would even ask, and I’m just too nice to say no. It’s not that it’s a big deal, or going to put me out in any way, it just seems so unprofessional and rude that they even ask.

And then, after I was nice enough to let the one guy charge his phone while he ripped tape off of my new fridge, he walked out of my house and forgot it. The second guy asked me on his way out if the first had grabbed his phone and when I said that I hadn’t seen him, he said “Oh, well I better get it for him or he’ll be crying about it like a woman…no offense”. When I gave him an icy look, he said “I just mean that he won’t know what to do without it, blah, blah, blah”, but I had already quit listening to the asshole so I don’t know what else he said.

So, in a nutshell:

  • we now we have a great new fridge
  • I know that Sears delivery men can be rude and insensitive
  • I’m already thinking about which new appliance we need

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

October Photo a Day (Day 10)

Today’s photo, “emotion”.

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I didn’t know what emotion I was going to get when I started taking pic’s of Harper this morning. He can be happy one minute and crying the next. It’s hard being two. Glad I got one of his cute little smiles though…

October Photo a Day (Day 9)

Although I forgot to post last night, I did remember to get the picture yesterday!

Something “red” was what our picture of the day was supposed to be; here’s what I got:

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April Fools Pranks

The two little kids made me laugh yesterday morning.  I was upstairs getting things ready for school when I heard them talking about how ...