Scavenger Hunt Sunday 02.02.14

Hello!  And welcome to another Scavenger Hunt Sunday!  Which also happens to be Groundhog Day.  I'm posting this on Saturday night, so I have yet to see what the rodent predicts as far as the duration of winter.  But I don't pay much attention to him anyway.  It's going to do what it's going to do.  No matter what Phil says.  :)

But enough of my ramblings.  You're here to see my Scavenger Hunt photos.  Ashley used my list this week, so I had to be sure to participate.  Don't want to miss my own party!  :)

{beverage}

Alex was enjoying a mug of hot white chocolate.  My sister-in-law sent it to us for Christmas.  Alex loves it the most.

{snuggle}

Alex loves to snuggle.  I will miss the days when he no longer wants to snuggle with his mama, so I take advantage of the time now.

{thick}

I used a recipe for a thick bubble solution in order to try our frozen bubble science experiment this week during our well-below zero temperatures.  How's that for a sentence?  :)  If you want to check them out, there are more frozen bubble photos here.

{behind the lens}

 Naturally I am usually behind the lens.  That is where I am most comfortable.  But every once in a while I hand the camera over to Keira so I can be in a shot or two.  Like this one where I'm showing off the painting I did at a class Friday afternoon.  It's not perfect, but not too bad for my first-ever acrylic painting.

{where were you?}

Last Sunday afternoon I sat outside at our picnic table for about an hour capturing close up photos of snowflakes with my macro lens.  It was very cold but I was determined.  And my determination paid off because I got some incredible shots.  Snowflakes are truly amazing.  More snowflake photos here.

Thanks for stopping by!  I will do my best to return the visit.  I'm on call for a birth photo session the next few days, so things are really up in the air, which I'm not used to.  I like things scheduled.  I'm excited for the opportunity though.  I can't wait to share them with you!  Provided I do a good job.  :)

Make it a great week!

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Winter Science Experiment

For the past three days school has been cancelled due to severely cold weather.  My kids were pumped!  They love it when they get an unexpected day off.  They forget that these days need to be made up, probably when the weather is much nicer and they'd rather be outside playing.  :)

However, this mom knows that unless she keeps them busy - especially my boys - that they will start to get a little crazy and start fighting and probably end up in trouble.  So we did a little homeschooling.  They weren't thrilled with the idea at first but I stood my ground.  It turned out to be a really good thing.

Math, language arts, lots of reading, computer time, art, and a science experiment or two.  One of those science experiments was something I wanted to try for a while now ... frozen bubbles.

I knew I would need a helper so Nick agreed to be my assistant.  We went out early Tuesday morning, while the temperatures were still below zero.  We sat in my car because it was too windy in the open air.  And we blew bubbles.

At first nothing happened.  It was just a bubble.

So we tried opening the windows to let some of the frigid air in, but the windows were frozen shut.  Then Nick opened his door slightly, held the bubble near the cold air and viola!  Frozen bubbles!

We tried several times and had a few successes and many failures.  As far as photographing them anyway.  If we let them freeze too much, they would burst.  Or if he moved too quickly to get the bubble wand back to face me, it would burst.  Of if he closed the door too hard ... yep, you guessed it ... it would burst.  :)

By the time we were done and our fingers were on the verge of frostbite, there were bubbles burst all over my dashboard.  When the temps warm up to near freezing the next few days, I'll have to wipe my dash down.  :)

On a somewhat related note, ... if you haven't checked them out yet, I posted some close up photos of snowflakes yesterday.  Not to toot my own horn, but they are pretty incredible.  Making the best of my winter photo opportunities.  But looking forward to spring!


Linking with:
Little Things Thursdays
Share the Joy

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Never too old for bubbles

First, today is the last day to enter to win the movie This Is Our Time.  So be sure to check that out!

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Sunday afternoon Alex stood in the kitchen watching out the window.  When I walked over to see what he was looking at, I saw our neighbor, Kim, and another lady (which turns out was her sister, Linda) blowing bubbles in Kim's front yard.  Not really an unusual sight.  Except for the fact that neither Kim nor Linda have kids.  (At least not that I know of).  And the fact that they are both probably in their 50s.

(On an interesting - or not-so-interesting - side note ... My name is Kim and I have a sister named Linda.  How bizarre is that?)  :)

So I told Alex to go out and see if he could join them.  Reluctantly he did, and within 5 minutes or so was having a blast with them.  Which, of course, sparked Keira and Nick to head out also.  With mom following toting her camera.  :)

Kim quickly shared a bottle of bubbles with my kids and they had so much fun!

Keira, who always like to be in control of the situation, was the bubble blower.  Alex, apparently, the bubble eater.  :)

Nick chased bubbles around for a bit also then asked if he could be the bubble blower.  Which then freed Keira up to chase down bubbles with her baby brother.

I guess you are never too old to play with bubbles.  :)

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 11.25.12

This week's items are Home or thankful, In the kitchen, Couple, Bubbles, and Trees.

{home or thankful}

Nick and I got our craft on this week by making this banner for Thanksgiving.  It is hanging in our dining room.  Nick picked out the papers (with my help, of course).  I used the Silhouette Cameo machine to cut out the pennants, letters, and leaves, then used some twine I've had forever to hang the pennants from.

{in the kitchen}

I hosted Thanksgiving dinner again this year.  I did have some help this year though.  My mom (pictured) and sister gladly helped me in the kitchen which made things go smoother.  Everyone liked everything and ate more than enough which makes this year a success.

{couple}

I took some family photos last week and Katie requested a few of just her and her husband.  She was pleased with the photos I was able to capture.  She even asked if I would take photos for them again in the late spring.

{bubbles}

From the archives.  An out-of-focus photo of the kids playing with the bubble machine.

{trees}

It is impossible for me to take a sunset photo without trees in it.  They are all around us.

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to head over to Ashley's for more great Scavenger Hunt photos.

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Week 21 in Pictures

Another fun week!  I got to spend time with some girl friends during Craft Night and got a little of my Project Life book done ... we enjoyed Keira's spring concert ... Nick had his annual checkup and is growing like a weed - not that we needed a doctor to tell us that :) ... we planted more flowers ... we mowed more grass ... and we bought a new slip-n-slide to help the kids keep cool in our August-like weather.


School is almost out and the kids are counting down the days.  Alex has five days left, Keira and Nick have six.  (Alex goes to afternoon Kindergarten and since the last day is only a half day, he doesn't have to go - in case you were wondering.)  We're gearing up for Doug's work schedule to change ... and looking forward to it!  He will be steady daylight with most weekends off!  No more shift work!  Woo hoo!  We're also gearing up for our church's Vacation Bible School, which isn't until the end of June but will be here before we know it!


Anyway, let's take a look at last week's pics ...

{Sunday}

Me getting silly for the Scavenger Hunt.

{Monday}

This pesky squirrel, among others, keeps getting into my bird feeder.  As much as I dislike it stealing my bird food, I do admire its technique.  :)

{Tuesday}

Keira's Spring concert was this evening.  The orchestra sounded great!  I had Keira pose for me outside after the concert since it was too dark inside to get any good photos.

{Wednesday}

Doug and Alex bought some yellow roses for me.  I sprinkled water on them and took pictures.  :)

{Thursday}

The castle blocks I bought from Groupon finally arrived.  The boys, especially Alex, really enjoy playing with them.

{Friday}

"Life is just a bowl of cherries, don't take it serious, it's mysterious. Life is just a bowl of cherries, so live and laugh and laugh at love, love a laugh, laugh and love.
~ Bob Fosse

Doug bought cherries because he insists that I wrote them on the grocery list.  I didn't, but I'm glad he bought them because they were really good!

{Saturday}

We bought a new bubble machine and had some fun trying it out.  I was surprised at all the colors I was able to find in those bubbles!

          
One last thing ... my favorite photo from May ...I picked this one because it was something I wanted to do for a while but never got the chance.  And because I think it is fun!  :)

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 05.27.12

It's time for another scavenger hunt!  This week's items are Beneath your feet, Capturing movement, Texture, Face your fears, and Currently.  I'll be honest and tell you that I struggled with a couple of these, but that's part of the challenge, I guess.  :)

{beneath your feet}How cool would it be to have a blanket of bubbles beneath your feet.
{capturing movement}We bought a new bubble machine this week and have played with it a few times now.  I thought it would be neat to slow down my shutter speed and capture the bubbles coming out of the machine.  This is what I got.  I like it.
{texture}Okay, so I don't normally stalk around in a graveyard taking pictures, but Keira needed a photo of this Grand Army of the Republic star from the Civil War for history extra credit.  I thought the texture of the star and the tombstone were interesting.
{face your fears}Who wouldn't be scared staring down the barrel of a rifle?!  Well, in this case, it was a BB gun that Doug was teaching Keira and Nick to use, but still!  (For those of you concerned for my safety, the safety was on and no BB's were loaded in the gun.)
{currently}I had a couple different ideas for this prompt.  The books I'm reading ... the photos I'm editing ... the dining room I'm painting ... until this morning when I discovered that our eggs hatched and we now have three teeny, tiny Monarch caterpillars happily eating milkweed!  I'm so excited to be raising Monarchs again!
So that's it for me!  I need to get painting that dining room!  
Be sure to head over to Ashley's for more great Scavenger Hunt photos.  And if you'd like to play along for next week, look for these items ...

1. Shine
2. Fast
3. Left
4. Peace
5. Plain

Happy Memorial Day!  And have a great week!

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Bubbles ... Edited

Welcome back to the edit version of Shoot & Edit/Good to Wow!  On Monday we linked up our SOOC bubble shots with Jill; today we link up our edits with Ashley.  My kids had a fun time helping me with this week's challenge.  And, of course, I had a hard time picking just one photo to show.  So without further ado, here are my edits ...  


(Mouse over each image to see the SOOC version.)

I really didn't do much with my photos.  Just some tweaking in ACR and cropping on a few.  I was pretty pleased with my SOOC shots.

For those of you who asked what kind of bubbles we used ... that didn't pop right away when hitting the grass ... we have SMB - Super Miracle Bubbles.  They are the kind that came with our bubble blower.  


Also I plan to visit those that have visited my blog this week.  I'm engrossed in a really good book and have been spending most of my free time reading.  In fact, as soon as I'm done with this post, I plan to dive back into it.  So please be patient with me.  I'll visit soon!

Be sure to head over to Ashley's to see more fabulous bubble photos.  Next week's theme is Father's Day Swings/Slides (I just found out Jill switched themes - thanks Ginger!) ... in case you'd like to play along.  :)

Have a great weekend!

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We love bubbles!

One thing my kids love to play with is bubbles.  We had a bubble machine last year that was a lot of fun, but, like many toys, it didn't last.  So we bought a little bubble gun this year and have had a blast with it so far.  Hopefully it will last longer than last year's machine.  :)


I took a bunch of photos last week in anticipation of this week's Shoot & Edit theme.  Plus it was just fun to see what kind of bubble photos I could capture.  I deleted a lot and then narrowed the keepers down to six.  :)  


Here are my SOOC shots for this week's Shoot & Edit ...

Alex loves to chase and pop the bubbles.

I got some new macro filters, so I tried the 10x one out and was able to get really close to this bubble.

And just for fun, some out of focus bubbles to create bokeh.

I love me some bokeh.  :)


Linking my SOOC shots up with Jill today.

On Thursday I'll link up my edits with Ashley.  But to be honest, I love these photos and don't know that I'll do much, if anything, with them.  


Have a wonderful week!

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