And...They're Back!

Back to School, that is!!

So we decided to try out a few photography ideas.  My husband is not only a great & involved dad and hard worker at a real day job, he also manages to squeeze in being a photographer and yes, we experiment for session ideas with our own children.  Better to practice on them than on a paying client, no?  We have a lot of fun with shadow pics and we wondered what would happen with silhouette cut-outs.  Now we know.  I think this will come in extra handy in the future.  It's easy to do.  I just grabbed poster board and printed out the letters I wanted using my printer.  The BTS (for back to school) was sized 6x8 each and the 2011 was sized at 5x7 each.  I printed, cut them out, then arranged them onto the poster board.  I taped them down, traced around them and cut them out with an exacto knife.  Then, we handed it over to the kids to hold and hubby snapped away! You have to practice with flipping the poster around properly. I believe it was upside and backwards...that's what made it "read-able" left to right once the pic was snapped.  The possibilities are endless and I'd to see any examples if some readers give it a try!

Then, we grabbed an apple (the most needed accessory for back to school, of course).  We also grabbed books that the kids are really into now, and some chalkboards.  The idea is to "remember" through photos what they were reading at the time.  For my daughter, it's Barbie, Barbie, Barbie and more Barbie.  So, her books were...you guessed it, Barbie!  My son's tastes are a little more eclectic, and he's very into series books right now.  His favorites are Harry Potter, Geronimo Stilton, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  We wanted to remember this years from now, so we included it in the shot.  We sat them on a bench and hubby snapped away.  I love how it turned out.  It's the perfect little "scrapbook page" to remember the start of kindergarten and 4th grade!

The chalkboards were included to remember what year we snapped these.  It's also a great way to see what their handwriting looks like each year.  For example, 4th grade is an "all-cursive" year and he's been practicing all summer his best John Hancock.  I know my kindergarten's signature will lose it's baby look in a year or two and I want to remember how cute it is that her dotted i's are still sticks with swirly circles.  I'm not a big fan of keeping every little scrap of paper they've ever written on, so this was a great way in one shot to capture everything I want to remember about this year!

Oh...and we totally gave ourselves permission NOT to try and capture the back to school shots ON the first day of school.  We did this the day before.  If I've learned anything by having a 4th grader, it's to forget getting great shots on the first morning of school.  It's just too hectic and crazy.  We still took the camera in hand on the first day to make sure the moment was captured for their scrapbooks...but these shots!?  These were for mama's scrapbook, and I know I'll treasure them.

I hope you have a chance to capture some nice BTS photos of your kiddos too!  And go ahead, I give you permission to snap them a week late!

Happy Snapping & Happy Learning!

PS - If you'd like to see more of hubby's passion for photography, you can do so over at www.eidenphotography.com.  Be sure to come say "hi" on Facebook, too!

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Recently, I shared the pics from my daughter's 5th birthday party. Something about one child turning nine and one child turning five this year had me feeling a little nostalgic. I dug back through the digital library to find a pic of the kiddos from each year (I tried to find images that were taken close to the time of their birthdays). Then with photo editing software, I threw text on top and placed them in collages. I was really happy with how they turned out. Kind of a cute "scrapbook" idea to print out and keep. I love the way these types of collages show how time flies...and I also like the idea of doing it for each month of the year, This year/last year, first days of school, each Christmas for 10 years, etc. The possibilities are endless for getting the creative juices flowing. Here's what I came up with this year.

For my big guy:

And for my little lady:

Happy 5th To My Little Snow Princess

Last month, we were able to celebrate our "baby" girl turning 5. She requested a "ice princess" party. With her birthday one week before Christmas, I gave myself a break this year and did the whole "book it" thing instead of trying to handle it all myself. We booked the Ice Skating Rink, they gave the kiddos lessons, pizza, drinks, and cake was all provided...along with a helper who even wrote down the "who gave what" list for us. It was awesome. I have to admit I've always been reluctant to book a party like this. I've always felt it's not as personal and have preferred to do all the little details myself. Ehhh, I'm over it. She had a blast and I hardly lifted a finger. Enjoy the pics!

The kids had a 30 minute lesson from the rink staff...which was great since most have never skated before. I kept the party small at 8 kiddos. Big bro was happy to have 30 minutes to himself to practice his speed laps. Both of my kids are wild on ice skates!

At this age, it's all about barbies, squinkies, babies and jewelry for this girly girl!

Happy Birthday big girl....now STOP GROWING UP!!!

Birthday Brunch

Disclosure: The above photos contain images that some viewers may find offensive. I apologize in advance for the morning hair, wrinkles and blemishes not covered by make-up.

I told you, we partied all weekend! Labor Day morning (aka, my birthday) we kicked off the day with a brunch. The kids were so cute hiding out that morning making me cards. My daughter helped mix the waffles, my husband made the sausage, Grammy made the eggs, and I tried out a new muffin recipe. After breakfast, I opened my gifts. I was so blessed this year to receive clothes, a new purse, new books, gift cards, money to put towards some new crafty stuff...fun fun fun!

The next time you have an easy, carefree morning with nowhere to go and no place to be...try out these recipes - No birthday necessary.

Banana - Chocolate Chip Waffles

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
2 1/2 cups milk (I used skim, but buttermilk is the best)
3/4 cups vegetable oil
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup mini-chocolate chips

Combine all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar) in a bowl, "sift" with a wire whisk.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, then add the milk and oil, whisk again. Make a well in the dry ingredients, and pour the egg mixture into the well. Stir well with a wooden spoon. Add the mashed bananas and stir again. Fold in the chocolate chips. Cook in a preheated waffle iron until golden. Makes about 20 waffles.

My waffle iron only makes 2 at a time (a total pain in the butt, so if anyone needs a Christmas idea...hint hint), and nobody wants to eat a cold waffle. So, to keep everything warm while I make 20 something waffles, we kept them in an oven, heated at 200, until we were ready to serve.

French Breakfast Puffs
*a Pioneer Woman recipe

Puffs:
3 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup milk

Coating:
2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the muffin pans. In a large bowl (I used my mixer), stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Set aside. Add the eggs and mix again. Alternately adding 1/3 of the flour mixture and 1/3 of the milk to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. (I messed up here and dumped in all the milk, then added the flour). Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full (I use an ice cream scoop). Bake for the 20-25 minutes, until golden. Remove the muffins from a pan and set aside.

To make the coating, melt the butter in a bowl or glass pan. In a separate container, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Dip the warm muffins in the butter, coating thoroughly (I did tops only). Then roll the muffin in the sugar mixture.

*My review: these are good, no doubt...but not what I was expecting. From the pictures and ingredients, I guess I was expecting something very "doughnut-like". These are much drier and just very very sugary.

You can find her recipe on Pioneerwoman.com, a website I highly recommend anyone take a look at...love love love it! And it's in her book, "The Pioneer Woman Cooks Recipes From An Accidental Country Girl", which I received for my birthday from my sis-in-law, Amy. Thanks Amy!!!

Spoiler alert: I will be giving these gorgeous books as Christmas gifts this year, so if you're female and in my family...don't go buying these for yourselves!!

Also: Quick question for you bloggers out there. I do not know why my text size keeps doing funky things. For example, I have "banana chocolate chip" waffles on the same font as everything else, but set to "smallest". I have "french puffs" set to normal size...but obviously "banana" is still HUGE! What is up!?!? And how I fix it....help, please???