Easter: Egg Hunt Number One

Posted by Amanda on Wednesday, March 20, 2013.
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Easter has snuck up on me this year - I realized at the end of last week that Easter was only two weeks away when my mom-in-law told me about her church's annual Easter egg hunt.  I dug for thirty minutes in their closet before I gave up on ever finding their Easter baskets - Sadie ended up taking a wicker purse to the egg hunt, and Jeffry settled on a reusable grocery bag.  I typically would have had matching monogrammed baskets and some sort of smocked clothing.... oh, well.  I still have a week and a half until the actual day.

What I thought was going to be a simple egg hunt turned out to be a pretty fun two-hour event.  The kids started out by frosting and decorating sugar cookies.  Most of my time was spent keeping fingers out of the communal icing bowls.



Next up was arts and crafts - making a picture frame.  Jeffry wasn't too impressed and was trying to wait patiently while the adults were hiding eggs outside.




We then went outside behind the church for an egg-and-spoon race and snacks - the egg hiders were finishing up in the front.


Of course, it was impossible to chase both of them down to get pics of them actually picking up eggs.  Sadie got the concept early on two years ago and would pick up an egg, drop it in her basket, pick up another one, drop it in her basket, etc.  In previous years, Jeffry would put a few eggs in his basket, then sit down and turn it over to pour them all out.  No amount of coaching or coaxing would get him to continue hunting eggs after picking up the first three or four.

This year, his strategy was to pick up as many eggs as he could carry at one time and bring them to me to put in his bag - so Mommy had to juggle a purse, a camera bag, a camera, the crafts they had made, Jeffry's egg bag, and Sadie's half eaten chocolate dipped peep that she refused to throw away.

They both came away with a similar amount of eggs (thank you baby Jesus!) and plenty of candy.



There are more egg hunts this weekend for us - my hospital's company event and our church's egg hunt.  My goal this week is to get proper Easter baskets and do some bunny shopping. =)

~ Amanda

Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

Posted by Amanda on Tuesday, March 19, 2013.
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Needless to say, it was a hit - the pics say it all. =)


The dark theater and loud music had them kind of subdued at first, but once they took their fingers out of their ears, they were dancing in the aisles and singing along with every song.


 

Our seats were in the lower level behind the orchestra, about 3/4 of the way back.  We had a dead center view with no one behind us or in the seats to either side, so we had room to spread out and move.  The majority of the time, they were standing in their seats or dancing in the row.


Biz Markie!



Thanks for coming with us, Maw Maw!  
There's no way I could have wrangled both of them through the crowds without her. 


If the show comes back close by, I'm sure we will go again.  I think three is the perfect age - they were old enough to not get fussy/irritable and could understand what was going on, and young enough to still have the excitement and wonder, knowing that their favorite TV show characters really were live and in person.

Thanks to some tips from another mom I wrote about below, we came prepared with glow bracelets, snacks, and YGG beanie baby souvenirs.   The show was at 3:00pm, which gave the kiddos enough time to eat lunch before we left and nap on the hour and a half drive down to NOLA.  

Can't wait to do it again soon!

~ Amanda





Can You Keep A Secret?

Posted by Amanda on Wednesday, March 6, 2013.
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I'm surprising Jeffry & Sadie with a trip to NOLA in two weeks to see their favorite show live - Yo Gabba Gabba.


The obsession began when they were just over a year old - at the time, Nick Jr. was showing YGG episodes every morning at 7am and 730am, which timed perfectly with getting ready to go to work.  They would eat breakfast and watch the show while I got ready for work, which helped our morning routine go smoothly.

When they turned two, their birthday party theme was YGG, complete with handmade decorations and a perfectly decorated cake with all of the characters.  They talked for weeks about their "Gabba Party" and carried around the plastic cake decorations in their pockets.  I was planning on their main present being tickets to Yo Gabba Gabba Live, but the show quickly sold out.



Nick Jr. aired a special showing of one of the first live shows that I DVR'd for them to watch, and it became their favorite thing to watch each evening - they knew every song, every dance, and could imitate Biz's Beat of the Day perfectly.

A few weeks ago a fellow MoM, Jenny, posted about her experience with Yo Gabba Gabba Live here.  After seeing how much her triplets loved the show, I checked their website to see if they would happen to be in our area again.  I knew it would be a long shot, but I was ecstatic to see that the show was coming back to NOLA in March!

I said a quick prayer that tickets may still be available - and they were!  The venue is a smaller theater, and I was able to score great seats.  I decided to keep it a secret from the kiddos - I plan to keep them out of daycare that day and head to NOLA with them and my mom for the show after lunch.  I won't lie, I think I may be more excited for them than they will be when they find out where they are going!

I plan to make shirts like Jenny did, and follow some of her tips on souveniers and snacks.  

I. can. not. wait!


~ Amanda

Editing Pics On The Go

Posted by Amanda on Friday, March 1, 2013.
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I am known for taking a zillion pics of the kiddos and leaving them on my memory card.  The only time I pull out the laptop to edit pics is when I need one for something, like Christmas cards or for one of Sadie's pageants.

When I got my new iPad, I bought an SD card reader to connect to it, thinking it would be an easy way to dump images and browse through them quickly.  I found an Adobe PhotoShop Express app in the app store and downloaded it, thinking it would probably be marginally better than Instagram.

I was pleasantly surprised!  I can now adjust my exposure, saturation, and contrast with a flick of the finger.  I can also sharpen images, crop, and reduce noise as well.  I printed out a few test prints locally to check the quality - I wouldn't use the app for enlargements or wall-hangers, but for snapshots and 5x7 prints, they are of pretty decent quality.

Adobe PhotoShop Express is a free app - there is a newer version called Adobe PhotoShop Touch that I plan to download and play around with soon.

Here's a few side by side comparisons of the SOOC (straight out of camera) and PS app edited pics:



So give it a try, and let me know what you think!

~ Amanda

Just Your Typical Grocery Shopping Trip.

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Since Jeffry so graciously shared his croup with Sadie, I had to stay home with her earlier in the week and keep her dosed up on steroids and nebulizer treatments.  I had to make a stop at the grocery store on the way home from her appointment to pick up a few things for dinner, and she begged to go to our local store "with the baby buggies."


Keep in mind that this is a short in-and-out trip with just one kid.  As much as I hate Wal-Mart, I will typically go there because I can strap both kiddos in the racecar buggy and move fairly quickly.  When I do go to the "baby buggy store," I'm trying to corral two three year olds with baby buggies and keep them going in the same direction.  They will inevitably run into someone else's buggy or pull random things off the shelves to buy.

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