RaptorMama

Kate’s starting at a Montessori preschool tomorrow ::cue panicking:: and we had to decorate a cubby for her.  I’ll be honest, it was a little hard for me to step back and let her do it herself because I wanted it to be perfect, but I also thought it was important for her to have ownership over it.  The preschool director might have mentioned that too.

Our only parameters were that it had to have her name on it.  My initial idea was to embroider some felt letters and glue them on, but since that was pretty much the opposite of letting Kate do it herself I had to scrap that.

Then I had the idea of buying wooden letters and having her paint them.  It would still look neat (neat as in clean) but it would allow her to be part of the creative process.  Win win.

We got the letters to spell her name (twice since they come in a 2 pack) 2 hears and 2 flowers.  The had some other awesome shapes, but they came pre-painted.  Lame!  We let her lose with some paint and she had a blast.  Somehow I seem to have missed taking pictures of the painting.  Then Michael helped her glue to shapes down.

Here’s the finished cubby!  I just hope the glue holds up.

And here’s Kate’s opinion of me taking so many pictures.

What’s a dad to do when faced with a daughter that wants him to craft with tissue paper and glitter glue?

Glam Batman, that’s what.

I haven’t scrapped since March.  Wow.  Talk about a dry spell.  Never fear though, I’m back!  Super behind, but back and committed to working towards getting caught up.  Just as a status update, Kate’s books are caught up through the end of October 2011 and I’ve edited/ ordered prints though the end of February 2012.  Should I set a goal?  Hmm…  How about editing/ uploading March and April and finishing scrapping November/ December by the end of August?  Now onto the pretty paper and cute pictures!

You’ll have to excuse the fact that it’s a bit overexposed.  I was holding the camera above it to get a straight down shot and I couldn’t look through the viewfinder.  These pics are from January so they’re not exactly helping me with my goal, but they’re so cute!  We thought about getting Kate a toddler camera for Christmas, but honestly they’re expensive and take crappy pictures.  We gave her our waterproof camera (which happens to be shock proof as well) instead.  Bonus?  Free since we already owned it.  She loves taking pictures and is getting quite good!

There’s so much adorable paper with cameras, but I could never figure out what to do with it.  I was at a crop a few weeks ago when I came across these pictures and I just knew it was a match made in heaven.  The “Fun-O-Meter” clenched the deal for me.  (Paper and embellishments are largely The Escape by Little Yellow Bicycle.  Also, some Thickers and October Afternoon letters, Bazill cardstock, gems and some washi tape.)

These pictures cracked me up because Kate insisted on holding the camera up to her eye even though there’s no viewfinder because that’s what I do.

I’m trying to decide between 2 designs for my blanket project. Excuse the *very* rough sketches. 🙂 The bits with the black scallops are seed stitch (bumpy) and the bits without (the middle) are stockinette (smooth). Preferences? Other ideas? I’m leaning toward the stripes personally, but I’m open to other designs. 🙂

Progress so far:

The girls wanted to do a project today do we’re gluing down pony beads. They’re doing the first letters of their names. It’s keeping them way happier than I thought it would. 🙂 Good for their fine motor too.

We took Kate out for a photo session ice cream a few days before her birthday.  She got 3 scoops since she’s 3!

Have I mentioned that she’s now a cowgirl?  I love the boots!

      

She thought it was pretty darn awesome.  🙂

It’s been a busy few weeks around here.  🙂

I just sent out a lot of happy mail.

 

Y’all, I need another project like I need another hole in my head. I can’t seem to help myself though. 🙂 I’ve decided to make another blanket. No reason, I just like them. Mainly because I can only knit rectangular things and it’s too damn hot here to wear a scarf.

Remember the rainbow rice?  I decided it was time for a new sensory tub so we got a few bags of split peas.  (I’m totally copying this from a million other people; nothing original here. 🙂 )  The split peas feel really cool, kind of slick.  I kept wanting to play with it too.  I learned my lesson about doing these kinds of things inside- way too messy!  We took this outside.

Kate loved scooping it, pouring it and trying to carry it across the deck in a spoon.

She also gave some to our dog Ninja.  She was hysterical about it.  She told Ninja very seriously that it was only pretend food and she shouldn’t eat it.  🙂

Scooping peas is serious business.  🙂

I take these pictures every year and frame them in a triptych frame from Ikea.  I have them all hung together and it’s really cool to see how much bigger Kate’s gotten and how much my photography has improved.  The first year I had to have my mom take the pictures.  🙂

Kate wasn’t really in the mood for pictures when we took these, but I think I still got some good ones.  It was a hot out and we had a bit of a walk to get to the location that I wanted to try.  Note to self: get your stuff together the night before so you can leave before it’s 1000 degrees outside.  Next year, I’ll also make sure to paint both sides of the letters.  Kate thought it was funny to mess with me and show the wrong side.  Also?  She prefers the letter A to the letter D.  The pics were almost ADA instead.  Or AAA.  I had a lot of cute As.  🙂