Homeschooling Adventures And The Letter R...

The past month has been a great one for the Moore house. Samuel has gotten involved with two separate homeschool groups, Caleb started his very own speech class, and we've been trucking along with pre-k at home. I can't believe Easter is just around the corner!!!

Homeschooling And The Letter Q...

So, I suppose I should just resign to the fact that I'm getting bad at getting on here again. I was doing alright there for a little while when the school year first started, then things got busy and I fell back into the habit of not getting on here. I keep thinking of all the things I'd like to get on here and talk about -- especially since I'd love to document things about the boys -- but I always end up choosing sleep over staying up to get on here. Sad, sad, sad.

Finally Back! (And The Letter M)

It feels like it's been forever! My Mac officially died, so I had to wait for Apple to install a new hard drive. Unfortunately, trying to catch up on everything has taken much longer than I would've hoped...

With that said, how is it that Thanksgiving is NEXT week?!?! I absolutely love this time of year! This is when Thanksgiving and Christmas start to merge in this house. Our house is decorated with the harvest theme (it has been since September since I don't care for Halloween), but I have to admit, Christmas music and movies have been in full force for the last week or two. Ha. To add to the fun, there are so many crafts and activities I want to do with the boys that are holiday-themed. Now it's just a matter of finding time for it all. We did start doing a couple Thanksgiving crafts today with Samuel's school, which was fun!

A Sad Day For My Mac...

So, it looks like my hard drive is giving up. If anyone has been looking for last week's Paw Patrol worksheets, that's why. For about a week now, I've been having issues with this 4 year old iMac and it looks like I might have to replace the hard drive -- makes me so sad! If so, it may be even longer before I create more work sheets since I've have to replace Photoshop and I have no idea what my serial number is to switch it out. Good times.

Visitors And The Letter K...

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How is it almost the weekend already??? Over the past week, we had my parents in town along with some old friends that we haven't spent time with in years. It was great to catch up briefly and I can't tell you how happy the boys were to see my parents! We lucked out with our friends' visit -- they happened to have to work in Vegas and decided to head down this way for a little vacation afterwards.

Painting And The Letter D...

Samuel has been wanting to break out the paints and stamps the past several days, so we're going to use those in our lessons this week. I'm going to incorporate it into learning to write the letter D, but to start, I let him go crazy on a canvas. We talked about how you can blend colors to create new colors, as well as creating different shades of the same color. Sam had a lot of fun creating his own work of art on a canvas. And while he did so, I decided to join in the fun, ha. I haven't painted in I don't know how long so don't judge the skills, ha.

Bath Time + Paint = A VERY Happy Boy!

While I took these pictures early last week, I'm just now getting a chance to put them on the blog, so if you're on my Facebook, it's old news...

Samuel always loves bath time, but thanks to this blog, he now loves it even more! I mean, seriously...who doesn't love playing with paint?! And, I for one, love the fact that bathtub paint reduces the cleanup issue. I foresee many nights like this in the future...

All I needed was corn starch, food coloring, baby shampoo, and a tsp of water - too easy! I used my handy IKEA ice cube tray in order to separate the colors and a brush that Samuel preferred using backwards...

So focused...

Not sure what he was thinking here...

Lastly, one where the proud boy is actually looking at me...

That boy melts my heart...

Samuel's Growth Chart...

So it has only been about a year since I saw a friend blog about making one (before I even saw it on Pinterest!), but I finally made Samuel a growth chart the other night. For something so easy, I'm not sure why I procrastinated so long on doing it!

After having a few friends ask me for specifics on how I made it, I figured I'd just go ahead and put it on the blog. So here we sit...Samuel is watching Yo Gabba Gabba on YouTube while I type... :)

Just fair warning...I didn't think to take pictures as I worked on the growth chart, so I don't have the handy DIY step-by-step pictures that you typically see with the instructions, but oh well. The growth chart only ended up costing me about $8 since all I had to go out and buy was the piece of wood and the d-ring hook, so yay for it being a cheap project!

What you'll need:

A wooden board (I used a 1x6x6 board which was approx. $6 at Lowe's)

Your choice of stain -- I just used some acrylic paint that I had in my office

Paper towels / old rag

Pencil

Black permanent marker

Clear acrylic sealer

Ruler

Printed numbers in your preferred font

Sandpaper

A d-ring hook

The first thing I did was sand the front and sides of the board so as to prevent Samuel from getting any splinters. After it was smooth, I took the brown acrylic paint and mixed about 1 part paint and 3 parts water, then used an old rag to wipe down the board. Here's where you can test out the colors until you like the end result. After two coats, I wasn't sure I liked the look, so I wiped it down with the green paint (mind you, these were both left over from Samuel's letters in his nursery). With the green paint, I didn't dilute it as much -- about half and half. Sure enough, it looked like moldy wood, so that was a complete fail! All wasn't lost in the end though, as I did one more coat of one part brown paint and one part water and it turned out exactly how I had envisioned. The green paint actually ended up giving some depth to the color, so it all worked out perfectly!

Once it was completely dry, I brought it inside and started making 1 inch markings, with every 2 inches double the length and each foot triple the length -- all with pencil. I then went over those lines with a Sharpie permanent marker. I've read on a variety of blogs that they don't recommend this, but instead you should use a paint pen. I wasn't going to bother going out and buying one of those when I had several permanent markers on hand and it all turned out fine. So, I wouldn't stress it.

I then went and found the font that I prefer (Prestige Elite Std) and printed out 1,2,3,4,5,6 at 200pt. I quickly penciled over the back of each number, then traced each number where I wanted them on the board. With the height of our baseboards, I started the board at 8", so with a 6' board, I still had all six numbers to trace to make it complete. Afterwards, I went over the traced numbers with the permanent marker (several times to make it as dark as I wanted it).

Once the inch markings and numbers were drawn, I took it outside again and quickly sanded the edges just to give it a little bit of a distressed look, then I sprayed two coats of the clear sealer over it to finish it off. After letting it sit all night to dry, I added the d-ring hook and was done!

Oh, and if you have a curious toddler like me, I suggest you add some kind of tape on the bottom of the board so that he/she can't swing the board back and forth nonstop on the wall. Samuel thought that was AWESOME. Luckily, I had some of those 3M Command hooks (like this) that come with those easily removable adhesive strips, so I just put two of the strips towards the bottom on the back of the board and now it won't budge. (And it won't take the paint with it when you do take it off, as I've already had to do that while adjusting the height.)

Now that it's done and hanging on Samuel's wall, I need to get in gear and find all of his measurements since birth! We plan to mark from the day he was born and each well visit after that. It will be fun to visually see how much he has grown already! :)

And now, here are a few pictures, both from my phone and Canon...

Since I didn't think to take a picture of the piece of wood beforehand, this gives you an idea of how much of a difference the acrylic paint made...

In the works...

Samuel's first impression...

And then earlier this evening...



A close-up of the markings/number...



Someone's cheating...



Annnnnnd, he has lost interest...



If you happen to see this and decide to make one yourself, send me a picture! I think these are such a great way of documenting a child's growth -- especially when you move around so much like we do and can't just mark a door frame...

A sewing fool...

That's right. Between being el cheapo and finding creative ideas online (Pinterest, anyone?), I've found myself in front of my sewing machine a little more often than normal lately. A while back, I did a few little things to revamp Samuel's room and now the focus has been on my photography gear...

Sam's lampshade and toy storage...

And now on to photography gear...

Who wants to buy a camera strap cover for $25+ when it can be made for about $3? And yay to having a lens pocket -- now I don't have to continue looking for where I put it in a hurry!

And after feeling frustration with my Canon backpack during photo sessions with it taking more time than it should to switch lenses out, I've been eyeing one of those cute/stylish camera bags that could easily be left unzipped for easy access. While they seem to be exactly what I want, the price tag isn't. Sooooo...I decided to take a bag I already had and make it into a camera bag. Between the foam padding, fabric, and velcro, the transformation only ended up costing $6 -- can't beat it! Plus, it still fit everything in there -- two lenses, the camera body + lens, flash, filters, etc. I'm one happy camper, ha.

(excuse the crappy cell phone pic)

With James leaving earlier today for some Army training, he jokingly said he's afraid of what he'll see when he gets back at the end of the month. Between my bad habit of moving furniture around when he's gone and getting the bug to do DIY/crafty things lately, he laughed just thinking of the possibilities. I suppose we'll see how things go. I definitely need to finish working on my photography website (click here and tell me what you think so far!) and do a reshoot of Samuel's Easter photos. The sweet boy was so fascinated by the grass that he wouldn't look up at me...

I was lucky to get this one...

Trying to escape and explore the great outdoors. You would think I gave him lash extensions!

After James had had enough of Samuel trying to eat grass (and bark!), it was time for a hug (or two)...

Perhaps one day soon, we will have more success at this year's Easter photos. And somewhere between now and when James gets back, I hope to finish that website. Trying to remember past html/flash knowledge has been fun, but it's slowly getting there!