Another Milestone

I took the girls back to school shopping last week. They did really well and we had lots of fun. This is a first for us when it comes to shopping. At any rate, it was time to get Rebecca new shoes for school. However, she is out grown the Velcro phase and all we could find is tie shoes. She didn't know how to tie them so I told her she could learn or I could double knot them in the morning and she'd be set. So we bought the shoes. Two days later Rebecca comes to me and tells me she is ready to learn. As Rebecca's mom I have learned to wait for her to be ready to learn something. Once she is ready then the teaching can commence with little frustration on either part. I was not prepared though for how quickly she would catch on to this skill. after a few tries she had it figured out!

Rebecca makes the "X" and step one is complete!

Now it's time to make the bow.




It's finally time to pull it tight!

With that she is ready to show off her great work!! I am so proud of her.

Fun with Light

I have been enjoying my photography class although not getting to participate as much as I had hoped. I have been pouring over my lessons though and taking some time to play. My latest lesson was all about light. I took a few shots playing with the different features of my camera. Although I don't see myself shooting in blue too much I just love this picture of Rebecca:
It's been interesting to see how different colors work with different skin tones. Reagan cannot do the sepia tone pictures. It just makes her look ill. Its the same for Ron. I think it is their intense olive color skin. However, Ryan can't do black and white as well but seems to thrive in the sepia tone colors:
It seems the onslaught of puberty has hidden Reagan's smile more than it reveals it but I did get her to tolerate me while I tried to get the "catch lights" in her eyes. When you get this light reflection in the eyes it really puts life into the picture. After I showed her a few of her Eeyore pictures I was able to get this smile with the lovely catch lights in her pretty eyes:

New Stuff Coming

I know those of you who check this blog out are so tired of seeing nothing new. I apologize for disappearing for so long. Things have been crazy but I do have lots to share. The kids go back to school tomorrow so I will have some time to catch up. However, right now I have to run. First day of school tomorrow and I have to get the crew to bed. I will post soon with pictures to boot!!

A Day with the Fish

We recently took a trip to the aquarium! It was really cool and the kids had a great time, but we felt it was really over priced for the amount of exhibits that we got to look at.
However, I still wanted to share some of the things we saw. The first thing we did when we got there was check out the Dolphin show. This was lots of fun to watch.

We were a short time into the show when our first attitude popped up. I can't say I blame her, but Reagan and I have two different cameras. Mine shoots really fast and hers doesn't shoot until the dolphin was already back into the water. I finally convinced her to just enjoy the show and take pictures of slower moving objects!

Dolphin saying hello!


The dolphins went all around the tank and just sat there and looked at us while they blew bubbles! I thought this was really funny.

The height that this dolphin got was pretty impressive. Next we were off to see the sting rays and I believe there were a couple of sharks in there too. The tank was huge and just full of all different kinds of sting rays!

Later on in the day Ryan learns that the world is full of corners! There was quite a group of people that felt sorry for Ryan and thought I was evil. I base that on the AWW's Ry got and the dirty looks that I received. That's OK because what those lovely people forget is that if he doesn't stand there, they too will be annoyed by his behavior.


Ron and Bec stop to pose for a picture by the turtle tank. As you can see in the background Ry got out of the corner

The Jelly fish were most of our favorite part. Ryan screamed bloody murder so I took a quick spin and got out of there because those same people that were giving me dirty looks, were giving them to me again. Ugh. I just can't win!!! LOL Still Ron got some super cool shots.


This last picture has nothing to do with the Aquarium I just love this picture of my little royalty!!

The Franklin Institute

We went out to Philly yesterday and took the kids to the Franklin Institute. It was a great time although a little overwhelming. Ron was excited as he relayed memories from his childhood and ran right to the big heart that you can walk through. I am quite sure the kids learned nothing as they were so excited to just try everything that they didn't stop to read directions or to see what they were looking for. Turns out for an extra $27 we could get a year membership. So we did figuring that we would like to go back again. Next time we will have some questions for the kids to answer so it's more productive. We sure had a fun day though and everyone did really well while we were there. We enjoyed and under the sea movie at the Imax which totally freaked Ryan out at first, but he got used to it. Of course there were strange sea creatures mating, although discretely it was enough to start, "what are they doing?" questions. Then there were preying/eating scenes those are always a crowd pleaser for my animal lovers! Lastly I thought Ron was going to fog up the giant screen with his sighs as they preached about global warming and how we are destroying everything. I had to play devils advocate and ask if he's ever been deep sea diving and if not then how does he know it's not true. That sigh did fog up my glasses! LOL Anyway I used this opportunity to complete a photography assignment and I am in the "my photos are worse before they are better" place. Here are the few that turned out. I won't tell you whats wrong with them so you can just enjoy!!

Ron and Ryan building moon cars.

Rebecca building a moon car

Ben Franklin

Reagan watching an open heart surgery

Is it needed?

Rebecca is in a place of quoting movies. The only problem is she integrates them right into her sentences so you think she is mouthing off. For an example, the other day the girls had done the dishes and a few hours later there were more to pick up. So I call Rebecca into the room and ask her to clear the table and she says, " I just cleaned up this mess, can't we keep it that way for more than ten minutes?" Shocked and somewhat irritated I ask her to please repeat what she just said. Sensing that she just entered a dangerous area she says, "you know Mom, like Mr. Incredible says, I just cleaned up this mess...I thought it would be funny." Oh well, yeah it's kind of funny when one is informed that movies are being quoted. So this morning, I have no idea what she did but Ron asks Rebecca..."Is there a brain in your head?" and without missing a beat she comes back with a Monsters vs Aliens quote and says, "Turns out you don't really need one!" LOL I waited and then there is was, the pause and then the "What?!" from Ron. This gave us all a pretty good laugh. I've said it before and I will say it again, "she's lucky she's cute!!"

The Ultimatium

All of my children and the neighbor boy have set up a little village in our basement and name it Roxaboxen after a story they read in school. They have used bins and boxes to create a little town. It seems as of late the village has some unrest as I was presented with this letter by Rebecca:

Dear Becca,

If you don't stop destroying Roxaboxen and the idea, we will shut down your business and remove it off the map!

Sincerely,

Matt and Reagan

P.S We will give you 2 gifts if you stop
PSS We will tell mom a good reason why we should shut the Puppy Place down!

Kids never disappoint when it comes to dealing with their own problems and giving me a laugh. Reagan thought she was going to be in trouble, but realized it was fine when Ron and I just laughed at this letter. I am sure to pay the piper for posting this as I was informed that it's not funny but serious business!! LOL I love kids.