Best Photo for April

My son rigged a ramp for this ball to fly down. Love the expression on his face as well as the ball caught mid-flight.

Frame a Day '12: Week 17-4/22-4/28

 

April 22--Gather Ye Round--The kids had fun playing with a Crayola art program on this rainy Sunday. 

 April 23--A Puddle Jumper--Imp made this rainy day just a little brighter with his zest for jumping in every puddle he could find this morning. 

April 24--The "Grabber"--The boys received these "grabbers" for Christmas, because Chretien has an actual tool that he uses just like this and the boys are fascinated with it.  Tonight Imp was determined to "grab" me.   I didn't intend to practice split lighting, but that is what I wound up with.  I may play with this photo a bit more and see what I come up with.

April 25--Climbing the Walls--...or the side of the house?  The older kids were playing outside when Imp and I arrived home today.  I'm not sure what made them both attempt this, but it's probably another competition between them...who can stay upside down longer?  Who is straighter?  Who is higher?  I thought it was entertaining, no matter what the motivation.

April 26--The Standoff--Spring soccer started up again tonight.  As in the fall, Trust is doing the Y's Kwik Kicks soccer clinic.  Despite the rainy, cold weather, she went out and practiced for the hour.  It should be an interesting session, as there are only five registered kids and our Trust is the lone girl.  Should be interesting.

 April 27--Mesmerized--Fridays are often family movie night, where we eat dinner and watch a movie.  Tonight's showing was "Puss in Boots", which Chretien and the older kids have seen, but it was new for Imp and me.  Not a lot of dinner was consumed, but he did love the movie.

 April 28--Oh Baby, Shower--I went to a friend's baby shower today.  We attended her wedding last August in New York state.  I have known her for over 15 years, since my SAT tutoring days.  She and her younger brother were students of mine way back then.

Frame A Day '12: Week 16: 4/15-4/21

Where is 2012 going?  We're already done with week 16?

April 15--Rolling, Rolling, Rolling--Trust darted off ahead of Imp on a bike ride this morning.  We were surprised when she came over the hill on her roller blades.  This reminded me of something out of "Three's Company", with the shorts and the roller skates and of course, the sunny day.

 April 16--Let's Go Balling--We all went bowling today (or "balling", per Imp), and then for lunch.  Chretien beat all of us soundly, but everyone else was pretty closely clumped together (within about 30 points).

April 17--Flipping (Over and ) Out--Earnest learned how to hang and flip last year, but today was the first day he pulled himself up to do it and didn't seat himself on the trapeze to get going...not to be outdone, Trust managed to teach herself how to flip today as well.  Nothing like a healthy dose of competition to get things going in our house.

 April 18--Disheveled and Dirty...but Delightful Just the Same--Chretien fashioned a new swing to swap out with the tire swing.  What I love about this photo is it pretty much sums up Imp at this age...always looking to have fun, and as a result, always a bit disheveled (note his fly) and dirty.

 April 19--Ready for Liftoff--Yesterday we saw Imp just hanging out on this swing.  Today, we see him ready to launch.

 April 20--Boy Makes Blanket--Trust saw the idea to make her own fleece blanket by using two pieces of fleece, cutting fringe, and tying knots to hold the two pieces together.  Chretien took she and Earnest to Joann's today and bought pieces of fleece for Trust and a kit for Earnest, which accomplished the same thing but with the fringe cuts already marked.  This project kept them quite busy for the afternoon, but both were happy with their result.

April 21--Gamma Girl--This has been a very long time in coming...a year to be exact!  Trust passed her Gamma class at skating today.  I think this is the epitome of slow and steady.

Project 64: Peach

If I have kept track correctly, this is my last color for Project 64.

This photo was taken at a pet shop in January, not October. I think there is plenty of peach in the first witch's face as well as the rocks on the bottom of the tank.

Wow.  I can't believe I'm done!  I really have enjoyed this project.

Project 64: Cornflower

I had forgotten that I actually did shoot this photo specifically for cornflower.  When the last colors were posted almost three weeks ago, this was fresh in my mind. 

Such a cheery photo for cornflower.

Project 64: Violet

When I saw this geode at our local Children's Museum, I remembered that I needed to capture violet, so this photo was taken with Project 64 in mind.

Project 64: Granny Smith Apple

I wish I had paid more attention to the colors I needed when I had all the Easter candy around.

This was something I created, based on something I saw on Pinterest.

The granny smith apple is better seen in this photo, which is my entry:

Project 64: Mauvelous

It's been over a month since I had any posts for Project 64.








The last five weeks of colors were posted all at once, so I will see what I get.  They will not necessarily be in order.

This is week 64, mauvelous.  

A little belated Easter photo, just shot tonight (April 16):

Frame A Day '12: Week 15: 4/8-4/14

April 8--Easter with Cousins--Per tradition, we spent Easter at my sister's house with my parents.  Here are the kids after the Easter egg hunt.  For the first time, we left a few eggs unfound.  Chretien did a great job at hiding the eggs!

 April 9--Extra!  Extra!--As my school's biotechnology program coordinator, I was interviewed and photographed two weeks ago for an article about our program which then appeared in a local paper recently.  Today the author brought me a hard copy of the paper and here I am, showing my glee over appearing in the paper.  On a serious note, it was a great article and hopefully will help with recruitment of more students to the program.

April 10--Tonight was the culmination of Trust's three month long authors' project. She and the other kids got to exhibit their posters and any ancillary material for their families, friends and teachers. It is such a great celebratory night for everyone.

April 11--A Good Listener--For the past week or so, Trust has been going great guns on writing a chapter book; this one is about a girl named Rachel. This seems to be the longest one she has ever written. Today I caught her and Earnest up on his bed. She was reading chapter five, the latest chapter, to him. I think it's great that he is such a good listener.

April 12--Life's a Happy Song--Trust is in her school's variety show tomorrow night.  Since she started at the school, she has wanted to be in the show, but since she doesn't really have a talent that fits on a stage, it hasn't worked out for her...until now!  This year, the PTO decided to have an act where anyone who wanted to be in the show could do so.  Music to my kid's ears...sign her up!  Today was the dress rehearsal (although I don't think all the kids are dressed) and I managed to get photos that are likely to be better than what I will get tomorrow night.  Her number is the finale, and it's to "Life's a Happy Song" from the recent Muppet Movie.  They will sing it to the fifth graders sitting on risers near the front of the stage.

April 13--A Million Reasons to Love the Kids' School--The variety show was tonight.  Every year the teachers open the show with a "surprise" act.  The act usually goes along with the theme.  This year's theme focused around the fact that the kids collectively have independently read over one million minutes since February 2011 and there were lots of allusions to a million of this or that with the introduction of each group.  What I love about this photo is it captures the collegiality, friendship and fun that the teachers share among one another and with the kids.  This school is awesome.

 April 14--Down the Slide--Earnest de- and then reconstructed the water table to create a fun slide for this ball.  Note that the ball actually looks like it's flying off the slide.

Frame A Day '12: Week 14: 4/1-4/7

April 1--Easter Bunny 2012--Of course, Easter Bunny 2012 is the same EB that we've had since 2005. It's my family that has changed...quite a bit!

April 2--Collecting His Thoughts (and Marbles)--Imp received this marble drop for Christmas from Gran and Gramps, and tonight he had fun playing with it...and later destroying it.

April 3-At Last!--We received Trust's authors' book for her authors' project yesterday morning after I ordered it at 6:15 AM through Walgreen's website.  However, when we picked it up on the way to school, we were told to wait an entire day before looking at it to allow the glue to set!  This was difficult to do, so of course, this morning we needed to examine it first thing.

April 4--Busy Bee--Following in his sister's footsteps. I had to admire those bees quite a bit.

April 5--Imp Boy--Watching a Netflix show this morning before the older two went to school.  Because their school starts so late (9:10), and the kids get up so early, there is always time to watch TV, or read a book, or play a game, or do a puzzle, before school.

April 6--Leapfrogging with Dinosaur--Another Friday night at our local children's museum saw Earnest leaping tall dinosaurs on a single bound...or something like that.

April 7--Dipping Eggs--Imp and the other kids couldn't wait to "dip" eggs today.  The funny thing is I did not pose this photo.  Why watching the eggs in the dye is so interesting, I don't know.

Frame A Day '12: Week 13: 3/25-3/31

We're 25% done!

March 25--Trust and some of her Brownie troop went to a local nature center to learn about salamanders. They saw a puppet show (complete with the owl which is making an appearance in the photo) as well as a slide show, took a walk to check out vernal pools, and made these colorful salamanders...I cannot take photos with my cell phone to save my life. This photo will have to do for today, though.

March 26--Homework Help--Earnest got a little help from his sister in working on some homework this morning. She sat with him and had him do some of the activities on the "March" monthly calendar, as well as pitching in and coloring his weekly page with books he has read. I think they both enjoyed it.

March 27--Row, Row, Row Your Boat--The kids took the game pieces to the Ringo Flamingo game and created their own game, called, not surprisingly, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." The game itself consisted of pushing the boats in a circle and trying to avoid one another.

March 28--It's Never Too Early--...at least, as far as I'm concerned, in exposing kids to science. Earnest's class is studying "community helpers". The kids were supposed to bring in tools from a parent's job. I sent Earnest off with safety goggles, gloves, an empty Petri dish and this pipette with some water and food coloring. I love the concentration.

March 29--Happy Birthday, Daddy--Today was Chretien's birthday, and we went to an indoor water park to celebrate.  This was the first time we had gone, and it was a fun way to spend an overcast afternoon and evening in March when the outside temperature was roughly half of what it was inside at the pool.

 March 30--Day 83's photo was of a very sad Trust.  We thought that we were not going to be able to attend the author lecture at my nephew's school due to the timing.  However, on Monday we learned that it was going to work out after all, so today we saw the fourth and final author in Trust's authors project.  Trust was counting down the days to today, much like she does for Christmas and her birthday.  We got there early and chatted with the author for a bit, and then we stayed for a good chunk of the presentation.  She is quite an expressive, interesting storyteller, and her 27 years of teaching second and third grade have served her well in her children's books.

March 31--A Farm Birthday Party??--Trust attended a birthday party at a farm today.  This is a farm where they visited animals and trotted on a horse, which was the highlight.  You'd never know this was the theme, based on her failed attempt at "farm clothes" (plaid shirt?) and the unicorn, which she insisted is a horse, facepainted on her cheek.