Frame-A-Day '12 Week 2: 1/8-1/14

Week 2 is in the books.

Last year, I decided to work on better learning my Pentax and I think I was fairly successful.  I shoot almost exclusively in manual mode, which was a huge departure from staying on green.  This year, I decided I wanted to learn about post-processing, since I essentially didn't do any last year.  I received Photoshop Elements for Christmas and have done a little bit of playing.

I am not sure what to say.  What a difference a little bit of tweaking makes.  I am going back and fixing all my photos from last year's Project 365 before making my Blurb book.  At least this year I can edit them in real time.  Of course, I only know the very basic edits right now, but even those are making a big difference.  With that said, most of this week's photos have not yet been edited, but I will get to them as I have time.

Anyway, here are this week's photos.

January 8--It's Not Your Mother's Hopscotch--The kids made a hopscotch board today. Notice that the numbers go beyond the basic 8 or 10. What can't be seen in the photo is that the board goes around the corner and ends at 42! Trust mentioned that if she could open the gate and go around to the front of the house, she could probably reach 100 blocks. Hee!

January 9--Do You Kanoodle?--Santa brought Trust this Kanoodle game. There are 12 oddly-shaped "noodles" which need to be placed in different configurations to fill a two-dimensional board or build a three-dimensional pyramid. She has enjoyed completing the various board puzzles and today moved on to the pyramids.

*January 10--What are Little Boys Made Of?--Although the song says "snips and snails and puppy dog tails", in our house it appears to be masks and sheds and Build-A-Bear friends, at least for the resident five year old. Today Earnest was "Star of the Day" and as part of that role, he gets to bring in some items from home to share with the class.

January 11--Leave Me Alone--Cats have it pretty good, no?  Days full of contented napping, unless you've got an intent photographer in residence who won't leave you alone...

 January 12--Physics is Phun--The kids went to a science show at a local library today.  The scientist demonstrated different physics principles and all the kids had fun trying out some of the demos after his performance.  In this experiment, Earnest is about to push the pan, which will topple the stake and the ball will neatly fall in the glass of water.  The fact that all three kids were enthralled with the show made my day, as I teach college-level science!

January 13--Breakfast for Dinner--A dinner that is consumed with gusto (and sans complaint) is breakfast.  Tonight I treated the kids to a meal of chocolate chip pancakes, which I fashioned into dog faces with whipped cream for the eyes and mouth and sausages for the ears.  They decided to kick it up a notch and put their PJs on and switch their cups and plates around.  It was a fun way to wind down on a Friday night.

 January 14--Figure 8--Whenever we go to Lowe's for the "Build and Grow" workshop, the kids like to walk down the aisle with the house numerals and pull out their ages.  For various reasons, this was the first time since Trust's birthday where we've had a chance to take that walk.  She excitedly pulled out the "8" and I snapped this photo.