Playing around in Elements

It's clear that I am no expert when it comes to Photoshop or any of its great photo enhancing capabilities. Today, I decided to just play and see what I could do and I manipulated this picture of Eli from Easter. I think it's cute, and it's a starting point for me and this program. For those of you photographers and pros at this program (or similar programs) don't judge. We all have to start from somewhere. :) This is my starting point.

Here is our guy sitting at the table after finishing Easter Dinner at my parents house (Papa and Gramma). He was quite attentive to our conversation.

Holy Moley Guacamole!

Yes, here I am! I've gotten horrible at updating, and reading blogs for that matter. Maybe now we're on to brighter days filled with blogging and updating family and friends about our lives.


The past few weeks seem to be a blur of teaching an after school class, doing progress reports, and trying to get caught up on the increasingly large, and growing, pile of papers to correct. I'll try to remember what's been going on lately....

This past weekend, our fabulous friends came down to visit and we got to partake in some much deserved girl pampering as well as "Man Time" at the Sounders game. Everyone enjoyed each minute of it. Steph and I went and had pedicures and manicures - talk about heaven. I have to admit, it was WONDERFUL! Then we did some shopping at the Dollar Store for the Easter Bunny. He's so busy, we thought we'd help him out this year. After Twilight, a little Guitar Hero, and peaceful sleep, we continued the pampering with highlighting our hair.

It was a nice day, so we ventured outside for some sidewalk chalk and Silly Stringing the husbands. HAHA They never saw it coming (wish we would have gotten some shots of this, but we didn't). It was wonderful spending the weekend together. It doesn't happen nearly often enough.

Steph posted more pictures from our weekend on her blog, so I tried not to post the same pictures.

Hmmmm...prior to the Boyds coming to visit us, I don't think we've been up to a whole lot. Our other good buddy, Bonnie and her daughter have been hanging with us, so we've had a lot of play dates. We took the kids bowling last weekend, that was quite the experience! It was fun, but it's tough on a two year old to play two games of bowling. :)


Dancing the night away.









Eli and Isabelle playing cars.








Hamming it up.








And of course, our little reader. I love that he enjoys books so much!

Dr. Elijah Winkey

Eli and I got to play at our friend's house this past weekend. He and Isabelle were having a great time playing doctor. They were so cute! Bonnie handed me the camera so I started taking pictures of the kids and ended up with some cute shots.

And of course, there was Dr. Isabelle who was really having a good time taking care of me. She would grab me by the nose and shove my head back and proceed to take my temperature. Bonnie and I were laughing so hard we were crying. My sweet Eli was taking care of me by bringing me some "juice." I'll upload the video later...

Friends

We had a great weekend - it's a shame we have to go back to work tomorrow. We started the weekend off by taking Eli to The Bouncy Place with our awesome neighbors. This time, Eli wasn't quite as excited to be there. Not that he doesn't like it, but he wasn't feeling quite up to the bouncing. As soon as we got home, he literally exploded. It was not a pretty sight, or smell for that matter.

After a long nap and some down time, we played in the backyard with our friends, Isabelle and Liam. The sandbox is always a hit with the kiddos.

Today our wonderful friends came to visit us. Unfortunately, we don't get to see each other very often, but we had a wonderful time. They brought Eli a birthday present, so here he is "playing' his new drum set. Thanks again Peter, Stephanie, Natalie and Alexis! :)
Of course, Steph and I had to take pictures. Oddly enough, Peter was the camera happy guy this time around, so I can't wait to see the 150 pictures he took. LOL Peter was sneaking in this shot, so we took another. HEHE We still love you Peter-eter.

Here we are! Me and my Elephanie.
It was SO good seeing you today my dear. I miss you!

Five years ago, we took our picture. This was taken a week before Natalie was born.

And here we are now. All grown up with families.
THE BOYDS - Peter, Steph, Natalie (5 - oh my gosh, she's taking this picture...Steph, you need to email me one of your pictures so I can substitute!!!), Alexis (21 months)
THE WINKEYS - Christel, Elijah (2 years, 2 months), Jess

Time to Bake!

Today I decided it was time to make a batch of rolled hot dogs and cinnamon rolls. Once the dough was made (I did that while Eli was taking a nap), he got to help in the process. First, he helped me punch down the dough.

After we punched it down, we headed outside to play in the beautiful sunshine. Unfortunately, I totally forgot there was dough raising in the oven (not on - clearly). When we got home, this is what we saw:

OOPS. At this point, we pulled it out and started rolling hot dogs. Eli was such a big help! He was very focused on pinching the dough closed - he did a GREAT job, too.


One the hot dogs were wrapped, we rolled the rest of the dough out to make cinnamon rolls. Eli was very helpful and really like the rolling pin.

Once all this was done, we ate our masterpieces! Yumm- I won't go into detail of his fruit selection, however it included bananas and catchup.

And just to clarify - this IS one of my new favorite pictures of him. Yes, he is a mess, it was a busy day and he's eating catchup with dinner, but look at that smile! It melts my heart.

The Bouncy Place

We went and played during Toddler Time at The Bouncy Place this morning. It was SO much fun. Eli wasn't too sure about the constant bouncing, however he had a blast going down the slides. It was a great way to spend our morning. I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to have a good time, and a good workout!

It was a 'neighborhood trip' as our good friends Bonnie and her daughter, Isabelle, and Dusti and Liam were able to go to. The kids love playing together (Isabelle is almost 2 1/2, Eli is 2 years 2 months, and Liam is 16 months) and it worked out that we all had the day off. I can't wait to go back, and next time to take Jess!

Eli and Isabelle trying to climb the "ladder"to get to the slide. Eli was a big fan of the slides, however he is still a little small to climb up on his own.

Attempting the climb.

Me carrying Eli up one of the staircases....

The slides really are a lot of fun!
(Yes, I look like a dork, but whatever! It was great!)

Bonnie and Isabelle loving the slide. (One of my favorite pictures from the day)
I love their expressions.

Pacific Science Center

We got to go to the Pacific Science Center with some friends of ours this weekend (Yay for Free Educators Day!) and had a blast! I can't believe how much fun we had. Of course I took a million pictures, but will only post a few for you. I played with a couple in PS Elements, but the colors never come out the same on here. Oh well, I'm no photography expert! I just love pictures!

(I have been trying to get this posted for the last week, but kept running into problems uploading the pictures. We went to the Science Center last weekend...but I still wanted to share some of our pictures.)

Eli loved running around. I love this picture because it shows just how active he is. I was lucky he was actually in focus for this shot!

We were watching the scoop & shovel thing (like a backhoe), I think it was the highlight of his day.

Watching other kids work the backhoe

It's a car. It's a hit.

Of course the sea creatures were a big hit too.

My two handsome men, even though Eli squeezed out a cheeseball grin for us.

Time to go home!

Peeking through the banister at home. I just think this is hilarious - messy face and all. :)