Week Nineteen Recap!

Monday:

Nothing stunts any motivation like a cold and rainy Monday! But we weathered the storm (see what I did there?) and got through the morning with minimal whining, fighting, or drama. We ate our breakfast and then got dressed and ready to update our calendar. Mondays are good calendar days because everyone can take a turn putting a number up. They’re catching on to the songs and to which day it is. We danced to some of our usual songs and even added some new ones, then went on a bear hunt. After some free play and straightening up, we hopped in our chairs for a healthy snack of apples and goldfish. We started to talk about the letter N and things that started with it. We painted our Nest N’s using water colors and then finger painting some ‘snow’ onto a blue piece of paper for a project later in the week.

Tuesday:

Well, we are officially back on a routine. The kids know what’s coming next in the morning for the most part, unless I decide to throw a curveball in, which is sometimes needed! We ate breakfast, got dressed, updated the calendar, and then ran around the house for a little bit while I got my act together and some laundry done. We had a picnic with the toy food (something we haven’t done in a while) then we cleaned it all up and started our ‘exercise’ time with some Animal Action and then some of our faves, like I Like to Move It and Everybody Dance now. We ate some snack and got ready for some crafts. Today’s project was a melted snowman! I cut out all of the pieces (a white blob, some coal buttons, a scarf, a carrot nose and a top hat) and spread glue all over a green piece of paper. I gave them each their own set of materials and let them do the rest! They ended up stacking everything on top of the snowman blob, which I thought was pretty cool. This project and the shining sun almost tricked me into thinking spring was near!

Wednesday:

Hump Day! We’re halfway there people! The day started out with both kids eating all of their breakfast (French toast) with no yelling, screaming, crying, or complaints. I was floored! Usually one gives the other the wrong look and for a brief moment, World War 3 looms on the horizon. We got dressed, brushed our crazy hair, changed Lily’s earrings, and then did our calendar. They started to get a little rowdy during free play, so we cleaned up the cars (I had to take away cups and turn the TV off for either to cooperate, but it got done) and we did some Animal Action, Cosmic Yoga, and one song of each of their choosing. We ate some snack and finished our igloo project by gluing white squares (ice blocks) onto the pre-drawn igloo. Lily started singing the opening song from Frozen (which I don’t even know) and Tristan followed suit. We played with some Lego Duplos for a little bit (I want to get another set of these), went on a bear hunt around the house, and then got ready to wind down for nap with some reading.

Thursday:

I will preface today’s update with this one fact…I did not have coffee today. And we went to the gym after Lily was asleep last night, so I coudlnt fall asleep until late. Damn endorphins! I should probably switch my game plan to going to the gym in the morning but it’s too cold for that nonsense. Anyway, I felt like I was waltzing through molasses all morning. The kids ate and got dressed with little to no problems, and then we did our calendar. Tristan asked to play with the trains, and that was a nice little break for me to straighten up and get a project ready. Until they started fighting over the trains and we had to clean up in a haste. After we all cooled down, we had snack and started on our project, a resist painting of a tree on a canvas. I taped off the tree and a snow pile with some blue tape. I thought it would be more frustrating than it was because the tape kept peeling off, but the kiddos actually used their listening ears and only painted the white space. They came out very very good! I think I might hang Lily’s in her room. Once we washed hands and cleaned up, we had some free play time til we became too wild. I put on some yoga, which we got through a decent chunk, and then switched it up to Animal Action and Walking in the Jungle, and then ended with some Barney (unfortunately for my sanity, they have become obsessed with ‘the dinosaur singing’) and of course our Frozen medley.

Friday:

Woo we made it to Friday! We did our usual eat breakfast, get dressed, and do the calendar routine and then we had some free play. And as usual, we got to wild so I reeled them in with some Cosmic Yoga and some Animal Action. When we got tired of dancing, we played with some blocks and practiced building tall towers (which was a focus skill goal a few weeks ago) and making patterns (which was this week’s focus skill for us and it was also featured on Sesame Street a few times---go me)! Once the blocks were cleaned up, we did some vacuuming and dusting. They really are such big helpers! We skipped an actual project today, but after snack we played a new game! I got a tri-fold board from the Dollar Store and drew a snowman surrounded by snowflakes on it. I cut a hole in the snowman’s belly, gave them some large white pompoms, and voila! An easy snowball toss game! They were slightly cheating and getting very close to the hole, but hopefully with some practice, we’ll be all ready for carnival games come springtime!

Hope everyone has a fun, relaxing (hopefully) three day weekend! 

Week Eighteen Recap

Monday:

We are back on track today! Hooray! As much as I love the holidays, and the go go go busyness of it all, I am happy to say we are back on schedule, everyone is napping, and we started our alphabet back up again. It was awesome to have Jordan home around Christmas and visits from the Georgia Peaches but it’s also nice to get back into the swing of things. We added a new piece to our daily schedule today—the calendar! Today we talked about the months of the year and the days of the week and we took turns putting the numbers on the calendar up to the 5^th. We learned a song about the months of the year and one about the days of the week that I am sure everyone who has attended preschool has heard or learned at one point in their lives! After we finished our calendar talk, the kids played with our musical instruments for M week while I got a project ready. We had some free play and then some snack, and then we made decorated mittens with little squares of tissue paper. Tristan wanted to draw, so we used colored pencils for the first time to color in a picture of kids making music. I love how intense Tristan gets when he uses a pencil or pen. He holds it the right way and almost colors in the lines! I am so proud of him!

Tuesday:

Snow Day! Well, sort of. It has been lightly flurrying all morning. We ate our breakfast, got dressed, and added a 6 to the calendar, then had some free play time while I threw in a load of laundry. Before we got too rowdy, we did some of our letter/picture puzzles. After we cleaned up, we did our project for the day---painting our Mouse M’s with water color while reading Mouse Paint. We had a little snack and then I made the executive decision to venture outdoors for a bit. After layer upon layer upon layer were, er, layered onto us, we headed outside. I was sweating at that point, but it was quite chilly. We took a walk down to the church playground and played in the little houses for a few minutes, then walked back to the house and tried to make a snowman. When that didn’t work, we tossed snow at each other until I mentioned peppermint oreos and both kids made a break for the door. It was a nice change of pace to get outside and blow the stink off! After our peppermint oreo snack, we built some forts, which is practically a must on a snow day before settling in for a (hopefully) long winter’s nap. After naptime, we ate our lunch and had some free play time, but we were a little too cranky for non-structured play. I decided the other fun thing to do on a snow day is build forts, which lasted for a little bit, and we finished the day with playing with some play dough.

Wednesday:

I think we all woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Today started off a little rough and cranky for all of us. After breakfast, the struggle of getting dressed, and calendar time, I decided we needed a little zen and calm in our morning, so we did some yoga. We haven’t done Cosmic Yoga since before Christmas so it shocked me that the kids lasted a full ten minutes before they got bored and started climbing all over me. It helped to stretch our muscles and take a couple deep breaths. Today’s project was an inverse snowflake painting. Using scotch tape, I made a snowflake shape on a small piece of blue paper. Tristan and Lily’s job was to paint the entire paper white, using a foam brush. They did a great job and when we peeled the tape off, you could see their snowflakes. After some snack, we decided to go on a shape hunt around the house. They had so much fun looking for circles, squares, and triangles that once we finished all our shapes, we moved on to a color hunt! They were running from room to room showing me all the things they saw that matched the colors we were talking about. It gave us some extra movement time which is always nice when you’re stuck inside all day. We settled down after our hunt and read some books. I left the room and when I came back, I got a “shh mom we’re reading!” That is always music to my ears!

Thursday:

Today started off slightly different than usual. The heater was acting up, so after we ate breakfast, we moved upstairs to Lily’s room to play because it was much warmer up there. It was a very…trying morning. They fought over almost every single toy and I couldn’t leave the room for even a second without someone crying or screaming at the other person. But the heater was fixed and we went about our normal day of looking for shapes and colors, having a snack, and making a snow hat by decorating half of a paper plate. We used markers today for the first time during project time and they did a very good job keeping it moderately neat! We read a few books before nap, after running a few laps and going on a bear hunt to warm ourselves up!

Friday:

TGIF! This was our first full week together in quite some time. And because I deeply believe in karma, especially in the once-a-kid-now-a-parent sense, I need to send my mother flowers for the hours she spent pulling my brother Bobby and I away from each other. I don’t know what it is, but they love to swat at each other! I’m guessing it’s the age, coupled with we are stuck indoors 98% of the time. As long as we keep moving, and stick to a routine, we manage. That being said, we did our breakfast, get dressed then do calendar thing this morning with little to no struggle or tears (mine or theirs). I got the instruments down and put on a music channel so they could jam. Once they started fighting over harmonicas (we have two, one just has a black string and is the coveted one), I put on some Cosmic Yoga and we stretched and took some deep breaths for a while. We tried Pedro the Penguin. It was definitely faster paced than Swish the Fish, but we had fun. For our project, I mixed glue and shaving cream together and let them go to town on a picture of a snowman. Lily dove right in with a brush and then her hands, but Tristan told me he did not like it. He did paint with the paint brush for a little bit, and I got him to dip a finger in and stir the fluff around but when he said he was done, I wiped off his finger and got him some colored pencils to draw with. It kept Lily entertained for quite some time! The pictures were a little too heavy/messy to save, but it was a fun new thing to try. 

Well, here's to a new year full of (hopefully) many new projects and fun new adventures! We have a lot of new going on over here (wedding planning, diets and exercising, learning and crafting) so I am super excited for 2015!

Enjoy your weekends!

Week 14, Week 15, and a Photoshoot Friday!

Oops I skipped an update for last week. I was keeping track of the things we were doing, but Tristan was having some nap time troubles so I haven’t really had any extra time to blog…and some days even shower. Yikes. But the past two days have been back to ‘normal’ so I am trying to update this as fast as possible! Here’s two weeks worth of projects (last Thursday and Friday are MIA as is my memory of what the crap we did those days). Also we had a Photoshoot Friday today to keep us in the Christmas spirit!

Week Fourteen Recap

Monday:

Ashley, Aubrey and I took the kids to the Frozen Winter Palace at the Short Hills Mall. It was quite the drive and the wait, but the kids were very well behaved and they had a blast! They got their pictures taken with Olaf and with Santa. There was even a snow globe to play in that had the Frozen sing along on a loop. The kids were in their glory and although it took all day, it was worth it. And yes, the sangria margarita martini afterwards also made the drive home crammed in between two car seats a little more bearable!

Tuesday:

Today we started to talk about the letter M. We have been slacking on the alphabet this month. Christmas has taken over, so we might put letters on the back burner until January. We did play some Music with our instruments and Marched around the house, but I still need to draw some sort of M creature for them to paint. We painted some toilet paper rolls red (that will eventually become Santa’s) and some egg cartons white (that might eventually become snowmen). We had a big picnic with all of our large stuffed animals.

Wednesday:

After we ate and got ready today, we pulled out the train set to play with. I made a large oval track and they were very good about watching where they sat/stepped so they would not knock it down. Slowly over time, they are playing with things the ‘right’ way, and it is so neat to watch. Tristan set up the house, barn, and boat, while Lily connected the train cars together and pushed them around the track. They’ve come a long way from the first time we played with the trains and they were both basically mini Godzillas, stomping and crushing. Once the trains were cleaned up, we moved on to project time. I bought some foam ornaments complete with sticker pieces and a place for the kid’s faces from Michael’s. They said 6+ which is probably just about the right age to use them! But we didn’t do too bad of a job sticking on the reindeer’s ears or Santa’s hat. I admit I guided them just a tad! They came out very cute, especially with the goofy pictures we took to put inside of them!

Not sure when this or the creamer snowmen projects were complete. Could be the blur that was Thursday and Friday! Christmas projects and the like have just become a whirlwind! I will try to get back on track in more ways than one come January!

Week Fifteen Recap:

Tuesday:

We had a guest star visitor today for the morning—our cousin Dani! She wasn’t feeling so good so she mostly stayed on the couch and watched TV while we played, until it was time to have snack and play with play doh. I was very proud of the kids for sharing their play doh toys with Dani. Usually they fight over who gets what, and today they were content with what they had!

Wednesday:

Since it was almost 50 degrees today, we ventured outside for a nice long walk. We were a little crazy in the morning so some fresh air definatley helped us calm down and get ready for nap. After we got back from our walk, we decorated some foam gingerbread men. I drew a few lines in Elmer’s glue and gave each kid a handful of tiny pre-cut shapes. Both kids took circles and covered the punched out eyes, and Tristan even added a triangle for a nose! I love watching them do these sorts of simple projects on their own and drawing from other projects we have done in the past!

Thursday:

Sadly it was back to being chilly today. We did our usual morning routine, complete with a dance party. I try to find kid-appropriate videos via YouTube for them to dance to but some of them are just so weird. I found an animated version of C&C Music Factory’s Everybody Dance Now and Tristan got down with Phineas and Ferb.  After we danced our sillies out, I started some prep for a photoshoot Friday. I needed to make a sign for Santa’s workshop, and the kids helped me color it. Tristan took his time and he can almost color in the lines! So impressive! Then we had some free play and then it was time for snack. Once we were fed and pleasant again, I pulled out a new play doh toy Aunt Meghan got us. She was also an angel and bought two of the same thing so there were no fights or whines. It was one of those toys you put the play doh in and smush it through a hole to make snakes, crazy hair, or a banana, as the kids did. They played with those for 30 minutes with NO FUSSING. It was amazing. It was also neat to see them not only manipulate the toy in its regular use, but find different ways to play with it. Lily used her cookie cutters to make a helicopter and Tristan got to work cleaning the play doh out of every nook and cranny.

Friday:

We started the day out with a Photoshoot Friday! I had made a tool bench out of a big orange box I got from Fab.com last year (probably for Christmas). I kept meaning to incorporate it in a Photoshoot and it wasn’t until I was brainstorming what to do with the elf and Santa Pjs I purchased from Target on Black Friday that it came to me. Yesterday the kids helped draw the sign for Santa’s Workshop so they were very excited to dress up today! They both wanted to wear the beard and be Santa so we took turns. I love how cute all of the pictures came out! After we were done being models and having free time play, we had some snack and worked on some odds and ends projects that have been collecting in my project basket. We completed our foam reindeer, stuck the fixings on Frosty, and made Rudolph out of a toilet paper roll, googlely eyes, a red pompom and our hands. We added some more red paint to another empty creamer bottle and shook it up. Those will hopefully be turned into a Santa this afternoon.  Hopefully both kiddos nap just long enough for me to finish my quiet chores. Fingers crossed!

Happy Friday! Hope everyone gets everything done they need to this weekend and can relax next week. Hey, a girl can wish!

Week Thirteen Recap!

Tuesday:

Whew. After having a week plus off and being completely apart from each other, I thought this morning was going to be a tough one. But it went freakishly well! So well that I even managed to do some pre-Christmas decorating toy purges without the kids even realizing I was moving some toys far far away. We started Elf on the Shelf with Lily last week, so the first thing we did when Lily woke up was go on a hunt for Holly. I let Lily explain to Tristan who she was and what she is doing here. After we got dressed, we had a good amount of free play time. They were playing so nicely together and sharing so well that I did not want to interrupt. I even heard a big smooch at one point, some giggling, and Lily saying “syrup kisses!” When we started to whine, we changed it up and had some snack while listening to some Christmas music. After we scrubbed the cheeseball residue off our fingers, we painted some paper plates green that will eventually become Christmas trees! At first I handed them the wire bottle brushes to use, but after their hands became smeared with green paint, it became a finger painting project!

Wednesday:

Another cold and gray day. We stuck to our usual plan of attack, but after we got dressed, we did some yoga and danced to some of our favorite Greg and Steve songs. Today’s project of the day was turning a toilet paper roll into a snowman! In the morning, I gave each kid a TP roll and a foam brush and let them have at it. I used tempera paint so we will need to apply another coat of paint after lunch. When we were finished painting, snacking, and listening to Christmas songs, I pulled out the parachute and we played with that for a little bit. That extra 2 feet of room from toys being moved elsewhere yesterday really opened the room up for so many activities. Too bad we can’t loft the couch and chair, dorm room style! We made a fort with the parachute and hung out in there for a little bit, reading Christmas books and singing songs until someone broke the golden rule of forts—no farts (or poop) so we had to open it up and air it out!

Thursday:

We got a lot accomplished today after breakfast and getting dressed! We crumpled up red tissue paper to make decorations for our paper plate trees. This is a great fine motor activity but it also gave me some time to prep other projects! After we glued on our ‘ornaments’, we glued faces on our toilet paper roll snowmen! Our last project of the day was making Christmas ball ornaments using their handprints. Ash bought little kits that came with an ornament, white paint, a makeup sponge, a chunk of orange crayon for the carrot nose, and a black marker. You paint one hand and have them hold the ornament from the bottom, and their fingers look like snowmen! Since their hands are so tiny, I was able to do each hand and make ten snowmen!

Friday:

Jordan was home sick today so our schedule was slightly different! We had our breakfast and got dressed and then headed out to the grocery store for some treats we need to make for holiday parties this weekend. I had planned on making sugar cookies with the kids today anyway, so it was nice to have an extra set of hands handy if needed! They really liked rolling out the dough with me and then using tiny cookie cutters to make some different shapes. Halfway through I had the “why did I do this thought?!?” moment but it was actually fun. The both helped to wipe the table off and sweep the floor too! And the best part was trying what we made!

Sidenote---Michael’s sells decorated toilet paper rolls. Huh?!? I mean I admit I waste money on stupid things but if I can make it at home or use something I have I try to do that first. They also sell kits to make snowmen out of paper plates. Instead, go grab a pack of 100 plates from the Dollar Store and make your own fun projects! But steal borrow your ideas from pre-packed stuff! hehe

Enjoy your weekends! 

Week Twelve Recap

Monday:

Nothing better than a rainy miserable Monday to start off the week before vacation. Ugh. Luckily for me, the kiddos have been rather pleasant and we got to try some new activities this morning. After we got dressed after breakfast, I brought down the Chromecast and found some toddler yoga videos on YouTube. I found Cosmic Kids, which is a story-telling adventure while doing simple poses. I have never done for real yoga in my life, but I thought this would be fun to try. We started with Squish the Fish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cNjAj_o0SI and the kids lasted through the first five minutes, which I was impressed with. I think if I learn the story and the moves, I can prompt them and they might last for the whole adventure. It did end up with me in a plank position with both of them on my back, but that’s about right when it comes to the two of them! After we were all stretched out, we did some Greg & Steve songs and then we painted our Ladder L’s. We got a chance to read our new story---Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See (which I might have to make another felt board story for) and then got ready for nap. Our nap schedule was a little off today, so we didn’t finish lunch until about 3 and I had some straightening up to finish upstairs so we played up in Lily’s room for a little bit then came back down for fruit snacks and some TV time. It is supposed to be bitter cold tomorrow so I’m prepping for a few different projects and sensory activities to keep us busy and entertained!

Tuesday:

Remember that week of perfect fall weather we had this year? Yeah, I miss that. It is bitter cold today so we are stuck indoors again. Not that I have any desire to brave the wind and chill. Lily is currently sitting up in her bed zoning because the wind is so stinking loud. Brr. Anyway, we started today as usual with some breakfast and then did some yoga before we got dressed. I am enjoying the stretching and moving it provides before we start the day. The kids did a little bit of it today, so hopefully if we continue this as part of our routine, they’ll start to participate more. After some free play with cars, blocks, and then musical instruments, we started our Thanksgiving projects. First they each painted a paper plate brown (mainly because I have no brown construction paper, but it also was a good time killer). While they were painting I prompted them with questions about what they were thankful for. I asked what their favorite foods and toys are and who they are thankful for. Their answers were adorable as usual and I jotted them down on multicolored hearts I cut out. Once the plates were dry, we glued eyes, a beak, a gobbler, and our hearts to them and voila---Thankful Thanksgiving Turkeys!

Wednesday:

Man, I thought it was Thursday allllll day today. Bummer! But we did manage to get a lot of stuff done! After breakfast, yoga, freestyle dance time, and getting dressed, we did some laps around the house, straightened things up, and vacuumed. Once we got some of our energy out, we started our projects. First we glued precut ‘feathers’ together for our Toilet Paper Roll Turkeys! Then we glued on eyes, beaks, and gobblers onto our TP Turkeys and attempted to attach the feathers. Our Elmer’s glue wasn’t holding too well, so I ended up hot gluing them together during lunch. Our next project was making your basic handprint turkey. And then we added some footprint Pilgrims and Indians! They came out very very cute!

Thursday:

Today started off a little slow. We ate breakfast and did some yoga before getting dressed. They can get up to about minute five before they lose interest, or sit on me as I am trying to fold my body into an awkward shape. I have been trying to make it the full fifteen minutes myself but I, too, get easily distracted. The movie Sofia the First was on the Disney Channel and they became entranced which gave me a full ten minutes to prep a project and straighten up some stuff around the house. For our project, we made another crafty turkey out of a paper plate and some scrap pieces of paper. With the excess paper I had from other projects this week, I cut out some simple shapes for the kiddos to glue onto the paper plate to make Shape Turkeys! I cut the plate in half and on one half, we smeared some Elmer’s and the other half was colored brown. While the kids were gluing the shapes, I was asking them what colors and what shapes they were using. We added eyes, a beak, and a gobbler to complete the look. Added bonus--the only thing better than using fine motor skills to pick up and glue tiny shapes is using fine motor skills to peel dried glue off your hand! It’s slightly more mild outside today so after nap and lunch I might attempt a super bundled fast wagon ride, just to get us out of the house and switch things up a bit.

Friday:

Well, it’s Friday. I would like to say we did another awesome turkey project or tried out a new sensory project. But truth is, we did not. We pretended to take off in a space ship this morning and then floated through the house like astronauts. And then we just had free play time. I brought them up to Lily’s room after they ate lunch, put Frozen on, and attempted to pack, fold laundry, and post this blog while they were preoccupied. Tristan had a rough week with naps so I haven’t been getting much done, and I didn’t realize how much I appreciate but also need that full hour to myself. Today I was finally able to get him to go back to sleep in the back and play and suddenly a tractor appeared blowing leaves, a gang of motorcycles revved up the street, and my hopes of getting anything done during nap disappeared. We’re off a week so we’ll figure it out when we get back on schedule. 

Week Eleven Recap

Monday:

The letter this week is K, so after lots of kisses, we colored some Kangaroo K’s and hopped around like kangaroos. We painted some more leaf pictures with our own water colors and tiny brushes. The paint sets were from when my mom taught preschool so they are a little dry, but I actually like the brownish colors they mixed and painted their leaves with.

 

Tuesday:

Once we were dressed after breakfast, we dove right into project time. I had cut out some K’s and we used glue sticks to attach them to a kite! We also worked on some fine motor skills by threading the string (ribbon) for the kite through a little circle. After nap and lunch, we attempted to fly our kites outside, but there was no wind. That was a slight letdown and caused a slight meltdown, but we fixed it with a wagon ride and some singing.

Wednesday:

Today was nice enough for an early morning walk after breakfast. We even got some outside playtime in where we played in our cars and pretended the toll was one Kiss for the letter K. After potty and snack, we used a new medium to color some leaves---oil pastels. I always loved cray-pas in art class. The kids were slightly less excited than I was (plus this is about the fifth sheet of leaves they’ve painted) so project time didn’t last too long.

Thursday:

Brr it was quite chilly this morning! We ate our breakfast, got dressed, and did some cleaning up and running in laps. While I did some painting for a Photoshoot Friday, Lily and Tristan played with playdough for a little bit. We had a rough start after nap and lunch, but we attempted a project or two anyway. I have wanted to salt paint with them for about a week now but I misplaced the glue pens I bought for the project. Oops. I let them doodle a few lines by themselves with the glue pen, then helped them do some loops. They used salt in a salt shaker to cover the glue. While that was drying, we glued the leaves we have been painting with different mediums onto a paper plate. After the salt was dry, I mixed food coloring with water and showed them the magic of gently touching the brush to the salt. They were pretty impressed but wanted to paint the normal way.

Friday:

This morning after breakfast, we headed up to Lily’s room to do our first Photoshoot Friday in quite some time. They had a blast dressing up like munchkins and posing in front of the Wizard of Oz backdrop I made. You can read a little more about that here and see previous Photoshoot Friday ideas we have done. We came downstairs and did some cleaning. I love how much they love to help. I am tempted to get them both mini working vacuums for Christmas. Just kidding. But how sweet would that be? We had some snack and continued to free play. Their new favorite spot is under the portable changing table in the dining room. They pretend they are on an airplane or helicopter. I love the imaginations they are developing!

Check back this week for some fun Turkey and Thanksgiving inspired projects!

Behind the scenes of a Photoshoot Friday!

I admit I have been slacking in the Photoshoot Friday department this year. It was a whole lot easier when they were a lot less mobile.  Naptimes are now spent prepping projects for the afternoon (or the week) while also trying to squeeze in a shower and some quiet cleaning. The summer was spent playing and being outside, which didn’t leave a lot of room for designing a set. But now that they are older and love to paint and be big helpers, they might have a hand in helping me prepare for some more shoots!

Where do the ideas come from?

The first photo shoot I did was when Lily was just a few months old. Jordan had just gone back to work and I was looking for fun and creative projects to do during the day with Lilypad, even at a young age. I saw a Pinterest post of a mom who used towels to create this hilarious creative backgrounds she would lay her sleeping baby on. I put her in her tiny bathing suit and experimented with an assortment of blue towels and blankets, her seahorse toy, and a brown blanket (for a surfboard). She was actually quite awake during this shoot. I did a few more photo shoots over the next few months with simple backgrounds for Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.

Once I started watching Tristan, I did a solo shoot with him as Superman ‘flying’ over a town. I posted the pictures to Facebook and got a lot of positive feedback, along with the ideas to add Lily to the shoot. The beginning ones were very simple. The outfits were the center of the shoots and then I formed a scene around them with towels or blankets and simple props. As soon as they became a little more mobile, things became a little trickier.

How do I brainstorm?

I usually start with an idea based on an outfit or toy that one or both kids have or a prop I can easily make. For the Gone Fishin’ photo shoot, we had just gotten Lily a cute wooden fishing game and I had a large box leftover from something that made for the perfect rowboat! The Wild West shoot came from Ash finding those onesies on clearance somewhere. I have done a few holiday ones but the one that hit home and meant the most was the Restore the Shore shoot. I re-create my favorite parts of Seaside Heights’ boardwalk and we got the kids Restore the Shore T-shirts to wear. They posed with hammers and tools, ready to rebuild.

How long does it take me?

When I first started, I would sketch up the backgrounds I wanted to create the night before and get all the materials ready. For the first few shoots, it was just some stuffed animals, a few basic cardboard props, a towel or blanket, and Lily & Tristan, dressed to impress. Then things started getting a little more involved. I can usually draw and paint a background during a naptime. Or while the kids are painting their own projects or entertained by food or playdough. I usually prep slowly during the week then finish up last minute details Thursday night. I found it’s best to get them right when they wake up, after breakfast and before we get dressed. They’re usually pretty pleasant after they are fed.

How much does it usually cost?

Usually, absolutely nothing. I try to use outfits we already have or can borrow. If I do purchase an outfit for a photo shoot, it usually has another use I intend to get out of it. I use cardboard I have stockpiled in the garage. I do buy paint, but I also use that for other crafts and projects. For the safari shoot, we got Lily a Power Wheels jeep at a yard sale for $4 and I found the hats and vests at the dollar store. We bought her a drum kit at the same yard sale for about $3 and I couldn’t wait to do a shoot with it! For the kitchen shoot, I had made Lily a mini kitchen set out of cardboard and packaging tape and I had a fun time making a little kitchen scene for them to play in!

Do they always turn out the way they were planned?

No, of course not. Sometimes I change my mind halfway through making a ‘set’ or painting a background. Some days, I can’t get either child to sit still or cooperate for longer than 30 seconds which makes trying to capture their cuteness slightly difficult but sometimes the outtake shots end up being the best and silliest. I usually set them up, run a few steps back (or up) and start snapping shots. At times it’s frustrating, until I take a deep breath and remind myself it’s all for fun and they are two year olds.

So why am I interviewing myself about Photo Shoot Friday? Because it’s back, baby. At least for this week! We’re traveling to Oz along the yellow brick road and welcoming Dorothy as a member of the Lollipop Guild and a part of the Lullaby League. Here are some pictures from prepping for it and some cute ones of the kiddos being munchkins!! They actually had a lot of fun with this one and took direction from me on how to pose. They also stayed in costume for a while after and played up in Lily's room. I did take Tristan's hair out right away though and it's back to it's normal state!

And just for fun, here are some blooper pictures when we didn't quite have the scene set right! Notice the blanket escape on the sailboat, the sitting up surfer baby, a pirate on a mission, a Wild West town being torn to shreds, and a very miserable skunk. Even these are just too precious! 

Have a great weekend!