Photo Perspective

Isn't he handsome? We've been having a really good day with V today. He's been so sweet - not at all self-centered like you'd imagine a kid to be on his birthday. He was thrilled with his technical drawing tools (compass, protractor, triangles), portable desk (basically a clipboard with a compartment to hold all his drawing stuff), and a book on how to draw race cars. Due to busy schedules, we'll be having the birthday supper tomorrow. His request was steak, salad with croutons, red beet eggs, and ice cream sandwiches for dessert. We'll be having the grandparents over for cake and ice cream on Sunday, so we kinda spread the birthday celebrations out over several days.

For school this year, we are doing a whirlwind trip through U.S. history. We've studied the Native Americans and what life was like before the America's were discovered by the Europeans and now we are studying the colonial time period.

So we took a field trip to our local Landis Valley Museum thanks to a free family pass available at our local library. We packed a lunch and on our way, we "dadnapped" dad from work. :-)

We started with the leather working shop. An artisan dressed in period clothes was creating a box for storing things in. He also showed us a pair of straight shoes that he had made. "Straight shoes" have no arches and can fit on either foot. People would typically switch the shoes regularly in order to give them even wear.


As we walked along, we examined the different types of fences. S wasn't so sure about petting the lamb.

We learned the different steps to creating thread and fabric from flax.

We got a chance to lay on this bed. This one has two "mattresses". The top one is full of feathers, the bottom full of rye to keep the bedbugs away. Typically the parents and grandparents would sleep in this bed. The children under 5 would sleep in the trundle at the foot of the bed. And that pot under the bed? I'll let you figure that out. :-)


This was about 3/4 of the way through. We were all starting to get tired out.

Talking to a lady knitting sleeping socks outside one of the houses from a later period.

Outside of a one-room schoolhouse. The kids posed for me on an old hitching post. V was particularly fascinated by the thought of riding a horse to school every day.


The last stop of the day was the Gunsmith Shop. Everyone else was tired and hungry, but V? Let the expression on his face show you his emotions. He even got to fire an old pistol.

K and I visited a formal garden this evening in preparation for a few family photo shoots I have scheduled. K and I took turns posing for each other so we could both practice our photography skills. I would take a few of her, and then we would switch and she would try to imitate the composition. She's also been begging me to teach her how to work with Photoshop so that she can create digital scrapbooks with her pictures.

"Mom, this is my favorite chore! I LIKE handwashing. That's why I'm doing it so much."


We implemented a new chore schedule today, and the younger boys graduated to some older kid jobs that they had never gotten the opportunity to do. They were pretty excited about some of the new chores, and I'm hoping and praying the excitement lasts a LONG time.

Had the urge to take a few pictures tonight so that I could play with some new Photoshop actions from Pioneer Woman. I have to give a disclaimer for that link, though. A friend of mine shared it on her blog, and I lost myself in her blogs. Pioneer Woman is an engaging writer and awesome photographer as well as being a decent cook, rancher's wife, and homeschooling mom of four. So before you visit her blog, block out a chunk of time to really explore.

I took quite a break from scrapbooking lately for a number of reasons. I ran out of room in my albums and need to purchase a ton of album supplies to fit everything I have done. Since I use Creative Memories albums, they are very high quality, but also cost a good bit. I also have been struggling to figure out how to organize my freebie stash. The stash is getting too large for my hard drive, so an external drive is getting to be an necessity. I did figure out that if I tag/keyword my files in Adobe Bridge I can just use Spotlight to find all my files easily. Tagging thousands of files takes a bit of time, though. :-)

So here's the newest layout. We were so excited to reconnect with a niece of ours that we hadn't seen since she was an infant. Pete and I were talking on our way home about how our niece had totally stolen our hearts. We fell in love with her Saturday afternoon, and are looking forward to spending more time with her in the future.

This post is WAY late, but I have a friend who needs to know how to make a Mater cake. I made this one in January for Meister's 6th birthday.

The bottom is two rectangle cakes stacked on top of each other. I raised it off the serving board with canning rings and a wax papper wrapped piece of cardboard. The shape of the hood and back is carved from the top layer. If you freeze the pieces for a few hours, they are easier to carve. The cab is a mini loaf pan sized cake placed upside down. Frosting is used for glue in between layers. After piecing it together, put a thin layer of frosting on it and return it to the freezer. This will seal in the crumbs for you.

For the final layer of frosting, the brown is chocolate frosting, the blue and green is tinted vanilla frosting messily spread over the chocolate. The white is just the plain vanilla frosting.

Chocolate covered donuts were used for the tires. Green gummy Life Savers for the eyes. Large pretzels, Oreos and string were for the towing mechanism. I cut a 6 out of construction paper to hang on string. The black for the bumper and the eyes was a tube of black frosting with the tips that you can get at most grocery stores. The tips screw onto the tube.


My extended family has found that they like the cakes better mostly frozen, so I leave them in the freezer until the party. They thaw an hour or so during the gifts before we cut into it.