Samer - 7 Months

Yesterday I had the privilege of photographing the sweet son of one of the wonderful ladies that I work with, Kristine. Baby Samer just turned 7 months old, and just started sitting up on his own last week, so I knew it would be the perfect time to snap some pictures of him. You would never know he just learned how to sit up though, he was sitting like a champ! What a sweet, happy little boy Samer is! He let us pose him however we wanted and never fussed a single time. His sweet older siblings were there to help make him laugh, and boy did they ever!

I've heard photographers say that around 6 months is their favorite age to photograph, and now I see why! Babies this age are so happy and full of personality, but are not yet big enough to crawl away from the camera hehe!

Thank you so much Kristine for sharing your sweet baby with me for the morning! I hope you enjoy this preview!

Stay tuned for pictures of sweet Samer and his siblings together :)

What Super Heroes Do

When my brother was little, he had this adorable catchphrase that he said all the time, "that's just what little boys do".

"Woody, why are you playing with those animals in the bathtub?"

"that's just what little boys do!"

Cutest thing in the world!

Here's my updated take on that, in picture form: That's What Super Heroes Do!

Super Heroes pose for pictures

Super Heroes joke around with their brothers

Super Heroes play baseball

Super Heroes Blow Bubbles

Super Heroes mow the lawn

Super Heroes learn their letters

Super Heroes read books

Can you tell these boys love their capes?!? They seriously wear them ALL the time! It doesn't matter what we are doing, they are playing super heroes and wearing the capes. Makes me smile! :)

Chick-fil-A Cow Day!

Every year Chick-fil-A has a promotion one day in July where if you come dressed like a cow you get your meal for free. I first heard about this last year when I was watching the boys, so I dressed them up and took them. They thought it was pretty much the coolest thing in the world!

Outside Chick-fil-A before last year's cow day. Getting them to pose for a picture was a challenge haha

Because cow day was such a hit last year, of course I had to take them back this year. Every day this week Tate has been asking "is it cow day yet?!? When is it going to be cow day??" Apparently when he woke up this morning he opened the door to his room and yelled "IT'S COW DAY!!!" and ran down the stairs screaming. haha. I had to put the costumes together again, but it's pretty much the same thing as last year. I totally love this picture of the three of them! What sweet boys! :)

Picture taken before leaving for cow day today. They are getting so big!

Cow day works out to be a pretty sweet deal for the kids. They get a free kids meal, and if you don't want your toy at Chick-fil-A, you can trade it in for a free ice cream cone. Free food and free dessert. Can't go wrong there!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

I saw this idea on a baking blog I read a few weeks ago and just knew I had to try it for our 4th of July Party!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes!

I decided the presentation was the most important part of these, and since I was already doing a TON of cooking for the party I made it easy on myself and just used a store bought cake mix and store bought frosting.

For something that looks like such a simple idea, these were pretty tricky to pull off. First I dipped each cone in chocolate and added sprinkles. You could skip this step, but I think it really adds to the whole looks. After the cones were dry I popped a chocolate cupcake into each waffle cone. Now comes the trick part. First you have to use a knife to spread frosting over the edges of the cupcake showing outside the cone. Then using a piping bag (and the right consistency of frosting, which is more difficult than one might think) pipe on the frosting to make it look like soft serve ice cream. Finally add some sprinkles to the top. So cute!

I'm really happy with how these turned out. They really do look just like real ice cream cones! Hope everyone loves them as much as I do :)

Homemade Pizza

I have been wanting to make homemade pizza for awhile now, but was too scared to try it due to the fact I have never made any type of homemade bread before so I had no idea if I could do it or not. Through a cooking/baking blog I read, I found a recipe for a simple crust that was supposed to be amazing. I found a simple sauce recipe from the same blog, so I decided to give it a try last Friday when I had the whole day free to mess with it.

I am happy to report my pizza turned out fantastic!! I absolutely LOVED it, and Tony compared it to pizza from New York Pizzaria. The dough was light and airy with a great homemade bread taste, and sauce was light with just the right mix of seasoning and tomato. Both recipes made enough for 2 pizzas so I actually made both this time so we could have cold pizza the next day. However, this is good to know because the dough is easy to make and freeze. I'll probably start keeping a batch in the freezer so I can throw together a pizza at a moments notice when needed.

I wish I had taken more pictures while I was making this, or even some good ones after I was done, but since it was my first time making pizza it took awhile to figure out the tricks like how to transfer the dough to the pizza stone haha. By the time they were ready we were starving so I snapped a few quick pics and we gobbled it up. yum yum yum!

In case you are interested in trying it, The crust recipe can be found here: Annie's Eats Perfect Pizza Crust, and I used the sauce recipe found here: Annie's Eats Pizza Sauce

Superhero Capes!

As you may know, I am nannying for my three favorite boys in the world again this summer. The oldest has a birthday coming up in a little over a week, and the twins had a birthday the week before I started working with them. I figured since I missed the twins' birthday, and it is so close to their older brother's, it would be okay for me to get all three of them something and just give them each a gift on the upcoming birthday.

The boys are (just turned) 4, and (about to turn) 6. All day long they play make believe games. They are fixated on pretending to have some sort of super powers. For example, Q can "move as fast as a rocket!" and T can "never be hurt or killed". I got it in my head that I should make all three of them superhero capes for their birthdays. I looked around online and found some cute ones with some basic instructions and decided to get to work. I am INCREDIBLY amazed this turned out as well as it did given that I had no pattern or any real measurements of any kind to work with, only pictures for ideas.

I'll post pictures of all three when they are done, but for now I'll post about the one I finished the other day (disclaimer: the pictures don't all match the finished cape. I sort of forgot to take pictures as I was going so some pictures go to one cape, some to another):

How to Make a Superhero Cape!

1. fold fabric in half selvage to selvage. Use fabric chalk to freehand the shape of the cape like this, and cut out:

Mine is about 11 inches wide, and 28 inches tall.

Here is what your cape looks like unfolded (you'll need two of these for each cape):

If you're making more than one cape, I'd suggest working on all three at each step.

2. On your background color of felt, draw the shape you want for the superhero emblem. I just freehanded mine using a ruler.

3. Using double sided fusible interfacing, trace the background shape, then draw the superhero emblem inside it (make sure to draw it backwards if need be because it will be mirrored when you iron it on to the fabric). Iron this on to the second color of felt, cut out, remove interfacing, and iron on to the background color.

4. Lay the emblem on one piece of the cape and center it where you want it. Iron it on using the fusible interfacing. Using the zig zag stitch on your sewing machine (and a contrasting color thread), stitch around all the edges on the emblem to add some detail while securing it to the cape fabric.

5. Place both pieces of cape fabric right sides together. Stitch all the way around but leave about 6 inches open to pull the fabric through. Pull fabric through to the right side and iron. Then, using the contrasting thread, stitch around the edge using a 1/4 seam. Sew velcro on to the neck pieces to make it easy for kids to get on and off themselves.

6. Be amazed that you actually made something that looks like a cape not having any real directions, measurements, or pattern!

I'm finishing up the last of the three capes this weekend and giving them to the boys on Tuesday. I'll take some pictures of them wearing them and post them later. :) Such a fun, simple project. The total cost came out to be $8 per cape. What a great inexpensive gift! Anyone have a little boy who needs a cape?!?

Former Student

I had the greatest surprise the other day! Remember sweet M who I taught in first and second grade? Well when I told my class I was moving last summer he was one of the most heartbroken about it. After school ended he wrote me letters weekly all through the summer. I even ended up taking him out for ice cream late in the July before I left for Colorado so we could spend some time together and I could tell him goodbye. Unfortunately, in the process of moving to Colorado and back again, I lost his address and had no way to write back to him after his last letter. He has crossed my mind often this year, and I have wondered how he has been doing.

A week ago, out of the blue, I got an email from his mom. She said she had no idea if it was still my email address or not, but M had mentioned me that day and said he really missed me. He told her that his third grade teacher had told him she heard I moved back to Texas and was teaching elsewhere in the area. So, M's mom told him she would try and email me to see if I was around. I was so happy to hear from her when I got the email. I responded right away saying that yes I was back and town, and I would love to meet up with her and sweet M to catch up! In her response, in which we talked a little about details of where and when, she started by saying, "I am so glad you are back in the area. I read your email to M and he got the biggest smile on his face! I just know you are his first love...."

Every teacher wants to make a difference to the kids in her class. Every teacher wants to be remembered. This year has been so tough because I honestly have not felt like I made a difference in anyone's life. I don't think there is a single child in my class this year that will look back on me with fond memories. I've really been feeling down about this. But then, to get this email from the parent of a former student, well, I really needed that. You can't tell me I didn't make a difference in his life. You can't tell me this little boy won't remember me years from now.

I'm so excited he got back in touch with me. I cannot wait to meet up with him and his mom in a few weeks!

As much as I complained about having to move grade levels and teach the same group of kids for 3 years in a row, I have to say, it worked out to be such a positive experience. There are 4 children from Highlands that I still keep in touch with. 3 of them are students I taught for more than one year. You just can't help but form special bonds with kids like that.