Pool Fun

Yesterday, we were creative with our pool. In the morning we swam an played in the sprinkler. I laid out for a bit. The girls wanted to pour water on me. I told them they could sprinkle it on me. They did something better: rubbed water on me. I thought I was at a spa. a water massage. Then after naptime we pool painted. Similar to barrel painting but on a large scale. I got this idea from the Artful Parent blog. Empty dry pool, big paper, balls of different sizes, and paint. Move pool to roll balls and paint. Then we washed all the paint out and swam again. I thought it would be fun to put some bubbles in it so I did. Then we poured that out and played in clean water again.

They ate popsicles too at some point. They are sweet sisters.

Self Esteem, Beauty, and Dancing

I decided to do body tracings with the girls one day. They did really good. We drew body parts inside the body and they colored the pictures. This is a good thing to do with girls no matter what age. You can really find out what they think about themselves and their body image. But at age 2 and 3 it is just fun to see yourself and learn about body parts. Bay wanted a heart, lungs, bones, and stomach. She had a skirt on so the body tracing has a skirt too. June just colored on hers.

Bay had dance pictures and a mini recital at a nursing home. I wanted to curl Bay's hair for the pictures so I bought sponges rollers. I figured out they just about only work if you sleep in them and I don't think Bay will sleep in them. I used a curling iron instead. But we had fun playing in the rollers anyway even if they weren't curling our hair.

Then Bay did the most awesome job at the nursing home. I have had so many parents talk about how great she did. Even her teacher said she was the leader that day. She did every move correctly at the right time, and sang loudly. I only saw it on video. Tony took them. I felt I might break down being at a nursing home. I visited my grandmother at the nursing home for many years. Bay said, "there was an angry grandma there". I told her that dancing for her probably made her happy. She replied, "no mom, she was still angry".

Grandma

"Do not put that mascara on today" I told myself as I was putting my makeup on. I did it anyway. I know it won't be there for long. Tears come and go in spurts. My mind has been full of memories of her today. Here is the best picture in the whole world. It was taken in Dec. '08. My grandmother, Norma, never took many pictures. Hated the camera, actually. This is four generations of wonderful, smart, creative, and STUBBORN women. It was good to see her smile at her great grandchildren. Norma Ruth Griffin. She was born during the 1927 flood, made it throught the Depression, married and raised 4 children at an early age. She suffered through a divorce and later the death of one of her daughters. Both my mom and my grandma raised me. She left this earth May 13th, 2010 at 1:30am. My mother is handling the details and rounding up the siblings. Grandma will be cremated and we will have our own personal funeral in Indianola, MS where we are suppose to bury her ashes near her mother and father's grave. I haven't been to MS in the summer in over six years probably. I imagine it will be mega hot and steamy. It will be good to reunite the family though. Unfortunately, this happens at weddings and funeral, right? Bay and June will get to meet my aunts and uncles. The last few quotes I remember from grandma are:
1)"I don't know what I would do without you". She said this to me at the first nursing home she lived at in MS. I visited her quite often then.
2)"Have a nice life" as we moved her to a TN nursing home and I moved to KY. She knew me then. She had alzheimer's. That one hit me pretty hard. I felt I was kind of leaving her all alone.
3) "who's the daddy?" she asked when a couple of years later when we brought Bay to TN to meet her. She is so funny. My cousin and I are her only grandchildren and we were children of divorce as babies(probably fetuses). so "who's the daddy?" may have been a familiar question 29 yrs ago. The funny thing is that Tony (THE daddy) was standing in the room with us.
My grandmother was a tough one. I never saw her cry. She just wasn't very emotional I guess. Other words to describe her: stubborn, blunt, smoker, dancer, mathematician, racist(born and raised in MS), unchanging(good and bad), mother, brave, selfless, giving, trustworthy, strong, and a hard worker. She worked a few jobs at the same time to take care of her children and was a single mom for a while. She didn't have any hobbies really.When she retired, she retired. She didn't do anything after that. She didn't knit or sew(but she knew how). She had a sweet tooth which caused her to bake butter cakes and iced sweet tea frequently. I liked that. She liked crumbled cornbread in milk. I guess it is a southern thing. Maybe a creation from not having much(depression?). Sometimes she would french braid or plat, she called it, my hair if I asked her to. But she wouldn't let me play with her hair. She mostly watched TV. She liked gameshows like wheel-a-fortune. I knew that she was ALWAYS there and wasn't going anywhere, that's for sure. I would sit and hold her soft hands. Do all old people have soft hands? Hers were so soft. I loved to hold her hand (And pinch her elbow skin which she would tell me that I would have it when I got old too). I loved her greatly and miss her from time to time.

Busy May

May has been the busiest month by far and it isn't even over yet! First, the Derby. None of our horses won. That's okay. It is still fun to watch the race.

Then we had awards night for Honeybees and

Cubbies... Look at Bay. She posed for this one. She looks all grown up.

And Choir: The praise parade. Bay is such a poser.

Then, daddy had his gig at Southeast Christian Church in the coffee shop. Bay got on stage for a Jars of Clay song she likes. She sang and did hand motions. She just couldn't resist the stage. She loves it.

Then a few crafts. Tissue paper flowers. They sorta look real. We did these with our Callihan freinds.

I painted most of the bunk bed pieces. I have the twin set up for Bay. We still need to purchase another mattress before painting and putting the top bunk together. Thanks for the tarp mom. It was very useful!

And Bay still has to dance at a nursing home and take dance pictures and daddy has another gig on the 24th. ... and who knows what else we will do. Good thing everything else we are involved in is over for summer.

altered photos

Tiffany told me about picnik.com and I touched up a few ballerina photos. check it out:
I increased the color and contrast here.Added the black faded edge here. messed with the exposure and contrast.

This is probably my favorite. I brightened the colors and it has a faded black edge. These all have names for the effects but I can't remember them. I just played around until I liked the image.

This is pretty cool. It is black and white but the flower is color.

Picnik.com is free and fun to play with for hours.

Tutu Photo Shoot

I finished this tutu and needed some pictures to give to Aunt Tiffany for the Baby Cadenhead Auction. I got several good pictures. I may try to make a couple into black and white.

I like the shadow in this one.

Imagine what I could do with an expensive camera and photoshop!