Archive for the ‘2012’ Category

{Leprechaun Trap!} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

February 21st, 2012

Now that the Valentines Day madness is behind us, we look forward to the next holiday and holiday madness. Last year, my boys really got into St. Patrick’s Day, and in particular, if leprechauns were real or not. I found this cool tutorial for a leprechaun trap, and we went to town! What you need: [...]
 

Now that the Valentines Day madness is behind us, we look forward to the next holiday and holiday madness. Last year, my boys really got into St. Patrick’s Day, and in particular, if leprechauns were real or not. I found this cool tutorial for a leprechaun trap, and we went to town!

What you need:

  • Round container (I used a Quaker Oats container)
  • Green Paper, black paper, and yellow paper for decorations
  • Sticks (for the ladder)
  • Cotton Ball and Glitter (for the gold)
  • Pocket Knife

This was a pretty easy craft, I had the boys cut out shamrocks and do all the gluing and taping. I put the cotton ball inside a box, let them coat it in watered down glue (to soak into the cotton ball), then glitter the heck out of it. **NOTE** Do this outdoors or it’ll look like a glitter bomb went off in your house. Then we found sticks and hot glued them together to make the ladder.

 

Here is what our finished trap looked like! The sign was very important, as we read that leprechauns don’t like to be told what NOT to do.

Here was the hole we put on top, then we put the “gold nugget” to cover up the hole. The theory was, leprechaun would see the sign, climb up the ladder to take the gold, then fall in and be trapped! 

We put the trap outside the boys’ bedroom window. Here they are eagerly waiting for the leprechaun

And…here is what they discovered. Leprechauns can bust out of traps! You can tell by the outline of the leprechaun the next day. He did however leave some green footprints, and quarters for the boys.

 

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{Ivory Soap Science Experiment} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

February 20th, 2012

It’s monday and not sunday, but I’m still going to call it the sunday science post. I found this cool (and easy!) experiment titled “What Happens When You Microwave Ivory Soap” . I thought, how different could Ivory soap be from other soaps? It was a super fun, easy, clean!, and also preschooler friendly experiment. Here [...]
 

It’s monday and not sunday, but I’m still going to call it the sunday science post. I found this cool (and easy!) experiment titled “What Happens When You Microwave Ivory Soap” . I thought, how different could Ivory soap be from other soaps? It was a super fun, easy, clean!, and also preschooler friendly experiment. Here is what we did.

 

You Need:

  • bar of Ivory soap, quartered. IMPORTANT one of the soaps needs to be Ivory
  • bar of some other soap, quartered
  • microwave (put soap in for 30 seconds at a time)
  • microwave safe dish (we used paper plates)
  • big bowl of water (optional – for playing with the soap)

 

Our Hypothesis: What Happens When You Microwave Ivory Soap?  (This was before we had the cool chalkboards to write stuff down)

Six Year Old: it doesn’t do anything

Three Year Old: it becomes tasty? (heh, he cracks me up)

We started with the Ivory soap

We also used Lever 2000 as our secondary control

We broke the soap in half to see what it looked like inside

The Lever 2000 after we microwaved for 60 seconds

Aannnnnnnnnnnnd…here is what Ivory soap looks like after being microwaved for 60 seconds!

Another before and after shot of the Lever 2000

And a before and after of the Ivory soap

 

CONCLUSION: Ivory soap blows up in the microwave, where the other soap did not.

WHY: Ivory soap is made up of whipped air! When you microwave it, the air expands into the surrounding solid state soap, thus making it “blow up” , aka turn into soap foam.

 

Other cool things to try with Ivory Soap vs. Other Soap:

  • Place a bar of Ivory and your Other Soap in a bowl of water. Does it float? Does it sink?
  • Cut or break off a piece of Ivory and your Other Soap and examine it. Do you see pockets of air? (if you cut non-Ivory soap, make sure you have a strong hand because it will be harder to cut)
  • HAVE FUN!

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{Boy Room Decor, Part 2} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

February 19th, 2012

Having two artistic and opinionated boys results in a lot of not-so-subtle parental guidance towards room decor. I have already talked about some of the decorating we’ve done in the boys’ shared room in my boy room decor, part 1 post. In this post, I’ll talk about the art gallery arrangement we have up on [...]
 

Having two artistic and opinionated boys results in a lot of not-so-subtle parental guidance towards room decor. I have already talked about some of the decorating we’ve done in the boys’ shared room in my boy room decor, part 1 post. In this post, I’ll talk about the art gallery arrangement we have up on the wall to display the copious amounts of artwork the boys seem to churn out. Younger brother also finally gave us his approval on what he wanted for his part of the bunk bed, so we have the finished rocketship bunk bed as well. Hooray!

Here is what our art wall gallery looks like. The IMAGINE letters were cut by my husband and painted by the boys. I strung picture wire on nails to make the two rows. The wooden turtle, train, sailboat and soccer ball were purchased at Michael’s and also painted by the boys. They are there to cover up the nail heads.

I used clothespins to pin the pictures to the picture wire. We cut out the stars from scrapbook paper, then glued them to the clothespin for a fancier look

My son shows off how pleased he was to finally have someplace he could display his work.

My husband dressed the boys in preparation for their help with painting the rocket ship.

Little brother was very intent on helping

Big brother was much better on spreading on a thin coat of primer, as opposed to the glupping on that little brother was doing. :)

And…ta dah! The finished rocket ship bed!

Can you spot the three year old? He loves his new, sleek rocket ship bed.

 

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{Baby S. 3 weeks old} Seattle Area Newborn Photographer

February 19th, 2012

I had the pleasure of photographing Baby S. this weekend. I had photographed her brother when he was about five months old, so it was nice to come back and visit the family. Big brother is now a big boy of three, and was a very good helper during little sister’s photoshoot. Thank you for [...]
 

I had the pleasure of photographing Baby S. this weekend. I had photographed her brother when he was about five months old, so it was nice to come back and visit the family. Big brother is now a big boy of three, and was a very good helper during little sister’s photoshoot. Thank you for allowing me to come capture Baby S and your entire sweet family! Enjoy your sneak peek.

 

Meet Baby S. Don’t let this picture fool you, we spent a big part of the day trying to get her to sleep.

Look at Miss Sweetness!

you’re never too young for diamonds

Mom told me that she came out with her hands wrapped around her ears, so we recreated that pose here. Heh!

having a mom and daughter chat

Dad was pretty awesome in being able to lull Baby S to sleep

Sweet sibling kisses

Big smiles from big brother

This picture doesn’t show it, but it was very windy and COLD this day. The family trooped out twice to have a family picture in the wind and cold, you can’t even tell, don’t they look happy?

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{Year of the Dragon} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

February 17th, 2012

While January 1st may  be celebrated as the New Year in western cultures, in most Asian countries new year is celebrated on the Lunar calendar. In Viet Nam, it’s called Tet and it started on January 23rd this year. 2012 is also the Year of the Dragon, which is special to me because it’s also [...]
 

While January 1st may  be celebrated as the New Year in western cultures, in most Asian countries new year is celebrated on the Lunar calendar. In Viet Nam, it’s called Tet and it started on January 23rd this year. 2012 is also the Year of the Dragon, which is special to me because it’s also the birth year for myself and my husband. The boys are Year of the Rooster (2005) and Year of the Rat (2008) respectively.  People born in the Year of the Dragon are said to be prosperous, attractive, arrogant, and charismatic. The Seattle area has a great Tet in Seattle celebration every year which features delicious Vietnamese cuisine, dragon dancing, and a fun kids’ show put on by local schools. We celebrated this year by eating great food, making dragon shadow puppets, and checking out the lion dances!


Dragon dancers are the bomb!

I found this Chinese dragon shadow puppet template and had the boys each make one. I glued the template to a cereal box to make it sturdier. here my littlest one shows off his awesome coloring job.

The six year old did this one, can you tell? All cut out and glued together. 

 

Raow rawo raow! I love the look of adoration on little brother’s face. I’m fairly certain there was a story being played out when i took this picture.

The boys in the traditional Vietnamese Ao Dai

 

Playing with their dragon puppets

 

If you ask my kids, the best part of New Year is always lixi, which means lucky money. It comes in little red envelops like this.

 

I think this smile sums up what he thought about the red envelop.

This was the first year my youngest really understood that getting lixi meant money. Here was what he thought of the whole thing.

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