Finally found a site for Animating Photos

I stumbled onto a website, gickr.com, where you can animate your photos. I'd been searching for something like this weeks ago for Yap. He's gotten really into photography and has tried to make movies on his little digital camera but we weren't having any luck transferring them to the computer in order to view. This might be a great alternative for Yap, for a while at least. I'm considering buying him his own inexpensive video recorder for Christmas. Does anyone have any suggestions for something small, inexpensive and good for a 9 year old? 

These shots of Yahoo was my first attempt at animating photos. Don't you just LOVE that dress? Her Aunt gave that to her. Now my house is slowly being taken over by rogue red sequins! 

The dress that I hope stays in the house.

Even though I grew up with three sisters none of us were really girly as children. We grew up on a farm feeding animals, driving tractors, hauling firewood. Only one of my sisters had any leanings toward girly stuff. 

Then I had twin boys so of course I knew trucks and Legos and dirt. 

Then came my daughter. Oh boy. 

If anyone tries to convince you that there is no big difference between little girls and little boys they are sooo wrong. Even surrounded by boy toys for the first couple years Yahoo has a passion for PINK, and DANCING, and RUFFLES! 

My mother, bless her heart, made Yahoo this dancing dress for Christmas. Three tiers of ruffles that a sparkly! 

My mom even thought ahead and made the elastic casings accessible that I can loosen it as Yahoo grows. Realistically, she could probably wear this dress for 3 or 4 more years! 

God Bless my mother! She definitely will do anything for her grand-kids, even make an incredibly GAUDY dress that I would prefer she didn't wear out of the house. I dodged a bullet this weekend though when Yahoo didn't choose to wear it to church. But I won't be that lucky forever! 

I guess I'm getting paid back though. I remember being about Yahoo's age and being obsessed with this striped crocheted yarn dress that I would wear all the time. My mom even admits to hiding it from me because I wore it so much. Okay, I guess Yahoo gets some of this girliness from me after all! 

How to throw a Pirate Party!!

My boys are 8! Can you believe it? I sure can't 

They had been asking for a couple years to have a friend birthday party. This year I finally consented. With twins I wasn't sure how it was going to work. Would they agree on the party theme? Would they agree on guests? 

They didn't. Yip wanted pirates and Yap wanted soldiers. They agreed, without much argument, that this year Yip could choose and next year we'd do Yap's soldier party. I did lay down the law on the party guests though. I wasn't inviting every boy they knew. They each invited two guests; we'll start with six little boys. Heaven knows these two boys keep my house busy enough. 

The boys and I worked all summer getting things ready for the party. We spread all the work out through the summer.

Arrrggghhh!!!

The cupcakes!! 

Yum! Shark Bait!! I got to tell ya, that watermelon shark was so much fun to do! 

We had pin the peg leg/hook/eye patch/parrot on the pirate game drawn up. 

We had all the fixin's to make their own pirate hook. Then we made an aluminum foil ring and the boys played catch the ring on the hook. 

Thanks Mom and Sue for all the wine corks, they made the perfect rafts :) 

We had pirate beards all ready to go along with black sashes, cardboard swords and skull bandannas. 

Don't they look awesome?!

We raided DR's closet for the pirate shirts.

DR even joined in the fun! But....he looks a bit more like a biker than a pirate! 

Hmmm, a Purdue Pete Pirate!! LOL 

 I had hinted for the last couple months that we would have a surprise guest. Meet Dillen! Dillen is a high school senior and has done some babysitting for us. The kids absolutely LOVE him because he wrestles with them and of course lets them go to bed late! 

We were ready! Once all the guests arrived and were suited up in their pirate attire we headed off to the high seas....

...in the driveway! 

Our grocery store down the street saved us a couple of boxes the watermelon came in. So we painted them up like the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchmen, put the blue pool full of water in between and a plank over the top. Each ship was filled with cannonballs (wads of packing paper wrapped in masking tape).

Boy did they enjoy their "sea battle"! 

After the swords were completely soaking wet and the cardboard swords were flopping and falling apart we headed inside for cupcakes. 

Eight candles are a tight squeeze on a little cupcake. 

Eight!! Dang! 

Then off to play pin the pirate. We made sure everyone was thoroughly spun and dizzy :) 

Perfect peg leg positioning there Yip! 

He cheated by the way and was peaking under his blindfold! 

Then a pinata! I think the pinata was the most expensive thing I bought for the whole party. That thing just would. not. BUST!! We wacked it for heaven knows how long. Finally I took a utility knife and sliced it quite a few places and that helped. 

Yahoo wasn't left out! She was right in the middle of all the action.

Dillen is an awesome guy! He bought Yip a KNex set and Yap a Lego Pirate ship. Not only did he buy them each a very cool present he stuck around until bedtime and helped them each put together their model! Thanks a bunch Dillen, my boys really look up to you. 

All in all we had a great 8th birthday celebration! 

Happy Birthday! 

Marker Monday - Hogwarts Robes

This week are Yip's and Yap's 6th birthdays! Woo Hoo! They both requested Harry Potter robes this year. Now let me explain something real quick. I have unintentionally created a couple of little Potterheads.

I started reading Harry Potter to them about a year ago. I just wanted something longer and different to read at bedtime that we could all enjoy. I never expected to get all the way through the first one with Yip and Yap. We are now almost finished with #4! They love Harry Potter. They dress up like him, draw scars on their heads and swipe my hair picks to use as wands. We've learned to make Butterbeer and Pumpkin Pasties. Potterheads...well, I guess it's better than Dungeon and Dragons.

So for their birthdays they requested robes. A little searching and I found this tutorial;  How to make a Hogwarts Robe.  The pattern called to line the robe but I didn't and it worked fine. I also used bias tape on the front opening. I used a red tablecloth from a Christmas clearance sale. Red instead of black worked for the boys because Harry's Quidditch uniform was red in the first movie. I think it looks pretty good don't you?

The boys each chose their own buttons for the neck closure. I used a ponytail holder to loop around each button, one side of which is tacked down under one of the buttons.

To make the Hogwarts house badges I bought some Iron On Printer Paper from WalMart and printed off an image of the house crests online. I love this stuff, not only can you use it with your printer but you can draw on it with crayons and markers too and iron original artwork onto shirts, bags, etc.

Yes, Potterheads out there, I realize that Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff colors are not red but after I had the robes finished these were the badges the boys chose. Hey, it makes em' happy.

Even though the boys have seen me working on the robes they haven't seen them finished yet. Their birthday is Wednesday so hopefully I'll have the little wizards posing with their new uniforms later.

I'm almost afraid of what they'll ask me to make them next!