Fun - Filled Week

We have had such a great week this week. It was a great week for Emby Taylor Photography. Our website is being launched March 1, so we've been working really hard on that and business has been great. I'm so excited about all of the consults that I have been on lately and how this spring is shaping up to be. We're going to be busy and that's a good thing! It's such an exciting time.
I also had a really exciting photo shoot with some fellow photographers at a studio south of Charlotte. You should stop by the Emby Taylor Blog to check out the more fabulous side to what I do (I'll spare putting them up twice).
We also had tons of fun as a family this week.  Drew had a field trip to Discovery Place Kids in Huntersville.  His favorite part, of course, was the pirate ship.

Captain Drew

Emma had fun pretending she was a mermaid riding a dolphin

 

And we pretended that 'We all lived in a yellow submarine'

They had fun "driving" the submarine around

Then there was the low-tech bank (notice the abacus). Ironically there was a screen there that actually showed who "pulled up" to the window outside in the little pretend car. So I guess, high-tech customer service with some low-tech math going on there. haha

On Thursday, we spent 4 hours at the park enjoying the great weather and some pizza with Drew and Emma's friend, Walker.  It was such a gorgeous day, we couldn't leave (until I finally had to in order to make it down to the studio in time).
Friday, Drew stayed home from school and we had a pajama day.  No one was sick, we just wanted to enjoy a slow morning together as a family since we had such a busy week and we knew we had a jam-packed weekend ahead of us.  It was nice to just take the day off and be together.

Saturday, we went down to the Charlotte Convention center to a motorcycle show.  I brought my camera because it was the first time the new Ducati Panigale was being revealed in our area and Colin was super excited to see it.


The kids tried out some bikes of their own and Colin had a pair of custom ear plugs made for this coming track season.  So I guess we all had a little something there for each of us.

After leaving uptown, we got ready to go have a fun Louisiana meal at a friend's house. The family hopped in the car, ingredients loaded, and headed off to dinner at Drew's best little buddy's house.  There was a gaggle of kids, good food cookin', and great friends to chat with.  Drew's teacher also brought her family over to have some great Louisiana fare.  I cooked jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, and Drew's teacher brought the red beans and rice.  It was wonderful!  So after dinner the kids ran around for a while and we sat stuffed in our chairs around the table chatting.  Love nights like that!

So as you can see, we've been staying pretty busy...the good kind of busy.  I'm loving it, but I'll really be loving it when the weather decides to make up its mind and stick with a general temperature.

Yesterday's Outing

We didn't really have any plans for yesterday, so we just headed down to the Metropolitan just outside of uptown.
We just dilly-dallied around and had some lunch.  I brought my camera along to scope out some locations for an upcoming engagement session and caught a couple of funny moments with the kids while we were out.

There was music playing, so of course the kids couldn't resist making this concrete platform a stage.

Notice Emma in the foreground. That girl is gettin' down! "Blue Steel!"

And this is just next level

And I got a couple of cute pictures of them together just hanging out too. (this one I played around with a little bit, so it's got that "vintage" look to it.  Sorry, I know it doesn't match the rest, but I had fun playing.

Ta Da!

Emma's Wondering...

Did you remember to do something special for your Valentine?

(Don't you just love that look?)

Yet Another Great Find On Pinterest

Today has been a very busy day.  Mondays are the day that I volunteer at the preschool, and I had other mommy chores such as a trip to the grocery and finishing off the last touches on Drew's Valentines.

So there hasn't been much time for blogging, but I thought I'd share this little appetizer that Colin and I made the other night.  They were were so good I had to share!

I found them on Pinterest from Mels Kitchen Cafe.

Source: Uploaded by user via Mary on Pinterest

Our Favorite Play Dough Recipe

We've had our fair share of rainy days lately, so we've been struggling to find things to do around here that don't involve going outside.
So the other day, we found some indoor activities to do.   The kids were doing some puzzles, mazes and letter practice while I was making some play dough.

Emma cracks me up in this one.

Drew's preschool class had asked for donations of homemade play dough, so I got crackin'.
After basically being a test kitchen for play dough, we finally found the recipe that we liked the most. I found the one that called for Cream of Tartar was the recipe that most resembled the good stuff in the little yellow cups we all love. You can find that recipe HERE.
I have never really been interested in making my own play dough, I just never really found anything wrong with buying it.... until now!

Wow, this stuff was great! and it made so much.  I don't worry at all about the kids having too many colors out at once and I don't mind if we just have to throw it away when they do mix the colors and make that "marbly" brown that it always ends up being.
 It makes the kids much happier because they get to really play with it and get into it up to their elbows (Those of you that know Emma, know that I mean this statement quite literally).
So we've been playing with a lot of play dough lately.
The kids have also been loving their little "squishy bags" as Drew calls them.  I filled zip lock bags with dish soap (I've used shaving cream with some food coloring in the past too and I've seen where people just pour paint into a bag as well.  It all depends on what you like or what you have around) and the kids practice drawing their letters with them.
Drew loves to squeeze his up to the top and then watch it all come streaming back down to the bottom of the bag.  Watching him do this, I realized that "The Calm Down Jar" would be a perfect solution for him when he gets frustrated or loses his temper.

Source: chasingthefirefly.files.wordpress.com via Mary on Pinterest

I saw this on Pinterest and loved it!