Recycle, Refashion

First, a video of the making of the gingerbread house. I somehow forgot to include it in the last post.


The latest trend in the DIY/craft world is to recycle and refashion. As much as I love working with beautiful fabrics (I really really love it), it is silly to think that I buy a huge piece of fabric only to chop it up into bits and then resew it back together to make a quilt. Isn't the idea of making a quilt to use small pieces of whatever you have on hand? So, I tried to join the refashion movement and recycled some of Brett's old t-shirts to make other useful items. This past weekend, I cut up one of those t-shirts and made 2 huge bibs. Hayden's been drooling like mad! I don't have a picture of the final products because Kira hid one and Hayden is sleeping with the other. I will put them up when I have a chance.

Before Hayden was born, I took one of Kira's old onesie and embellished it with a dinosaur applique. I thought it will be quite a while before it fits Hayden but he's been wearing it and I think he is even outgrowing it.


Even further back, I made Kira a pair of pants from one of my old t-shirts. That picture is here. Making things from old things can be a lot of fun. First, I don't have to worry about making a mistake and ruining expensive fabric. I can wing it and make things up as I go. Second, I really let the kids "wear" the clothes a lot more. I let them wear my other creations too but I tend to cringe when they roll in the mud or spill juice on them. Anyway, I have a few other ideas to reuse old t-shirts and old jeans... so if your name is Brett's old t-shirt and you know you either don't fit him well or don't look so good then watch out! I am going to turn you into something that will involve mopping up after my children.

Hey, Kira is quiet... maybe she is finally asleep? She'd cried for an hour and a half today. :-( I wonder if daylight saving is messing up her nap schedule. Finally, an artistic picture taken by Kira. I gave her the camera and said, "make art!" and this is what she did. Any guess as to what it is?

Bizzaro Day

Yesterday, March 08, 2008 was a very weird day.

This is the view that greeted me when I opened the curtains to see the sun and the blue sky.

Already, I knew the day would be exceptional. We got dressed and decided to head to IHOP for breakfast. This is the poster that was at the entrance.

Naturally, I had to order Green Eggs and Ham, Who Cakes and Beezlenut Splash. This was Hayden's reaction after I told him what we were ordering:

This is what actually came. Pretty close to the poster.

Then I took a bite:

It actually was not bad. I was just surprised. Then Kira wanted some of that action.

This is what she looked like after her bite.

Yeah... if you think my order of food was weird, look at what Kira wanted to eat with her pancakes:

After our strange, yet satisfying meal, we headed to the Presidio so Brett can do some work and I can run around with the kids a little. I took this picture while Kira was stuck in a sea of ground covers. You'd see why a child her size would think those ground covers were there to eat her.

The finale of the day was our decision to do this:

We wanted to Kira to help as much as possible. So I gave her some icing to mix up. When she was done, she decided to put some peas in it... and then she decided to eat the concoction.

This is her face when she was done.

Why we decided to build a ginger bread house in March is still a mystery to me but this is the final product. We'll get better next year.

When we were all done, Kira was in charge of cleaning up. Our kitchen is so lucky.

Don't you think it was a weird day????

Problem Solved

After a post about the difficulties a photographer must face while shooting group pictures, here are some examples of successful shots. The solution... I don't know. Must be miracles.

These first pictures were taken on the last day of our trip at my friend Lisa's house.

A picture of the happy gang:

Benjamin is the only one in our group that has not pro-created. So naturally, we gave him the kids. He's really good with the kids. They all love him, especially the girls.


Hayden chilling with daddy. Isn't it amazing that they were both looking directly at the camera?!

This was our sleeping arrangement. Hayden on the floor with the luggage and me on the big comfy pillow top bed. Ah... life is good.


These were taken at another friend, Becky's house.

Did Hayden shrink? Did I have crazy hair growing out of the back of my head?

No, this is Becky's new baby girl, Kate. She is so soft and tiny and cute. I want one.

What about the one I already have, you ask. Well, he is not so soft, not so tiny... still cute though. I guess I will keep him. He's so big he needed his own seat on the plane.

No... we somehow lucked out and had 6 seats, the whole row, to ourselves on the way back. Unfortunately, that's the only positive thing that happened that day. The rest of our return travel was horrible. Nobody's fault, really... it was just bad. Brett was sick, the kids were grumpy, the plane was delayed... you name it. Here is a picture of our glorious 6 seats.

This is it for my Vancouver trip related post. It was fun but I don't think I will have the energy to travel with the kids for quite a while. But then Brett thinks I have amnesia. Maybe I will forget the hard work and jump on a plane again soon.

Penguins

Have you ever seen the toy "Penguin Race"? If not, here is a youtube video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBa0k0Ogzh0&feature=related

And here is a real life version of it. I wish I could get the slide part as well but they kids (my kid, actually) were way too slow. It took Kira another 2 or 3 minutes before she got the courage to come down the slide. But she did go back on the slide... over and over and over again, at least 30 times. I got tired just watching her and the other participants of the penguin slide.

Look Over Here!

The theme for this post is "Look Over Here!". We are going to discuss the challenges faced by photographers who take pictures of groups, especially groups involving children and adults who are very happy to see said children. It is difficult to get the subjects to all look at the same direction. The adults are distracted and often want to play with the children instead of smile at the camera, making it difficult to capture that perfect facial expression. As a result, some adults end up with funny looks on their faces. The problem is made worse when one or more of the children has very little "head-eye coordination". Add to that another child who is crazy and hyper and we are pretty much looking at a guaranteed less-than-perfect picture. Finally, multiple other photographers are all competing for the attention from the subjects. The results often look like these:

Aunt Christine and Hayden:

Cousin Jane and the kids:












Classic examples of pictures resulting from all the issues raised above. Teresa, Anders and the kids:












Brayden and Kira at the park:


Ah... along with this sweet picture is a hilarious video that I've titled "How Relationships Sometimes End". I wish I know how to edit the video and add narration/dialog . So... here is the script for while you enjoy this classic.

Actually, you may want to see the video before you read the script so I don't spoil the ending for you.

Kira: What a beautiful day!
Brayden: Yeah, but not as beautiful as you.
Kira: Awwwww... you are such a sweet boyfriend.
Brayden: Don't we look cute together, holding hands and everything.
Kira: We sure do. I bet all the adults are melting right now. We are such an awesome couple.
Brayden: Let's go down this little ramp. It looks like fun. Here, I'll help..... ahhh!!!!!
Kira: Ahhhhhh!!!!!
Background adults: Ahhhhhhh!!!!
Brayden and Kira: Wah wah wahh!!!!

Seeing People

The best part about visiting Vancouver is of course being able to see people. For the first two days of the trip, Brett went to play Magic so I hung out with my friends and my aunt and uncle. Kira was in heaven with all the attention. Brett did quite well in his tournament, coming in 19th out of about 400 people.

Here are some pictures we took during the first 3 days:

Kira, the diva.


Kira with Gong Gong. Look at how happy she is with herself for making my uncle spin around in circles. She wanted food, then she wanted to be wiped, then she wanted to be picked up, then she wanted different foods, then she wanted my uncle to eat, then she wanted to feed my uncle... the list was endless.


Kira with Gu Por. We went to the mall for a little exercise after our satisfying meal and there was a temporary play structure set up. Now, it's my aunt's turn to serve the little girl. They climbed, they ran, they went down the slide a million times, they sat, they jumped... I have never seen my aunt move so fast. While watching them play, I was reminded of my grandma. My aunt is looking a lot like Grandma and Kira looks a lot like me. Em... getting all misty eyed.


Hayden was sleeping on my lap during most of this activity. On a different day, we drove to the park to meet up with Kira's first ever boyfriend. Kira was way too exhausted and fell asleep in the car. This time, Hayden was awake and all smiles. So, I took some pictures of him while we were waiting in the car. These two were voted "best pictures" by people I showed the pictures to. They were titled "bao bao face" (bao bao being bread or bun)

Mega Happy Bao Bao Face:

Say, what??


Kira eventually woke up from her beauty sleep in the car and we played at the park. We blew bubbles, fed the birds, went on the slide and walked around. There are some pretty funny videos and pictures. Here is the first one:

Kira never quite understood the idea of throwing food to the birds:

Playing Catch Up

Ah... we are back from vacation so it's time to play catch up with the blog.

First, a picture taken before we left to show how grown up Hayden has become. He is somewhat sitting on his own... well, he can sit up straight with support and can sit tripod style for about 10 seconds. He is smiling, cooing, grasping, drooling, kicking and mimicking our noises. I am sure there are other things he can do these days that I haven't mentioned yet. I will get to them as they come to me.


Our trip started perfectly. We got to the airport in plenty of time to get lunch and change the kids' diapers (never thought I'd be budgeting that into my air travel plans) and whatever else we had to do. The kids were perfect on the plane. We've decided Kira travels like an orange and Hayden travels like a banana... think about it.

Since we only bought two seats, Kira sat on Brett's lap and Hayden sat on mine:


Hayden before take off:

Hayden during the descend:


So as you can see, no, Hayden was not bothered by the pressure change.

Here is a video of us all waiting at the airport... yeah, our flight was delayed by about an hour but we didn't mind.



Stay tuned... more from our Vancouver trip to come in the next few days...