Much Ado About Mudpies

I have a photographic memory. (Go figure seeing as how I am a visual artist and professional photographer.) The way I do things is I have see something that I like, take visual note of it, and then mentally file it away in my memory bank to recall later. I can't tell you how often I do this but I can tell you that it feels like it's constant for me. And at any given time I can/will recall ideas or inspiration I've previously discovered and employ them when they are most appropriate.

I don't know when I stumbled upon the idea of a mudpie kitchen but I've been carrying it around with me and wanting to make it happen for a LONG time! D and I have done a lot of thinking about what kind of parenting we want to do for Miss A and a couple of months ago we decided that we were going to offer her less "stuff" and more experiences. Think about it! What do you remember? Do you remember things or EXPERIENCES better? Experiences always endure longer than things. Experiences can rarely they  recreated exactly as they happened and so each is very unique and that much easier to be cherished. It's for all of these reasons that I have wanted Miss A to have a mudpie kitchen.

I've had grand plans for this mud pie kitchen for Miss A. I wanted to make it out of wood and make it look as realistic of a kitchen as possible. I wanted to paint it bright colors and hang signage on it with a really clever and fun name. I wanted to put it on wheels so it could be put into storage easily and relocated within the space of our yard wherever Miss A felt inclined to have it. But you know what they say about best laid plans.

The fact of the matter is sometimes the simplest solution truly is the best. This morning I was getting Miss A ready for preschool and she looked at me with her big brown eyes and said, "Mama? Can I stay home with you today?" I, of course, couldn't possibly say no to her. And thus the perfect day arrived for me to finally make the mudpie kitchen happen!

I present it to you...

And here I've broken down all of the elements that came together to make it...

Out of pocket cost to make this happen? About $15 at our favorite thrift store getting pans and bowls and kid-sized mixing utensils and some pitchers and cups and a small waste basket to hold a small amount of top soil that was bought in bulk for a mere $2 at Walmart. The major "furniture" parts were all upcycled! Two plastic cubes and my old Yaffa block drawer set serve as the cabinetry/counterspace and a Lowe's utility bucket holds more than enough water than what Miss A could possibly use.

To say Miss A was delighted with this set-up would be a gross understatement. Definitely I did this for me as much as her but I'm happy to report that she was super excited about it and it kept her busy her for over an hour.

"Much Ado About Mudpies"

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I set everything up so it was nice and close to the hose and also our butterfly/flower-picking garden - so Miss A could pick things to decorate her pies and cakes. I also made sure she wore her crocs and cleaning her up was a cinch because of them! I certainly didn't want to use plastic but I'll tell you, I'm glad things turned out like this. It makes hosing things off so much easier and I also know there won't be mold and mildew that cakes when I'm trying to dry everything out. Also, whenever Miss A attempted to pour water into her bowls and it would not all make it in, it would all fall through the holes of the crates! Something even better? The white tray snapped right off the top of the yaffa block portion and I sprayed it down in not even 30 seconds and we were good to go!

I love this Mudpie kitchen set up and I just know that we are going to spend hours playing with it this summer.

The summer has officially begun!

And I'm starting it with wedding edits.

Here's one from just last evening when I was supposed to be just a guest. (But I, of course, can't help myself but crawl out onto the rafters to be able to get the shot I REALLY want.) *Psssst! Grammy! This is the one I was taking when I was just about climbing out of the loft during the first dance!*

And then there is another wedding that I actually was the official photographer at...

I tell ya, when you work in weddings, it kind of makes you feel all lovey-dovey and romantic-like. Not a bad perk for the job, eh?

Happy 3rd birthday, Miss A!!!!

I saw this type of thing on other people's websites/blogs long before Miss A was even a thought much less the bouncing and bubbly three year old she officially is today.

The idea is you sit your child down and ask them a series of questions - I suppose they should be the same questions every year but it might not end up like that for us - and then you record/observe their responses. It's supposed to be a little bit "Kids say the darnedest things" type of thing as well as really encapsulate who the child is at the moment in their lives when they are giving you responses that you would mostly never even think to anticipate from them.

Anyway, here is our attempt at the birthday video. I don't know what my expectations were but I think we turned out exactly what we were capable of. If anything it certainly is entertaining! Please pardon the bad video editing - a videographer I am not! I'll stick the the stills of weddings, portraits, and freelance work. ;)



Happy Birthday to our Miss A!!!

Would you like some cheese with that?

Yesterday D and I had the great delight to finally see the school pictures Miss A got taken weeks ago. Now, being that I've been in professional photography for over a decade at this point, I knew not to get my hopes up and had (what I feel) were very realistic expectations and hopes. Miss A might not cooperate and much less crack a smile for the photographer. She might look a little disheveled and her hair might be messed up. She might even have her picture taken right when she was mid-sentence and waxing on about the "spider-bugs" that she saw last week at our house or the "mean guy" from Toy Story that keeps popping up in her dreams at night (and landing her in D and my bed *sigh* - my poor girl!). Well, I must say... the pictures are far better than what I ever thought they would be...

We got enough prints for everyone we know would want one to have one and despite the fact that I was completely OK with and actually excited about getting a real portrait and snapshot of Miss A in all of her stained t-shirt, chatty, disheveled hair, three year-oldness, I can't say I'm anything less than pleased with the portrait that actually was turned out. I guess three years of me shoving a camera in her face and ordering her to "CHEESE!" is paying off because apparently she was one of only two kids in her class of twelve who was able to get their picture done. Way to go, Miss A!

Remember us?

This morning I decided to change things up a bit and start my day in a different way. Despite the fact that school officially ended for me last week, I'm still working at school for this whole week and then next week I'm working from home and then the weeks following that, I will be - you guessed it! - working in the most mobile way one could imagine. Anybody that tells you teachers have it easy doesn't know two things about three!

Anyway, because my days are filled to the brim and go-go-go all the time, I've been trying to reevaluate my workflow. Hitting the ground running is great but it's possible to be moving so fast that you don't realize the ground has fallen out beneath you until you believe you've traveled miles but you actually need to return to square one! I'm trying very hard to slooooooooooowwww dooooooooooooowwwwnn a little. I believe if I can do this, my overall work quality will be better versus more. So this morning, I started with a walk in Miss A's flower picking garden.

For as much as D and I really love some good landscaping, we simply don't have the time to do the fancy-schmancy stuff that we both really REALLY love. We need something that is very much no frills and no fuss. But Miss A just LOVES flowers! Our solution? Those big bags of butterfly flower mixes that they sell at home improvement stores for, like, seven bucks a bag or something. And for all of the time that we don't have to do gardening, the butterfly garden flowers don't need any of that anyway. Last year we tried it out and it worked pretty well by the end of the season and earlier this year we just added more to the mix and everything is now in full bloom! Miss A has flowers to pick for days if she wants (and she definitely does!) and we don't have to fuss with the acidity of our water or special trimming instructions. All we have to do is sit back and wait for things to be in bloom every morning! And, of course, there are always the fat little bumblebees that we have to get out the way of. They're just so cute...