She's no Bob Ross

It's been a while since there have been pictures on here taken with anything other than my phone. Here are some I took with "Dino" (my nickname for my big digital camera that is ancient compared to today's standards).

Way back at the beginning of the school year, Miss A and I had some "clay time" with some leftover air-dry clay I had in the studio. Ever the fickle artist, she couldn't decide what she wanted to make but it ended up (with my strong suggestions) becoming an ashtray of sorts. *shrug*

We left it to dry out and kind of forgot about it and then Miss A brought it up in the way of, "Hey! Can we paint my clay?" I honestly felt kind of bad about forgetting about it for so long.

Miss A was thrilled to be able to break the paints out and put some color onto it today. She is ALL about doing artwork and I couldn't be more thrilled that she is such a drip off the ol' palette.

The next picture is of two chickens. She made them by putting her hands down and then painting around them. I'm assuming she learned this technique at preschool.

These masterpieces are drying on the dining room table/play fort thing in the playroom. They will be hung up tomorrow.

Miss A -cam strikes again!

We did a major overhaul in the way of cleaning, sorting, junking, and getting bagged up for Goodwill today. In the midst of it all I found some batteries that had just enough juice for Miss A to snap some pictures with her camera! D got in on the action and I could hear the both of them laughing like crazy even while I was cooking dinner in the kitchen. Apparently they were taking turns making ridiculous faces and taking each others pictures. Like father, like daughter? Apparently so. Here are some of Miss A's best shots - both with her behind the camera and in front of it.

Starring... MISS A!!!!!

I'll tell you what. Nothing makes you feel more like a mom or a dad than sitting in an audience anxiously awaiting for your kid to go on stage for their very first performance art piece. To be totally and completely fair, Miss A wasn't cast in some piece of performance art like The Nutcracker or Hamlet or anything BUT STILL(!) this was the first time EVER that she was up on stage "performing" anything at all.

Tonight was the annual Christmas concert at her preschool. She has only been at her new preschool for just under a month and she is the youngest in her class by almost a full year so it was a big deal for her to get up on stage even with the rest of her class beside her. She was supposed to sing three songs - Deck the Halls, We wish you a Merry Christmas, and one more that I can't recall - but she really just stood there giggling emphatically with her hands over her mouth and occasionally waving to D and I who were seated in the third row from the front. We got video of it but for some reason blogspot isn't letting me upload it so here are some pictures I took instead...

Her teachers said she did a wonderful job and we are so proud of her for getting up there and being neither the kid who cried the whole time nor the kid who stood up there and picked their nose continuously in front of everyone (both types of kids were in every group that went up). We'll take a giggler like Miss A any day of the week.

Miss "A"-cam

Last night might have been the single best time of Miss A's third year. I know...I KNOW. How could I proclaim such a thing and essentially discount every other day and night so far? Well, I'm not saying all of the other times were bad just that last night was THE. BEST. EVER!!!!  Why? Because I found an old point-and-shoot digital camera (my first one ever that I got for college graduation), figured out that it still worked and gave it to Miss A to take however many pictures she wanted.

Below are some of Miss A's best shots over probably 30 total. I'd say she did pretty well overall considering this was her first time taking pictures independently.

This first picture of the dog was one I assisted her with taking just so she understood how to hold the camera and which button to push.

This next one was all Miss A. It's a picture of our dishes in the dishwasher racks. She really likes the bright red mug/cup.

This next one is one that was all Miss A. I am pretty excited that she managed to get both me and the dog in the frame of the picture AND that she used negative space within the frame to help boost the composition though I'm pretty certain that was serendipitous more than anything.

At this point Miss A was feeling a little left out because she was doing all of the picture taking instead of being in the pictures so she turned the camera on herself and produced her very first self-portrait. We'll work on getting this a little better in the future.

At one point Miss A got a little adventurous and took her picture taking into her playroom. She chose to photograph her princess crown. (Of course.)

And eventually she decided to come back to the kitchen (where she started) and get back on the high stool she was sitting on in the first place. She took this gem of her Hello Kitty socks while sitting down.

At one point she becoming the creative director of all of this photographer and ordered me to take HER picture. Look at her being all jaded as if to say, "Take the picture already!"

When she finally took the camera back, she ended up having a really hard time getting any more good ones but I take the blame for that.  While we were taking the pictures I was doing my best to do silly things that would thus produce more fun pictures and I got her laughing so hard she could barely hold the camera upright much less take a picture. She just about cut off the top of my head in this one and the dog can just barely be seen but for one last picture before the batteries died? I'd say it's a good last hurrah of sorts.

So that's the Miss "A"-cam. And I will surely have more pictures to share with you when I get more batteries for the camera. ;)

Leaving her mark

Sunday morning when I went in to get Miss A up at wake-up time I found her scribbled head to toe with purple marker.

????????????

Turns out she had somehow smuggled a PERMANENT purple marker in the night before and had proceeded to decorate herself AND some her buddies...

o_O

*sigh*

It would have been a little more entertaining and amusing to me if it had occurred on Saturday instead because then I wouldn't have had to rush to try and clean it off of her so that we could get to church on time and I could look a little less negligent as a mom.

Miss A and her antics are becoming more and more entertaining these days however challenging. :)  Last evening before I was able to go to bed early (and log a full 11 hours of sleep! WOO!!!) I had some serious "girl" bonding time with her and we looked at the American Girl catalog together and then pretended to be driving to the beach (and she was the mama) in her room with her bed as the vehicle.  It was so much fun seeing her imagination reeling away the way it did and voice what is fast becoming a lengthy wishlist of American Girl doll items. I'm getting so excited for Christmas morning when we reveal that a fair amount of her Christmas "wishes" will be given to her.

D and I are honestly loving this stage that she is in despite the fact that everyday she announces that she is NOT friends with boys, we are working hard to convince her that though D is a boy, he is also a Papa and that negates being a boy which means he can indeed be her friend on any given day.