A very busy Mom.

 May was one busy month! I am trying to get caught up on the blog, so bear with me! 

We had mother's day which meant there was a Mother's Day Tea at Eli's preschool.

When I arrived, I found my seat & there was a beautiful portrait of me, drawn by one talented 5 year old! (Why has no one ever mentioned how large my hands are?)

On the back of the frame was the following notation:  "My mommy's name is Rachel. She plays games with me. She likes going to the park. She does the laundry. She cooks supper for us. I like when she cooks pizza."  I'd say, he nailed it!

 On the wall was pictures that each child drew of them with their mom. And true to the above story, he draws a picture & labels it, "Mommy & I are playing Pictureka." The child LOVES this game. Can you tell!?

 He also painted me a card with this sweet little note inside...

 Pretty soon, the kids were filing in class by class & up on stage they went to sing sweet little songs about their mothers. Nothing much cuter than preschoolers singing, if you ask me.

Then it was time to come & have a "tea" together. (And maybe a ham &cheese croissant and some strawberries too!)

 Two of Eli's friends were seated at our table as well. We tried to capture a picture of him with Alex on the left & Jaylen on the right. It's pretty hard to get 3 boys still & focused for a picture.

 In fact, they were all pretty silly! Goofball shot!

Of course, Eli wanted a goofball shot with mom, too. I really didn't want to do that, but then decided that it was such a small way to make my kids' day!

Or it may have been the only way I was able to coerce him into a serious one with mom! :)

I hope everyone had a great mother's day. I am personally blessed with 3 moms! My mother is the best on earth, and if there was ever a better step-mama, I don't know where she is. And I have been blessed to have married a man with one spectacular mom, who has treated me with love & kindness since day one. Mama's rock!

Goin' to the Lodge.... The Great Wolf Lodge!

Over Mother's Day weekend, our family was able to take a little mini vacation! Uncle Todd was home for his "R&R" from Afghanistan, so we headed up to Virginia for one night to join Rebecca, Todd, & the girls at the Great Wolf Lodge. They went up the night before & had an extra day to themselves & we joined in for the remainder of their time. 

 It was fabulous to basically only pack 1 outfit & a bathing suit for the trip. No blowdryer, no makeup, no real shoes. Flip Flops, deodorant, & toothpaste is about all ya need when you go here. Oh, and a credit card! Ha!

The boys played SO hard & I know we will go back again. Those slides aren't just for kids, if you know what I mean! :)  Here are some photos from our time there... all captured with my phone & uploaded to the lovely Instagram app which i LOVE so much! No way was I taking my Canon in that place to get soaked!!

All ready to get wet for the first time!

Jackson spent most of his time enjoying the wave pool...

Eli loved the slides...

It was so nice just hanging out, soaking wet, watching all the kids enjoy themselves.

We may have rode some rides ourselves too! :)

We had to snap family photos before we headed home... Rebecca's clan...

And some of us found it harder to say goodbye to the Lodge than others. I think one in particular wanted to live there...

We had so much fun & thanks to everyone who made it possible for us. You know who you are ;) We appreciate it more than you know!

A beginner... a true beginner.

Hi all! It's me just checkin in on a Friday! I don't have too much to share on the blog today, but I wanted to tell you one little thing that I have been up to...

Trying to figure out my Christmas present from Randy-- my Photoshop Elements Software.
 Ugh.
 It is VERY overwhelming to me & not at all user friendly.
As a result, I have literally shelved it since mid-January & avoided it like the plague.

 My problem with Photoshop is 2 fold.
1) I feel like it should be simple- tap some buttons & voila you have a great photo. BUT that isn't the case. Simple things like switching from tool to tool can screw up a picture in the blink of an eye. Now to you seasoned PSE users out there- I am sure you are laughing at me right now. I am okay with that. I am a beginner. A REAL beginner & I have so much to learn. From shortcuts on the menu to actually using the layers/masks/actions.
2) I don't like HIGHLY edited photos. I don't like for the person to not look like themselves. I don't like looking at photos & thinking "there is no way those eyes are THAT blue". There is a difference in boosting the colors of a photo & completely changing the appearance to unnatural. I want to find a middle ground & make special pictures pop, but not overly change them. And i love a vintage feel to a photo, so actions that change the "feel" of a photo, I LOVE.

So, last night I decided I would give my software a go again. I have been following Pioneer Woman's blog for several years, & I had saved my link to her free Photoshop action sets. I love her photos & even though having her actions doesn't mean that my photos will be great like hers, I decided to start with using her actions because she speaks in plain english & doesn't use overly complicated language when it comes to photography. I respect that & she makes me understand easily, so I felt it was going to be easiest to start dappling in using actions by using hers. I hope to add more actions at a later time, once I understand the program more. But, there were 2 actions specifically I wanted to try out of hers... one called "Bring out the eyes" and one called "boost".

The girls had come over to play & eat dinner with us, and I had grabbed my camera while they were outside playing. When I uploaded this picture of Sara Beth... I thought it had some potential to be a sweet photo of her beautiful little face! And was a good picture including her eyes straight on to practice on! Here is the original, unedited... straight from the camera.... (ps, I know it isn't very sharp... I think my ISO was still high from the fairy tale ball...oops!)

 

 And here is my first attempt at using PW's actions... This is SO a beginner editing job, so really, don't look too closely! I know there are some flaws, but I haven't figured out how to fix them yet!). See? Beginner.
BUT, I am overall happy with the fact that I actually edited a picture in Photoshop! And I didn't get so mad that I just walked away! It took 2 hours from beginning of downloading actions to final result, but it was worth it for my growth!  The actions I used on this photo were "boost" and "bring out the eyes"...

 Then this morning, I decided I wanted to play around with it again. So I changed it up again... This time I used "slight light" and "vintage" actions. I actually love this one. I want to go back & boost the eyes a bit, but I need help with the magnetic lasso tool. Randy is hopefully going to help me work that tool tonight!

So, that's what I've been up to around here! I will be spending more time in this program as I can already tell how addictive it can be! Hope you all have a great weekend...
I am off to download a few more free actions!

Fairy Tale Ball

 Today was Jackson's Fairy Tale Ball at school. This has been talked about in the Moss household for about a month now. Jackson has been so excited. The ball was a cooperative effort of the 2nd grade teachers, along with the PE & Music teacher. They are studying a unit on Fairy Tales in the classroom & so they learned the Waltz in PE and a special song about a waltz in music class. Then all their hard work was put together in the Fairy Tale Ball.

They walked in through the door of the castle...

 

  

Then they all stood on the bleachers & sang/swayed to a song about Teddy Bears Waltzing...

 

But, the best part was after the song, when they all lined up with their partners & began dancing the waltz.

 Melt.My.Heart.  

  

I thought I had the tears under control.

And then he did this....

 

Oh.My.Word. Floodgates began all over again as soon as that twirl happened. It was the most precious thing I have ever seen. 

Here is the video of it... (I added a few captions to help you find him & to know when a twirl was coming up, but they don't appear in the correct place unless you view full size, or on Youtube site!)

After the kids finished dancing, they announced that they we were to head to the dance floor because our kids were going to teach us the Waltz! What!?  

Yep... Tears again, as soon as he showed me where to put my hand in his...

 

Here is a video that Randy took of us waltzing together... A little blurry at first, but then he gets it together!

Man, I don't think I could love this kid one iota more!

 

After the waltz was over, they started the Chicken Dance Song! It was so funny! No pictures of that, but don't you worry- we shook our tooshies!

Eli was very excited when it was all over, because- well, you know- he has to get a big hug in! Huggiest kid in history, that Eli!

 The most handsome 2nd grader in that gym today was my little man. You didn't have any doubts, did you!?

 And we had to sneak in a picture of him & Mrs. Daves. I don't think he could love a teacher more than he loves this woman. She dotes on him, loves on him, hugs him, calls him wonderful and amazing. And then she tells us how she "wants to just keep this one." I wish we could keep HER for about 4 more years!! :)

 

And here is the official dance partner picture. Jackson & his friend, Hannah.

And here is our family! We managed to snag someone to take our picture & everyone cooperated! Miracle in & of itself!

What fun today was! Maybe Jackson can teach me the jive next!!

2nd Grade Field Trip: Museum of Natural Science

Back in mid-March, I was able to go on a field trip with Jackson's 2nd grade class. I was pretty excited because I knew that Jackson would love the museum we were going to in Downtown Raleigh- The Museum of Natural Sciences. We had been about 3 years ago & he liked it then, but now that he is older & very much so into animals/reptiles/nature- i just knew he would love it even more now.

I was right! We saw a LOT of snakes!This snake was trying its best to get a hold of a bug that was stuck in between the double pane glass.... look closely & you can see the bug...
The class got to participate in a learning class about metamorphosis vs "just grow bigger" - comparing animals that change (frogs, butterflies) & those who just grow bigger (turtle, bird, etc). It was so much fun to sit in & watch Jackson participate. He particularly liked getting to touch or look up close at the animals she was describing...

Here he is checking out a HUGE bullfrog...
And he got to touch the back of a bird (i think it was a dove)...
And finally the turtle...
Lunch was a picnic outside & whoa- it was chilly out there!
Jackson & his friends, Gerardo, Hannah, Rachel, & Dru
Jackson & Gerardo (the only two I was in charge of for the day)...

This tree was 700 years old! Whoa! Jackson was impressed!
Once the field trip was over, I signed to take Jackson home with me rather than have him go back to school. And then we took a little time in the museum by ourselves. It was so nice to have one on one time with him!

We saw a crab eating a fish (ack!)

Checking out the seahorse...
Jackson is just growing up & becoming more & more independent. And that is the first thing I thought when I saw this picture out of my phone.... He just looks like a big kid! :(
But I enjoy him so much... I love you buddy!