Pinterest Challenge: Days 19- 22

This weekend was full of Baseball, swim meets and BBQ's.  Makes for a fun, but insane weekend.  I had the house perfectly clean in anticipation of our busy weekend and after 2 days of only coming home to drop something off and pick up something new, the house was trashed.  Does anyone else have this problem?  House clean on Friday.....start over on Monday.

Our boys have been in baseball for 6 years now (Makai 3 and Tanner 3).  Five of the six years, the boy's team made it to the championship game.  They have always lost.  Always the bridesmaid.  Until yesterday!  Tanner's team finally WON!  They beat an undefeated team and played an amazing game.  Way to go Storm!

I did manage to do a few Pinterest things over the last few days.  But I am still playing a little bit of catch up! The kids are really into it now (and have used the fan-fort every single day) and can't wait to see what we are going to do next.

Day 19:  Lens Friend.
I do a lot of photo shoots with little kids.  Sometimes it is really hard to get them to look directly into the lens.  So I found this on Pinterest.



I thought I would take a whack at it and make it myself.  Here is mine.

I think the nose could be a little bigger.  I made this at baseball practice so I couldn't use a glue gun, but next time I think that will make it lay better.  It is still really cute and will totally help when I am working with the littles.

All it took was a red scrunchie ($5 at Target, but it came with 8 scrunchies.  I couldn't buy just the red one, but I needed some new ones anyway), some white and orange felt ($.25 for each one), black buttons (which I already had in my button stash) and some thread.  It literally took me about 10 minutes to make it.

I would highly recommend this for any photographer or mom of little ones.  It is a great way to get them to look directly at your camera.  Another hint is to ask them to watch your camera wink at them.  They can see the camera wink when the shutter closes.

You can find this pin on my "Prop Ideas" board.

Day 20: Couples

Couples are sometimes hard to get to express themselves.  Many couples (especially guys) tend to feel shy in  front of the camera, especailly when asked to be affectionate.  I did a shoot on Saturday with some newlyweds.  They eloped a few weeks ago and wanted some "formal" wedding pictures.  I like this shot on Pinterest (for two reasons).  The picture is by sylemepretty.com.



Initially, I loved the chalkboard and how it is almost forgotten because they are so into each other.  I recreated this shot last year with a cute couple for their engagement pictures.

However, I like this one even better.  It is just slightly different, but so much more expression!

Beyond the obvious cuteness of the chalkboard, I like the way the guy is kissing the girl on the forehead in the Pinterest picture.  So I had my couple this weekend do that.  This is what I got.

Cute, hu?  For more nice ways to pose couples, look at my "Couples" board!

Day 21:  French Dip Crescents

I actually did this one a little while ago.  I have been saving it for when I had a busy day and didn't have time to do anything.  Well, now it is time to pull it out.

Here is the recipe on Pinterest.



I thought this looked fun and easy.  The kids are starting to like french dips (except the picky little one) and they all love crescent rolls so I thought I would give it a whirl.  All you do is take a crescent roll and put some roast beef in it and roll it up.  I also added some cheese.  I didn't have any sliced cheese, so I used a string cheese.  Use what you got, right?  Just bake it at 375 for 12 minutes or so, just like you would with

It was really easy to do and I was excited to try it.

We all liked them, but they were nothing spectacular.  They were easy, which was nice, but I am not sure I will make them again.  I like french dip with a big ol' hoagie attached.  I would skip this one if I were you, unless you are looking for an easy recipe to incorporate roast beef.

You can find this recipe on my "Recipes" board if you are interested in trying it.

Day 22: Watermelon Frosty (Today!  Finally I am caught up)

In the summer it is always nice to have a sweet treat to drink.  For me it is usually an ice cold fountain coke (the best being from McDonalds).  But today I decided to make a frosty treat for the boys and some of their friends that were over.

My mother in law gave me a watermelon that she wasn't going to use, so I thought this was a perfect way to use it up.

I even thought ahead and cut it up and stuck it in the freezer it this morning!



This afternoon when it was hot and the kids were starting to get bored, I pulled out the blender and got to work.

This is what I used.  Frozen watermelon cubes (I only used 2 of the 6 bags of watermelon), applesauce (I didn't have a banana as she suggested and I hate how banana tends to overpower), maple syrup and some lemon juice (I didn't have any real lemons).  I am lucky that I had all of this stuff.  I avoid going to the grocery store at all costs with three kids in tow.  Maybe I will go tonight when the kids go to bed because I am out of everything!

This is the finished product.  It made a lot.  Enough for glasses this size for 5 kids and a little left over.

Here is the behind the scenes of what most Pinterest posts don't show you....

The aftermath

This recipe sounded good, but was REALLY sweet.  Why do you need to add maple syrup to sweet watermelon?  Tanner is the only kid who finished his.  One kid didn't even take one bite and the other 3 got tired of it after a few minutes.  I didn't love the flavor.

I think I will use the remaining watermelon to make fruit smoothies and add other fruit like strawberries, oranges and blueberries.  Now that sounds delicious!  I do like the idea of frozen watermelon and now I am pretty excited to have 4 more baggies of watermelon in my freezer.  I had run out of large ziplocs (see, I really need to go to the grocery store) so I put them in little baggies and now I am really glad.  I can use them one at a time!  I love it when things work out like that.  Who knew you could freeze watermelon?  I will remember that when I have tons of watermelon left after a party.

If you want to look at the full recipe (and maybe tweak it to your own liking- the consistency was really good with the frozen watermelon) you can find it on my "Liquid Refreshment" board.

Happy Pinning Everyone!  Stay tuned for some 4th of July ideas coming soon!