{this moment}

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  Joining in with soulemama today.

this moment

Mr. Bob’s B-day

I have been buying Bare Books by the dozen.  My kids love to fill them up, especially Logan.  He has a series about a character named Mr. Bob who has all sorts of adventures with aliens that I have yet to take pictures of.  This book, however, was given away, so Barry snapped some pictures quick (and made a photo copy) before it was gone forever.  His very favorite neighbor friend had a birthday (his BFF as he calls her).  Such a special occasion called for some book making.

the cake and people

“Yum cake.  Bob opens his present…Look suuper (the 2 u’s make it extra super, no?) fun!”  Can you see how clever his illustrations are?  The candles smoke, the people lick their lips and their eyes look toward the cake.  I can’t stand how much I love his drawings.  I need to share more of them here, but I worry about the fairness of it.  You know, giving my kids equal time.

marching

The first present can turn into all sorts of things.  Here they march to another present.  They’re marching!  And he knows to make their eyes all squinting and half-moony because they’re all so happy.  I tell ya, my 6 year old is an artist.

I think all the intense study of Calvin and Hobbes and Tin Tin that my kids do has lent to all the action and sequence they get into their story making.  They really fill up a lot of their non-school time drawing comics and making books.  (Ssshhhhhhh! Don’t tell them we call this kind of thing Language Arts.)

Mr. Bob's birthday

(Can you see where he gets the idea for the squinty half-moon eyes?)

the cloud project

I’ve been really fascinated by the Colorado sky this summer.  It is so big and expansive that you can see so much variety.  From where we live we can watch the clouds congregate on the mountains and make their way toward the plains, and in the evening light they are quite a site to behold.  There are so many times I’m driving around on errands wishing I had my camera to document the towering layers, but I never have it.  I can stand on my back porch, though.  Here are some of the heavenly sites from right outside my window.

altocumulus

These high clouds are altocumulus.  There are 3 basic types of clouds.  Cirrus clouds are high and wispy, cumulus clouds are the mid sky cotton balls, and stratus clouds cover the sky low and like a blanket.  It gets a bit complicated for me from there because from those 3 divisions they’re categorized into 10 basic kinds of clouds because most clouds are some kind of combination of the 3 basics.

stratocumulus stratiformis

These are cumulostratus– kind of cottony, kind of blankety.

stratocumulis stratoformis

Our very favorite library book on clouds has been Tomie dePaola’s Cloud Book.  You just can’t help but love Tomie’s illustrations and humor along with real, sound information.  The Man who Named the Clouds is about Luke Howard, the man who first devised the way to categorize and name clouds.  It starts with his childhood and shows how following your passion and studying hard can really affect the world.  I also need to get myself my own copy of The Cloud Book by Richard Hamblyn.  It’s a nature guide for naming clouds full of lovely photos and explanations of why clouds are called what they are.

Have you been looking up lately?

stop animation made by kids is awesome!

stop animation studio

Here are the kids at work at their new favorite pastime– making stop animation videos.  Last Sunday Barry downloaded a trial version of boinx iStopMotion onto the old lap top, gave the kids a few instructions, and they’ve been at it all week.  They started with paper cut outs, then moved on to animating their toys.  I can’t even tell you how amazing it is to watch their creations.  I am so surprised by how fun and creative their little movies are– all without any adult help or input.  Today Barry sat down with them and used iMovie to add sound to one of Brenna’s favorites.  Here it is, I hope it makes you think my kids are as cool as I think they are!