A Photography Lesson from Austin
Austin asked me to go through some of the pictures he has taken and edit a few for him. I noticed that we can learn a lot from kids about photography….so I give you lessons from Austin:
#1
You will never go wrong when you shoot subjects that you are interested in
#2
The sneak attack is always a good method for capturing people as they really are
#3
Don’t be afraid to try different angles. Get down on the ground if you need to.
#4
And very importantly, know when to stop.
Austin is the 9 y/o son of LaShawn who writes Frazzled LaShawn. Both mother and son share a passion for photography and mad skillz…
Easter Events in Denton County
March 31, 2009 by Texasholly
Filed under DFW North, feature
26th Annual Easter Egg Scramble – Saturday, April 4 at 2 pm – Jake’s Hilltop Park, 4975 Timer Creek Road – FREE – candy, Easter bunny
City of Highland Village – ANNUAL EASTER EGG HUNT – Saturday, April 4 10:00 am – FREE! – Unity Park baseball/softball field – Easter bunny, fire engine and Games2U – raindate for this event is April 11 at the same time
Flower Mound Community Activity Center (CAC) – UNDERWATER EASTER EGG HUNT – for kids ages 3 to 10 – April 13 starting at 5 with staggered start times for various age groups- hunt for eggs in the indoor pool and eat candy – $5 per participant for CAC members and $6 per participant for non-CAC members – Register at CAC front desk
Lakeland’s Easter Sp’egg’tacular – Saturday, April 11 at 10:00 – Lakeland Baptist Church hosting at L.L. Woods Park – egg decorating, jelly bean eating contest, bunny hop races, egg toss, egg and spoon races and a staggered start egg hunt – ages 2 through 6th grade – FREE!
Lewisville’s 22nd Annual Funny Bunny Festival - Saturday, April 4 – Memorial Park Recreation Center, 1950-B South Valley Parkway – Admission to carnival $1 and under 3 is FREE – games, face painting, cupcake walk and lots of fun – old fashioned egg hunt is staggered for age groups and is FREE (no strollers or unaccompanied hunters under the age of 4) – Events begin with a breakfast (donation) by the Rotary Club at 8:30 – Egg hunts times begin at 10:00 am
Parker Square – EASTER EGGSTRAVAGANZA – Saturday, April 4 from 2 to 4 pm – FREE! – games, petting zoo, food, egg hunt, bounce houses – Sponsored by the First Baptist Church Lewisville
Keller Pointe Underwater Egg Hunt – Saturday, 3/28/09 from 9am-12pm at Keller Pointe, 405 Rufe Snow Dr., Keller, 76248 $10 The Keller Pointe will host its fourth annual Underwater Egg Hunt where children who are ages 12 and under can enjoy searching the pool for eggs filled with special prizes. Call 817-743-4FUN (4386), or E-mail: thekellerpointe@cityofkeller.com
Cool ‘Burb Find: T-shirt Quilts
In these days of thinking more economically and environmentally friendly, the ladies at Texas T-shirt Quilts are right on target for both!
These ladies have come up with a creative way to put your old t-shirts to use – you know, the ones you can’t seem to get rid of because of all the memories they hold – yet you don’t wear them anymore???
That’s right – they will take your old (or new) shirts and recycle them into a quilt! In fact, they aren’t even limited to just t-shirts – they’ve used pants, uniforms, dresses, ties, etc. to build their unique creations. Not only that, but these gals are quick too! Their typical turnaround time for quilts is about 4 weeks! Rush ordering is available, so contact them if you need to get something done faster than that.
Oh, and did we mention they are giving away a FREE quilt design to one lucky Burbmom reader? Just comment below and your name will be entered in the drawing to receive a free quilt by Texas T-Shirt Quilts! Want more chances to win? Check out this article.
Cool Burb Find: Free childcare at Kroger!
March 27, 2009 by bianca
Filed under To Do in DFW, cheap, free & easy, feature
As I was out and about today I called Shauna to see what she was up to.
Oh, I’m just grocery shopping…
With all three kiddos?
No! Gosh no. I dropped them off at the thing so I can navigate the store kid-free.
What? You dropped them off where?
The corral-thing. You know – at Kroger – where they keep your kids.
You mean the parking lot?
No! Inside – they have this area where you can leave your kids while you go shopping.
Is there adult supervision?
Of course! There is this sweet older lady who’s been here for years and she watches the kiddos while parents shop and then you pick them up on your way out.
That is freakin’ genius.
I know.
The Kroger off of 1171 and 2499 offers FREE childcare while you grocery shop. The lady who runs the area is so sweet and says she loves seeing the regulars come in because they are all like her little grandchildren and she enjoys watching them grow up. She’s been there almost 20 years and she says she is the only operating location in DFW for this service which is available to Kroger patrons from 10am to 6pm. So next time you have to go grocery shopping and aren’t sure what to do with the kiddos, head over to Kroger and enjoy some downtime with just you, the cart, and your Venti Starbucks.
IKEA, Frisco- The Animated Adventure
March 27, 2009 by Texasholly
Filed under DFW East, feature
Awhile ago I went with a friend and our mere collective 4 children to IKEA.
We usually have 6 kids between us ages 7 and under so we were feeling free and breezy.
I always take my camera everywhere so imagine my disgust when I pulled it out of my purse only to find the memory stick was still in my computer at home.
Because our adventure was great and needed to be told, I give you the animated version…
After a bit of traffic on 121, we finally arrived at the big blue happy box, IKEA.
The big blue happy box, IKEA opens at 10. BUT the big blue happy box, IKEA serves breakfast to hungry travelers starting at 9:30.
Unload the minivan…time for snacks!
The big blue happy box, IKEA serves a full breakfast and many snacks.
The big blue happy box, IKEA serves all this and a bag of chips for mere peanuts.
Mmmmm. After a good breakfast we felt like shiny, happy people shopping at the big blue happy box, IKEA.
Let’s get a cart!
Oh, the carts at the big blue happy box, IKEA have special, magical shopping cart powers.
They may be pushed in ANY direction.
Wow.
Cool.
Super neat.
ANY direction except forward.
Wow.
Cool.
Super neat.
After about 10 feet…
Wow. *What the?*
Cool. *Who designed these?*
Super neat. *If any IKEA design team personnel steps in my way, I am going to push them over with my cart.*
IKEA employees have probably encountered this cart-rage before and know to step directly in front of the cart rendering the raging cart driver helpless.
Let’s tour the big blue happy box, IKEA while pushing our magical carts in a sideways direction.
Wow.
Cool.
Super neat.
The big blue happy box, IKEA designers have made the store into a giant maze.
Yeah!
Over the loud speaker IKEA plays big blue happy box music and announces that “the average IKEA customer spends 3 hours in the store”!
I think that the average IKEA customer is insane and not chasing a collective 4 children.
Let’s run sideways fast so we can get to the place I need to go…
Yeah!
I found things I need.
I will just pop them into my magical sideways cart.
Here is what will fit into the magical sideways cart:
This is what I try to fit into the magical sideways cart:
Legend–
circled in purple: things that I fit into my cart pushing really hard
crossed out in purple: things that kept falling out of my cart
circled in green: things I put in my friend’s cart
circled in orange: things I couldn’t fit in either cart and carried
crossed out in orange: things I couldn’t fit in either cart and carried and dropped repeatedly
*angel choir sings*
Look. Look. Look at this:
It is an amazing light fixture that looks like a clear bucket. You can fill the bucket up with ANYTHING (except water…they say specifically no water). You can fill the bucket up with things that coordinate with your room. See how nice it looks in my pretend room?
I just love the big blue happy box, IKEA.
Let’s go check out!
If I can get these magical sideways carts to line up in the narrow aisles…I can go home and stare at my new bucket light.
Push.
Push.
Push.
Whew!
Now the challenge of unloading my 362 large boxes onto a check-out conveyor belt 1/6 the boxes’ size.
I pushed the magical sideways carts to the minivan, loaded the car and we were off.
Bye. Bye. Big blue happy box, IKEA.
We were out of there in less then 2 hours because we are WAY below the average IKEA customer…
This was Texasholly’s first animated adventure which turned out to be quite a slippery slope since she has pulled out the magic markers for just about every moment of her life since this time. Holly’s Animted Life can be found at her personal blog, June Cleaver Nirvana.
Start Planning Summer Fun on Saturday at the Flower Mound Library
March 26, 2009 by Texasholly
Filed under family, feature
UPDATE: Watch burbmom.net over the next few days for a comprehensive list of local businesses that participated in this event to help YOU plan YOUR FAMILY’S SUMMER ACTIVITIES…I am still working on inputting tons of great summer time activities! My fingers hurt, but I do it because I love you.
The Flower Mound Public Library is hosting a Summer Fun Showcase on Saturday, March 28 from 11-2:
Don’t miss this opportunity to plan your family’s
summer fun! The Flower Mound Library, Community
Activity Center, and over twenty area businesses
and organizations that offer summer camps,
programs or activities will be on hand to take
registrations and distribute information.
Visit the Flower Mound Library website for more information.
Oprah & Chef Cora’s 7 day menu challenge: Day 7
March 25, 2009 by Texasholly
Filed under eat, feature, reality check
Whoo hoo! It is the last day. We have made it a whole week cooking FROM SCRATCH 3 meals a day from the Chef Cat Cora 21 meal menu as seen on Oprah.
Let’s get going…what’s for breakfast?
Everyone participating in this challenge is a FAN of the fruit smoothie so we were pretty excited that we were having it for breakfast. We followed the recipe exactly and here is our four serving breakfast:
Yep, a little on the skimpy side.
As I have mentioned almost EVERY MORNING of this challenge,than even a full glass of smoothie would provide. Luckily, my husband (who is not participating in the challenge), who saw the disappointing breakfast yesterday had a solution:
He whipped up hash browns and scrambled eggs with a side of bacon in less than 25 minutes for us to have with our smoothies. I know it is cheating, but it IS the last day…
If you have never tried Simply Potatoes Hash browns you really need to try them. You find them in the refrigerator section of the grocery store and they are really easy and SUPER yummy.
The Verdict?
5/5 LOVED the taste of the berry fruit smoothies.
5/5 appreciated DAD making additional food.
The post cooking reality report:
I will make this recipe again. I usually add more than “one spoonful” of yogurt – especially if I am trying to fill up hungry boys.
The portion size was wrong. I think there must have been a misprint on the recipe because it really makes more sense as a recipe for ONE smoothie.
Let’s eat lunch!
This recipe was pretty uneventful.
The Verdict?
1/5 ate this.
3/5 refused to try it.
1/5 was absent for lunch.
The post cooking reality report:
I will probably not make this recipe again. I was the one who ate it. I thought it was fine. It was pretty easy to make. My favorite food in the whole world is Indian cuisine so I was hoping for a little more. It has curry, but there is not the flavor layers and spices that are normally included in Indian food. The boys didn’t like the smell which is weird because we make other Indian food dishes that they will try.
The portion size is good.
What’s for dinner, Mom?
Pasta with Red Pepper and Tomato Sauce
This recipe took just a few minutes. The sauce was easily accomplished in the time it takes pasta to cook.
The Verdict?
5/5 liked it.
The post cooking reality report:
I will make this recipe again. I will add meatballs. The boys LOVE meatballs and only tolerate spaghetti and sauce as a vehicle for meatballs. They liked this, but didn’t eat enough not to be crying at my bedside at 6 am the next morning about how hungry they were. I am NOT a fan of the taste of roasted red peppers, but this tasted fine to me. I really appreciated how easy it was to make.
Whew! We made it through 7 days.
I am planning a re-cap post that will summarize our findings. If you have missed anything, here is where you can find it:
Yeah! Thanks so much for hanging in there with us…
Dallas Arboretum in the Spring – Photos
March 25, 2009 by Macey Hart
Filed under To Do in DFW, feature
Not much is prettier than the Dallas Arboretum at this time of year – these are pictures taken this spring by photographer Macey Hart:
Macey Hart is a Flower Mound photographer. She can be contacted through her website, Macey Hart Photography.
Why Flower Mound?
March 25, 2009 by Texasholly
Filed under To Do in DFW, feature
When my husband and I first moved back to DFW we settled in Argyle. We were planning to eventually build a home and the the Argyle countryside called to us. Once we made Argyle home we started looking around for land nearby. There were a lot of options in varying degrees of country-ness. We couldn’t agree on anything until we found our lot in Flower Mound. It was one of those things that we just knew it when we saw it. It took us nearly three years to save, plan and build our dream house in Flower Mound. We are still on the west side of town so many of the businesses we came to love along 377 we are still able to easily visit.
The town’s name, Flower Mound has always puzzled me. Flower Mound is one of those things that you have to explain how to spell on the phone. Even though each word is recognizable, together they seem to create confusion.
At first I didn’t realize there was an actual flower mound. THE flower mound stands a little lonely not far from the middle of town. A little lonely and often a bit naked, but a very cool tribute to the flower mound’s earliest settlers.
It is believed that the flower mound was used as a sacred ceremonial ground for the Wichita Indians who lived here in the early 1800s. In the spring when the flowers on the mound bloom you can almost feel that history. A history that brought a small hill of wildflowers in the middle of no where to a thriving city-called-town just North of one of the world’s largest airports.
This is what I love about where I live. Flower Mound is a little bit country and a little bit city. It is suburbia at it’s finest. A trip to downtown Dallas is 30 minutes. A trip to downtown Fort Worth is 30 minutes. The airport is even closer. Cute shops, great restaurants, good schools, city parks and everything a family needs to live the American dream is close.
That is one of the reasons we started burbmom.net. It is a hug for our neighborhood and a love letter to the place we live.
Target Comes to The Colony and Allen
Have you ever been in a brand new store on the day it opens? Everything is shiny and new. Products and aisles are perfectly placed and the employees are smiling and happy to help you find anything you need.
Combine that feeling with being in your happy place and you’ll know exactly how I felt this week when The Colony finally got its very own Super Target.
Where else can you hand your child $1 and let them “treasure hunt” in the dollar bins? And the produce? All those colorful fruits and veggies perfectly laid out just beckoning you to taste them.
You can check out the weekly ad here, there are lots of sales in honor of all the new store openings. In addition to the store in The Colony, they’ve also opened one in Allen and 25 other locations.
