Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Happy Father's Day!

This week's scavenger hunt items were

1. Summer
2. Dance
3. Laughter
4. Helper
5. Water

Summer

Although it's not technically summer yet, we've already had a few summer storms...

Fortunately, the storms did not coincide with our church's VBS activities, such as the obstacle course.

The balance beam was Grace's (age 7) favorite part!

Dance

Did I mention it was VBS week at our church?  There was the music portion, where the children learned sign language (for the most part) to help them learn the songs.

Josiah (10) with one of his friends.

Laughter

There was a lot of laughter and squeals and cheering and generally a whole lot of noise as kids cheered on their teammates.

Grace (7)

Helper

Robert (16) has been playing guitar for the VBS music classes for a few years now...so he makes my helper shot.

On Family Night, the children sang some of the songs they had been learning during the week at VBS.

Robert and Grace

Water

OK...I'm going into the archives for these photos.  A couple of months ago, the kids spotted some local firemen testing out some equipment.  You can see the water falling at the back of the open bay window. It kept us entertained for a few minutes.  :)

This is a bonus archive photo for water, and is one of my favorites of Grace.  She's 5 here.

Want another bonus photo?  Here's Robert's guitar that he's playing in the photos above--he bought it last month, and this was the day it arrived.

Click on the link below to see others' photographs or to join in on the fun!  

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

It's been a while since I participated in Scavenger Hunt Sunday, but I decided to jump back in this week.  This week's items were

• Vacation
• Food(s)
• Sound
• Texture
• Anything

Vacation

...Vacation Bible School, that is!  How great are these decorations?!

Food

A graduation party...

Sound

This sweet girl giggles nearly all day long...

Grace (7) playing at the park

Texture

Anything

Hmmm...How about a petite, seven year old ninja?

That's our puppy Bono in the corner behind Grace.  She was trying to blend in with her surroundings.

Click on the link below to see others' photographs or to join in on the fun!  Next week, it's Photographer's Choice.

Product Review: Signazon.com Custom Vinyl Banner

I was recently contacted by a representative from Signazon.com about a product review.  I was offered the chance to receive a free vinyl banner or another product from their website, so I decided to design a simple outdoor banner to promote our church's yearly VBS--one that can be reused each year no matter what the theme.

The design process was extremely easy.  I decided to design the banner using one of the templates on Signazon.com rather than uploading a file, which was also an option for uploading the full design or a particular graphic element such as a logo.

During the design process, I had the choice of various templates for the banner.  I chose a rather plain one since I already had in mind the text layout I wanted and knew that I didn't want any images or designs with the text.  (I could have also started from scratch with a blank template.)  During the customization process, I chose two different fonts out of a total of 40 available fonts as well as the colors of the text and background.  A preview of what my banner would look like was always in sight, updated instantly as I made changes, and I could easily play around with the fonts of the two text lines to get the look I wanted.  I could have added clip art at this point, too, but I  wanted only text on this banner.

Here is a screen shot of a recreation of the design process.  :)

You can see the pop-up box for the color wheel in the bottom left quadrant of the screen shot where you can customize the color palette, and there is an eyedropper tool, too, to copy a specific color from elsewhere.


Because this was a product review, I was instructed to email the company representative my cart number so she could complete the transaction.  I was able to do this step within the design process, which is a great feature for someone who is designing a product but needs final approval or input from another person before placing the order.

Since I emailed the representative my cart number and then exited the website, I received a friendly email from Signazon.com asking if I needed any assistance with my order. In addition to the email order confirmation (November 13th), I received an email with installation instructions for the ready-to-hang banner (illustrated instructions with the best way to attach the banner to a pole, a fence, the side of a building, etc.).  I also received an email letting me know my banner had been shipped (November 16th), as well as an email letting me know that my banner had been delivered (November 20th). 

I have been very pleased with Signazon.com during the entire process.  The design process was very easy, and both production and shipping were fast.  Communication was excellent, and I appreciate the email letting me know the banner had been delivered because my address is very similar to--and frequently confused with--another address in my neighborhood.  The banner looks great!  It looks very durable and I think this will be a fantastic way to advertise VBS at our church for many years in a row.  I appreciate this opportunity to review a Signazon.com product and look forward to working with this company again in the future.

Want to see the finished product?

There are metal grommets on each of the four corners.

Banners can be for indoor or outdoor use; I chose the outdoor option.  I chose the standard 2x4 foot banner, although there were many options for the size of the banner.

Signazon.com also has window graphics, stickers, magnetic signs for cars, car lettering, and several other graphic products.  Their website is well-organized with information provided on their various products.

Disclaimer:  In exchange for this product review, I received a custom vinyl banner from Signazon.com.  All opinions expressed in this post are my own. 

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

The photography prompts for this week are

• Sunset
• Sweet
• Hanging around
• Funny face
• Space

This week was our church's VBS, which made for a busy week all around.  However, it also gave me the photos I needed for this week's scavenger hunt!

Sunset

Ours is an evening VBS, and we had some gorgeous sunsets at pickup time.

I couldn't pick just one.

Sweet

Well, of course, I have my sweet girl...

Grace (6 years old)

Grace (6 years old)

and I also have a sweet ten year old.  His birthday was this past week!  It always, always falls during our church's VBS week.  (Poor kid!  Well, not so much this year--his teacher brought cupcakes for the class, with an extra special cupcake for him!  Plus, his class sang "Happy birthday" to him during music, which embarrassed him...but that's OK.) 

Josiah, the big 10 year old!

He's also very goofy, in a (usually) sweet way.  See the icing?  He picked that color.  I asked him each time before I added more food coloring if this was the shade of green he wanted.  When it reached this color, he shouted, "Cool!  It's the color of slime!"  That was not what I was going for, but he liked it...so he had slime green cupcakes for his birthday.   

The birthday boy wanted to eat lunch at Firehouse Subs, which makes for an interesting photo with the little cupcakes and the dalmatian pattern tabletop.  We brought the cupcakes to lunch since VBS would make it a late night.

  

Hanging around

Look who I found hanging around at VBS...

Slash? 

Robert (15) playing the guitar for VBS music.

Josiah, Robert, and friends at VBS during music.

Funny face

Each year during our VBS, the boys and girls compete to see who can donate the most money for missions.  If the boys win, Mrs. VBS gets a pie thrown in her face.  If the girls win, Mr. VBS gets a pie thrown in his face.  Guess what?  The girls won!...Which made for a funny face for Mr. VBS.

Space

Did I mention we had VBS last week?  Well, one night when I was taking shots of the gorgeous sunset, I spotted the moon in the pink sky.  So, that's my space shot!

Click on the link below to see others' photographs or to join in the fun!

You Capture: Best Shot

This week for You Capture, we had to pick only one shot to share.

After much searching through this last week's photos, I finally picked one. This baby alligator visited a VBS my children and I have been attending this week:



So now I can say that I shot an alligator up close. Not that I would, of course...

Check out other You Capture entries at I Should Be Folding Laundry, and join in on the fun!

He's still a "hellfire and brimstone" kind of guy

Josiah was sitting in the pews on his first night of Vacation Bible School at Robert's friend's church this week. During the worship rally, the leader asked the kids "Why do we worship God?"

Josiah's hand shot up and he was called on.

He loudly answers, "So we won't go to hell."

The leader paused for a moment and stepped back. Then, with more composure than I think I could have mustered, she said, "Ummmm...I'm gonna say 'yes' and 'no.'" And she quickly moved onto the next child with a raised hand.

This is the same child who has announced to complete strangers things like, "Halloween is the devil's birthday" and "No, we don't celebrate Halloween. We don't love the devil."

For the record, we have never, ever even suggested such a thing. Josiah quite easily makes things up as he goes along and doesn't hesitate to spice up reality with his wild imagination. Also, he was four years old at the time these conversations took place. He was a little milder at the age of three, when he would merely lecture other children in stores about not kicking their brothers because "Jesus wants us to be nice to each other, and being nice to each other makes Him very happy." You still had to listen closely, though, because at any moment he could--and did--slip into the "hellfire and brimstone" talk that he apparently still does to this day.

~~~~~

Jason Slade told me about a conversation Robert and Josiah had where Josiah asked what Robert's first car would be. Josiah said that his first car would be a monster truck.

To which Jason Slade said to me, "How appropriate. And he would have a bumper sticker that said, 'Turn or burn.'"

~~~~~

But back to VBS...The kids all enjoyed VBS last week. Friday was the family night and each class performed something.

Grace willingly went up front with her class so she could "sing for me." (That's how I pitched it, since she didn't want to leave my side once her classtime was over!) The 3 to 5 year olds sang a simple song and shook their jingle bell instruments...and they actually sang! The teacher put the microphone in front of a few of the kids to let them sing into it, and Grace had absolutely no hesitation when it was her turn.

Next were the 1st and 2nd graders (Josiah is the one in yellow). Josiah had a speaking part in a little skit his class performed. Maybe they figured with lines, they'd be safe. ;)

And look! Robert with a microphone!

He says he was forced into a speaking part, and I believe him. ;) That's not something he would have volunteered to do. (That's his friend in the red shirt who invited us to VBS.)

Robert did very well with his speaking part. Way to go, Robert!