Alphabitty Moments - The letter R

We're already on the downhill slide for this round of Alphabitty Moments! It goes so fast! By the end of the alphabet this time both my kids will have two books of every day moments to look back at. The beauty of this carnival is that you can do it over and over again because interests and ability change.

I don't know if Sam is going to outgrow is love of racing any time soon but I came across this picture* in my archives and new I had to incorporate it into alphabitty moments somehow.
Running, Racing, Romping....it all applies to my rough and tumble boy. He LOVES to race. He races his own teammates to the ball in soccer even after the whistle blows. We're working on that.

* I love how this picture shows the perspective how close we are to where we work. There is no doubt we live in the park. (That's our home behind the barn where the campground office is located. I stood in a campsite to take the photo of Sam racing across the island on a beautiful November day last year. The weather is just as nice today so I think I'll take the kids down to the pond for some frog catching. Fun times.

Alphabitty Moments - The letter Q

Ah, the dreaded Q. It's a tricky one to find a relevant Alphabitty Moment for, but thanks to Sam's recent love of Chess, I was able to use QUEEN.

He's been pretending to play chess for a while now but last week PapaBear read a book and figured out how to play and then taught Sam. The next day he taught me.


It's really fun and not nearly as intimidating as I thought! I love sitting down to play a game with Sam - we just need to stop doing it before school so we aren't rushing so much at the last minute. :)

Do you play? How about your children?

(our set was purchased off of Craigslist for $12 - it's from Poland)

alphabitty moments - the letter p

This week
Alphabitty Moments is brought to you by the letter P.






P is for Plastic spoons (and if I can get more pictures of the other plastic items my kids used as toddlers I will add those to the book before printing)

Wait, you say, that's not a moment - that's a thing!


Here's how I look at it - It's something that my children used at a time in their childhoods. That time feels like a moment in the grand scheme of things. In fact we are really close to retiring the Gerber bowls the kids use for cold things (hot items are reserved for glass custard dishes or Pampered Chef Prep Bowls). Pretty soon there won't be any colorful items in my cabinets anymore and a moment of their childhood will have passed.

What P moment do you want to remember this week?

Alphabitty moments - The letter O

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments where we stop and remember the little things of childhood! These are not the milestones or the well documented events like holidays or birthdays, but the every day things, events, and emotions that might be forgotten as our kid's interests and abilities develop.

This week 'O' is for "Old McDonalds", the name my kids gave McDonald's long ago. I suppose some day I should correct them but for now it's Old McDonalds to us! I took these pictures at a McDonald's an hour from home.



Our local McDonalds doesn't have these fun chairs or the yummy chocolate ice cream, but I snapped these as a reminder of Sam's favorite food there - "douvle hamburger" and ice cream!









What's your Alphabitty Moment for this week?

alphabitty moments - the letter N

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments where we stop and remember the little things of childhood! These are not the milestones or the well documented events like holidays or birthdays, but the every day things, events, and emotions that might be forgotten as our kid's interests and abilities develop.

This week I'm on the letter N, though I know we got off track there for a while so link up whatever day you are on or if you want to jump on board in the middle of the alphabet you are welcome to! When we get to the end of the alphabet I always start over again!

This time around N is for:



Both of the kids love the outdoors and all God's creatures. Sam is especially observant and shows no fear in picking up frogs, worms, butterflies, bugs, and whatever else he can find.
This wasn't the first time he brought home a turtle. The first one he named Yertle. This one he named Brianna.

What N moment do YOU want to remember?

Alphabitty Moments - The letter M

My blogging time is limited as I am swamped with work & preparations for the Minnesota Blogger Conference next weekend so I'm combining posts today.

I'm on the letter M for Alphabitty Moments so it works out quite well actually to post these Monarch photos. If you missed the first and/or the second editions of Birth of a Butterfly you can click on the links and be directed to the other posts that show the Monarch before it emerges from its chrysalis and it's first moments of life.

Go ahead and link up YOUR alphabitty moment for the week, regardless of what letter you are on:

Alphabitty Moments - the letter L

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! Thursday is the day we record the little moments of childhood using a word that begins with each letter of the alphabet. This week we are on the letter L. Some people chose to do scrapbook pages and others simply post the word and the picture. It's completely up to you! I've found that it's not productive of me to open up a bookmaking software and spend a little time in there making a single page. I plan to do it all at once as we get closer to Christmas and the opportunity for printing using a discount code typically presents itself. And now on to the letter L for LEGOS....

My boy loves his Legos. It's number one (two and three) on his Birthday/Christmas list this year. They are the only toy that we keep downstairs. I'm one of those - toys stay in the playroom and do not take up residence in my living room thankyouverymuch type of moms. Am I alone in this?

Anyway, Sam's Lego focus is mainly on Star Wars Legos but he happily plays with any of them. I grew up with a city set and I snatched up two big bins for $4 at a garage sale this Spring that are similar to my childhood ones, though this 'new' set came with way more people than I ever had!

I've also been lucky enough to find expensive sets at Once Upon a Child too and Grandma and Grandpa have given him some sets as gifts. I've yet to step on a straw Lego, but I have accidentally broken the castle PapaBear built with a huge set I got for $20 as an Easter Basket gift. I'm not the Lego builder - PapaBear is. He's also the Lego fixer. So much joy from such a simple toy - those are the things I want to remember!

Alphabitty Moments - The letter K

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments where we stop and remember the little things of childhood. These are not the milestones or the well documented events like holidays or birthdays, but the every day things, events, and emotions that might be forgotten as our children's interests and abilities evolve.

I'm writing this from work so I can't share the cute pics I took of Sam with his King Cobra, but I wanted to get a linky up for those of you who continue to put up with my tardiness and excuses for slacking in my Alphabitty Moment posts. I don't know about you but K was a tough one for me! I ended up choosing King Cobra so I could remember the stage where Sam was (and still is) obsessed with snakes. Remember the day the kids drew snakes (to scale) for hours on 12 feet of craft paper? Yeah, I'd consider that obsessed. :)

So how about you? What K moment do you want to remember?

Alphabitty Moments - The letter J

Great memories...not so great picture of this week's "j" word - Jigsaw Puzzle.

Sam loves putting puzzles together and is getting pretty good at it too. 75 piece puzzles with pieces the size of my palm are what he enjoys the most. I love watching the wheels turn in his head as he figures out where a piece goes. It makes me think ahead to the raining or cold days ahead when we sit around the card table and put together 1,000 piece puzzles. No rush though, for now I'm perfectly content to sit on the floor and enjoy Sam at this age with these puzzles.


What J moment do YOU want to remember for Alphabitty Moments?

Alphabitty Moments - The letter I

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments where we highlight the ordinary and fleeting moments of childhood one letter of the alphabet at a time!

This week I'm on the letter "I" and chose the word INFLATABLES. Those cumbersome toys that the kids love to play with at the beach will be too small for them someday, but bring so much joy right now.

What "I" word do you want to remember?

Alphabitty Moments - The Letter H

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! I started this carnival as a way to record the everyday moments of childhood that I didn't want to forget. Holidays and milestones usually involve lots of photographs but the little things that make up childhood can so easily be missed in the hustle and bustle of life.

This week we are on the letter H which for us symbolizes the polar opposite of hustle and bustle.

Our hammocks.

A place where we slow down. Where we snuggle close. Where we connect. Where we spend as much time as we can before the mosquitoes force us inside.








We gave Sam a hammock for his 4th birthday - partly so I could have the chance to relax in MY hammock without being jabbed by elbows and knees. Turns out that as much as I enjoy lounging by myself I much prefer to be curled up with my babies (bony elbows and all!)

Some day we won't all fit in the same hammock so I'll savor the time we have!

Now it's your turn...what H moment do YOU want to remember?

Alphabitty Moments - the Letter G

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! If you are new to my carnival please click on the tab on my nav bar for more info on how to participate.

This week's page is brought to you by the letter G. That might not be the letter you are on and that's OK! We'll get back on the same page eventually. All that matters is that you are preserving memories one letter at a time right? Right. G is for Games at our house. We play a lot of games. Every day the kids pull something out of the cupboard where we store the kids games. We have so many adult games that we have a whole other closet for those. I love that Sam and Julia can enjoy the same games I played with as a kid. Enchanted Forest, Candy Land, Sorry..... This is the first year that Sam is able to understand the rules and that makes it lots more fun. His favorites right now are Camp and Uno. What are your kids' favorite games?

Switching gears now:
If you follow me on twitter (4mamabear) you saw my tweet earlier about how to make the process of making a book a little easier. It was hard to explain myself very well in 140 characters so let me try again here: Months ago I made a list of words that were potential Alphabitty Moment words. I really should post it somewhere so I can add to it as I think of new possibilities but for now it's tucked into a notebook. Now when I have my camera out I have all those words in the back of my mind so I can take advantage of photo opps as they come up. No forced photos or dark ones because I didn't plan ahead. Part of the beauty of Alphabitty Moments is capturing the moments of childhood as they happen. Sure we might be on the letter D when you're child goes out to catch lightening bugs, but knowing that you want to record that experience in your book will help you remember to snap a couple of photobook worthy photos and be set when we get to the appropriate letter.

Alphabitty Moments - The letter F

Those little magnets that always end up on the floor have been on our fridge for three years. They were on our last fridge and we brought them with to this house two years ago.

They are the reason our kids learned what sounds letters make. It's true. The song is catchy and surprisingly not all that annoying on the scale of annoying toys. Sometimes we make a game out of playing with the letters. Each letter and sound that they get correct means they can move up a step on our kitchen steps that happen to be right next to the refrigerator. The kids think it's fun and love to shout out the sounds. I love that they are having fun AND learning.

Now it's your turn to link up to your Alphabitty Moments post - don't worry if you aren't on the same letter as I am - things got all out of whack because of Sharon's wedding and not having internet access the week after.

Alphabitty Moments - The letter E

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments where we share the little things of childhood one letter at a time! Click on the tab above for more Alphabitty Moments posts and the instructions for how to create your own Alphabitty Moments book. Picaboo wasn't cooperating for me so I'm just going to keep it simple this week and post the picture I will be adding to Sam's book.

E is for Easter Bunny.

Why?

Because look at Sammy. He looks so grown up in this picture that I fear our days of visiting the Easter Bunny are numbered. We've come a long way from this memorable experience. He got the hang of it by last year but didn't look nearly as grown up as he does this year. Some day we'll walk past that silly bunny and remember fondly the times we took little ones to the mall for the traditional Easter Bunny Pics.

Alphabitty Moments - The letter D

Same song, fourth verse....but if you are new to alphabitty moments you can click on the tab above to get the scoop on how you can join in! Everyone is welcome!

The letter D....Sam thought I should do Dung Beetle. I wanted to do "doughnut" because of a tradition we had of getting doughnuts on the way to our old church on Sunday mornings. I didn't have any pictures of that tradition so I went with the next best thing. Daddy.



Except Sam calls him "Dada" Some day when I least expect it the 'a' will get dropped and my baby boy will be one step closer to a big kid. PapaBear and Sam have such a special relationship - maybe because Sam is his clone? They both love to soak up facts, love baseball, and love sunfish. Sam looks like PapaBear did as a kid except for the hair color and they have the exact same eye color - the darkest blue I've ever seen.

Alphabitty Moments - the letter C

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! We're on the letter C this week and I'm happy to report that Picabo is turning out to be a great option for making layouts easy and quick. So far so good!

C is for "CRACKS" because the kids always remind me not to step on a crack "because it's mud!"

I have no idea where that idea came from but I'll take that any day over "step on a crack, break your mother's back" or whatever other sayings that are out there related to the childhood obsession with cracks in the sidewalk, road, or driveway. This particular section of the Goodwill parking lot was especially fun for them to traverse so I pulled out my trusty phone and took a couple with the built in camera. (you can see the layout better if you click on the screenshot)

Can't wait to see what you come up with for the letter C!

Alphabitty Moments - the letter B

There were so many options for the letter B this week. But I decided that BUILDING was the best fit for Sam's Alphabitty Moment. Why? Because for years he's been building with something or another. I don't think he's going to outgrow it anytime soon, but it's been a big part of his playtime for a while now. I also want to be more intentional about the photos I use this time around. (Often times I just use something from my archives)

He builds with childhood toys of mine and some of PapaBears. He also has a set of alphabet blocks that have provided hours and hours of fun. He also gravitates towards the building activities when we go to the local museums.



I love watching his creativity come out in what he builds. And the look on his face when he makes a tower with all the blocks? Priceless!

If you are new to Alphabitty Moments (there's still time to jump on board!) click here to read about how to participate or click on the tab above to read all the Alphabitty Moments posts.

Now it's your turn...what B moment do you want to remember this week?

Alphabitty Moments - The letter A

Welcome to round three of Alphabitty Moments! A little over a year ago I came up with the idea to share a picture a week that corresponded to a letter of the alphabet. The idea is to record the every day moments of childhood that right now might seem like no big deal but before we know it, we'll look back on those moments and realize they were in fact the very essence of childhood. Sometimes I'll create a scrapbook page to go with the letter of the week and other times I'll only post a photo. How elaborate you make this meme is completely up to you, but I gotta tell ya if you can be disciplined enough to do the scrapbook page the end result is well worth it. Need a little inspiration? Check out the first book I made out of this little project here.

This time around I'm going to give Picaboo a try. I found a theme that I think I can make work for pretty much any word/photo combo. I really like the colorful yet simple layouts. (click on the image to see it bigger) Speaking of colorful...this was a pretty memorable painting experience. Normally we use paper, but this was one of those times of discovery; of letting them be little.



There are plenty of opportunities for teaching them the 'right' thing to do, but it was SO worth the mess to let them paint each other.

Now it's your turn...what "A" moment do YOU want to remember?

Alphabitty Moments - The album cover

Welcome to the final week of Alphabitty Moments for this round! Today we are sharing the covers of our books. I used Mixbook for this book and it just so happens that they are having a 20% off sale that runs through the 19th! All you have to do is enter 2THEMES20 when you check out to receive the discount. They have LOTS of great themes and I bet you could whip out a book in an evening if you wanted to take advantage of this deal.

Or you can do what I do and only create a page a week and avoid the pressure to complete a whole book in one sitting :) I am a few layouts behind so I won't be able to get this book done in time for the sale, but hopefully there will be more offers out before Christmas that I can take advantage of. Still haven't decided which company I'm going to go with for the next round...until then, here are a couple of cover designs I came up with:

I didn't use a preset themed book but I did try to keep things pretty consistent throughout the book. This cover uses some of those same colors and is nice and girly for my girl.



Then there's this one: I LOVED the font when I saw it but didn't think it went well with the florals so I picked a pretty blue in the same texture as many of the papers in the book.



Which is your favorite?

Alphabitty Moments - The letter Z

We did it! We made it all the way through the alphabet! I may not get very far in my personal blog books, but by golly, my kids will have their Alphabitty Moment books! Next week we'll share our book covers and then it's back to the letter A. Are you planning to join us for round three? I sure hope so! I've been SO inspired by the participants of this little carnival!

Since we are starting fresh again in a couple of weeks I wanted to take this opportunity to see if you had any requests - different day? Photo linky instead of regular linky? Skip the scrapbook pages all together and only use photos? Do you want me to post the button again? It's been a while since I put that up for everyone....

And now for the big finale....The Letter Z:

Z is for...ZOO!!!!! It is a special treat to go to the zoo. We all have our favorite animals - and favorite memories. This particular photo reminds me of the time we went to the farm and the kids fed the goats. Problem was we never bothered to tell Julia that the food was ONLY for the goats. She got one (overpriced) goat chow piece in her mouth before we could stop her. Yuck! Oh the memories we have of going to the zoo and seeing the excitement on their faces when they see the animals.