The Search for Miss Direction: Picture This

Of all of the New York stuff we discussed the one thing the kiddos couldn't quite wrap their brains around was George Eastman and his development of roll film. When I asked them where pictures were 'held' until you developed them Noah instantly piped up with 'on the memory card' I forget that they've never really been exposed to real film, everything has always been digital for them. And it was even fun for Grant and I to think that we didn't even own a digital camera until right before we were married. Heck, we had disposable cameras at our wedding! So I wanted to find some way to show them the difference this week.

After quite a trek, I located a disposable camera. (Sorry Kodak, couldn't find one, settled for fuji) I thought about doing a scavenger hunt but that seemed a little arbitrary. I then thought about hunting for the letters in their names and then letting them take pictures of each other and themselves with the rest of the film. This was perfect! We set out this morning on a walk finding letters in nature and on signs - they had so much fun and were quite creative. It was fun to 'see' letters in mailboxes, trees, etc. It wasn't too long before we found all the letters in Noah and Beanie and then they headed back here for their own photo shoot. Watching them wind the film after every shot just made me smile.

Here's here we ran into a bit of an unanticipated snafu, though. On our way out of town I stopped at Wal-Mart to drop off the film, thinking we'd pick it up after we went to our concert in Plymouth. They told me they send it out and it'd be a week before I could get it back! They suggested I try a larger Wal-Mart, which we decided to do post-Plymouth. Had fun at our concert and picnic (even had a sno-cone!) in the park. Oh how I love Plymouth. Then yet another Wal-Mart came up a bummer! The lady there told me they hadn't had the ability to process in store for 6 years! Insane!! So on a last ditch effort we stopped at the Walgreen's right by the house. While I coulnd't get it in one hour, it'll be ready for pick-up tomorrow. So we had fun and we'll finish up our project tomorrow, win-win I suppose :)

This afternoon the kids put together the "We've Been There State" A few years back our family vacation took us to the Finger Lakes region though Grant had just started at Harman and wasn't able to join us. So oddly enough, the kiddos got stickers this week and Grant didn't as he's never actually been to New York. How weird!

There was no way that I could pass up trying my hand at making New York Style Pizza this week. It's all about the crust - I even bled for it! As I mentioned yesterday I sliced my thumb open pretty good on my food processor the other night. The dough actually has to be made 1-3 days in advance and chilled to get that perfect thin fold-able quality NY pizza is known for. I wouldn't write home about this dough (I may be bitter considering my thumb is still all bandaged up) but pizza is always a sure fire hit around here. And it earned an honorable mention after their hands down favorite,the Pizza Hut pizza. In honor of all the fun to be had at New York's Coney Island, for dessert tonight I made these fun funnel cakes. I've done a very similar recipe before that the kiddos went nutso over, so this was just for fun. Pizza and funnel cakes, dang I must be going soft!

Got plenty planned for tomorrow, including finishing up our film project, a playground date with friends, maybe a trip to the mall for an event going on there and yet another recipe that has been sitting in my fridge prepping for three days. Guess if you cook in New York you have to plan ahead! So until then...

New York Fun Fact of the Day: New York acquired its nickname “Empire State” to recognize its vast wealth and variety of resources.