Around here.

OK...that is the cutest pic, love the fun and you can see in your daughters face....she is adorable....keep enjoying "LIFE"......
Laurie VF

Hi Ali,
I adore little ones they seem to find joy in everything. I have two kids Ailish 12 and Connor 15. Both going through puberty at the same time. SOME-ONE PLEASE RESCUE ME! But seriously my kids used to bounce around at the dinner table. I found the best method was to have a silly menu for the week so they had something to look forward to. Eg. Medusa Spaghetti bolagnse with spaghetti hair, meat face with peas for eyes, carrot for nose and half a tomato slice for a mouth. And if you remind them at breakfast and when they get home you can get them to help prepare thereby holding at bay the dreaded pre-dinner snacks. Dinner and food and family gatherings become fun and if you're clever enough you can make it into a learning experience by telling them all about the theme. Like who was Medusa? etc etc. Hope this helps a little. I can't wait to see how Simon and Annas relationship develops as time goes on. Oh such blissful simple times!

my daughter is 13 and always takes her time to eat - usually 1 hour - 1.5 hours.
we did try and get her to eat quicker but that, in the end, got too cruel.
She has a good appetite but i think the mastication process is like a mental block with her.
I wouldnt worry about lengthy meal times. Kids will eat if they want to eat and when they don't, there is no use getting stressed about it :). Im sure Simon will never starve.

So funny:
I read your blog at work yesterday, picked up my 5 month old Morrison up at daycare, went home, put him on a blanket on the floor and guess what he did for the first time?
Yep, pulled up his legs and grabbed them with both hands, just like little Anna there.
Just thought you should know. :)
Nancy
The Netherlands

Hi Ali, We took our children to see Harry Potter (ages 8 and twins that are 7) and they loved it! Emma did crawl up onto my lap when the inferi climbed out of the lake. After I watched it I pulled out book 7 to reread too!
cheers, Calli

My husband is a firm believer in Mac products...just loves them. So, as I write this on our Mac, I wanted you to know we use Aperture, too. We used iPhoto, but it just wasn't able to do what we needed. I take so many photos with my Canon 40D and I wanted to be able to do more extensive edits than iPhoto allowed (and didn't know PSE at the time, and currently still working on it). :)
Regarding Simon and his slow eating, my first child (Zach is 17) was a slow eater then, and continues to be. I think it's part of a person's personality. He is a laid-back, easy going kind of guy and his eating style reflects this, I think. Just thought you might want to know that even though you're frustrated now, and you might continue to be somewhat frustrated, that this Mama thinks that it's just part of who our kiddos are. This won't help you be any less frustrated, I know, but it helps me when I know there are others experiencing the same thing I'm going through with Zach (the teenage years...ugh) and my 2 younger ones (3 and 6), like our lives are "normal" if there is such a thing.
I admire the time and effort you put into your site, Ali. I browse it as an inspiration point as well as a learning tool. I can't wait to see what ideas you have in store for your Daily December album. I'm already gathering stuff from my stash to use.
So, go put a smile on your face, because one day..."you're gonna miss this." Trust me.

Ali, can you put everyone's top 12 in a word doc for downloading?
That would be great!

fantastic blog hun and that piccie is soooo funny - I love it

i love the photo of you and the kids... so sweet and fun :)

Very cute pic! I like how you are all wearing stripes of some sort! Looking forward to hearing your review on Aperture and your future classes!

I LOVE Aperture. I switched to it a couple of years ago and it's made life so much easier. Just be sure you stay up to date on your tagging. I recently did a scrapbook for my sister's 40th birthday, and I simply made a smart album using her name as the tag and it automatically gathered every picture of her in one place.
I keep my photos in the Aperture library, but I use referenced files for my scrapbooking supplies. I have a detailed, multi-level tagging hierarchy for scrapping supplies. It seems like overkill at the beginning, but it sure is easy to find every piece of pink lace I own, or every piece of paper that's red and blue. I find myself combining elements from lots of different kits in ways I wouldn't have done in the past.
Feel free to email if you get stuck at all. :)

I don't think ACDSee comes in a mac version, does it? I've been looking for one for a while (at least, until i got Aperture) and their website still lists Windows as one of the system requirements.

It's a Beta version but it does exist: http://www.acdsee.com/offers/proformac/

Cool! Thanks for letting me know. I was a big fan of ACDSee when I was on Windows.

Anytime Savannah! Glad to help. I'm sold on the PC version so would love to know if the MAC version is just as cool;)

I also love the photo of you and the kids. Super cute. I hear ya on the eating troubles. Last night took my daughter an hour to finish (she didn't like what I gave her). Try blueberries frozen... I like then best that way, Yum!

Love Aperture—it's great for organization but you can do a whole lot of post-processing in it, too. I started using it in 2007.
Love those fun pictures! : )