Awkward Sleeping Positions

Esmé is now past her napping stage and usually crashes in bed by 7pm.  But when she was still having her afternoon naps, it took her a while to fall asleep for naps or bedtime.  I'd put her into bed, leave her there nicely tucked in, and listen to her talk or sing to herself for awhile before drifting off.  And often she would get up and entertain herself for a bit (usually unknown to me until I would come in later and find toys laying around.)  And sometimes, in the middle of all this playing, I guess she would suddenly become exhausted.  Too exhausted to tuck herself back into bed.  The result: very awkward sleeping positions….

Backwards, on top of blanket.  A little awkward, if not cold.

 On top of blanket, with all her stuffed animals... and a random bucket. 

 With all of her learning puzzle pieces.  Crowded, but at least smarter.

 Now abandoning her bed in favour of the wood floor. (Care Bears get priority I guess.)

 Wood floor not comfortable enough? Let's try in Tyne's crib.

Or even under the crib…  on top of magazines… with feet propped up on boxes.

Here her pyjamas seemed to have turned into a Snow White dress.

Then later, recreating a Snow White murder scene. 

And my favourite, sleeping with a basket on her head.  As curious as I am, I'll never really know why.

And just for fun... our cat.

Oh How We Love Her

Beautiful Whistler

Last month we spent a few days in Whistler and rode the Peak2Peak gondola.  It's a 4.4 km gondola ride across the valley between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, the highest and the longest unsupported span in the world.  It was breathtakingly beautiful.

View of the valley, looking out to Whistler Village and the mountains beyond.  We saw 4 black bears rummaging for food, fattening up for the winter.

The glass bottom gondola made for some amazing views.

Faces in the glass. 

 Peak of Whistler

Peak of Blackcomb

Esmé on patrol.

 Tyne always along for the ride.

I Fly in a Rocket Ship

This is how Esmé and Papa spent the afternoon today...

How to make a stop motion movie with a 4 year old.

1. Record her telling a story.

2. Paint a backdrop (in this case, a red house with a purple sky.)

3. Make the characters out of clay (in this case, Clifford Expertation and his mom, Little Janny.)  

4. Get out the camera and take a lot of pictures of the characters moving around (in this case 370 pictures.)

5. Write the title of the film on a piece of paper and take more pictures.

6. Play a random song on the piano.

7. Get Papa to upload everything onto the computer (in this case Final Cut) and assemble it together.

8. Watch it a million times.

9. Share it with your family so they can watch it a million times.

10. Watch it when she's gone off to college and cry like a baby.

Halloween

Superhero family meets a China doll.

And Minnie Mouse.

And brings home a bunch of loot.

Happy Birthday Esmé!

Happy 4th Birthday to our Hello Kitty super hero princess!

Macaroni and Cheese.  Every kid's fave.

Tyne was so happy to have lots of kids to watch.

This funny guy brought the entertainment.  He sat at the head of the table and dished out the jokes while the ladies sat quietly and watched, alternating between laughing and just wondering what he was talking about.

Esmé was trying to choose between a princess party and Hello Kitty party.  I was so relieved when Hello Kitty won out.  (I may have had a hand in the convincing…)

Playing doctor while the babies try to get in on the fun. 

Outdoor games to burn off the cupcake high.

  

It's amazing how much she's changed and grown in just 4 years.  

We are bursting with pride and love for our big girl.

Makin' a Movie

This summer has been a wild ride for us as Kyle has taken on the huge task of creating his first full-length feature film, Eadweard.  It's a film about 1880s photographer Eadweard Muybridge who is known as the godfather of cinema.  He created the first photograph of motion and then continued to document thousands of photographs of human and animal locomotion.

After spending time last year writing the screenplay, Kyle and producer Josh spent the first part of this year working on pre-production and then filmed the movie in the month of July.

He is producing it independently which means it's low budget and takes a lot of extra work hours to make up for the lack of cash.  And he made good use of all the local resources he could. Costumes and props from local theatres, sets and locations from friends of friends, crew members wanting a leg up, and actors who just believed in the script.

And of course he enlisted as many family members as he could...

Esmé, Tyne, and I waiting for our scene. We didn't have any lines, although Tyne thought she did.  She was great for the first scenes but cried through all the rest.

Esmé did great as a boy, even though she didn't know that she was supposed to be a boy.  Here she is with the director after she nailed her scene on the first take.  In the background are the prop cameras that Eadweard Muybridge used for his motion studies.

Heading to her trailer, AKA the car, after a long day of filming.

Kyle watching the scene on the monitor.  This is where the director spends most of his time.

Brother Nick as an art student.

Cousin Pia at the World's Fair.

Auntie Elaine at the World's Fair.

Getting Tyne into costume.

The young actress ready to go.

And don't forget our cat, playing Eadweard's cat.  He might have nearly overdosed on catnip that day.

Kyle needed a picture of a baby as a prop in the film.  So we took Tyne to her first photo shoot where she posed for an old camera.  The kind where you have to sit still for a few seconds while the plate is exposed.  The photographer, who specializes in wet plate photography, then mixed all the chemicals by hand and created a tin type photograph of Tyne.

Tyne as an 1880s baby.

So now the footage is gathered and the big task begins.  Editing, visual effects, music composition, possible pick-up shots, marketing, media, festival applications, etc.  So look for the finished product sometime in the spring!