Party Favor

We had a very busy weekend. I had a meeting/outing with friends from the twins club on Saturday morning into early afternoon. Then we went to a birthday party for two of my nephews. And to top it all of the twins were sick over the weekend. Lots of juggling, but lots of fun. I'll post more pictures later in the week.

Out of the 1950's

Don't you think she looks like a movie star from the '50's?

A bit of Wordle Fun

I found this fun little dittie on Laura's blog this morning.  It looked like fun so I tried it out.  These are random words by using my blog's URL.  Give it a try yourself by clicking here.

Click to enlarge

Apologies

I just wanted to apologize for some of the missing pictures on my blog. I recently changed some settings on the website that I use to post pictures here. This has caused them to not be visible on the blog. At first I was going to fix them all, but this is a little bit of an undertaken. So I decided to focus on taking new pictures.

Thanks for understanding.

Swim Lessons - Take 2

Poor thing, after trying so hard and being such a good trooper she did not pass the first round of swim lessons. The teacher felt awful, but we were okay with it. It is the first summer that she really had a chance to get into a big pool.

She said she really wanted to try another round of lessons and was all excited. But after 2 lessons she wasn't having fun, pouting through the whole thing, getting up and moving around. Then instead of trying everything they asked her she just said "NO" and pouted more.

Last night before her third class we talked about it and decided that if she couldn't do everything and try to have fun then lessons would be over for this year. Well...she started off well. She smiled and tried the first thing, blowing bubbles, and kept a smile on her face. But after that it was down hill and before class was over we left. It breaks my heart a little, but I there is always next year. So now I am moving on to the other kiddos. The G Man will be next, so stay tuned.

Randomness

My wish for these two is they always stay like this with each other.  I know, it's not possible for them to never have a fight.  But when they are older I hope they can have this closeness and keep the bond they have had since the were created.  

The picture above and the one below of Claire alone where taken in our sub-basement door way.  The kids followed me down here this afternoon and were just dying to come down and play.  The sub-basement is off limits.  I have too much crap down there for them.  That is one of the reasons I was down there.  I'm working on cleaning off the unnecessary items on one of the shelves.  I have a HUGE pile to donate.  Just need to get busy doing some quick inventory to help with taxes later.  

Anyway, the kids sat on the stairs and flirted with me as they moved their way down each step.  They laughed, giggled and played for over an hour.  It was so much fun that I just had to try and capture it, even if the lighting isn't very good down there.  Doesn't this pictures show off her eyes?  All 3 of the kids have beautiful eyes, but often I don't see that reflected in the photos.  Maybe the flash helped a little with making they eyes "pop".

She look like she is up to something?  This was taken on Saturday at the 1st Birthday party of a friend's little one.  Avary had so much fun and did well even with everyone being strangers to her.

Birthday Party for Miss K

Oh the joy of 1st Birthdays!  Avary and I had the honor to attend a party for a friend's daughter.  Little Miss K also had a small dedication service before having the chance to indulge in her cake. The words and prayers spoken were lovely and heartfelt.

In typical Kansas City weather fashion, who knew at the start of the day that it would end up so beautiful.  Earlier in the week we were flirting with 90+ degree temps and the weather men could not agree to whether or not it would rain today.  Well as luck would have it here, it did rain all morning and into the afternoon.  But by 5pm, when the party started, we had temps in the upper 70's (that's right I said 70's) and no rain!

We had a great time and wish the family the very best!  If you are interested you can view a few more pictures here.

Portrait of Dad

Avary created this last night.  I think she did a great job considering she is 4 and she was using a doodle pad.  She was quite pleased with herself, running around the house looking for Matt to show him her creation.  She is quite the artist.  She could sit for hours coloring and creating.  Sometime I'll have post one of her self portraits.  

Happy Love Thursday

Stop by the Shutter Sisters to see more Love Thursday pictures. Have a great day!

Happiness

I've been reading the Happiness Project blog recently as well as a few others that are not related to photography. One other of my new favorites is Unclutter. They've made me think about the things I can get rid of in my life (like the clutter) and to focus on the things that are important, the things that make me happy. So on that I note I thought I'd make my list of Happiness Commandments and what better place to share them.

1. Act as I want to feel
2. Let it go
3. Stay calm
4. Forgive yourself
5. Lighten up
6. Don't wait ~ do it today
7. Make time to act silly
8. Expect Miracles
9. Smile
10. Clean out the clutter

I'm sure these will change, grow and be added to over the next few weeks/months. But I figure this is a start.

{Freedom}

Fireworks ~ Part Two

Click on the picture to see it larger

So here are a few more of my favorites from last nights fireworks display.  I took the tips given on this post, at the Photoshop Insider blog, to help me with the settings on my camera.  I think I did okay for my first try.

What do you think?  Did I get it right?  Do you like any of them?  Am I wasting my time?  Is anyone there?  Anyone?

~Fireworks~

Click on picture to see it larger

Last night was my first try at taking pictures of fireworks with a digital camera.  I had tried before with my film camera, but was never very successful.  This time I think I did pretty well.  Here is a sneak peak at what I captured last night.  This one is a favorite because of the stars that appeared in the fireworks.  

We had a fun and happy 4th of July ~ Hope you did too~