drop and give me twenty!    charlotte is at THE best age for photography.  she can sit up, and not crawl off quickly.   that means there will be a lot of pictures of her coming your way!  i am trying to do everything i’ve always wanted to try photography-wise before she gets too big.  she’s the last baby of the bunch, so i won’t have the chance again.  i even got john to come in the “studio” (cough:garage:cough) for me the other day after work. 

we’ve just been relaxing, hanging close to home the past few days.   trying to catch up on housework, and other stuff around the house.

i tried panning.  i am not so great at it, but am definitely determined to try again!  i know the subject isn’t supposed to be tack sharp, but this was the sharpest of of 50 photos!

and this one summarizes why we eat ice cream out side pretty well …

real signs she getting bigger.  teeth.  teeth!!  i can’t believe it.  wasn’t she just born, like yesterday??

super thrilled i took the cup she was playing with away to take a quick pic.  oops!

i set up shop in my bedroom last night to take some 6mo sleeping shots of charlie.  it was harder than i expected, and i’m going to try again tonight if i can.  but her is my feeble effort.    there are a lot of technical issues with them, but for now, i’m going to put on my big thick, mommy goggles. 

“up the nose” shots aren’t really desirable, but i want to remember those sweet chubby baby lips … so i did it anyway!

and the “guts” of the shoot.   i moved the soft box up & forward a little after this was taken.  westcott reflector camera left.  blanket clipped to savage port-a-stand with clips from lowes.   nikon sb-600 in westcott 28×28 softbox on a cheapie stand.  baby on bean bag.

in a tipi.  and while pedaling on a double surrey!  no pics of the latter.  we were all a little occupied, lol!

iphone pic

iphone pic

what an eventful week!!  i am exhausted and playing catch up here!  it has been one thing after another.  wednesday norah had her mini-meet at gymnastics.  it was super cute.  she was running around like a wild banshee, though – which is totally unlike her at class usually.   it was hard to chase her around with a baby strapped to me, but we made it.  this week is her last class, and then she’s not taking it again until august.  it will be nice to have a break and do something else for a while.

then thursday morning was ethan’s preschool graduation!  it was so bittersweet.  he’s really grown so much this year – but i’m not ready for him to be gone ALL DAY next year.   i can’t believe how fast 5 years have gone by!   the teacher’s gave out awards to each kid about their personality.  ethan won the “mr. goodbar” award for being such a good, sweet kid. 

after that, john headed to a work thing, and me & the three littles headed over to kayleigh’s school for field day.  it was much warmer than last year, thankfully!  last year there were kids frreezing and WET.  not a good combo.  but this year went well.  it is nice they do it on the last day, but it makes it a little crazy.

i made sure to get a picture of kayleigh and her teacher (and charlotte … lol) before we left.  she really loves her, and she made first grade really fun.  we’ll definitely miss her next year!

friday we went over to a park to ride a double surrey around for a bit, but the summer hours don’t start until monday, so they’re only open weekends until then.  we just played on the playground for a bit, and then played bocce.

on the way out the kids ran through the garden sprinklers.    it was pretty funny.  too bad i way overexposed and even the RAW file was blown to bits.  i ended up losing our keys somewhere in there, too.  thankfully found them when i went back through.

we got home & just lazied around for a while, put up a tent, and played out back with  chalk.

john took ehtan to a birthday party, and we ended the day with a girls only ice cream party ….. which of course meant a bath was in order. 

we’re headed out in a few to try and go ride that surrey again!  then tomorrow is a cleaning day.  john will be fishing in the morning,  and i am going to try to get caught up enough on things to sew monday night!  we’ll see how that goes.  i haven’t sewn in months!

as norah calls them.    we went to the butterfly pavilion saturday.  it’s small, but we spent a couple hours there. 

sorry – cheesy play on friends episode titles there, lol!  it took me a couple days, but here are more pictures from ethan’s birthday!  he had a great day, and got everything he wanted and more. 

the minifigs john made for ethan’s school cupcakes.  he used a toothpick and melted choc chips to draw the faces in the ice molds (from the lego store) before dropping the melted candy in them.

the last time i saw ethan at four years old. 

snow – on his birthday!!  this will likely never happen again!

FRESHLY FIVE!

his name on the door at preschool!

i really thought ethan’s cake would be awesome this year  i baked it a day in advance, baked all the cupcakes early, too …. made all the fondant and buttercream the day before.  i was ready to go …. but the day of his birthday, it was just so busy, and charlotte was in one of her moods where i can’t put her down, and no one else can hold her.  so the cake is not what i imagined.  the buttercream was melting because i was trying to keep charlotte calm.  ethan didn’t notice, though.  he loved it.  and in the end, that is all that matters. 

the reason the cake looks so fab!  the baby attached to me the whole time. 

my kitchen was a DISASTER, too.  and i got blue icing dye EVERYWHERE.  somehow the lid fell and it just made a mess.  my foot is still blue, two days later.

so that’s it.  a whole ‘nother year … gone like that, in a blink of the eye!  i am not succeeding at slowing time down.  if anyone finds a way, please tell me.  i have four little ones that i would love to keep littler forever!

it’s been a long day, but i want to get this up before the day is over.  ethan turned five today.  it is such a big milestone.  he’s growing up to be such a sweet boy.  five.  wow!!

come with me, and take a stroll down memory lane….

our first baby born at home!  our new family of four.

every one of us was shocked to see red hair!  surely it wouldn’t last!

but it did!  and a full head of it at a year old!

and what a spunky two year old he was!

he lost the baby look by three ….

and started to blossom & become such a personality at four!

and me and my boy.  on his fifth birthday.  could life be any sweeter?

we were trying to figure out what to do today, and we figured we’d give the library down the street a look.  we usually go to the main library … but i doubt we’ll ever go back.  this library was awesome, and bright – and clean!  lol … there was almost no one in there, either … on a saturday … at 1pm!  crazy!

how cool is this hot air balloon?!

i think charlotte was a little jealous of the kids running around excited by all the new books!  soon enough my little one!

afterwards we ran a couple errands, and were going to go home, when john was going through the glove box and found the gift card his aunt gave us for christmas to white fence farm.  we went there back in september when they were in town visiting.  they close for the winter, and just reopened a couple weeks ago.  norah and charlotte were sleeping, so we decided to drive over while they napped.  the kids had a blast.  it’s a really fun place.  the food is a little country, though – i think i enjoy the surroundings the best… but the apple pie is delish!

pennies for the wishing fountain!

it was a really fun day!  tomorrow is mother’s day, so hopefully we’ll have a nice laid back kind of day …. then starts the busy school count down, and ethan’s birthday is thursday!!  i can’t believe my baby will be 5!  how does that happen so fast!?