Birthday party photos!

Well, our birthday pool party last Saturday was a raging success!

The weather was absolutely perfect. And we had a pool full of little kids. It made me a bit nervous trying to watch all those little ones in the water, but the kids thought it was the best day EVER! The adults relaxed on deck and just kept remarking "Holy cow, they are going to sleep tonight!". The kids literally jumped in and out of the pool for HOURS on end. It was exhausting just watching them!!!

The day started out with just some pool fun, but quickly things got serious when we got to the CUPCAKES!! I mean, what kid doesn't go nutso over a bunch of over-frosted cupcakes!!! Even the big kids had to join in!

Kallie was in her glory, polishing off THREE cupcakes! Actually, I should say, she ate the frosting off three cupcakes. The actual "cake" was turned over to Daddy to finish. But hey, it was HER party, so why not?

Even Caroline got to enjoy some frosting AND some attention from her Mimi.

After the cupcakes, the presents and a bit more playtime, we let the adults enjoy a bit of fun while we grilled some burgers by the pool. I whipped up a pitcher of mango margaritas which absolutely hit the spot.

It was soon getting cool and we finally got the kiddos out of the pool and into some dry clothes. We built a fire out back and ended the festivities with our new favorite "fireside snack", smores with peanut butter!!! Yum!!!

It was a great time had by all!!!!!

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Happy Birthday Caroline!

Again - a last minute birthday post before the strike of twelve!

But I had to wish my little sweet Caroline a happy 6th birthday!!!!! A sweetheart who continue to defy the experts by celebrating yet another birthday. As our "wise" genetic counselor said about 6 1/2 years earlier...."there are always miracles!". (ugh)

Well, our little miracle is alive and kicking. And, doing quite well. Our only "problem" now is that she has started a new habit of yelling at the top of her lungs for some completely unknown reason. It is often quite frustrating, extremely loud and is definitely making our life a little less comfortable. But we just try to take it day by day and hope that it is just a phase....a quick phase I hope.

Today, it rained most of the day, but the sun peaked out at dinnertime. I noticed some very pretty light after we finished our dinner so I dragged a little chair out in our backyard and plopped Caroline down for a quick 6th birthday photo session!!!

I absolutely love the light and the background - it almost looks fake to me! But it is definitely natural light and natural surroundings.

Hopefully, I will have time tomorrow to post some pics from our double birthday bash this weekend!!! A good time was had by all!!!

Good Night!

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Happy Birthday Kallie-Wallie

Well, it is 11:30, I am way tired, but I would feel bad if I didn't post at least a quick "Happy Fourth Birthday Kallie Wallie!!!!!" before the stroke of midnight.

I can't believe my baby is 4. She is still such a baby, yet growing up too fast!!! She unwillingly stopped for just ONE second to let me snap some pictures. (I was playing with my brand new 85 1.8 lens....LOVE it!!!!)

It has been an extremely long and busy weekend/early week. I am so tired I am having serious problems forming coherent sentences.... I am hoping for a slowdown tomorrow to catch up a bit.

More tomorrow!!! (hopefully!) Good Night!!!

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My flower girl!

Christina was a flower girl for the first time yesterday. She did so well, and absolutely loved all the girly stuff including hair appointments, beautiful dresses, flowers and new jewelery.

And the bride was beautiful too!

And, for anyone who is interested, Christina's dress was purchased at Burlington Coat Factory for a mere $29.95! The shoes came from Walmart. And I think she looked absolutely perfect!

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Weekend!!! I mean "Last weekend!"

I have been a bit busy this week and I wanted to post some photos from my weekend! Last weekend that is!

Since my husband is a high school swim coach, late spring/early summer usually means lots of graduation parties. And we have had parties pretty much the last 4 Saturdays in a row.

On Sunday, the day was absolutely gorgeous. We had nothing planned and we didn't really want anything planned. And I decided that a picnic dinner in the local park next door to our house would be a perfect Sunday evening activity!

And it was!

I made homemade french baguette rolls (to die for) and we bought some ham and turkey and just made sandwiches...incredible sandwiches that is! I had a glass wine, hubby just enjoyed a cold Pepsi and we relaxed and let the kids just play around.

They had a blast. Caroline just enjoyed the weather, while Christina and Kallie found sticks and "stirred the water" by the fishing dock for a good HOUR!

After dinner, Eric got his kayak off the roof of the car and gave each girl (except Caroline of course) a turn. The water was like glass. It was gorgeous and relaxing and absolutely peaceful.

I love this photo of Christina, even though it is "technically" all wrong. She is squinting too much into the sun (which is why I usually try to do backlight shots) and her shirt is completely blown out. But I love her eyes and her adorable freckles.

You know, this beautiful park is literally in our backyard and we do not take advantage of it nearly enough. I definitely plan to try to make dinner picnics MUCH more of a regular thing!

This week has been quite busy (which is why I didn't blog about my weekend until the next weekend). My Christina is a flower girl for the first time tomorrow. She (and I) is so excited! It is a friend of Eric's who we all just adore. Tonight was her "rehearsal" and Christina marched down that aisle like she has done it a million times before. It was so cute. Don't worry, I will have LOTS of pictures to share!!!!

I have also been busy filling up summer with senior pictures!!!! I am so excited as this is the season for senior pictures. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't get much interest (since this is my first year and I haven't done a lot of marketing), but my summer schedule is quickly filling up. I just can't wait. Seniors are so fun. They want classy, creative type photos that make themselves look incredible. And it is so fun to help them accomplish that. Kids are great to photograph too, but they usually want nothing to do with the camera, which makes it a bit harder.

In honor of my onslaught of new clients, I bought a new lens to add to my collection - the 85 1.8. I am SO excited to try out this new lens. I think it will be perfect for seniors. I can get a closer shot without getting too much in their face. I have heard amazing things about this lens. Whoo-hoo!!!

Well - until next time!!!!

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1, 2, 3, 4, 5,........365! DONE!!!!!

Yup, I did it!!!!! Whoo-Hoooo!!!!

One year, and about 360 photos later, and I finished Project 365.

Oh, why only 360? Well, I missed a few days, and accidentally deleted one photo, so the grand total was 360 actual photos. Some good, some great and some AWFUL!!!!

There were a few really awful, last minute, nothing else photos that honestly embarrass me!

See? Yuck. BUT, better than nothing. Missing a day completely is the worst. And when that happened, I would just do this:

Anyway, it was a good year and I am so happy to have a photo documentary of almost every little moment and event!

Like big beach vacations!

And first swim meets:

A brand new backyard swimming pool:

Our annual trip to see the amazing Pennsylvania Elk:

There were holidays!

And first days of school:

There were good days:

And bad days:

And lying around the house days:

There was the first day!

And the LAST day!!!

And a whole bunch of "other" days (that you can see HERE!)

I could probably go on and on, but all I have to say that this is an amazing project for anyone. I learned so much more about photography than I ever would if I wasn't "forced" to take pictures every. single. day.

And, I think, after a little break - I may continue on for year #2!!! (although I did actually really get a bit of kick out of being able to NOT take a picture today without any guilt!).

Until next time!

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What to buy a 4 year old??

Kallie's birthday is coming up next week. She will be 4 years old! And I will get a few people asking me "what do think Kallie would like for her birthday?".

Well, let me show you Kallie's newest and most favorite toy and you can make your own decision -

What is that?

Well, ARIEL of course!!!

Kallie grabbed a scrap piece of paper, colored it a bit, and announced she has a new Ariel!!!!

She runs around the house and yard letting her new Ariel "swim". She wants to watch "The Little Mermaid" DVD with her new Ariel. Oh, and yes, this new Ariel has even been snuggled bed with her (although Kallie isn't very happy when she wakes to find little Ariel a bit crooked).

Oh - in case you were wondering - we HAVE actual Ariel dolls. I think we have 3 in fact. And she has played with all of them a LOT.

But right now, her favorite Ariel is the one that looks almost nothing like the actual Ariel - but is one she made all by herself.

I guess that is JUST as good.

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Animals....they just know

A few days ago, I took Caroline outside for a little photo session on the bench.

I then had Christina jump in and I got some adorable sister moments (I LOVE these shots!).

After Christina was bored, Nugget (our cat) came along and we put her on the bench with Caroline. And Caroline just looked at Nugget and immediately grabbed a fistful of hair and cat skin.

And then she grabbed more hair/skin.

(Actually, I think she is trying to throw Nugget off the bench. She throws EVERYTHING she can get a hold of, and Nugget, I guess, is no exception!).

She eventually gave up on Nugget, yet you can see Ms. Nugget is still quite wary.

And what amazed me during the Nugget portion of this shoot, is that, although Nugget is NOT happy about Caroline and what she is doing, she will not scratch or bite her. Every once in a while she would give Caroline a look, and I would just say "Nugget", and she would look away.

Animals...aren't they amazing sometimes?? How do they know? If I, or Christina, or Kallie grabbed a fistful of cat hair/skin, she would probably give us a swat. But she seemed to just know that Caroline was different. So sweet.

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She is THREE years old.

Yup, three. Yes, she is THREE. No she is not four yet.

That is my story and I am sticking with it. For the next 2 weeks....

Yes, my baby is going to turn four in just a couple weeks. But I continue to refer to her as my 3 year old. Those that know better remind me that she is almost four. But I am quick to point out that, yes, almost, but not quite! I am holding onto my "baby" as long as I possibly can.

I can't believe I really don't have any "babies" anymore. We started our family when I was 34, so we didn't have much time to waste. Five years, and 3 kids later, and we were done. It was one kiddo after another, without a break. Which means, I have had a "baby" in my house, non-stop, since 2001. That is 8 years for anyone counting.

Last week, we finally took down our crib. Which has been up for 8 solid years.

Yes, my Kallie was sleeping in a crib until last week - but only because she actually loves it and had no desire to ever figure out how to get out. And yes, my desire to keep her as my "baby" may have had a bit to do with that. I was a bit sad to see it come down and remind me, yet again, that I have no babies in my house. And yes, I did get a fleeting thought in my head of:

"Is this really IT? Is there is a chance we will put it up again?"

NO MOM! Don't get any ideas. At 42 years old, I am done.

As much as I miss having a baby (and I, unlike others, honestly DO miss the baby years), I don't want to repeat them. I am looking forward to a summer of no napping children, freedom to do so many more things. And maybe even a night out of town with my husband, alone, for the first time in 8 years to celebrate our 10 year anniversary this summer.

No, the crib isn't going back up. Unless, in about 20 years, it is for one of my grandchildren.

Well, today is the first official day of summer vacation. We don't have any vacations planned.

Although we are starting out with one injured player, we hope the rest of the season will be much less eventful and, hopefully, quite pleasant.

Have a good one!!

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The Princess on the Couch

OK, I will give Kallie all the sympathy in the world this week. She definitely deserves it. THIS week (whether other weeks will be included is yet to be determined).

As you know, my little Kallie broke both bones in her forearm when she fell on Sunday afternoon. She was running around with Christina and a friend when she tripped on the grass and the friend knocked her down. Unfortunately, we have a small pile of gravel in our backyard and she fell right into it - elbows first. Poor baby!!!

Of course, her experience in the ER was horrible too. First off, she should have been there at 5 p.m., not midnight. She was SO tired and so miserable. I could have avoided the SO tired part if I went with my gut sooner.

There were so many tears in the ER (hers AND mine). And she was in so much pain, especially after the tech twisted around her poor broken arm to get x-rays! Idiot. Anyway, I did finally ask in the ER if they could give her some pain med and she was sent home with a dose of Tylenol with codeine.

H-O-L-Y cow.

By the time we got home at almost 2 a.m., it was like she was drunk as a skunk! She was goofy and crazy and plain ole hilarious! Luckily, she quickly passed out and slept the rest of the night.

So, here we are, 4 days post break and things are going well. The only problem is that Miss Kallie is definitely becoming quite the demanding princess. She just parks her little butt down on the couch and starts barking out orders from morning til night:

"Milk please!!"

"I wanna watch some-fing!"

"MOMMY!!! I wanna watch a movie!"

"I hun-gee!!"

"Mommy - take my garbage PUH-lease!!!!"

"Mommy - I still HUN-GEEEEEE!!!!"

hmmm......I hope they are right...only 2 1/2 weeks left??

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Well, the weekend started out great!

Last weekend started out just great! Saturday was beautiful. I got out for an early morning run. We worked around the house. And we went out in the evening to Christina's first gymnastic show.

She has been taking gymnastics for a little while, and this year they decided to put together a little show for the parents. It was actually really good and I was amazed at how well Christina did!!

Sunday was another gorgeous day. It was cool, but so sunny. Eric took the girls out in our front yard for a game of softball in the afternoon while I snapped some pictures. They had such a great time running around.

I then grabbed a book and parked myself in the backyard to bask in the sun and enjoy some complete relaxation. It really has been so long since I was able to just relax and do almost NOTHING for most of the day. We had nowhere to go, we had nothing to do. It was perfect.

Until 4 p.m.

Yup, just when you think everything can't get any better, it gets much worse.

The girls were playing in the backyard with a friend. Christina came in saying Kallie fell and was crying. We brought her in and gave her some cuddles. She said her arm hurt. She was pretty upset and crying hard so we got her a drink and let her snuggle up and watch some TV.

However, every time I asked her how her arm was, she would really start crying again, which made me worry. There have been many little cuts and bruises that seem, initially, to be horrible, but most often the kid has forgotten about the injury a short time later.

That was NOT happening.

Kallie spent the rest of the day on the couch. My gut was to take her in for an x-ray. But I hated to put her through that trauma if she was just bruised. She sat and quietly watched tv until bedtime. And she went quickly to sleep that night (while still seriously nursing the arm).

At 11 p.m she was up and was screaming. And I knew something was really wrong.

We were off the ER where the x-rays revealed what I suspected - a broken arm. Not only that, my poor Kallie broke BOTH bones in her forearm, right at her elbow.

So, a perfect weekend ended with a late night visit to the ER and a next day visit to the ortho dr.

And my sweetie gets to welcome in her summer 2009 with this little beauty:

Oh well, on the good side, kids heal fast and the doctors expect to remove the cast in about 3 weeks. Which would be great because my little sweetie is supposed to have a big 4th birthday celebration in our POOL in about 3 weeks!!!

Cross your fingers!!!

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