Funny Faces

What do you get when you have a silly 4 year old, a snack, a blanket in the grass, and a mom playing around with her 50mm lens? A whole lot of funny faces of course!!! I have been a little obsessed with getting my hands on the new Nikon AF-S 35 mm 1.8 lens, but I am waiting in line patiently. In the meantime, I have been playing around with my old 50 mm lens. Manually focusing is getting easier and I am getting better with the exposure too. It helps when you have a stinkin' cute subject to photograph.

We were sitting in the grass enjoying the beautiful weather. The lighting was perfect. Her eyes were glowing. She was still a little snuggly from just waking up from her nap. Her hair was a little messy. I couldn't get enough of her. Rarely do I grab my camera and capture the moment exactly as I remembered it. Especially when photographing the kids. These photos come pretty close for me. I could have stared at her and taken photos of her for hours.

Harper has her preschool graduation tonight, which means we are one step closer to kindergarten. Yikes. I am still in denial. I am not ready for her to go to kindergarten.

Wordless Wednesday- When Bunnies Attack

BEFORE

AFTER

That is my basil plant now.

My pole beans now.

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Birthday Season is Upon Us

June is our big birthday month. My birthday is in June. Both kids have birthdays in June. Plus, my brother and sister-in-law both have birthdays in June. Needless to say, I have birthdays on the mind. This was about as crafty as I got this week.

I spent way too much time creating this invitation for Harper's 5th birthday party. I know it isn't perfect, but there came a point where I had to say enough is enough!! We are hosting the party at our house and these invitations will be given to all of her classmates. I like to torture myself like that. I have put all my craft and sewing projects on hold for the next couple of weeks. So hopefully that will help.

Visit Carrie's for more Crafty Tuesday.

Wordless Wednesday- Touch A Truck

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Lots of Crafty Goodness

I have some crafty goodness to share with you today. I finally got around to taking some photos so you know what I have been up to the last several weeks.

First, there was Mother's Day. I made my mom a purple owl.

I don't have photos, but for my Mother-in-law we made some freezer meals for her. I wasn't too sure how they would be received, but I think she liked them. I know having some meals in my freezer helps keep me sane.

Then, I was back to making coffee cozies again. Here is a sampling of some of my newer designs.

I also finally took a couple of photos of stuff my parents have done. My mom is a master cross stitcher. I mean just look at this one. I seriously don't know how she has the patience. Click on it to see it bigger.

Here is one of my dad's carvings. This is one of his smaller pieces, but I love the little outhouse on the side.

I guess you see where I get my love for all things crafty!!!

Check out more crafty goodness over at Carrie's.

Emerging

I can already tell this is going to be a better week. Not that last week was horrible, but I am back to myself today. The sun is shining. We had a great weekend. Life is good.

I finally planted my garden last weekend. I spent several hours on Sunday pulling weeds, digging, and mixing dirt. Then the kids helped plant all the seeds. I was sore, tired, and convinced nothing was going to grow in my garden. I felt like I threw it together with little thought and planning.

I checked on the garden every day and the kids watered it on the days it did not rain. Then on Thursday we noticed our first little seedlings. The kids were beyond excited and I felt a sense of relief. Maybe this will work after all.

These are pole beans. They came up first and I swear they doubled in size in just one day.

This is spinach.

This is squash. They started popping out yesterday.

I don't have much coming up in my herb garden yet. I planted a basil and cilantro plant several weeks ago and the kids love grabbing a leaf a nibbling on it. Harper likes the cilantro and Miller prefers the basil. We still have strawberries growing, but have not had one ripen enough to pick. Our little garden is making me really happy right now.

I am choosing the first photo of the pole bean as my best shot because it made my week seeing those little guys pop up.

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Something's Gotta Give

There are weeks when I feel like I conquer anything put before me. Then there are weeks like this one when I feel so incredibly overwhelmed. It seems like every new task is a difficult one. Meal planning, cooking, grocery shopping, the kids, work, sewing more cozies, blogging, editing photos and then the stuff that I just want to do for myself....it's all too much at least this week. So that being said I might be a little absent here this week. I need a little breather to regroup and make sure I don't go insane ;)

I have lots of things I want to share which makes it more frustrating because I just haven't had the time and energy to take photos, go through the photos I took this weekend and get posts together.

However, I will leave you with a slightly blurry, SOOC action shot of the kids Pumpin' Up the Party Now (Hannah Montana).

Yes, Harper is in her bathing suit and Miller is way into Pumpin' Up the Party!!!

Tree Huggin' Runs in the Family

Lately, I have been noticing more and more how much our actions are effecting our kids. The other day Harper had an empty plastic food container that could not be recycled and I asked her to throw it in the trash. She just looked at me and said, "But we could reuse it for something else." I like the way you think little girl!

Miller loves helping around the house and one of his favorite things to do is put food scraps in the compost bin. Of course, he also adds sticks and anything else he feels like throwing in too, but that is not the point. I love that the word compost is part of his vocabulary at the age of 2.

It is so rewarding to see our little tree huggers in action!!

Sheltered

Harper had soccer practice last night. During one of the water breaks, all the girls ran over to where the parents were sitting and grabbed their drinks. One of her teammates asked her mother if she could have a sip of her coke. The mother handed the little girl the coke. Harper promptly asked her what she was drinking. The girl looked at her a little bewildered. Then Harper asked her, "Is that root beer or sprite?" The girl finally answered, "No, it's coke." Harper responded, "Oh, my mom doesn't let me drink coke."

I just smiled and let it go as Harper ran back to continue practice. At first I was a little embarrassed because I just imagined that the other mothers were thinking I was super strict or a health nut. The truth is that my husband and I neither one drink coke. We do allow her to have soda if we are out at a restaurant, but avoid the caffeinated ones. The only time she has asked me for a coke was at a birthday party where other girls were drinking coke. I said no on this occassion because it was 7:30 pm on a school night.

The more I thought about it though the more I realized that I was kind of proud that she didn't know what the girl was drinking. It made me realize that she might be a little sheltered or naive, but hey she is only 4 (almost 5). Eventhough, I would prefer her to avoid soft drinks all together. I know that is probably not going to happen. I am just being realistic. All I can do is educate her and provide her with healthier alternatives so when she is old enough to make her own decisions hopefully she will make good ones. In the meantime, I think I will keep on sheltering her as long as I can.

Raindrop Plop

Here are more shots from our outdoor adventure on Sunday. We were all so tired of being inside and needed to get out. Luckily, there was only a light drizzle so it was not too bad. We still had to strip the kids down to their underwear to get back into the car, but that just adds to the fun. Don't ya think?

I am sad to day this worm didn't make it.

It wouldn't be a good post without a raindrop shot, right?

It's Still Raining

This is what you do when you have been cooped up in the house for days on end.

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A Skirt for Harper

A couple of months ago Stacy posted a tutorial on how to make a twirly skort. I started this skirt (no shorts underneath) shortly after the tutorial was posted. I ran into a few snags (which had nothing to do with the tutorial) and had to put it down so it was pushed to the bottom of my to do list. Well, this weekend I finally made myself finish it. It is definitely very twirly and I think she likes it. Hopefully, next one I make will be easier.

Check out my crafty goodness over at Carrie's.

Rain Rain Go Away

It has been raining here non stop since Thursday. I am ready to see some sunshine. I took this last week. It's a flower from our clematis. I loved all the raindrops and purple is my favorite color. So I am declaring this my best shot.

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