PSF - Watch them Run

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

I am posting this photo, not because its all that interesting, or all that technically correct but because of the timing of it all. Our house backs up to a horse farm. The woman who runs the farm has no less that 6 horses that she boards/rides at a given time. Therefore, we get to see all different types and colors of horses just outside our windows. Last weekend we were all outside playing in the yard shooting off vinegar and baking soda (or as Miss E would say - Bacon Soda) rockets. Miss E decided to take a walk away from the excitement of the rocket to look at the horses who were engrossed in watching my hubby make a fool of himself when the rocket would launch before he was ready and would go sideways instead of up. The horses came right up to the fence and were making tons of laughing Nehing noises at him.

At this point I was goofing with the camera, as usual, and while Miss E was walking toward the horses leaning over the fence ("Don't get too close!"), I took a photo or 20. I was already set up and shooting what I thought was a comical scene - a small child, a large pasture and three huge horses staring at her approach when this happened:

At that split second, while I was taking a shot, the horses decided to take off and run away from this very scary looking child during her approach. I admit that these horses, for what ever reason that afternoon, were acting quite feisty and I have a few shots of them 'fighting' with one another but in our experiences with the horses on this farm, them taking off and running away is something they don't normally do. Needless to say, this was a one in a million shot to get them just starting their take off (even though there is nothing all that exciting about the photo at all). Miss E was quite startled at that chain of events that she sulked back to me and sat on my lap for the remainder of the Inaugural launch of the vinegar and bacon-soda rocket.

Theme Thursday - Summer's Best

Coming up with some favorites from this summer wasn't too hard. Narrowing it down and picking ones that I have not posted yet was the challenge. :)

But here are two new ones that I found going back through the beach vacation we took in July of my girls.

And some other favorites that I may or may not have already shared.

The gaggle together last weekend.

Fun with bubbles.

My handsome man.



The girls in the bath.



Cool dude



Me and my daughters.



And finally, Father's day.

Wow, that was a lot. But it was a great trip down memory lane of all the wonderful times we had together this summer as a family!

WW - Summer's Fading

My Blogiversary and Back to School

I missed my 1 year Blogiversary from Aug 15th so I am going to mention it here today, a little late. This blog has been great fun and I appreciate the readers and comments over this past year. I may not always get a chance to visit each and every one of you every day but I do read as often as I can and I am glad to share my little life with those who choose to read.

Now, off to the real meat of this post. Today is Mr. Z's first day of 1st grade. He was crazy excited and quite cute, if I do say so. Here is the obligatory picture:

And the obligatory photo with mommy (and little sis):

I think he looks (and acts) tons bigger than last year's photo. Amazing what a year can do!

PSF - Painted Lady

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

My son for his 6th birthday asked and received a butterfly garden growing kit. I loved the idea cause, well, I like watching things grow and change and I thought he would love it too. I filled out the little form to send in to receive our caterpillars and realized that this summer, with camping and vacations, was very full of us not being home for long stretches at a time. However, I picked this past week for us to receive the larvae and start the process of growing our butterflies. As instructed by the form where it specifically said "When would you like us to send your butterflies", I wrote Aug 18th which was the day we returned from our last camping adventure. I mailed in the form (In July) and said to myself that I was happy with that resolution.

One week later, we received, not one but TWO containers of larvae caterpillars. Oh crap. Now what? We have caterpillars to take care of but we plan to be gone for two camping trips in the near future. What to do? So hubbs calls the company to complain, "Why do you let us pick a date to have these shipped if you were just going to send them right away", "I would have just waited till we were back in town". To which they replied, "We are very sorry we will send you more on your requested date". Uhh, ok. So in the meantime, what do we do with these 10 soon to be butterflies that we are going to miss parts of their lifecycle.

So we watched them munch on the food they had in their container, we watched as they built their cocoons and then we transfered them to thier hatching habitat to wait till they became beautiful butterflies. However, no butterflies 'hatched' before we left for our last trip. We gave the dog sitter neighbor girl instructions to release them into the wild if they were to hatch before we came home. On Monday, all but 1 butterfly emerged and was released. There was one lone cocoon left. We decided to let it hang a few more days to see what would happen. Then on Wed we got to see the fruits of our labor (which wasn't much work on our part) and we came home to one last butterfly flittering around in the habitat. We kept her for 24 hours and gave her some fruit, which I don't think she touched, till we decided to let her go find her family in the depths of our yard.

Now we are onto round two with 5 more caterpillars that arrived on Monday of this week. Honestly, I think I enjoyed it more than the kids did.

Theme Thursday - Wonder

Late summer and the kids are still having a ball. My son got a chance to fish this weekend at the camp gound and he had a wonderful time.

My older daughter loves to pick "flowers" for me from our yard.

And the youngest sitting at the table learning how to draw (or at least learning how not to eat the pencil).

Its so fun to watch them discover the things we take for granted. I love learning things all over again through their eyes. I cannot wait for fall to see them enjoy the season as much as I do.

WW - Road trip, sleeping kiddos...Priceless

Back from Long Weekend

We took one final long camping trip of the summer. It was tons of fun with great friends, good food and lots of family time. School starts in less than a week and fall will be upon us soon. I cannot wait for the changing of the seasons. I love fall with the crisp nights, the beautiful colors and the pumpkins! This summer was great fun though. We were able to go camping often and the kids really loved going to the beach and swimming. We hope to get in a few more weekend trips before it turns too cold. Hope everyone had as great a week as we did.

WW - Apple or Pear??

PSF - Drummer Wanted

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Here is Sir Paul again with some of his band mates. They greet me each and every week day with a smile and a promise of a song, however, they have never fulfilled that second one. These three make my little cubical (i.e. home away from home) and little happier. However, as you can see, this trio used to be a foursome. Where's Ringo? Did he get stolen? These three characters were given to me by my brother who, at the time, worked in a gaming store. They sold these guys individually and for some reason they didn't have a Ringo. I have searched high and low for my final Beatle to complete this collection but alas, have failed. I can get the entire set, for a hefty price, but seeing as I have three of the four, I don't need spares of the ones I do have. So the search continues for the 4th Beatle. If anyone happens to spot the missing Ringo, please leave me a comment as to where I can find him. Maybe when I have the whole set they will senerade my entire office. Ok...maybe not. :)

Theme Thursday - Eyes

Getting the kids to look at the camera while I take their picture is such a challenge. I try to think of new ways to get their attention. I have called their names, told them to look at mama and even used toys. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I get these looks:

Most of the time I try to incorporate myself into their line of sight and take a shot where I know they would be looking at me:

However, the littest is the hardest to photo. She refuses to cooperate no matter what I do. So I usually get side views of her. However, this shot in particular stood out to me cause I love that you can see the camp fire reflecting from her eyes.

If anyone has any tricks of the trade to get them to look at me, please feel free to share!

WW - Stand up and be Counted

PSF - Learning Curve

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Miss V has taken to wanting to feed herself. But, alas, she is only 14 months old and not at all good at getting the spoon to her mouth. This is a daily struggle. On this night I was home alone feeding the kids. The rest of the gaggle was done except for her and of course myself, because I am the last to eat. I get up to fix myself some eggs when I look over and realize that the bowl that I had strategically placed out of her reach was directly under her nose and both hands were knuckle deep in the cottage cheese. So I figure, let her play and maybe she will actually get more food into her tummy than I can get trying to avoid flying arms on the way to her mouth. After my eggs were done cooking little Miss started screaming. She dropped her spoon and wanted me to fetch it. But, of course as any good amateur photographer would do, I snap a picture. Then I proceed to mop up this screaming child who just lost her best toy in the world. Darn independence of the toddler!