Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Happy 3rd Birthday, Tyler!

My baby is not a baby anymore - Tyler turned 3 today! We decided to go out to dinner and let Tyler choose where he wanted to go. We had our fingers crossed that it wasn't going to be McDonalds or Chuck E. Cheese. He ended up picking Famous Dave's BBQ, which we thought was a bit odd, but then we took one look at Emily who was smiling and realized where the idea came from. After all, they do serve Kraft Mac-n-Cheese, Fries and Oreo cookies as a Kid's Meal - what's not to love, right? Anyway, we had a great time and Tyler opened his birthday presents. His favorite was Alphie. I can't believe they brought that toy back. I remember that when I was a little girl!

Some of Tyler's traits and "favorites" right now...

  • Color - Yellow
  • Movies - Toy Story, Nemo and The Little Mermaid
  • Cartoon Characters - Spongebob and Mickey Mouse
  • Foods - Clementines, Blueberries, French Fries
  • Drink - Chocolate and "Pink" Milk
  • Frequent Saying - "Nuh Uh" or "Yeah Huh"
  • Tyler walks in Emily's shadow and mimics her constantly.....good and bad actions! :)
  • He loves boots.  He was constantly wearing his rain boots and Emily's boots around the house so we recently bought him a pair of light-up Toy Story cowboy boots.  He loves them!
  • He is a night owl like me.  Emily is always the first to fall asleep between the two of them. 
  • Tyler is sooooo independent!  This is probably another trait he picked up from Emily.  Whenever someone tries to help him, he responds "no, I do it!"
  • He is such a sensitive little man, and whenever you show that you are upset by something he did, he runs over and gives you a kiss and a hug and says, "I sorry, mommy."  He also randomly comes over and gives me a squeeze and says, "I miss you, I love you."

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Team-Up Thursday: Fresh

Jody chose this week's theme of "fresh" and loved the natural light and "softness" of her shot of the peonies. I, on the other hand, went a different route because I just had to include the shot I captured of my daughter as the flower girl and the ring bearer being "fresh" to me at a recent wedding. They were standing there looking all innocent and I asked them to smile at the count of three. Just after I said "three" this is what I got! Take note of the lollipop and candy necklace. They had a candy station at the wedding for the little kids and the "kids at heart" so many of them, including these two, were on a sugar high. :)

Fresh
Check out Megan and Melody to see more Theme Thursday shots.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Team-Up Thursday: White

We decided to capture the color white this week for our theme. White makes me think of weddings, so I chose a closeup shot of one of my brides' gowns for this week. I really like how it coordinates with Jody's image, which is also white on a black background. The chandelier makes me think of an elegant event, complimenting the wedding dress and the doves can also be linked to wedding ceremonies.

White

Check out Megan and Melody to see more Theme Thursday shots.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Team-Up Thursday: Shapes

This week Jody and I chose "shapes" as our theme. I love the colors in Jodi's shot! The earthtone bokeh background really contrasts the wind chime. I chose the flower bouquet that I captured at a recent birthday party I shot because it incorporated so many shapes: flower-shaped pineapples, circular melon balls, heart-shaped strawberries...the list goes on!

Shapes

Check out Megan and Melody to see more Theme Thursday shots.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Team-Up Thursday: Texture

Jody and I had a very busy week and only decided on our theme of "texture" yesterday. Luckily, I'm a seasoned procrastinator and work well under pressure. :) We figured that since texture is everywhere it wouldn't be hard to grab a shot around the house last night. I love the way our shots fit together this week. There are obvious differences, like how Jody's shot portrays more of a "hard" texture and has several items in the shot compared to the "softness" of the blanket and my shot focuses more on a single shape on the blanket. I chose to convert my shot to grayscale (except for the heart which I left pink) and I loved how it coordinated with the rocks: most of them were gray, but a few have slightly pink tones. Even one of the rocks in the pic (toward the left-center) seems to have a heart-shape to it, but that may just be my imagination!

Texture

Check out Megan and Melody to see more Theme Thursday shots.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Team-Up Thursday: Pattern

Our theme for this week's Team Thursday was "pattern." I love the patterns Jody chose to shoot: very funky! I like the contrast between the black and white and color patterns. I chose to shoot a repeating pattern that was lined up by my daughter, Emily. They focused on this in class a couple months ago and ever since she points out repeating patterns wherever we go!

Pattern

Check out Megan and Melody to see more Theme Thursday shots.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Best Shot Monday: Heart-shaped Leaves

I decided to join Cara in signing up for Tracey Clark's Picture Spring class. The class started when while I was down in Disney vacationing, so it was challenging to get all of the shots and post them. But the nice thing about the class is that there is no pressure to capture each and every daily theme. So far it has been a wonderful experience. I love being given the different themes so you can explore your creativity behind the lens on a daily basis. The shot below was taken over the weekend when we were asked to capture a heart shaped theme. My husband thought I was crazy when I saw these leaves and stopped in the middle of mowing the grass to run into the house. When I came out with my camera he said, "You're bloody ridiculous!" Some people just don't understand! :)

HeartLeaves

For more Best Shot Monday pics, head over to Tracey's Blog

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Team-Up Thursday: Simple

This week Jody and I decided to pick the theme of "Simple" and it was anything but that for both of us! Everywhere I looked I saw complex signs, architecture, patterns, designs, etc. I tried to look around for a daisy since I think of those as a simple flower, but all I ran into were orchids...definitely not simple in my mind. Finally, yesterday when I picked up the kids, Emily asked me if we could have pancakes for dinner. I had so many things to do so I didn't feel like taking the time to make them from scratch. So I opened the cabinet and took out my backup stash of "just add water" pancake mix. What could be more simple than that! Jody said she had a hard time finding something "simple" as well so she used this sign she shot while vacationing. Too bad it isn't easy to portray "simple" people in a photograph because I could have taken plenty of those! Haha!

Simple

Check out Megan and Melody to see more Theme Thursday shots.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Team-Up Thursday: Vacation

Jody and I decided to pick the theme of "Vacation" since she just got back from a spring break getaway and I'm down here at Disney right now. I love the little drink umbrella sticking out of the bacon in Jody's shot. She said her daughter did it one morning on their vacation at the breakfast table. I wanted a general shot to represent Disney so I decided to use the shot I captured of the Mickey balloons at the park's entrance. I love the reflection of people in all of the balloons. Wow, is it crowded here! The bus driver told us that they had to stop letting people into Magic Kingdom around 2:30PM for the past 2 days for a little while until some people left because the park was at it's maximum capacity. I think I was the only one who didn't mind the crowd. But after all, I am a devout Black Friday shopper!

Vacation

Check out Megan and Melody to see more Theme Thursday shots.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Team-Up Thursday: Happy

I didn't have a lot of time this week to capture this week's theme since we only decided on it yesterday. Luckily, I had something in mind right away. I have always been an extremely happy person and all of my friends know it takes a heck of a lot to get me angry. When I was younger, I was one of those kids in school where everyone asked, "Are you OK?" if I looked remotely serious because it was so out-of-the-norm for me not to be laughing or smiling. Everyone thought it was appropriate that I had a smiley face collection because it matched my demeanor and they would always think of me when they saw one on their travels. Therefore, I thought I'd break out one of my mugs from the collection for this week's "happy" shot since it has always made me smile.

I love the vibrant colors in Jody's shot this week. My shot was initially bold, but I chose to tone down the colors and go for more of a "muted" look this week. Even though our shots are very different, it made me laugh that once again we angled our shots in the same direction; both slightly to the left.


Check out Megan and Melody to see more Theme Thursday shots.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Team-Up Thursday: Close-Up

Jody and I decided to go with the group theme this week: Close-Up. I must admit - I thought it was going to be really easy to capture a close-up shot, but it ended up being a bit of a challenge. Originally, I was thinking of taking a close-up of something with a lot of detail or texture. I took a few shots, but they were all indoor so I wasn't happy with the outcome. Since the weather has been so beautiful lately, I decided to pop on my macro lens and go outdoors to try to capture the beginning of Spring. You'd think with the warmer weather the past few days I'd find a blossom of something. I searched a couple nearby parks, but everything was still pretty lifeless. I couldn't even find a tulip breaking through the ground. Anyway, I did find some nice color in this little bush I found. I have no idea what type of plant it is (my plant/flower loving mom would be ashamed). But hey, cut me some slack...I'm a photographer, not a gardener! Haha

It looks like Jody and I were on the same wavelength this week because she also chose to step out into nature to snag her beautiful flower shot. I like how both of our photos are angled in the same direction again this week and are in the same color family (pink/red). By the very direct lighting, it looks like Jody's shot was taken more midday, whereas my shot was captured towards the evening.

Close-Up

Check out Megan and Melody to see more Theme Thursday shots.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Best Shot Monday: Getting Ready for Softball

Since the weather has been warming up a bit, we decided to play a little "catch" with Emily to warm up for her upcoming softball league. She is catching the ball so much better than last year, and you can tell by her expression in the photos that she is thrilled with her performance too!

Emily Catch

Emily Catch 2

For more Best Shot Monday pics, head over to Tracey's Blog

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Team-Up Thursday: Sign

I had to laugh when I received Jody's picture this week because we had the same idea. Our theme this week was "sign." I tried to get Emily to sign "I Love You" and Tyler to sign "Peace." Easy task, right? Yeah, not so much - Haha! Emily did her part perfectly, but it was impossible to get both of their hands signing in the same shot. Tyler would wave his hand around, signing "Peace" for what seemed like an eternity. But, never fail...just as I would pick up the camera to get the shot, he's stop completely!! So I just thought it was funny how we both tried to think a little outside the box with our theme. Jody nailed a beautiful shot in her attempt. Who doesn't adore close-ups of little hands?

Since the signing didn't pan out, I decided to seek inspiration once again throughout the streets of Philadelphia while walking to the train home. After looking at hundreds on street signs, traffic signs and retail store signs, I decided to snap a shot of the Hard Rock Cafe sign. I just love how the musical-themed restaurant has a guitar-shaped sign - clever! I also decided to kick it up a notch by putting a cool preset on the photo while editing in Lightroom.



Check out Megan and Melody to see more Theme Thursday shots.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Best Shot Monday: Gaze

Finally a beautiful and rather "warm-ish" weekend. Everyone else in my family shed their coats and just had sweatshirts on while we were at the park, but I still had to wear my peacoat. I'm always cold! All of the snow we received a couple weeks ago is just about gone and the ground is a muddy mess. Emily and Tyler had a blast running around the baseball field at the park, watching their feet slowly sink in the ground. Emily pretended it was quicksand. The grass wasn't quite as muddy, so we practiced hitting and fielding a little with Emily since she signed up for a proper softball team that starts the end of April. By "proper" I mean that they don't use a Tee anymore to bat; the coach pitches to the girls. And I thought last year's games were long...haha! We'll see how it goes. Tyler was running around the park randomly as we were playing, picking up a ball here and there or kicking the soccer ball. I managed to capture a shot when a group of puppies across the field caught his attention enough to stop him in his tracks.

Tyler Faded


For more Best Shot Monday pics, head over to Tracey's Blog

Friday, March 5, 2010

100th Day Celebration

After being cancelled twice due to all of the snow we recently got, Emily finally had her "100th day" celebration at school. I had never heard of such a celebration, but I didn't ask and just went with the flow. Emily had to decorate a T-Shirt with 100 objects to represent the 100 school days they've had so far. I thought it was a crazy regional thing, but I've read other blogs that talked about it as well so I guess it's done all over - who knew? Anyway, my mom came down to visit last month so I gave this task to her so she could have a little creative bonding time with Emily. Below is a picture of what they ended up with after all the gluing, sewing, etc.

The shirt isn't the only highlight of this picture, though. Notice the little "tuft" of hair in the middle of Emily's hairline. No, that's not extra-long "baby hair"; that's the result of Emily taking a pair of scissors at her after-school program and cutting her hair. I asked her, "Why on earth would you cut your hair, Emily?" She answered, perfectly calmly, "Because it keeps going in my face." Logical, right? I could have strangled her! Now she keeps complaining that "it looks weird when I wear a headband" and "the kids are going to laugh at me." I just keep nicely reminding her that she is the one who cut it. I'm going to call the hairdresser to see what can be done, but I'm sure we'll end up having to get bangs cut all around (or "fringe" as my British hubby calls it). She's never had bangs before, so who knows how it will turn out. To make things worse, Emily is the flower girl in a wedding coming up May 1st. There's never a dull moment...

Emily_100Days

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Team-Up Thursday: Walk

I'm finally participating in my first Team-Up Thursday after Megan paired me up with Jody out in Iowa. It's been fun getting to know her a little and I look forward to all of our posts together.

I had a hard time with this week's suggested "walk" theme. I originally intended of thinking of a new theme until I got an email from Jody, telling me that her little girl just started walking. How perfect of a theme is that for capturing those little baby feet! You can't deny capturing moments like that.

Anyway, I ventured out into the streets of downtown Philadelphia after work, trying to capture some feet/legs in motion. For some reason I pictured the Beatles walking across Abbey Road when I thought of this theme. I tried to snap several shots of people walking across the crosswalk, but either their strides were off, there were annoying background distractions or...this sounds so silly...they had unappealing shoes. Haha! So, although I didn't get my Abbey Road shot, I managed to take an angled shot of some lady in mid-stride with some cool boots! Jody's picture is just precious and I thought it was neat how both of our pictures were "walking" in the same direction. They paired together well!



Check out Megan and Melody to see more Theme Thursday shots.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Best Shot Monday: Bounce Party

This past weekend we went to a birthday party at "Bounce U" in Allentown. Emily was a little cautious a couple years ago when she went to her first party at one of these places. She was probably around 2 or 3 years old and the slides were HUGE in comparison to the slides at the park. It took us until almost the end of the party to get her to try to go down one.
Tyler on the other hand, has always been fearless. He went to his first bounce party last year right after he turned 1. He was still too young to go on the big slides by himself, but he just loved going down them with my husband. He turned 2 this past December and was more than ready to try the big slides this past weekend - SOLO. Before I could catch him, he was already climbing up the little square steps leading up to the huge slide. I was a little nervous at first but then thought, What's the worst thing that could happen? He could fall back off the steps and land on the big puffy pillow-like base at the bottom. Everything is padded at this place! He struggled to get up at first with his tiny little legs, but made it to the top and flew down the slide sideways - laughing! Emily just stared at him coming down, astonished! One of the slides required them to come down in a potato sack, so Emily would help Tyler since he couldn't manage climbing up and holding the sack at the same time. As you can see below, they had a blast!

Em Ty Slide


For more Best Shot Monday pics, head over to Tracey's Blog

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Wordless Wednesday: Flower

...Hoping this post will ward away the upcoming snow (yes, ANOTHER storm) and bring on Spring!!

See more pics over at Wordless Wednesday here and here

Monday, February 22, 2010

Best Shot Monday: Tyler's New Favorite Shirt

This is the T-shirt that was recently sent to Tyler from relatives across the pond in England. Thanks Nanny Ros and Tony! They were visiting Austrailia over Christmas and brought back funny T-shirts for the kids. You can't see it in the picture, but the kangaroo's pouch flips up to reveal a baby kangaroo underneath. Tyler just loves it, and between he and Emily it is constantly being flipped up and down. Emily also received a shirt and loves it, but I didn't get to take a picture because she wouldn't stand still for 2 seconds!!



For more Best Shot Monday pics, head over to Tracey's Blog

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Wordless Wednesday: Icicle


See more pics over at Wordless Wednesday here and here

Monday, February 15, 2010

Best Shot Monday: Every Day

After two HUGE snowfalls in the same week, things have gotten a little crazy in our household after being cooped up inside. The picture below is an example of the things my kids do every day to make us laugh. Tyler dressed up in Emily's play clothes and pranced around the house. This will be a great photo to add to the slideshow when he gets married...complete with heels and a furry purse - HaHa!



For more Best Shot Monday pics, head over to Mother May I

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