Drama~ the fun kind

So apparently both of my children have inherited a touch of the dramatic. My mom would swear that they get it from me but I am still in denial... Wherever they got it from, they both definitely got a heaping dose of it.
Both kids love to dress up in costumes~ the store bought halloween kind will do but the best ones and the ones that are the most entertaining for me are the ones that they come up with themselves. For example:
Here he was dressed up as an agent~ no, he didn't specify what kind or who he was working for, but then what good agent does??

Here he is dressed up as an Israeli paratrooper: (the costume was brought back from Israel by his Gigi and the wings are from a friend of ours in the Israeli Air Force)

Indiana Jones. His Gigi bought him that hat and he wears it all the time!!





His sister also enjoys the occasional venture into the dramatic. Thankfully her costumes run to the more whimsical- heavy on the tutus with a tiara thrown in every once in a while. She's loved dressing up since she was able to , well, dress up...

This was some sort of reindeer fairy~ you know, a pink tutu never fails to beat the mid-winter blues!!

and of course the old standbye Princess~

Ok, this one isn't so much of a costume as it is accessorized :

Dressed as Fancy Nancy with her fancy Nancy doll, compliments of her Gigi (I'm seeing a trend here- maybe the drama is from Gigi as much as from me???)
Sometimes they warm their mommy's heart and play TOGETHER! This was my all time favorite~ Lilly and I had been out in the pasture taking pics when Garrett came out in his armor holding his sword and announced "Every princess needs a knight" and it was on...

Addicted to textures

I really love taking pictures and I really love the process of using photoshop to being to life the scene as I saw it. I know that there are different schools of thought on whether or not photoshopping digital photos is the same as dark room developing~ I'm not going to get into all of the arguments here because this is MY blog so I will just tell you that I believe that some form of post processing is necessary to complete the digital picture. Just as it takes a certain amount of skill in the darkroom to bring out the best possible photo from a negative, so too does it take a certain amount of skill in photoshop or some other processing program to faithfully reproduce what it was that the photographer saw through his viewfinder. Whew- with all that said, sometimes it is fun to play with pictures and to heck with the faithful representation!! Lately I have been completely addicted to textures- different patterns and colors. It has been fun to play~ almost like a painting or a collage. I would really like to find a place for this type of work in my photog business but I am not sure how to work them in. Until I find exactly where I want these to fit I will keep playing and maybe inspiration will follow!

Petti in the Pasture

Lilly told me the other night that she wanted to put her brown skirt on and take pictures!!! It took mere seconds for me to pick my jaw up off of the ground and grab my camera and off we went. I had gotten this GREAT new chair a couple of days before so we loaded up the Gator and away we went!!


There are parts of our pasture that are really magical in the evening light so we braved the tall grass (ok, she had boots on~ I had flip flops... I braved the tall grass to get to the cool spots. I will spare you most of the narrative and just post some pics................................


Then it was off to another magical spot where Lilly showed me how the big girls pose.........

Oh Lord~ we are SO not ready for her to get any older!!

Gone Baby Gone

Wow~ so I am already a neglectful blogger.... big shock there!!! Things have been kind of crazy around here lately with summer activities and all.

The biggest event in our lives lately was packing baby boy off to camp- I've never actually had an arm chopped off but I am pretty sure that it is more fun than leaving your baby at a place full of kids he doesn't know, knowing that you will have no contact with him for an entire week!! What was I thinking????!!!???

His couselor's name is Hot Fresh and Cheesy~ they all have nicknames and part of the fun is finding out the story behind them. Cheesy got his nickname because, get this, he likes American Cheese on his donuts!!! Now, I am not ever one to disparage American Cheese but donuts are possibly the one food that I WOULD NOT adorn with cheese... but I'm not judging!! Another funny thing~ Cheesy is actually from a small town in Alabama very near where Grant's grandparents lived and where he spent many of his best summers thus endearing him to Father Bear!!

Pine Cove is an awesome camp~ part of my life for many of my formative years so
I know that he is going to have an amazing time, but come on people~ web cams or something would be nice!! So far I have held on to the *transactions are pending on this account when I log into his camp store account as proof of his well being- if he is shopping he must be ok!

I was so proud of my baby as he stoically hugged us goodbye and walked into the swimming pool amongst the throng of kids and jumped on in.... WAY TO GO!!

I know that he is having a blast but I have to admit that I am VERY ready to bring my baby home~ I may be camping outside the gates of camp when they open Saturday morning!!

I LOVE Summer!!

OK~ can I just tell you how much I love this time of year? The kids have been having so much fun playing outside and swimming, all my flowers are blooming and it is just SO green!

Since the kids are already in a playful mood it is so much easier to get the fun shots- Lilly and Garrett decided that spraying each other with water just wasn't enough so they resorted to paint!

Lilly joined her brother in the pasture the other day for a rousing game of tackle frisbee in her dress and heels- hey, a girl's gotta be prepared for anything!!

These days are just made for dozing!!


Yep~ this is about the perfect time of year-still a cool breeze in the mornings, even the afternoons aren't too bad and everyone wants to be outside...so off I go. Bye bye!

And we're off!!!

This may be harder than I think~ but then, it may be easier than I have built it up in my head to be. I have been putting off beginning this blog because I really wasn't sure what to say. As an avid stalker of many other amazing blogs, I must say I am a little intimidated but, rebel that I am here I go throwing caution to the wind and ....gasp...typing my first blog post!! Next thing you know I'll be running with scissors!

I think that I will leave things at this tonight and plan to write all the really interesting stuff tomorrow. Maybe something really interesting will happen between now and then to write about!!

Night night....