A Happy Fourth

Oh what a wonderful weekend we had, and a long one at that.  Saturday was Elias’ birthday part which I will blog about but I had a stronger urge to do the 4th first. 

Let’s review the wonderfulness, with pictures.  First, it was a gorgeous day.  Days like today make all the gray days around here worthwhile.  Who am I kidding, I love gray days too though if I didn’t like to hunker down with a good book and a cup of hot tea I might feel differently.  But I digress.

We made last minute plans with a couple from our church to do the 4th at out house.  Zion just about tortured me all day asking when they would come (“How many more minutes?” every FIVE minutes) and finally they did come.  While the older kids dug into the sandbox Elias practiced his Dukes of Hazard skills completely refusing to open the door to get in his little Cozy Coupe – I mean General Lee.

Zion soon joined us on the patio regaling us with a story of … I’m not exactly sure.  She loves to tell a story but I confess that half the time I have no idea what she’s talking about.  Still, it’s entertaining, she’s downright adorable while doing it.

Rob grilled hamburgers and jerk chicken for dinner.  Our grill has been getting a lot of use already this year.  Not that I’m complaining.  Might have to let my belt out a little.  Or maybe I should throw in some more Zumba.  Probably the later, huh?  While I contemplate that I’ll just finish these Potato Skins Snack Chips. *sigh*  If only I didn’t love food SO much!

 

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen the kids convinced Tanya to set up Mousetrap.  Which took so long they didn’t really get to play. 

The kids could not handle knowing there were fireworks in the house any longer so after dinner, yes while it was still daylight, we headed out front to let ours offer.  Our display was meager but what we lacked in KABOOMS and lights we made up for with shear cuteness.  Jacob added more than his fair share by helping to keep Elias in grins and giggles.  Dashing over at random times to make silly noises for him.

Elias thinks Jacob’s the best thing since sliced bananas.

See.  Cute with a capital ‘C’.

We started with sparklers.  Come to think of it I think we always do.  Is that normal?

At some point Ross told us how they used to put smoke bombs in water and I thought “Hey, we have a bucket of water.  Why not?”  So we did.  And it was cool.  It made little smoke filled bubbles.

Zion doesn’t think to much of anything that makes noise.  Nothing we got was very loud but she still hid behind me for part of it.  Not that I’m complaining.  Sometimes it’s nice to be needed.  And cuddled.

Elias on the other hand didn’t seem bothered at all.  AT.  ALL.  Not even a little.  He even laughed at some of them.

Gideon, to start out with, was simply obsessed with the water bucket we kept on hand.  That should not surprise anyone who knows him.  This is the kid who, when we go to the zoo and wildlife park exclaims loudly “Water!!!” at EVERY habitat that has so much as a puddle, seemingly oblivious to the animals there. 

He did get a bit overwhelmed after a while, as he also has a tendency to do and told me repeatedly that he was sleepy and needed to go to bed.   At least he didn’t tell me this time that our guests needed to go home. 

Gabe was involved with everything.   How fun it is to have kids at such different stages and to have one or two that are getting old enough to enjoy these traditions (even if Gabe and Zion didn’t exactly want to hear my brief lesson on why we celebrate Independence Day). 

Am I a bad mom, though, because one of the funnest parts of the night was laughing at Gabe’s reaction to a firework that took off straight up when he wasn’t expecting it.  It was just so funny.

And since we were outside in the front I couldn’t resist taking a few shots of my roses.  ‘Cause, oooo, the pink one has open blossoms now.

Then we all went inside for doughnuts ‘cause nothing says Independence Day like deep fried dough.  With red and blue icing of course.

Later when we said goodbye to our friends the neighbors really had their fireworks going strong.  Some of them really go all out (which is one of the reasons we don’t) so we lingered and watched and I got some good (or at least I think they’re good) photos.  I strayed from my usual habit of shooting for dark sky with streaks of light and went for a lighter sky and more details in our surroundings.  I love how they turned out.  This one is my favorite.

But these aren’t so bad either.

The End!

South Sound Yarn Crawl 2011

Phase One – Yellow House Yarns.

But first.  Though you might have guessed already, a Yarn Crawl, is much like a pub crawl.  Only more fiber and less alcohol.  A lot less alcohol.  And, in my opinion, a lot more fun.  Especially when you go with your best friend and your sister (also my best friend).

The South Sound Yarn Crawl is an annual event where participants travel from yarn store to yarn store getting their passports (provided at the first store or downloadable) stamped, entering drawings, receiving free patterns, touching yarn and probably buying some or a lot, meeting other fiber artists and just generally have a fantastic time.

I hadn’t planned on going this year but at the last second recruited by best friend to join me making the trip more enticing with the promise of massive photo ops.  At an even more last second if that is possible my sister joined up.  So early on May 14 the three of us, heavily armed with our Nikons, headed out.  There are too many pictures to show and too much to write for for one post so I’m going to break it up.

Now back to Phase One – Yellow House Yarns.

Yellow House Yarns is my LYS (vocab lesson, LYS = Local Yarn Store) so it seemed the logical place to start.

Yellow House Yarns is, surprise!, a cute yellow house.  It is cozy and inviting and the owners are super friendly and fun to chat with not to mention helpful.

Purple hats for the Period of Purple Crying Campaign.  Love that!  I wish I’d heard of purple crying when I was a new mom.  Gabe used to have screaming jags daily that lasted from 20 minutes to three hours, Zion screamed every second that she was in a car seat for almost her first year and any time I tried to nurse her (I gave up and switched to a bottle when she was six months old and she was fine) and Gideon, well, let’s not go into Gideon right now.  Spread the word, this is a great thing for parents to know about.

I mentioned free patterns.  Each store had one knitting and one crochet pattern to give away.  For Yellow House it was this knitted sock and a crocheted baby sweater.  So cute!

Yellow House also has the coolest bathroom.  Very photogenic.  And I assure you, the only bathroom I took pictures of on this trip.  I’m not in the habit of taking photos of public restrooms.  Not usually anyway.

I’m very fond of the kitchen at YH (so much easier than typing “Yellow House” over and over).  It’s bright and airy and the yarns are displayed in fun ways.  Like the ones on the dish drying rack and in the salad bowl.  LOVE!

And like this:

And this:

SWEET!

 

See what friendly folks you’ll find at Yellow house?

And that concludes Phase One.  I walked away with the free pattern and purchased a second one.  More soon!

Good to WOW Week 18–Mother’s Day Pt. 2

This was quite fun.  I only had time to work two of my photos today but I’m pretty pleased with the outcome.  First, my friend.

The original:

I love a good laugh.

Then the same picture with minor adjustments in ACR:

And lastly the same picture after applying a gradient map (the one that’s all purple and green if you’re interested), sharpened the eyes a bit and softened the skin tone with a layer of pink.  I love how sparkly her eyes are.

And then on to the photo I’ve named “Birdy Butt”.  The original:

The same photo with minor adjustments in ACR and a slight crop.

Then I picked a couple of gradient map colors at random.  The first couple didn’t work out no matter what blend mode I used (well, they might have if I was looking for something different).  Then I applied the orange one and my first thought was “Polaroid picture!”  So I cropped it square, added an action that rounded the corners and gave it a white frame and added a little noise.  Here’s the final birdy butt:

My only regret about participating in this photo challenge is not having more time to play after I find out what edits we’re doing.  Please comment and tell me what you think – oo, especially since I discovered yesterday that my photos look entirely different on someone else’s monitor.   I have no idea now what is too bright, too dark, colors off…  Will have to remedy that soon.  Thanks for stopping by!  Go to Ashley’s blog to check out more (if you’re not already coming here from there of course).

Sweet Shot Tuesday

How to choose, how to choose?  Thanks to my outing on Mother’s Day I have many shots to choose from.  Too many.  I s’pose I’ll bypass all the beautiful flowers and scenes from my outing because the people in my life are more special than those.  Still, it’s down to two.

This was a sweet scene I discovered yesterday morning while in the mad rush to get breakfast for everyone and get Gabe’s lunch made and get us out of the house in time to make it to the bus.  I ran to get my camera and only got the one picture before they moved and the moment had passed.  I give you my oldest and my youngest playing at the train table:

And then there’s my good friend who I went out with on Mother’s Day for lunch and a little picture taking time.  Yay, us! 

(And if you want to see some of the other pictures I got that day check out some of my other posts and come back for more posts to come, there were a lot of photos!)

Good To WOW Week 18–Mother’s Day

And what a Mother’s Day it was!  Rob made a wonderful breakfast and the kids blessed me with cards and hugs.  Gabe gave me a coupon good for one time of him preparing me a bowl of cereal.  I’ll take it!  Then we had a lovely time at church, I felt so blessed sitting there with my kids snuggled so close. Afterward we parted ways.  Rob took the kids to play at a park and I got to go have lunch with my friend and afterward we got to go on a little photo outing at a local nursery.  Though the lighting wasn’t the best it was nearly impossible to not get at least a decent photo in just about every shot.  So hard to choose just one or two or even three when you have a few hundred.  Arg! 

Please forgive me for not narrowing it down further, it was all I could do to get it down to just these. 

I thought the statue was hilarious.  Then I looked at the picture when I got home and realized all the tags on the flowers below him WERE him.  And because I can hear him saying “Gum, gum, dum-dum!” (Ever see Night at the Museum?)

My friend (you would know her as Cedar) who is truly a great friend and a great mom.

I so want these boots!

I was going to take a picture of this cute little bird but it mooned me so I got a picture of a cute little birdy behind instead.  :)

Check out the other entries or go enter yourself, everyone of is invited and there are varying skills so don’t think you aren’t good enough.