Wildseed Farms and Becker's Vineyard

My good friend from IN, Jan, came for a visit last week and we did lots of fun things. One thing I was looking particularly forward to was spending some time out near Fredricksburg taking photos. We stopped first at Wildseed Farms and we all had a fabulous time.
My friend, Michelle, took a photo very similar to this of Suzy way back when. It's always been one of my favorites.


The butterfly house was a lots of fun.

Andy wasn't such a fan of them landing on him.
Ooops. Sorry little fella.
Suzy is old enough to be a bit more gentle.
I have an entire series of these shots. They make me laugh. Her new "thing" is to peer into my lens. It's super fun in person.

Erin was able to join us and make the day even more fun.

We made a wine stop on the way home at Becker's Vineyard. What a great place to let the kids run free.
My favorite little boy.
My favorite little girl.

He is Risen UnDead

Last year a sweet friend from church, Cheryl, made resurrection cookies with her girls. I thought the idea was so great I decided to make them with Suzy this year. It was lots of fun and we have really had a good time talking all about what Easter is truly about.

Here are some of the photos I took of the process. I meant to post more after Easter was done, but the bedtime conversation was too good to wait.


So, as I'm putting Suzy to bed and reading the story of Easter, Suzy is really enthusiastic about all of this. I tell her tomorrow at church people may say, "He is Risen". and she is supposed to reply, "He is Risen Indeed!" She looked at me completely somberly and says, "No, Mommy. I think I should say, 'He is Risen UnDead.'"

So funny. Sweet little spice!

Buddies

We had our sweet friends over tonight and the kids had a blast. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends / families that are in the same life stage as we are. Our small group simply rocks. :)
Andy impressing Uncle Andy with his hoop skilz.
Andy's buddy.
Katie dog didn't want to miss out on the Blue Bonnet photos. Sweet girl. (Quick update... her seeing eye is still great! The doggy optometrist says with eye drops 2X day, she could keep her sight in the right eye for another three years. So far, so good!)

More Blue Bonnets (77 and 71)

If you get sick of these, just turn off your Google Reader until May. Ha!

Actually, I got some shots I love today, so I may not be as neurotic as I was last year. This is still, by far, my favorite spot. It's about 1.5 hours from my house. So, I only took Suzy this year. But, the flowers are well established so they are nice and tall. Plus, it's a very secure/protected from traffic area that is on a big hill - which makes for a wonderful backdrop. I like this feel so much better than the fields that are flat. It's right off of 71 in LeGrange at the 77 intersection. In my opinion, well worth the extra drive effort. But, then again, I am a little obsessed. ;)








P.S. I love Photoshop. :)
Oh, and this year's bribe? Three hours straight of Curious George in the car. She got it the entire way out with the promise of the entire way back if she gave me some good smiles. I like this bribe even better than last years Jelly Bellies and M&Ms.

busy-ness

I have lots of photos to play with, but not enough time to do it. It seems like when I get a chance to sit down and do something with the photos I have already taken, I will instead pick up the camera and take new ones! FUN! I guess it will give me something to do when I'm old.

Suzy continues to LOVE Curious George. As a treat for good behavior, she gets to watch a show after rest time each day. She loves it. Andy sleeps through it. It gives me a chance to get a full hour of "chore time" each day. Now that I think of it, I love Curious George, too! (Well, I did until I listened to 40+ hours of him last week.... but that's another post.)
Suzy also loves to take photos. She wants to be just like her mommy. I like this combo shot. Balloons for Andy, George for Suzy. It's such a time stamp for us right now.
Suzy's little school Valentine's Party.
I appreciate Mrs. Kelly allowing the siblings to attend the parties. I really do adore her teacher and little school.
We took a field trip to the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco. We received special treatment for the "Little Pepper" tour and Suzy (and Andy) had their first colas. Yes, I have no defense when Suzy says to me, "That's not fair. I couldn't do that at his age...." Oh, well. I don't have a ton of sympathy. I was one of the youngest in my family.


Since the weather has been getting nicer, we are spending LOTS of time simply in our back yard. Andy is so cute when he hops in the car and says, "Bye Bye!" I need to get that on video. Such a sweet little voice.

Suzy is very into "recipes" right now. She enjoys picking up herbs from the garden and making various stews and other creations. Very fun.
Andy talking on the "phone" er, well,... ceiling fan remote...
Such a fun age. I'll post about our crazy tour up north last week soon. For now, George is over! Time to play!

Blue Bonnets 2010 Take One of hundreds

It's spring again in Austin! That means I will begin the month long torment of dragging my kids all over looking for the perfect Blue Bonnet photo. These were taken in my back yard yesterday.

Suzy, you are too cute! Granted, it was raining a bit... but that makes for good light, right? I love how my kids (and husband) tolerate me so....

If these "out takes" are any indication, it should be a very fun season for us. Ha!






I'm sure there will be many more to come. I'm also working on a big post of what we've been up to lately that we've been too busy to post! I love spring and the current ages of my kids. So much fun!

Happy Birthday Uncle Mike!

Suzy has been really excited about volcanos lately. So, when we hosted Uncle Mike's birthday party, it was fitting to make a volcano cake. Since I had no idea what that really was, we just did a white bunt cake died with black food coloring. I added a little chocolate pudding and I think it worked out just fine. :)
Mike is such an easy "target". He gives a good reaction with razzing. So, he's one of the people I enjoy teasing. He was thrilled when I brought out "the hat".
His mom and dad flew down from Chicago. I had never met them and they were super sweet.

Some of our other mutual friends were there and Katherine suggested that Mike try out our swing since he's lost something crazy like 50 lbs or something. I could not resist the photo opp.
He said I wasn't allowed to post it on Facebook. But, we all know I don't do Facebook. HA! We love you, Uncle Mike!

Photoshop

I spent an evening with the fabulous Erin from Pure Wonder. She was so sweet to just hang out with me and teach me some fun things in Photoshop. I like Erin. I like her for lots of reasons. I liked her when I first met her and found out that she was a special ed teacher who wanted to specialize in special needs photography. I smiled inside when I found out. I actually had the same thought when I bought my fancy camera a few years ago. Then, I realized how much work goes into being a professional photographer and I decided I better not quit my day job. :) My hope is that Erin will see how very cool I am and let me second shoot with her on occassion.

Here is my after shot using some of the techniques that Erin taught me. I lightened him up in the levels using just the middle triangle and masking out what I didn't want lightened. Then, I pulled the curves in a little, used Amy Rose's Taste the Ranibow, feel no pain dodging and burning, did an unsharp mask, and finished off with Cinnamon Rose clarity. Fun stuff!
Here is the SOOC file. (Straight Out Of Camera - I just feel very fancy using the big acronym. I won't tell you how long it took me to figure out that one. Ha!)