Kelly, Aksel and Maddox...oh my.

I love having a friend who is a school teacher! She gets the summer off and so we get to have more time together...we don't necesarily see each other more often, but our time together is longer, and includes the kids, which is fun.

Kelly came down for a nice, hot day last week and we just relaxed and sat outside. The kids played on the waterslide, but I don't have pics of that because we were relaxing, remember? Anyway, it is fun to have that time together, even if we are busy bouncing, feeding, and policing children.

My first real commerical work...

I'm not a stresser, but this job kind of stressed me. I worked over and over on these images and after shooting this, I knew I wanted to invest in some lighting (starting with my fantastic new flash) and a new camera (love it) and it prompted me to buy some monitor calibration software/hardware...I just wanted it to be right.

Anyway, it is fun to see my images on Kate Quinn Organics' website here. The images of the cribs are the ones I took. What fun fabric designs! I can say from handling the product that the fabric is very soft and the colors all look neat paired together. I really love the quilt. If I were having a baby (I WISH) I would spring for the red and orange fabric. I love it.

Earthquakes...

I was traumatized when I was 13 by a documentary about earthquakes, and how the Pacific Northwest is way over due for a "big one". I used to sleep between my mattress and box spring because there were shelves on top of my dressers that weren't secured to my dresser, and I knew they would fall on me.

Anyway, so when this link came to me today from a fellow homeschooler, it wasn't that welcome.
You can look at the whole world, just the US and even your little neck of the woods...Boise or Kelowna are looking really good right now.

Farmer's Farm Market...

Ruby was our waitress. She is wearing an apron made for me by my cousin Trina a loooooong time ago. Anyway, if you knew all of Ruby's faces, you'd know that she is beyond thrilled with her little restaurant. I love the tape all over the tablecloth (which is a removable door from their little pop up tent thing)...my kids thing that tape is a sure thing...it can hold all things together.

Anyway, Alice was busy in the kitchen in her room, and I didn't get pictures of that...guests aren't supposed to go into the kitchen!

Everything at Farmer's Farm Market was free!!! What a great deal! Here's the menu, which is pretty impressive. It is hard to post this as Ruby's "teacher" because I feel like I have spent the past year grilling her on lowercase letters and making her practice writing them, and she STILL USES ALL UPPERCASE!

Anyway, from left to right or clockwise...the menu says, "salids", "pitsys", "noodls", and "samichis" and "soup" (my favorite because that is what we all call them at our house). She sounded it all out by herself, we didn't know anything about their idea until it was time to dine. Boy did Alice cook up some nice things for us to enjoy.

32

I turned 32 in May. May 18th to be exact. It was my first birthday on facebook, and wow...you sure do get some lovin' on facebook for your birthday!

Anyway, I had a nice birthday. No big hoopla, but really nice times with all my local, available people. Just want you want.

I got together with my old friends from the growing up years. We always go out, but this year, we stayed in and made dinner (we do that almost better than we do the going out thing in recent years) and talked and listened to good music. It was a nice, relaxing night. We did that a week early because of schedules...so it was mother's day weekend.


Ruby was super sweet on my birthday. She woke me up and was already dressed. She said, "mom, I put on your favorite clothes!" She was right, I love this little tank, it was darling of her to do that for me. Then she said, "Let's have a special pancake breakfast for your birthday!" I reminded her that mommy isn't eating pancakes, and she said, "that's okay, you can make them for me and Alice!" What a good point. Pancakes it is.

My actual birthday was on a Monday, so I was so flattered that my mom, dad, brother Braden and sister-in-law Amanda and nephew Mason all came down to be with me! It was a really nice day, and Ruby is obsessed with riding bikes, so we decided to take all the bikes and a bike trailer to the park. We can ride there from the house, so Ruby and Alice got to ride over behind Opa in the trailer, which they loved.

Anyway, we just relaxed on the grass, played Blokus, took turns riding bikes around the little lake with Ruby and I even dozed off for awhile...me?? Then we went back to my house for some classic, Rebecca's favorite, taco salad. Mmmmmmmm.

Oma and Ruby with Alice in tow.

Braden, Ruby and Opa off on a loop around the lake.

Amanda, Opa and Alice

This picture is funny because you can tell that Alice is very uncertain about that little one next to her. Just now, while looking at the pic with me, she nervously said, "He was putting his foot on my leg!" She needs a baby.

I got a few new photography toys for my birthday. I'm not posting specifics, because I'm paranoid about robbery. All I can say is that digital slr cameras do lose their edge after being used thoroughly for so many years, and these pics totally tell that story. I just didn't get the saturation from my images, even with the sat turned up. The green in all of these pics is lack lustre, and in person...wow...nothing but gorgeous, succulent green-ness. Anyway, I'm very pleased with my purchases and having fun playing with them. You might even be able to tell in a post one of these days.

summer nights...

I love having a backyard. I love having friends over to BBQ and relax and stay late, it's one of the best parts of summer...or spring.

Prize Winners...

Lately my girls are so in love with each other that they are really into making awards for each other. The idea was Ruby's, she went into the office and went to work. She made an award with #1 (backward one) on it. Then she made two word strips, one said, "awesome" and one said, "perfect" and she taped them all onto Alice's clothes. I didn't get pics that day, but thankfully Ruby did it again today and I got a picture of two of Alice's awards. They look like flowers, but they are meant to look like first prize ribbons, with the round, gathered tops and the card stock circle in the middle with ribbon hanging down. I have to say that lately they are just really getting along well, and I feel that heart-jumping-out-of-my-chest feeling a lot. It's nice.

Ruby's 1/2 book recital...

Ruby has worked so hard at playing the piano, and Joanie, "Mrs. Steck" is all set up to recognize that kind of hard work. Ruby had her 1/2 book recital last week, she was the only performer and had a little audience there just for her. We enjoyed two years of effort in about ten minutes, and Ruby was thrilled to recieve her coveted Clara Schumann bust for her trophy. It is so fun to see your kids just beaming, and she WAS beaming!

I put together the above invite by using Rhonna Farrer's "Magic Rainbow" kit offered for free at www.twopeasinabucket.com.

Ruby told me a little bit about each song, and I recorded her thoughts here in the program. (She wanted me to write "Grandma" instead of "Oma", so she must be aware now that we have a May birthdy!Thanks to fellow piano student Parker and his mom (my friend) Julie for coming to support Ruby! If they hadn't come, it would have been just me, my mom, Chris and Alice.

I won!!!!

I haven't entered many blog giveaways, but I did for this one, because I love this company and the beanies they sell. My friend and former roommate Jennifer Anderson features these beanies on her photography website, and I've always loved them, so I was excited about this giveaway.

My other friend Leah, was doing the giveaway (well technically Portland Beanie Company was doing the giving away) on her blog and I won!

I picked the hat in this picture. The little girl in the picture just so happens to be the little darling of Jennifer, mentioned above.

picnics...

Anytime that I make food for my kids and let them eat it outside, I get first prize in their book. We do it a lot. It's so simple, and makes them soooooo happy.