This and That

My days have been filled with shooting, editing, and butterfly rearing lately.  God has really blessed me in those areas which has left little time for blogging.  But I thought I'd pop in for a moment to share a few pics.  Okay, maybe more than a few.  :)

August consisted of:

A lot of this ...

And this ...

And this ...

And lots of this ...

And let's not forget my lovely assistant on several occasions ...

But August wasn't ALL work.  We did squeeze some family fun in too.

We spent a day at Idlewild.  Nick is missing from this pic because he refuses to ride the Loggin' Toboggin.  :)

We visited our local farm show and the kids rode some more.

The kids and I visited a new-to-us state park.  We hiked and swam and explored.  It was a great day!

Keira and I finally donated our hair.  We each got 10 inches chopped off!

The kids went back to school on August 27.  I will share their back-to-school photos another time.  You're welcome.  :)

Then September came.  Which brought with it this beautiful baby girl ...



And these lovely teens ...


And most recently, this polite young man ...


I have four more sessions scheduled this month.  On top of planning a 16th birthday party, helping with children's ministries, and PTO.  And let's not forget homework with the kids, the never-ending piles of laundry, keeping the house somewhat presentable, trying to spend at least 5 minutes here and there with my sweet husband, and making dinner most nights.  Why is it my kids think they need to eat supper every. single. day?!  

I think maybe I'll sleep next year.  :)

Despite all that, we are trying to squeeze in at least a little fun this month.

Alex was excited to be old enough for the Young Eagles plane rides this year.  He looks so small in that plane!


The kids have next Friday off of school, so we are hoping for nice weather so we can do some more hiking/exploring at a nearby park.

We also had more of this ...

Let me know if you see her (or any of the others I have tagged - TLA 175 - 183 so far).


My last caterpillar got into its J form yesterday ...

And went into chrysalis today - shortly after this handsome male emerged from his chrysalis.


I'm sad to see this year end, but it has been a remarkable year!  If the last four make it to adulthood, I will have raised 156 Monarchs this year!  WOW!  156 miracles happened right here in my office over the past 3 months!  Praise God!  Planning for an even better year next year, God willing!

Lastly, Keira is taking a photography/graphics art class this year as an elective (which makes this mama very happy) and needed to create a collage.  She chose to do a butterfly collage.


Isn't it spectacular?!  All of the photos are mine except for the white dots around the edges.  Apparently I don't have any photos of white butterflies.  :)  The only requirement for the project was that she included at least one photo of herself.

The template was cut out using the Silhouette machine - each wing section is about 10 inches.  She cut each photo out and placed it all on a black foam board.  Once it was all stuck down, she cut around it with an exacto knife.  Needless to say her teacher was impressed.  :)

Well, I need to get back to editing.  I hope to blog more about each session and my Monarch journey this summer soon.  Hope you are having a great day!

Linking with Kim today ...

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2013 Farm Show

Every year we visit our local farm show.  The kids look forward to it all year.  Seeing the animals, photos, and crafts.  Riding some rides.  Eating a funnel cake (or two) :).  This year Alex and Nick even entered some artwork into the farm show for judging.  And if you saw yesterday's Scavenger Hunt post, you saw that Alex won a second place ribbon and now has three bucks in his pocket!  Nick, who is disappointed that he didn't win, is already planning at least one of his entries for next year.

Here are a few photos of our fun ...

Alex tries to pet as many of the animals as he can.  Even if they are tricky to get to - like this cow.

Keira making friends with a calf.

While Doug, Nick, and I were waiting for Keira and Alex to ride the Fire Ball, this guy made his way over the Farm Show grounds.  I guess he was checking things out from above.  (Textured with Kim Klassen's Isobel).

We actually went twice this year.  Monday evening and Saturday afternoon.  Doug and I got in free on Monday, which left some money left in the budget for some more fun.  And Keira got in free on Saturday since she was going with a friend who had free tickets.  Gotta love free tickets!

Alex talked me into riding something called the Orbiter with him.  They should call it the Vomiter because that's what I felt like doing when riding it.  :)  When we got off, I needed to lay down for a while.  Or at least sit, which I did while the kids rode something else.  I guess I'm getting too old to be riding stuff like that.  Give me a roller coaster over something that spins any day!  :)

Alex was checking out the cars from Erasers.

We even got some BOGO tickets to use there!  I think we will use them this week.

Alex, Chelsea (Keira's friend), and I rode the carousel together.  Well, we tried to ride the carousel.  It went around one time and sort of died.  So we decided that was a good time to look around a little more and head home.  We were all pretty tired by then anyway.

You may be wondering why there are more pictures of Alex than anyone else.  It is because he is the most cooperative one when it comes to pictures.  He often asks me to take his picture while Nick avoids me like the plague.  Keira is hit or miss.  :)

Nick won a goldfish at one of the games.  He had found $12 on the ground right after we got there.  (There was no one near where he found the money - otherwise we would have tried to find the owner).  He used ten of it trying to win a Despicable Me minion (fail!).  Another dollar to win this goldfish, which sadly died today.  And another to buy the light saber in his other hand.

On the way to the car I noticed the sun streaming through the clouds so I had to stop and take a picture.

I entered some photos into the Farm Show and this one won a 3rd place ribbon!  So now I have one of each color hanging on my wall - blue, red, and white.  :)

We had a good time at the Farm Show and look forward to next year!

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 08.11.13

I almost didn't participate this week because I've had a headache for a few days now that just won't go away.  Too much Farm Show activity, I guess.  But I managed to get all the prompts, so ...

{family}

This small family of fawns (and their mama) have been frequenting our neighbor's pear tree lately.  We have spotted them snacking several times this week alone.

{grass}

After the rain the other day the sun shone brightly.  So I ventured out to capture some sparkles on the wet grass.

{silly}

At the Farm Show this week we met up with a friend of Keira's, Krista.  Krista was nice enough to ride the Tilt-a-Whirl with Nick and Alex.  And they all got silly together while I was taking their picture.

{half}

This little toad that Nick found was no bigger than a half an inch long.  He was crawling up Nick's arm while I tried to take his picture.

{bow}

Bow as in cow?  Or bow as in tow?  That was the question this week.  :)  Read on to see which I chose.
Alex got to take a bow this week after winning a second place ribbon in the farm show with his "Marine Train" painting.  This painting took him all of 5 minutes to create a month or so ago.  He made it not even thinking of entering it into the farm show.  But since he did and won a ribbon, he also got a check for $3.00.  Sweet!

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you make this week a great one!

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 08.19.12

Time again for Scavenger Hunt Sunday.  I'm a little late getting this up.  I usually like to have my photos done and posted on Saturday night.  But we've been doing lots of running this week, trying to squeeze in as much fun as possible before school starts on the 29th.  So I didn't even take two photos until today.  I needed Keira's help with one and we just couldn't seem to find a good time to make it work until today.

Anyway, on to this week's hunt ...

{forest}

One of the fun things we did this week was hike through this forest.  The kids had fun exploring and were wiped out when we got home.

{morning light}

This sunflower looked so pretty in the morning light.

{touch}

My kids aren't afraid to touch most anything ... including this little garter snake.  You can tell by that filthy hand that Nick was having a good time.  :)

{newspaper}

My name just happened to appear in this week's newspaper.  How convenient is that?!  :)  The results from the local farm show photo contest were published.  I got a blue ribbon in the "one person B&W" category for this photo of my niece.  (One of the photos I took today since a friend was bringing the newspaper to church this morning.)

{coffee or tea}

Gotta love a cold glass of iced tea on a hot summer day while sitting by the pool.  (The other photo I took today with Keira's help.  She was my official "ice cube dropper".  :))

That's it for me.  Doug and I are going to head out this afternoon for a bike ride with or without the kids.  Haven't decided yet.  :)

Be sure to head over to Ashley's to see more great Scavenger Hunt photos.  And if you'd like to play along for next week, the items to search for are:

1. School
2. Rule of Thirds
3. Side Profile
4. Small
5. Motion

Have a great week!  We'll be squeezing in some more fun this week, so I probably won't be around much.  But thank you for stopping by!

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Week 32 in Pictures

Last week consisted of the start of Keira's online photography class, PTO meetings at Panera (yum!), fun times at a local farm show, follow up visits with Alex's surgeon (at least the second one), a fun day spent at a local lake, finding a few more Monarch caterpillars to raise into butterflies, and a visit from Grammy.  In addition to some back-to-school shopping with the kids.  Yikes!  Who knew that picking out a new backpack would be such a big deal?!  :)  But we did really well and even came in under budget, which always makes Daddy happy.  Plus we even squeezed in a family fishing outing on Saturday when the weather was cool and breezy instead of scorching hot and humid like it had been.

This week we have less planned but that doesn't mean we won't still try to do some fun things.  Like nature walks and photo shoots and bike rides, just to name a few.  Just over two weeks until school starts.  Not that I'm counting down or anything.  :)  Let's just say some days are better than others.

Anyway, let's take a look at last week's photos ...

{Sunday}

Honey and I came home from a walk to find these deer in our neighbor's yard.

{Monday}

Fun at the Farm Show.

{Tuesday}

We went to a local park to cool off in the creek and look for crayfish.  The boys decided to be brave and walk through the tunnel.

{Wednesday}

While at the lake this dragonfly was nice enough to stay still and pose for me.

{Thursday}

I planted some gladiolus, liatris, and dahlia bulbs earlier this year.  The dahlias are finally starting to bloom.  (Kim Klassen's Zuzu & Trust textures used.)

{Friday}

The bees and butterflies LOVE the liatris flowers.

{Saturday}

We came home from the lake on Wednesday with three Monarch caterpillars - one big guy (this one) and two smaller ones.  I wanted to be sure and get a few photos of the caterpillars (instead of always focusing on the butterflies) so I put this guy on some milkweed and had a little shoot.  :)  As of this afternoon, he is in chrysalis.  Yay!

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