Our Week in Review 2014 ~ 10/5 - 10/11

I just discovered that my week numbers seem to be off, so in order to not drive myself crazy with trying to fix them, I'm just going with a more generic title for the remainder of 2014.  While the song "Let It Go" is running in my head and I take deep, cleansing breaths.  Don't sweat the small stuff, right?  :)

I'm still continuing with Fat Mum Slim's photo a day challenge.  Here is the list for October.  Easy peasy, right?  Not always.  But fun nonetheless.  I have decided that I may take a new picture or use an archived photo, depending on my schedule and my mood.  :)

{October 5:  E is for ...}

Evening sky.  I took this photo a few weeks ago. A gorgeous sunset after church one evening. This is basically SOOC - just some sharpening done.

After spending the day with my nephew who just got home from serving in Afghanistan (he's a Marine) and my sister (his mom) and my mom, I honestly didn't even think about picking up my camera to take a photo for today's prompt. We had such a nice day together. Talking and playing UNO, our card game of choice these days. (That way the kids can play too.) I probably should have taken some pictures, but I just didn't.

{October 6:  F is for ...}

Flower.  We had lots of sunflowers in our garden this year. They make me happy. I mean, who can look at a sunflower and NOT be happy?   :)

{October 7:  G is for ...}

Green frog.  Ribbit.  :)

{October 8:  H is for ...}

Hat.  Gobble gobble.  :)  While out shopping today I saw this turkey hat at Target and just couldn't pass it up. We have a crazy hat night coming up soon at church and I thought one of the boys would like to wear it. Alex volunteered to give it a try this afternoon.

{October 9:  I is for ...}

Inside ... a milkweed seed pod.

{October 10:  J is for ...}

Jagged.  This was a tough one. I had a long list of ideas and this wasn't even on my list. But it ended up being my favorite. Funny how that works. :)

{October 11:  K is for ...}

Kindness.  The boys and I went for a walk on a bike trail today. We saw lots of woolly bear caterpillars. Every time we came across one crawling its way across the trail, Nick would pick it up and carry it safely to the side so it wouldn't get stepped on or run over. He showed great kindness. My sweet boy.

Still busy with photo sessions and editing until my eyeballs are ready to bleed.  :)  It's a good thing.  Hoping to post some photos from recent sessions soon!  Thanks for stopping by!

Linking with Tamar:

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Week 37 in Photos

Another week done!  Another week full of painting my friend's house.  A week of vacation for my husband.  Another week filled with critters, busyness, and even some fun!

{Sunday}

Keira and I attended a butterfly release at a local conservancy that was pretty cool.  When we left, this adult swallowtail caterpillar came home with us.  A little girl had found him and gave him to us to raise.  Yay!  I'm so excited!

{Monday}

Monday evening rolled around (after a day full of painting) and I realized I hadn't photographed anything yet.  So I walked around outside and noticed the sunlight on our hibiscus bush.

{Tuesday}

Doug and I spent the day together.  We visited Living Treasures so I could finally see the baby leopards.  Then we went for a bike ride and out to lunch.  It was such a nice day.

{Wednesday}

Late Tuesday night I noticed our caterpillar making this harness.  His head was moving back and forth like he was sewing.  It was pretty cool.  I read up on it and this is his way of getting ready to pupate.  I was hoping to see him form his chrysalis but he was sneaky and did it while I was out of the house Thursday morning - after hanging like this for about 36 hours.

{Thursday}

My friend, Laura, who I've been helping paint, has two adorable kids, Jason and Liza.  I took them for a couple hours Thursday afternoon so the carpet cleaners could come to their new home.  Turns out they arrived early and were already done by the time I got there.  But I took the kids anyway.  We went to a park that was new to them and had a blast.  In these photos Jason is being a pirate and Liza is taking a break from playing.  When I dropped them off, both kids hugged me and Jason said, "Bye, Kim!  See you the next time you come get us to take us to the park!"  Oh boy, I think I'm in trouble.  :)

{Friday}

My husband knows how much I love critters, so when he saw this stick bug, he knew I'd want to take a picture or two (hundred) of it.  :)

{Saturday}

Nick and I went to a Monarch butterfly tagging program this afternoon and can you believe I didn't even take one picture?!  Instead I took this of one of our last sunflowers.

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Week 35 in Pictures

Here we are again ... another week has flown by.  The kids started school this week, so we are all adjusting to our new schedules.  I have my days to myself now that all three kids are in school all day this year.  It is taking some getting used to.  Although I haven't really been home long enough to get used to it as I've been helping my friend, Laura, clean her new house so they can paint before they move in.  It has been fun and I look forward to helping more this week.

I'm also excited about Bible study starting this week.  Some other things on this week's agenda include: getting my car fixed and hopefully inspected, our first PTO meeting of the school year, and our church's Fall Kickoff party.  Looks like another busy week!

{Sunday}

I am totally cheating on this photo.  (I don't know why I always feel obligated to confess.)  :)  This is from a few weeks ago.  Apparently I was all camera'd out from our fun weekend to even pick up the camera.  Anyway, this bee was keeping dry from the rain on one of our sunflowers this particular day.

{Monday}

The kids and I enjoyed a morning walk on the bike trail and came across this cool spider web.  I love how the sun brings out all those yummy colors!

{Tuesday}

We cheated a little and took back-to-school photos the evening before school started.  I figured that way we'd be less rushed and it would be less hectic.  I was pleasantly surprised by how well the kids cooperated.  :)  And since I have to be fair, I created a collage with all three kids in it.

{Wednesday}

On this day, the first day of school for my offspring, this handsome fellow decided to join us and emerge from his chrysalis.  He didn't emerge until the afternoon right before the kids got home from school.

{Thursday}

This sweet little thang emerged in the morning in the car on the way to Laura's house where I was going to help her clean.  Laura's new house has all these Morning Glories in the back, so I had a flower to put her on so I could keep busy with scrubbing walls and stuff.

{Friday}

Laura and her husband, Mike, and their two kids sitting on their new front porch.  This is their first home and I'm excited to be a part of it!

{Saturday}

I took this for the Scavenger Hunt prompt, toys.  We have plenty of LEGOs around our house these days.  It is interesting to see what kinds of things Nick builds.

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Color Me Weekly + Wordless Wednesday

I always enjoy participating in Rosie's Color Me Weekly.  It is fun to pull colors from your photo.  Sometimes I find myself pleasantly surprised.  This week I have to share more than just one photo.  Keep scrolling and you'll see why.

This photo was the original one I thought I'd share.  I just love all the different colors in and around our sunflowers.  (Just a note - capturing bees in mid-flight is HARD!  I took lots and lots of pictures and still didn't get what I wanted.)

But then this one happened ...

and I just couldn't decide.  I mean, how often do I get such a defined rainbow in my sun flare?!  Not exactly ROY G. BIV but close enough.

Then I had a few other random photos I wanted to share.  So often I share my photo of the day, which I sometimes have to pick between a few, and the others never get shown.  Here are a few that didn't make the cut this past week ...

I got to help this pretty lady out of some wet grass/weeds.  I was checking milkweed for Monarch caterpillars and she was nearby - perhaps laying some eggs?  I get excited when I can capture a photo of a Monarch butterfly that I didn't raise.  I guess because it is more challenging when they could fly away at any moment as opposed to the ones whose wings are still wet.  :)

Often I try to capture a good photo of our dog, Honey.  But she refuses to look at the camera when it is in front of my face.  Perhaps since she can't see my face?  Anyway, she was looking at something just beyond me and was almost looking at me this time.  Not a spectacular photo, but she's such a pretty dog, don't you think?

I told you before that Keira is taking an online photography class for kids this month.  This is how we see her much of the time now.  We were practicing bird's eye view vs. worm's eye view this particular day.  She's really enjoying the class and I am actually starting to appear in a photo every once in a while.  :)

      

We have one more week before school starts on August 29.  So expect to see some back to school photos soon.  :)

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Week 33 in Pictures

We squeezed in quite a bit of fun last week.  Bike rides, a movie, catching crayfish and playing at a playground, hiking in a local state park, and hanging out with friends ... just to name a few.  Despite all that, my youngest said he didn't have any fun at all.  So because of that, I left the kids at home on Friday and went alone to a local animal park to see some new baby leopards that were born at the beginning of July.  A friend met me there and we had a good time chatting and stalking the leopards.  Saturday Doug and I went out to dinner.  We haven't had a dinner date in many months and we can't have lunch dates anymore since he's working steady daylight now, so that was a nice change.  Having a daughter old enough to babysit the boys is proving to be quite valuable.  :)

We have a few more fun things planned for the kids this week - the last full week before school starts.  The kids don't know a couple places we plan to go so you'll have to wait until next week to find out too.  :)

In the meantime let's look at what last week looked like ...

{Sunday}

These flowers are growing along the bike trail.

{Monday}

I realized that in all this time we've been raising Monarchs, I had never taken a photo of an egg.  So here it is - with all my macro filters on my lens (1, 2, 4, and 10x magnification).  This one is almost ready to hatch.  See how it is dark on the end?  That's how you know.  It hatched around 10:00 p.m.

{Tuesday}

This is one of the hummingbirds that has been visiting my feeder this summer.  The yellow jackets started coming around though and scared the hummies away.  :(

{Wednesday}

The kids and I went hiking at a local state park where Keira asked me to take some pictures of her.  We'll have to go up with nicer clothes on some time and intentionally take portraits.  (Processed with Pioneer Woman's Soft Faded action).

{Thursday}

I took this photo for Sunday's Scavenger Hunt ... one of my sunflowers glowing in the morning light.

{Friday}

Like I wrote, after all the fun stuff we did this week, Alex told me Thursday evening that he "didn't have any fun at all this week".  So in honor of that, I spent a few hours out all by myself.  I met a friend at Living Treasures so we could stalk the leopards and see the two new babies that were recently born.  However, it was raining and the babies never came out.  :(  This is their dad looking ready to pounce.

{Saturday}

We finally got to have a camp fire and s'mores with the kids.

Submitting this last one for Shoot. Edit. Submit.
   

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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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