Scavenger Hunt Sunday 05.25.14

Hello!  Happy Memorial Day weekend!  We are having some gorgeous weather here (finally!) and are probably outside enjoying it right now.  :)  Gotta get some sun on this white skin before we go to the beach next month!  You are here to see my Scavenger Hunt finds, I'm sure, so I'll get right to them ...

{where I stand}

Or where I stood, rather.  In this case, on the top of a parking garage.  After Keira's school concert Thursday evening, we noticed how pretty the sky was, so we headed to the closest parking garage, went all the way to the top, risked our lives by standing near the edge (not really, but it felt that way), and took some silhouettes.

{pink}

A dogwood tree ... pretty in pink.

{technology}

Thanks to technology I am able to add quotes to my favorite photos and share them with my friends with just a few clicks.

{something new}

Something new to our neighborhood is this sweet little foal.  He was born on Sunday, May 18, and caused quite a fuss around here.  I guess traffic was stopped - folks trying to get a glimpse at the new baby.  He is pretty cute.  I want one!  But since I have nowhere to keep one, I'll just have to hang out with this guy.  :)

{favorite place}

I took this photo at one of my favorite places to do photo sessions.  In fact, I just had a session there on Saturday morning.  Sneak peeks coming soon!

Be sure to go visit Ashley for more great SHS finds!  Have a great week!

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 05.11.14

Hello!  And welcome to another Scavenger Hunt Sunday!  Spring has finally arrived here in western Pennsylvania!  In fact, we had a day of summer-like temps this week with more on the way, if the weather folks are correct.  No complaining from me!  I'll take it!  Just wish we had a little more sunshine and a little less rain.  Though I guess there are other parts of the country that are feeling just the opposite.  Strange how it works that way.

Anyway, let's get to this week's finds ...

{details}

A friend of Keira's created this beautiful drawing of her.  It is Keira in fairy form.  I just love all the details!  She obviously took her time drawing this and is very talented.

{precious}

My babies are so precious to me!  Even though Alex is a little out of focus.  :/

{hungry}

I watched some hungry birds hanging around my feeder this week.  I didn't notice the one hanging upside down until I went to edit this photo, then I wished I had lowered my aperture a little so both birds would be in focus.  Oh well.

{water}

Water on a dandelion fluff always looks so cool.

{wide angle}

Two different views of the same tree - one wide angle, one close(r) up.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day, whether you are celebrating your mom or being a mom yourself!

Be sure to visit Ashley for more great Scavenger Hunt finds!

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Blossoming Trees

It has been a busy, exhausting week.  I won't bore you with the details but suffice it to say that I need a good night's sleep and some down time.  I opted out of several opportunities to go out with friends this evening and instead stayed home with my boys.  We wandered around out in the yard and in our neighbor's woods admiring God's beauty.  The newness of life that is all around us this spring.  There is so much to be thankful for.  And getting outside in the fresh air is a great way to be reminded of that.

These are just a few of the beautiful things we found.

The fresh air did my body, mind, and soul some good.  And the boys and I created some memories together.  I hope they will always remember walks in the woods with me.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

If you would like to check out the giveaway I am hosting for an adorable children's book about the story of Jonah from the whale's point of view, here's the link ... Hey God, I've got some guy named Jonah in my stomach and I think I'm going to throw up!  The last day to enter is Sunday and the winner will be randomly chosen and announced on Monday.  Thanks!

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 04.07.13

Hello!  We are finally seeing signs of spring around here.  Sunshine and warmer temps.  Although it is still pretty cold at night.  Flowers and trees are beginning to awaken from their hibernation.  The kids are able to spend more time outside without being all bundled up.  I love it!

This week's Scavenger Hunt items are Outside, Chatterbox, Comfort, In the kitchen, and Trees.  And here are my interpretations ...

{outside}

Honey and I were walking around outside looking for signs of spring.  Well, I was.  She was probably looking for a squirrel to chase.  :)  I found some buds on the lilac bushes.  Yay!  I textured this with a photo I took of the seaweed in our neighbor's pond.  I turned the opacity down quite a bit.  If you are a texture junkie like I am and would like to download the photo, you can do so from my Flickr account.  Just right click on the photo, choose a size to view and once it takes you to that view, you can download.  I just ask that you give proper credit when you use it.  Thanks!  Here's the link:  Seaweed texture

{chatterbox}

This House Finch was singing outside my window.  Not while I was taking his picture, of course.  :)

{comfort}

Alex wasn't feeling well on Tuesday so he stayed home and spent the day in his jammies.  He looked pretty comfortable while watching a movie.

{in the kitchen}

In this case, in the freezer in my kitchen.  You just never know what you might find some days.  Apparently Alex was upset because we didn't have any frozen GoGurt, so he decided to make his own.  :)

{trees}

Our trees are still pretty bare but the blue sky yesterday was gorgeous.  Barely a cloud in the sky!  We're all so glad to be able to get outside more!

Well, that's it for me.  Hope you have a great week!  

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Project 52 - Week 5

I've started writing this blog post several times now and each time it sounds depressing since I'm not feeling well today.  I think I'm getting a cold, which isn't surprising considering a certain little someone has been coughing on me for the last week and a half.

So I'll just post a couple pics from last week and call it good.  :)

At the end of a very gray and gloomy day the sun came out and made the fog glow.

After a very competitive game of Scrabble Jr. -- which Alex is getting better at, I might add -- he got a little silly.  He wanted me to take a picture of him with the game and this is what he chose to do.

Other than these pictures and a few I took at Saturday morning soccer, I really didn't pick up my camera last week.  Still feeling uninspired, I guess.  We'll see what this week brings.  Hoping it's a good one!

Linking with Gina and Tamar's Project 52.

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Week 36 in Pictures

I'm a little late posting my weekly photos.  I could tell you a hundred thousand reasons why, but I'm tired and really want to go to bed now, so I'll just post them.  :)

{Sunday}

I have no idea what these berries are, or if they are even berries, but I was intrigued by them.

{Monday}

Our tradition of going to the Labor Day parade then hanging out at my in-laws didn't happen this year.  The parade was moved to Sunday (no idea why), so we just stayed close to home, except for a ride on the bike trail where we came across this cat.  Turns out she was a mama feeding her kittens and wasn't too happy about me bothering her.  So I just snapped a few photos (with my telephoto lens) and left her alone.

{Tuesday}

I won this basket at our Bible study kickoff party this morning!

{Wednesday}

Nick and I walked down the road to gather milkweed leaves for our hungry Monarch caterpillars and happened upon this handsome fella.  He was newly emerged from his chrysalis so we brought him home to hang out with us for a while.  Alex was having fun with him crawling all over him.

{Thursday}

This beautiful lady has a sad story.  She emerged while I was gone for the day.  I set her free as soon as I got home and she flew over to rest on my snowball bush where I took a few photos of her.  When the boys got home from school, she tried to fly across the road and got caught up in the draft from the cars going by and got hit by a car right in front of us.  I wanted to cry!

{Friday}

These Monarchs all have happier endings!  We had a female and two males emerge today.  The female joined us in the morning while I was still home.  Thankfully I still had one little bloom on my butterfly bush to put her on.  The males came later so I took the containers they were in to my friend, Laura's.  She chuckled when I walked in the door and announced, "We're expecting!"  :)  I placed them both on her Morning Glories.

{Saturday}

Nick was so excited to catch this frog.  Even if only for a moment.

Have a great week!

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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 20 in Pictures

Another week gone!  I can't believe Memorial Day is in a week!  And that the kids will be done with school soon!  This past week kept me pretty busy.  I helped with our church's Ladies' Luncheon, which was Saturday.  It went pretty well considering we decided to throw it together just about a month ago.  :)  We will get started planning earlier next year.  


I also had my first official photo shoot with a sweet almost two-year-old.  It was fun following him around, seeing the world through his eyes.  I still have to finish up editing the photos, but the few I showed his mom made her very happy.

Anyway, let's see what the week looked like in pictures ...

{Sunday}

The kids each made me something special for Mother's Day.  Alex gave me this hand print he made at school.  Nick made a flower vase.  And Keira made me a couple bead necklaces.  And Doug bought me two new tires for my van.  He's so romantic.  :)  Actually we went out for lunch to my favorite restaurant on Thursday since he unexpectedly had the day off.  Then we shopped for flowers for my flower bed.  And I got a hanging pot of Petunias.

{Monday}

While at church on Sunday our Pastor told those lingering around afterward that we could take some flowers from the funeral arrangements.  His father-in-law's funeral was Saturday and there were several arrangements left there.  Keira was glad to pick through them and give me a bouquet for Mother's Day.  :)  This beautiful lily was among those she picked.

{Tuesday}

Woke up to thick fog that lifted pretty quickly once the sun came out.

{Wednesday}

Alex and I went to our church to get the flower beds ready for planting.  While there he wanted to walk over to the neighbor's and see the horses.

{Thursday}

I had a photo shoot with a sweet almost-two-year-old boy.  More photos coming soon.

{Friday}

Capturing some sun flare through my purple Lupine flowers.

{Saturday}

Our Ladies' Luncheon was today.  Everything went very well and now I can relax.  After the luncheon my mother-in-law, Sue, and Keira wanted their photo taken in front of the stone part of our church.  I love how they chose to look at each other instead of at me.  And I also love that Keira is almost as tall as my MIL, who is about 5' 9".  Okay, maybe I don't really love that so much since that means my girl is growing up.  But it is cool that they are almost eye to eye.

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 05.20.12

This week's items are Rainbow, Fluffy, Letters, Metal, and Tree(s).  And here are my interpretations ...

{rainbow}It's too bad we didn't have this prompt last week because we had two double rainbows in the sky the week of May 6th and none this week.  At least none that I saw.  So instead I'm loosely interpreting the colorful sun flare in this photo as rainbowish.  :)
{fluffy}We had our church's ladies' luncheon yesterday at which we set up a photo booth where I took pictures of the ladies that came.  The only catch was that we had photo booth props (silly glasses, mustaches, masks) for them to use during their photo shoot.  Some opted not to play along but most of the ladies thought it was a great idea.  I didn't get my picture taken at the luncheon, so I did a rare selfie at home.  And thought I'd be a little silly with the glasses with the fluffy eyebrows and mustache.
{letters}I like to remember the kids' handwriting so I decided to have them write their name a few times during the school year.  This also helps them see how much progress they are making in their writing.
{metal}This photo is actually from a couple weeks ago at my niece Jordan's birthday party.  This is her baby sister, Christy, playing on the playground where there were metal climbing bars.  She didn't stay still for long so it was a challenge to get photos of her.  And she's so unlike her sister in regards to getting her picture taken.  Jordan is very photogenic and loves to pose.  Christy always gives me this look like I'm interrupting whatever she's doing.  :)
{tree(s)}If you've been around here a while, you should recognize this tree.  It is my neighbor's tree and I absolutely love it.  It has so much character.  I captured it one morning this past week when it was terribly foggy.
Well, that's it for me.  Be sure to head over to Ashley's for more great photos.  And if you'd like to play along for next week, here's what to hunt for ...

1. Beneath Your Feet
2. Capturing Movement
3. Texture
4. Face Your Fears
5. Currently

Have a great week!

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