Weekly Summary ~ 3/8/15 - 3/14/15

The first day of spring is on Friday!  Can you believe it?!  I'm so excited!  Although I do have to admit that the weather this past week felt like spring some days.  And today the high is supposed to be around 60 degrees, which is why I'm visiting the zoo.  Well, that's not the only reason.  We are having a new furnace installed today since the old one died a couple weeks ago and I didn't want to be home to listen to all that noise.  :)  Doug took a vacation day and will be working on the bathroom remodel some more.  More noise.  Sounded like a good excuse to visit the zoo.  Besides, I haven't been there in a while.

Anyway, hopefully I will have some good zoo pictures to share with you soon.

Speaking of pictures, here are last week's photo a day pictures ...

{March 8:  Young}

I honestly don't know whether the little bird is young or old, but he was nice enough to be still while I took his picture so I thought I'd share it.

{March 9:  Make}

Keira has been making herself a hat. She thinks she might be done with it in time for next winter.  :)

{March 10:  Floral}

Cheery tulips to brighten your day.

{March 11:  Happy Place}

Alex asked if he could use one of our upstairs dormers for his "office". He calls it his new happy place.

{March 12:  Details}

The details in Gerber daisies are amazing to me.

{March 13:  Color}

I bought this jumbo-sized pinwheel a couple weeks ago while out shopping to add some color to our colorless, wintry life. :) Spring arrives a week from today and I don't think I have ever been more excited about a change of season.

{March 14:  Favorite}

I have probably shared this photo before, but it is my favorite photo of a Monarch butterfly. I can't wait for butterfly season to start!  :)

Linking with Tamar:

My usual rundown - feel free to skip this part.  It is more for me anyway.  :)
Sunday - daylight savings time.  Ugh.  'Nuf said.
Seriously though, I went to bed an hour or so earlier in anticipation of losing an hour of sleep and just laid there tossing and turning and wondering why I didn't just go ahead and watch another episode of Parenthood on Netflix.  :)
Monday was quiet.  Doug had to go work on his plant and spent the night.  Came home Tuesday.
Tuesday morning I met my friend, Sam, at my church and we walked for a bit.  She drives school bus and wants to start walking after her morning route.  We only walked together that one day last week but plan to walk more this week.  Honey came too and was a wet, muddy mess when we were done.  :)
Wednesday I walked by myself.   I love being able to start walking outside again!
Thursday after dropping Keira at worship practice I walked again.  Alex brought his bike and rode around the parking lot.
Ditto on Friday.  Honey came this time and was even messier than last time.  One of the bad things about spring - muddy dogs.
Saturday morning was soccer.  Alex scored his first goal.  Ever.  Except he scored it for the other team.  :/  He was right in front of his team's goal and went to kick the ball and it went backwards instead of forward.  We laughed and laughed about it.  He wasn't upset.  It was a good game though.  It ended in a tie.  The one boy on his team was being a jerk again.  Not just to Alex but to a couple other kids as well.  He's one of those kids that gets mad if someone messes up.  Must be tough to be so perfect.  (That's the Mama Bear in me coming out).  :)
Saturday was gross and rainy so after stopping at the grocery store after soccer, we came home and stayed there.  I made chicken noodle soup for supper.  We rented Maleficent from Redbox and relaxed.  Oh, that was after I did my sister's taxes.  They were pretty quick and easy.  Not at all what ours our like.  Which I still need to do.  Hoping to check that off my list this week or next.

Tweet

Critters!

My kids are always finding some kind of bug or toad or whatever.  I love that they love nature, though sometimes I wish they would just leave nature where it is.  :)  Here is just a sampling of what has been discovered so far ...

a painted turtle ...

a couple of non-venomous snakes (they did leave these guys alone) ...

a little red squirrel that gave them a run for their money and then when they weren't around came right up to me ... :)

baby toads!  this is just one of 20 that Nick caught ...

snails ...

You probably saw this photo already, but I just love it, so I'm sharing it again.  I talked Nick into helping me with this shot.  It took everything he had in him to keep his eyes open while the snail slimed on his face.  :)

a millipede ...

a lastly, a crayfish.

This doesn't include all the crabs the kids caught while we were at the beach.  Or any of the other things that they caught that I wasn't around to photograph.  :)

I believe Nick is the one who caught all of these critters initially.  Then he shared them with the rest of us.  :)  That boy has good eyesight!  I was with him when he spotted one of the snails.  I never would have seen it if not for him.

I'm curious to see what the rest of the summer will look like if this is what he's found already!

Tweet

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 06.22.14

Hello!  This week's Scavenger Hunt is brought to you from home.  All the pictures, however, are from our vacation since that is where I took all my pics last week.  We are glad to be home, but I look forward to going to the beach/ocean again soon!

{unplugged}

The kids' first experience with the ocean proved to them that they can have fun being unplugged from their electronics.  (I thought this photo could also be used for unleashed).  :)

{unassuming}

If you have been around the blogosphere for a while, you have probably heard of Melissa Bliss Photography.  I have been a fan for a while so was super excited to get to meet her in person while on vacation.  We asked her come take family photos of us on the beach.  After looking up the definition of unassuming (modest; lacking in arrogance; pleasant or polite), she definitely fits this prompt.  She was such a delight!  Keira took this photo of us after our photo session.  (Look at all my freckles!  Yikes!)  I can't wait to share our photos with you!

{unleashed}

Keira was eventually unleashed from her captivity.  :)  
This display was at the Virginia Zoo and, despite the heat, we couldn't pass up the photo op.

{unapproachable}

The crabs on the beach were pretty unapproachable.  They would scurry into their holes as we got near them.  However, the kids were quick enough a few times to catch some.  We always let them go though.

{unaware}

Doug was unaware that Alex was mimicking his every move one morning while walking on the beach collecting shells.  It was fun to watch.

So that was just a taste of our week.  I'll be sharing more vacation pics as I get them processed.  I took a gazillion photos!  Some with my DSLR, some with Doug's waterproof pocket camera.  (The first and last two in this post were taken with his little Fuji.  It does a pretty good job.)  Be sure to head over to visit our host, Ashley, to see more great Scavenger Hunt finds!

Have a great week!

Tweet

Our 22nd Week ~ 2014

Another week bites the dust! 5 1/2 more days of school left!  And 11 days until we leave for vacation!  WOOT!

I'm still chugging along with the photo a day challenge from Fat Mum Slim.  Though it seems I used several archived photos this week.  Oh well, that's the beauty of the challenge ... archived photos are permitted, especially when things get busy.  :)

{May 27 - Meal}

Nick could make a meal out of watermelon if I would allow him.  We have been enjoying the watermelon lately.  The ones we have bought have been so sweet and juicy!  But I wonder how they will keep growing watermelons if they keep growing seedless ones.  Won't they eventually run out of seeds?  These are the things that clog up my brain.  :)

{May 29 - Negative Space}
  
(Okay, it seems as though my "negative space" photo is taking this literally and not showing up.  If you can't see it, I apologize.  I have tried multiple times.  :/ )
I asked Alex to help me with this prompt since Nick was just in the meal photo, but he was being a little grumpy, so Nick filled in.  He cracks me up.  I have lots of negative space photos I could have used as that is one of my favorite photography "rules", but I had this idea in my head and decided to give it a try.  Especially since this was a week of using archived photos for prompts.  :)  I needed to at least try for a new photo.

On Monday the kids had off school and Doug off work, so we started our day with a Memorial Day parade.

After the parade, we ran home and ate lunch real quick, packed up the fishing gear and went fishing at a local park.  Well Doug, Nick, and Keira fished.  Alex played at the playground and I took pictures.  This family of geese was in the pond.  Look at those itty bitty babies!

When Nick and I went for our walk last week, we saw this deer run past us.  She stopped and we actually got pretty close to her before she ran off.  Nick was disappointed that he had already put his camera away and didn't get a chance to "shoot" her.  I told him he should never put his camera away until he knows he's done shooting.  :)

And this is what we did on Saturday ... shoveled and raked 22.6 tons of gravel.  We worked for about 1.5 hours in the early afternoon, took a break because of the hot sun, then got back to it after dinner and actually finished spreading it in the driveway around 9 p.m.  I am still sore.  Our neighbor offered to let Doug use his tractor but we turned him down.  We agreed that our kids needed to learn the value of hard work.  Earning money to spend on vacation.  They complained but they still helped.  Some more than others.  :)

If, for some reason, you are interested in seeing all my photos from the May's prompts, here's the link to my Facebook album that contains them all.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'm linking up with Tamar for her weekly link up.

Tweet

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!

Tweet

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!

Tweet

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

The kids had Good Friday off of school - their only day off for Spring break because of all the snow make-up days - and the weather forecast was gorgeous, so we took a drive down to the Pittsburgh Zoo.  Once there we headed directly to the polar bear tunnel in hopes that the bears would be in the water.  And we were not disappointed, for not one, but two bears were in the water!  One of the zoo's males was frolicking in the water with a female that is visiting from another zoo in hopes of making baby polar bears.  :)  Needless to say my camera and I had a field day!

The male kept climbing out of the water and jumping back in on the female.  They were so fun to watch!

I wanted to get some photos of the kids watching the bears but I had a tricky time because I had only brought my 50mm and my big zoom.  I opted to leave my 24-70 at home since it is so heavy and I didn't want my neck to hurt after hauling around a bunch of lenses all day.  Does anyone else do that?  Debate about which lenses to take?  Turns out we rented a wagon for our stuff and I could have brought my favorite lens after all since I didn't carry my backpack much at all.  Oh well.

These last ones are of just the female.  The male must have decided he was done swimming, but the female was having a blast in the water.

We must have spent about 30 minutes in the polar bear tunnel before moving on.  A certain someone was getting whiny.  :)

I didn't take many other pictures.  One - because you can only have so many pictures of the same animals doing the same things.  And two - it was pretty crowded so photo ops were sometimes tricky.

This peacock was hanging around above the polar bear tunnel.  My boys kept trying to pet him.  Nick wanted to pluck one of his tail feathers.  Boys!  {sigh}

We headed into the aquarium next.  At least the bottom part.  
I tortured my kids by making them have their picture taken with me in one of the huge fish tanks.  :)

We had a great day at the zoo!

Tweet