Thursday, July 29, 2010

In the mail.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs one day when I came across this post. Sarah-Ji from Shutter Sisters wrote about a blog she came across called the one hundred postcard project which is a grassroots initiative to revive the art of personalized, material human connection through the writing of postcards and letters.
When I read that I thought of the many, many postcard I wrote and received from my brother while he was away at school or on a deployment.
I was excited to join and even went as far as making some really cool postcard from Moo.I thought they were cool since they had my photos on them.

mailing it

It felt great to put the pen to paper and write a little Hello to someone I never met. I decided to expand that project and write postcards to many of my friends/family. I sent the photo of the little girl in ballet slippers to my Goddaughter, not only was the picture of her but it reminded me of the time she invited me to her dance rehearsal. I wanted to thank her for letting me do the girly things with her.

I couldn't stop and probably sent out about 9 more. I am not done there. So don't be surprise if you find a post card from me in the mail, an if you want one let me know.

Monday, July 26, 2010

4 In July!

It has happened, it is here. My "4 in July" year old is finally 4. I don't know who was more excited, him or I.

It takes my breath away to think he will be five next year. I even got him to agree to not get any older but I doubt he can hold up his end of the bargain.
birthday boy

I will never forget the day these beautiful eyes first looked at me like he had always known me.
birthday eyes

I am so proud of the little boy he has become. I love his imagination and his compassion for others, especially his little brother. I love the natural leader his is and the self confidence he has.
birthday boy party

If I could, I would freeze him at this age. Nothing beat picking him up after lunch to take him to the gift shop and the cafe for a soda and an ice cream. One on one time is sparse so I cherish every moment. The best part was he did not want to sit in a chair by himself in the cafe, he wanted to sit in my lap (I know I will miss that).
birthday cupcake

He teaches me to be a better person everyday and I never knew my heart could go walking around outside my body. He gave me the hardest and the most rewarding job and I couldn't do it without him.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart! I love you!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Theme Thursday - Home

Home was the theme we chose this week. It was interesting that both Jen and I had planned to take photos of our actually homes/patio's but lighting and weather was non-cooperative. I tried taking a shot out my front door but with the rain it just didn't do it for me. I was trying to come up with something else when my husband suggested the "Home" key on the computer. I added the cute little finger. Basically I have a little shadow so I put him to work.

I love the angle Jen took her's at and Miller is so stinkin cute! I love the idea of the wire and the clothes pins to hold photo and/or art work.

TUT_home _1

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Monday, July 19, 2010

Best Shot Monday

It amazes me daily that this one is no longer a baby. He is growing so fast I can hardly keep up.
I will treasure the gazillion pictures I have taken while they are young. I just wish I could stop time for a little while.

nico_faded

For more Best Shots head over to Tracey's.
bsm

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Team-Up Thursday - Suprise Capture

This week Jen and I decided we would take the photo we liked the best or was surprised we got and use that for our Team-Up.

I was so curious when I saw Jen's. I love the perspective and how you can see the ripples in the water and the reflections of the trees. I was interested to know how she got that perspective with her camera, as you can see the people are on the shore so she must be out in the water...with her camera.
I then read that she was testing out a new waterproof point and shoot, whew. I was worried for a minute. I think the shot is great, now I am thinking about a waterproof point and shoot (shhh, don't tell my husband).
TUT_surprise

My shot ended up being a surprise and my favorite. I was trying to take a "normal" portrait shot of Nicolo when he leaped at me while in the pool. This was a fluke but a great one. I look at a lot of my photos and the ones that are not "traditional" portraits always seem to appeal to me more. For some reason I like that you can't see his whole face and it just his open mouth and cute little nose.

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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

You know it's a party

We had a birthday party to go to on Sunday. A college friend of mine, who I had not seen in at least 8 years, little boy was turning one. I had not seen her and some others that might have been there since school and I was excited to see them.

I also was excited to have them to meet my boys. I also love to dress my boys in nice outfits for things like parties. My mother had bought both boys saddle shoe for outfits worn to my SIL wedding recently. I was determined they would not wear them just once. I dressed them both in little plaid short, polo shirts, ankle socks and saddle shoes. They looked so handsome.

The party was so much fun, my friend and all her family were so welcoming and there were tons of kids. There was also a clown, funnel cake and a moon bounce! My boys love moon bounces. The only thing was it was a day where we had on and off showers. The moon bounce was a little wet inside. That was not a deterrent to my boys.

They removed their socks and shoes and went to town. By the time they came out they were soaked head to toe! They were having a blast and I basically had to pry them out of it. I of course did not specifically pack extra outfits (I should know better) so I had to scrounge through my van. I can up with a Wiggles T-shirt, a pair of underpants and a Onesie.

For the rest of the party Francesco ran around in his tighty-whiteys and a T-shirt and Nicolo a Onesie. They went from cute outfits to underwear in a matter of 2 hours. When we got in the car to go home, Francesco told me, "That was the best party ever!" I guess it is a good party when you leave half naked!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

I am that Mom!

Have you ever been "that Mom"? I seem to always be "that Mom" these days.

Case in point:
During a recent visit to the Pediatrician. Nicolo had just turn two and not really talking that much but has a few small words. I get asked how much television he watches. I of course under embellished quite a bit and fudge my answer to something that sounded reasonable. While I was pretending to add up the minutes a day in my head, my oldest child is asking me to help him with a video game and the youngest...who doesn't say much is yelling "SpongeBob Square Pant" as clear as day.

Mind you they have only seen the show 3-4 times by this point (that has changed).

So my 2 year old who does not talk can say SpongeBob and I just said he hardly watches any T.V., I am "that Mom".

Another:

My husband was suppose to pick the boys up from daycare one day but was running really late. I did not have car seats for them but I could at least pick them up. I thought they could just play and run around out front while we waited. I pick them up and as we leave it starts to rain (my luck). So we pile in the car, turn on the radio and proceed to jam to the Beastie Boys. I'm talking head banging, music blaring, jumping in your seat jamming. I look up and see another parent walk by the car as we are in the midst of jamming and I get "the look". You know it, the "what in Gods name are you people doing?” look. Even funnier was that we were still jamming when she had gotten her children and was strapping them into the car; I still got "the look".
I bet when she sees me and thinks, "She that weird Mom that was jumping around in the car with her kids that one day." Yep, that me!

Another:

I went to pick up Francesco from school and in his cubby was a SpongeBob watch he got as a treasure box prize for getting his stickers all the way across on his chart. The other children start to tell me some facts about the show. On little girl tells me SpongeBob is a sponge, and she is right. Another child tells me Patrick lives under a rock, again correct. I ask "what is Patrick?" and one little boy say, a starfish, excellent. Then the little boy asks me, "What is Squidward?" I think I have my SpongeBob cast of characters pretty down packed so I say, "a squid." The little kid says to me, no he not he's an octopus. Now here is the kicker, I the grown-up precede on the say to the 4 year, "no he's not, hence the name Squidward." He of course argues with me and I stand my ground.

I am "that Mom", the one who argues with someone else's 4 year old about the species of a cartoon character.

Then come to find out:
Squidward Q. Tentacles (Rodger Bumpass) is SpongeBob and Patrick's effete cephalopod neighbor. His species is ambiguous, and has been referred to as both a squid and an octopus by the series' creators.

Last but not least:

My boys love to race, they live to run and they run to live. Everyday after school we race from the sidewalk to the van. We pick a starting point, we say ready, set, go and we are off. I do this if I am in flats or heels, with their daycare bag on my shoulder and sometimes with Nicolo on my hip. I never win, but I am okay with that. The other day this backfired a bit because as we were taking off to race another child was coming out of the building with his father (this was another little boy from Francesco's class). We start to run and he decides to join the race to his car but runs away from his father as the father is yelling at him to stop and not go toward the street.

Disclaimer: we were racing on the sidewalk and never race toward the street, the other child starting running but not the same direction we were going.

Oh course the father starts to run toward the kid who appeared to be heading toward the street (which is actually the parking lot) and he did not look happy. Then he shot me a look like, "why are you doing that?"

Now I'm "that Mom" that races her kids and causes uncontrolled behaviors in others outside the daycare. BTW- we still race, I just try to make sure there are no other children nearby when we do.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Team Up Thursday : 4th of July

Jen and I picked the theme "4th of July". I had grandiose ideas in my head. I saw visions of my children sitting on the curb in the little town of Highland Falls, NY waving their little flags, dressed in their Red/White/Blue outfits (supplied my MomMom) and those Saddle Shoe of course. I would get down low and shoot with a wide aperture to get nice background bokeh and the sun would glistened off them.

Well, that did not happen. Don't get me wrong we had a great time but never made it to the parade. This was due to "TRAFFIC". Who knew that everyone and their Uncle would be traveling the Palasaides Parkway on 4th of July?

Instead we hung out at Robot Galaxy, made robots and spent the rest of the afternoon with Buzz and Woody in 3D. The best part was we were with family and by the end of the day we had 5 happy tired kids and one AWESOME Uncle Cullen to thank for it.

Jen got to see some nice fireworks and I am completely impressed with her capture. I just know I would not have been able to get that clean of a shot.
TUT_4thofJuly
I of course went for your traditional 4th of July symbol. The thing I liked about this photo (as opposed to the 50 other flag shots I took) was the DOF, it almost looked fake to me (but since I took it I knew it wasn't).

I hope everyone had a happy, safe and cooler than here (104 today) Holiday weekend!

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Friday, July 2, 2010

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Team-Up Thursday - Summer

Wow, it's already Thursday and already JULY! Where in the world is this year going? Last week I was so behind that I did not get my picture to Jen till Thursday night. Talk about a slacker of a partner. No worries , Jen is always understanding. That's what I love about her!

So we picked the theme Summer and rightly so since it's in full swing. I love both of these photos for so many reasons.
1) They really say Summer to me.
2) We both have picture of of family.
3) Both of them are playing in water.
4) I like how there are orange flowers in hers and the orange raft in mine.
I could go on but you get the picture (no pun intended).

TUT_summer

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