Biking and Boarding

I wanted a walk, and thought I'd be able to get more exersize if the kids were on thier bikes, not really, I end up helping Imogene off the grass, out of the gutter and over the cracks in the sidewalk. Then I go back and pull Mimi along and try to catch up with the older kids.






It was chilly and we only wmade it around the corner and back but by then the kids were ready for some hot chocolate.

Baseball

Xander is having a great time at baseball, he enjoys sitting out on the field and talking with the other players.

His team: (minus a couple of players) 

Xander is #8

Piano Recital

Xander's piano recital was great and he was fantastic as always.
He loves his teacher and he really loves the candy he gets for passing off his songs.

I love when they bow after thier performance-

All the students did a great job, and even though it was a combined recital, it looks like fewer students than in his other recitals.

Xander's Birthday

We had a few boys over for Xander's birthday.

They watched the lego movie

and played some Wii. 

To top it all off, I made a (huge) Lego Cake.

FYI- if you ever ant to make one, I recommend using ding dongs. I made cupcakes and then had to shape them.  ALso, you probably don't need an entire bottle of blue- but feel free to add as much as you want.

Baptism

So even though I was at a photowalk that morning, and was in "picture mode" I did not get very many pictures of the baptism or the party at our house afterwards. I think maybe the last minute running around (because I put the wrong address on invites), left me too flustered to focus enough to take many pictures.

(yes, he has had a haircut since then. The plan was to get one before the baptism, but we ran out of time)

The Magic Show

We've seen this magician several times and he is funny and surprises the kids every time.

We didn't see any tricks with the bunny, but he was pretty cute.

The Hunt Part Two

ASUU had a great easter egg hunt- they divided it by age.

It wasn't much of a "hunt" but they did make the hallway dark- it made it a little bit more difficult to gather up the right color eggs for Imogene- pinks and purples

When Xander's age group started, they said: 'no limit, as many as you want' xander filled his basket and my pockets, and there were still eggs left over.

When we got back to the carnival- they were dumping eggs into the younger kids baskets- they still had two huge boxes of eggs!

Easter Carnival

Mimi's favorite part of the carnival:

Theh fishing pond gave fun little prizes:

Imogene loves bounce houses- she couldn't get enough.

Egg Dying Round 2

Everyone worked hard and 5 dozen eggs got a lot of color

The boys enjoyed making two colored eggs and trying out the shrinking plastic wraps. 

Ever wonder who a two year old gets her eggs out of the dye??

Now you know.

The Hunt is On!

Is it really a hunt when you spread 200 eggs out in the back yard??

The kids had fun and each gathered around 2 lbs of candy.

(don't worry though, I threw most of it away, Mimi kept dumping the bags out onto the floor.)

Xander's Page

A New (Toy) Tool

Before:

After:

I am in love with a new attachment for my camera- the only difference between the two images above--

(and it's not photoshop!)

A Light Scoop!

I love that the images straight out of the camera are much more usable and I am looking forward to being able to capture more indoor images of the kids. 

A few more of my test shots:

Happy Valentines Day

3 Gigabytes

What could be bad about having a 3 Gig memory card for your camera you ask?
Having to process 633 photos.
Pictures like:

The incredible escaping baby

Imogene and Gypsy

MiMi queen of flour messes

One of the better pictures from a very cold day

Xander  (one of the best pictures of him that day)

And 628 others including 246 of baby lexi.

I feel so free now I have a blank memory card and a goal to take more pictures in the coming year.  I'd like to try for a picture a day, but I may have to do make-up days because I am already behind. I'm not going to stress about it- I just want to improve my portraits and photographs and more practice means better pictures.

Other pictures from the memory card will be making appearances in later/earlier posts, so stay tuned.