this could take all day

August Adventures: park with the Goodmans

It was a sunny Saturday in August and I had a shoot in Auburn. Darin decided to tag along and planned a meeting in Renton. Later that evening we were supposed to be at my sister's house, so we had an afternoon with nothing to do. 

Enter a chance to get together with the Goodmans near their new home in Edgewood. We met up at the park for playing and a picnic and had such a wonderful afternoon catching up. We all miss living at camp together!

I wasn't in the mood to take pictures, after a morning full of them, but Darin was. I think I might have to promote him to second-shooter one of these days!

(Funny note, we started calling Miss Maezie "MJ" when we babysat her, since the rhyming Daisy and Maezie was just too confusing for our new talker. I think my family is the only people in the world who call her MJ. So when we were playing at the park, MJ kept calling Daisy "MJ" and when we'd ask her who was MJ she'd point to our Miss Daisy. Then Daisy would laugh and try to tell her that she was MJ. It was pretty darn funny.)

(Apparently Darin was only interested in shooting other people's cute kids!)

The girls played so nicely together, with Mr Eli entertaining himself too. I joke that Daisy & MJ are the best of frenemies because they are both so exited to get to see the other, than usually fight the whole time they're playing. This time, there was no fighting. My theory: we were at the playground and there were no toys to fight over! 

 

The Goodmans even brought the girls some birthday presents! Made the day at the park even better that's for sure.

Can we get together again soon?

 

zoo!

Consider this the first post of many to come with the opening line: "a while ago."

A while ago my buddy MJ's mama invited us to tag along on a morning adventure at the zoo and we were so there.

Not many pictures taken, but a great time had by all! (Well...we'll just pretend the massive meltdowns at the end of the day didn't happen. Nope...ignoring those...)

Here's the girls outside the restroom: the first stop on our illustrious zoo tour. Dear Mandi took my Daisy in with her and I hung outside with the strapped-in children and kept them in a constant supply of graham crackers. I'm a good mom AND babysitter! 

Do you find when you try to take pictures of kids at the zoo you get a lot of their backsides? Me too!

So then you try to get them to turn around and smile and get a picture that probably isn't much better.

Every once in a while, if you hang in long enough, you get a gem like this one.

Daisy is in love with hand sanitizer dispensers and water fountains. Much more interested in these than the animals. Know any place with an abundance of hand sanitizer dispensers and water fountains? That would be the perfect field trip location!

Sweet Daisy will also make friends wherever we go.

Lunchtime!!!

We all love lunch.

That's all I've got from our zoo adventures. Who wants to take pictures of animals when we've got cute kids around? Not me!

I'm Deanna and I want to end all my blog posts with a cute tag line ala my new favorite blogger cjane. (Oh, and I typed this post WAAAY too late at night and I tend to be a bit quippy this time of day!)

what a difference a year makes!

On March 17, 2009 we made our first trip to the Children's Museum of Seattle. We had an awesome day and decided to purchase a membership.

 
 

We have had many fun days up there since, and have been able to bring several friends with us. But we decided not to renew (not because we didn't love it, just a chance to try something else) and went up one last time on March 10, 2010.

  
 
The whole time we were there I was marvelling at how much difference a year can make.

I mean, just check out the kid on the slide:

 
  

Or the one playing in the water area:

 
 
  

Or the sweet kiddo who loves the carnival mirror:

  

  

And, of course, last year we had our buddy MJ with us:
 
 
  
And now we've got this one:

 
 

Here's some more of my favorite pics from our day.

  

   

 
 
  
 
  

  

 
 
  
 
  
     

one adorable one-year-old

Nope, not mine yet. Thank goodness.

This is my buddy MJ. I babysat her last spring for a few months when her mommy went back to work.

I've been wanting to practice with my new backdrop, so when we had it up last week for Dani I offered to shoot some shots of MJ. I don't know what I was thinking!

I should have remembered how nearly impossible it was to get a professional (well, at least Picture People) shot of Daisy when she turned one. How we had to bribe her just to stand still for half a second. And how she just wanted to be on the GOOOOOO.

So was Miss MJ. So we didn't force it. And the above photo is pretty much the only one I managed to snag.

Next time I'll remember to shoot one-year-olds outside where I can just chase them around and use all the wonderful light God gave us!

December 5

 

Dani does her best to help cheer up Darin. Poor guy had an awful reaction to his pain meds and had to cut them out. Hopefully he'll be back to normal soon!

  

Could she be any cuter?

 
 

 

We helped our little buddy MJ celebrate her first birthday. Daisy was very into helping MJ open her presents, so it bodes well for Christmas morning!

 

Daisy and Darin put the rest of the ornaments on the tree. Back there she's playing with an ornament I got way back when I was a baby. Made me smile on the inside.

 

 Before dinner Daisy was flipping through her Bible book, so I took the opportunity to read her a few pages of the Christmas story. I LOVE these times together.

some recent scrappy stuff

I haven't scrapped in a while. Wanna hear some excuses? My pregnant back isn't up to the task of sitting at the desk chair for extended periods of time. I recently reorganized my stuff and I can't bring myself to start messing with all the niceness of everything in its place. Most of the shows I watch on the computer while I scrap are on summer break. And I've really enjoyed relaxing on the couch or bed in the evening with my hubby and my cross-stiching lately.

But about a month ago I did make it to a friends house for a little crop. And while I usually save my journaling (and often the title) for when I get home, I managed to begin these three pages that night.

Christmas Eve

 

"December 24, 2008 Bright & colorful tree. Stockings full. Santa present delivered, the rest all wrapped. Quiet. Ready for the magic of Christmas morning."

Book Lover

 

"and mess maker. You love to pull all the books off your shelf. I think I put them back every day."

Rally in the Valley

 

"My first time competing in Darin's family's annual 'Rally in the Valley' tournament was in 2002. A hot September day in Quincy and a second place finish. We were so sore the next dya, but sure had a lot of fun."

Daisy at 22 months

 

Remember this post from a few months ago? Well, I decided it needed to be made into a mini-album.

 

I dug out one of my favorite special publications (Album Shortcuts) from one of my favorite scrapbook magazines (Simple Scrapbooks, sob, now out of print) and found a "recipe" to use. This book is full of mini album ideas with great instructions on using them as "recipes" to create your own albums.

 

I grabbed some papers and a package of embellishments from my favorite new collection by American crafts (backyard) because the bright colors and fun prints just suit our little Daisy so well. I used Photoshop to print the photos 2x3 and publisher to make journaling blocks. I had to be careful to match the right amount of horizontal blocks with horizontal photos, but it wasn't too hard.

A little corner rounder action and glue stick and this album came together in a flash.

 

Once the pages were underway I went to my local scrapbooking store to find a 6x6 album. I ended up buying the only one they had, which I really like. Unfortunately the interior pages aren't too sturdy and since Daisy loves to look through this album I have to supervise closely. I'll try to remember that in the future!

 

 

And since my little buddy was supervising as I took pictures of pages and albums, I decided to turn the camera on her and practice a little exposure compensation. Man...how the learning process goes so much easier when you have a willing (and immoble) subject!

 

 

 

best buds

This week Daisy finally got around to asking to hold MJ, and the two of them couldn't be happier about it.

Someday I hope to have happy pictures like this of Daisy and Spud, but for now we love that these two are such good friends. I hope it continues as they grow up "camp kids" together.

 

(I switched my white balance setting here. Not sure which I like better.)

 

Seattle Children's Museum

Darin had Tuesday off last week too. And as we went to bed on Monday night we were trying to come up with ideas for something fun to do the next day, but with rain in the forecast weren't coming up with much.

Sometime in the early morning hours I had the thought about the Children's Museum in Seattle. So when I got up I checked out the hours and pricing online and pitched the idea to Darin. He was in right away.

I forget how much stuff you gotta pack for a toddler and a baby, even for a day trip so we decided to make it easier on ourselves and not pack a lunch. After all: it was a holiday (St. Patty's) and we could splurge on lunch out too!

Seattle is just under an hour from our house so the trip was totally do-able. And so totally worth it. We all had a blast! Daisy, of course, since the museum was for her. MJ always enjoys time hanging in the Bjorn. And us grown-ups were pretty impressed by the quality and variety of displays. We arrived around 11:00, broke for lunch at 12:30 (Yummy, but expensive burgers at the Center house) where we were also treated to seeing some cool Irish dancers, and were back in the museum until about 2:30. That was when it was abundantly clear that putting off nap-time was no longer a good idea! Even with all that time there were at least 4 exhibits we didn't get to.

As we were leaving we decided to put our admission fee towards a family membership, and pay the extra $10 for the opportunity to bring up to 4 people with us (for free!!!) each time. We're already planning more trips to Seattle and I can't wait to bring Jen & Amy and their herds when they visit in September.

But next time we'll pack a lunch!

Warning: lots of pictures ahead. A bunch of my favorites from the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lunch and squashing paintballs

I don't so much love it when Darin has to work weekends. But I do love it when he gets to spend two days home with us mid-week to make up for it. And now that I've got a little buddy hanging around too, having Darin home is even better.

Wednesday was our big ultrasound appointment and then out to lunch to celebrate. Luckily, our new favorite pizza spot is just across the street from the doctor's!

While waiting for lunch, Darin entertained Daisy with a great rendition of "5 little monkeys". She had a blast playing along doing the motions. And I figured since he was making a fool of himself in public, I'd make a fool of myself too, busting out the big camera and documenting the occcasion.

 

 

After naptime we decided to head outside for a walk and ended up on the paintball field. There we found lots of dropped paintballs that had expanded a bit in the recent wet weather. Let me tell you how much fun we had stomping on those balls and watching them squirt everywhere. Daisy was on the hunt. having a blast with every one!

 

 

I wish we had our video camera with us so you could hear the little evil laugh she did as she went from ball to ball. It was totally cracking us up.

 

We kept warning her not to pick them up, to just use her feet. But Darin wasn't quick enough this time and I think the squirt in her face was enough to teach that lesson for us!

 

And our little buddy? She was content hanging out with Darin.

Thursday randomness

Anyone need a subscription to "Parents" magazine? I've got a free gift subscription coming with my renewal and I'd hate to see it go to waste or to someone who already gets the magazine.

This article made me smile yesterday.

A favorite pic of my little buddy from last week.

I love where I live, but just behind my house is the storage area for the horse manure they scoop every day. When the pile gets too big the tractors and the trailer truck go to work hauling it out to pasture. Today is that day and while the guys are hard at work I can't help but noticing the steam rising from the pile and being totally grossed out by it. That manure is OLD people, and it still steams? Who can explain this to me?

I'm getting ready to host 20 folks here this weekend for our 4-H State Ambassador meeting. Luckily, we've got access to beds around here. I'm just worried about cooking for everyone in my small kitchen!

That's all I got for today. Tomorrow...more fun pictures!

our new friend

We've got a new buddy around the Gemmer household.

Isn't she cute?

 

This little sweetheart is spending her days with us for the next few months while her Mama goes back to work as a teacher. Her name is Maezie, but we call her MJ. A little easier than a name that rhymes with Daisy, don't you think?

Speaking of Daisy, I think she's in love. Full of kisses.

 

And cuddles.

 

And showing her just how the toy works.

 

We'll be getting lots of big sister practice in!