A lovely mother's day

My friends, Tim and Julianne, invited me and Sammy to their house to spend Mother's Day with them with promises of homemade waffles and peach mimosas...who could resist that combination?  The sun was out and the temperature was just right for hanging out and catching up on their brand new patio, which is where we spent most of the day.  Julianne had some work to do, so Tim and I kept Sammy and Lillian entertained with some water activities, which both kids enjoyed very much.

After such a long day of having fun and playing together, Sammy and Lillian were ready to relax in the tub for a bit before they hit the sack. That's when the two of them revealed their mother's day surprise to us--matching mom tattoos:

(Just kidding!)

I hope all of my mom friends (and aunts, grandmothers, step-moms, foster-moms, adoptive moms and so on and so forth) had a great mother's day yesterday--my best wishes to all of you!

Foto Friday: Blue

This week's theme over at Foto Friday is blue so I decided to interpret it both literally and figuratively.  Sammy has definitely been blessed in the ocular department and has some stunning blue eyes; I can only take partial credit since my eyes are not nearly as striking in color as Captain Husband's.  That's the literal part, now on to the figurative part:

Yes, those are big fat tears rolling down those cheeks--Sammy sure was feeling blue when he woke up from his nap yesterday afternoon.  He actually cheered up a bit when I brought the camera out (the kid's a natural ham) and had completely forgotten about whatever had been bothering him when I turned on Law & Order.  Sammy perked up as soon as he heard the intro theme.

Be sure to check out the other lovely photos this week by clicking below; 

Have a great weekend and best wishes for a Happy Mother's day!

Momma in Focus: black and white

This week's prompt for Momma in Focus is black and white; for once, I actually remembered to do this before it was too late to take advantage of the gorgeous May afternoon yesterday (yes, I still waited until the day before to do it, but still).  My original idea was to somehow figure out a way to set up the shot so that Sammy and I would be silhouetted against the afternoon sun with awesome sun flares all around.  Unfortunately, that didn't quite work out, especially since the only place to actually attempt this was in the main road behind the townhouse so I quickly ran out of patience between wrangling Sammy, the camera and trying to not get hit by a passing car.  So I went with plan b, which was sitting in the grassy area across from the house.  I think it turned out pretty well, although it would have been nice if I had been able to get Sammy to look at the camera.  Eh, close enough.

Be sure to check out the other lovely photos this week by clicking below--

and don't forget to show Casey some love.

Shoot and Edit Challenge: Growth (after)

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!  The lovely and talented Ashley and Jill have teamed together to share their awesome photo editing tips and tricks; this week’s prompt/theme is growth so I used a photo of my cousin Madison at her third birthday party.  I first did my version of a "clean edit" in Picnik, which involved adjusting the exposure, applying the action "vibrant" at 35%, and then removing the strand of hair that was running across her face by using the clone tool (it looks okay, but I know I could have done a better job if I had photoshop).  Here's a before and after comparison of my clean edit:

And just for fun, I converted the photo to black and white and then cropped it using the golden ratio settings:

Here's a comparison of all three; which one do you like?

If you'd like to learn how to make your photos go from good to wow, be sure to click below:

Vloggin' Vednesday: Birthday Wishes

Welcome to this week's edition of Vloggin' Vednesday: the topic for today's vlog is birthday wishes, which is pretty timely considering my birthday is in exactly one week.  (Woo!)  Also of note is the fact that this is the shortest vlog post that I've ever managed to do--I actually clocked in at just under three minutes.  I also need to take a good hard look in the mirror before taping these things; what in the world was going on with my hair?  I blame it on my oh-so-festive Hello Kitty party hat.

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Want to join in, too?  Visit the official Vloggin’ Vednesdays page to find current themes/ questions along with the corresponding Vednesday and then link up at Adeline’s Daddy Blog each Wednesday Vednesday.  C'mon, you know you want to!

Shoot and Edit Challenge: Growth (before)

The lovely and talented Ashley and Jill have teamed together to share their awesome photo editing tips and tricks; this week’s prompt/theme is growth. I've actually been pretty lazy in the photography department this week, so while I don't have a brand-spankin' new photo to share, I do have one from the weekend before last when I attended my cousin, Madison's, third birthday party back in western Pennsylvania. It was a pretty overcast day, but that didn't stop Madison and her big sister, Ashley, from playing outside on their swing set for a bit. I managed to capture of photo of Madison in mid-swing:

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to edit this, but I know at the very least I can brighten it up a bit before I print it out and send it to her mom.  If you'd like to learn how to edit your photos so that they go from good to wow, be sure to click below:

It's a family affair

This weekend my brothers, John and Ben, and sister-in-law, Sarah, came down for a visit, though to be honest, they actually spent more time with Sammy than me, but I'm totally okay with that because it freed up some time for myself.  And what exactly did I do with this free time on my hands?  Well, on Saturday I basically spent the entire day in my pajamas simply because I could--it also helps that there was no one else in the house.  I also watched trashy television programs, caught up on gossip websites and did absolutely nothing that anyone could consider productive.  It was fabulous.

I had to work on Sunday, so Sammy got to spend the day with his uncles and aunt and practiced very important things, like standing on his own.  He's getting frighteningly good at it:


Ben and Sarah are expecting their first child this September, so I was more than happy to loan them Sammy for a bit so they could get some practice with the basics.  Sammy, however, was a little concerned when he learned that Uncle Ben was going to be the one getting him ready for bed last night.

 You're letting who do what now?

Ben successfully managed to change Sammy into his night-time diaper and pajamas with only some minor shedding of tears--fortunately Sarah was there to help out.  I think the two of them are going to be just fine when their little bundle of joy arrives this September.

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So in completely random news, I've finally joined the twenty-first century and created a facebook account for myself and my blog.  There's a little box-thingy over there on the right--feel free to give me a click and "like" my blog or whatever the kids are calling it these days. You can't see it, but I'm giving you all a big thumbs up right now.