Day 1 Home Summer Break – 6/7
Slept in after getting home at midnight from WA
11 a.m. Swim Team
Scavanged for Lunch (no groceries after being gone) – Pesto Pasta & Canned Peaches
Afternoon – Laundry, kids played in the sprinkler
Ryan & Matt Guitar
I made Fish, Rice & Mixed Veggies
Went to a swim team meeting
Went to a parish Ed meeting
Bed Time

Day 2 Summer Break 6/8 – Christian’s B-day & our Anniversary
Annika was up all night with a UTI – finally at 4 a.m. she fell asleep in our bed
We slept until 9
Showered
Opened B-day Presents
Ran & got prescription for A
Monicals, ate & played at the park
Library
Cleaned/Vacuumed Car
Picked up a DQ Cake
Came home & ate it
Napped / kids played
Swim Team
Southside Dinner
Worked in the garden, kids watched a movie
Bed
Work for me

The rule is no video games or TV (unless they earn it…) after 9:30 a.m.  So far, so good! 

Assignment:  Posed Differently

Assignment:  Use a prop

Assignment:  Group or 3 or more

Assignment:  Male or Female Adult

Assignment:  White / Light

Assignment:  Different Angle

Assignment: Textured Background

The colors look better printed or in Photoshop, but you at least get an idea.

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That is this one – I am focusing on her feet.  We’re also supposed to work on Bokeh, (which is like the light circles you see in the background.  So this picture kills two birds with one stone in a way.

And one of our assignments is to include some background.  That is this one. 

These look a lot better in Photoshop then on here.  I’ll be taking some more tomorrow I’m sure, so we’ll see what we end up with in the end. 

My final picture is using the rule of thirds (or something like that – don’t have my notes in front of me).  Essentially you divide your picture into nine squares and the eye needs to focus on the intersections.  I’m sure you could look it up online.  I haven’t taken that picture yet. 

Here are the current life updates!

First off – we are freezing!  It got warm for about a week – 68-72 highs, it was beautiful, it was lovely, it felt so good… It was a total tease!  The last 4-5 days and as far as the forecast can see – we have high’s in the upper 30’s and low 40’s.  We even had a little trace of snow!  We are so ready for spring!  I’m itching to go camping!  I think we are going to head out Easter Sunday – Monday.  Not sure where yet.  Our 1 year warranty on our trailer ends in May, so I want to get out a couples times before that to see how it weathered the winter. 

Speaking of cold weather… we pretty much froze our tails off Sat. at Christian and Dane’s soccer games!  38 is too cold to play soccer!

     BRRRRRRR!

                  BRRRRRR!

Annika is keeping us busy – she says more and more each day.  Once she is really talking I have a feeling she isn’t going to be quiet very often – she has a lot to say!  Last Sat. as we were enjoying our lunch at a restaurant she climbed up in my lap and proceeded to throw-up all over me.  Oh the joys of parenthood!  Thankfully no one else got sick.  Last week one day she took a 4 hour nap.  She ended up peeing the bed and felt bad, so I told her it was okay, we’ll just change your sheets.  All was well until the following day when she climbed into her bed, sat there, peed, and said “oh, oh, new sheets, peed bed”.  UMMMM Yeah…  I don’t think she will be doing that again soon – she got one of her first spankings from mom for that one!  The next didn’t take a nap at all…  She played the whole time she was in there.  Today all was well, she napped and stayed dry.

We had a nice short visit from Grandmom and Granddad (Nancy’s parents)

on the 18th – 19th.

Unfortunately, I was super busy with school stuff (we had a fundraiser that night) so I didn’t get a very long visit in; but it was so nice to see them, and that they took the time to stop by on their road trip!  Our kids LOVED having them visit! 

Ryan has been keeping super busy.  He is still a part of Scholastic Bowl – for a couple more weeks.  (He says he is not going to do it next year, but it was good for him to give it a try!)  We just finished up his first research paper on President William Henry Harrison.  I say WE because I put in many hours with him!  Hopefully the next go around will be a bit easier for him as he learns the process.  He also just joined track, which he seems to really be enjoying.  Basically with his activities he has something going on every day except Sundays.  Matt have been and will continue to be doing a lot of splitting up this spring as Ryan goes one direction and Christian and Dane go to soccer. 

The kids just got done with Talent Fest at school too last Tue.  Ryan played his guitar – “Here Comes the Sun”, Christian turned in his Cub Scout Pinewood Derby Car, a clay monkey, and a bridge built with those colorful packing peanut things that are sold to make things – nuudles or something like that.  Dane turned in a picture he colored and a couple clay sculptures. 

Christian is enjoying soccer, and food!  He has been our big eater lately!  He continues to go to his Dyslexia Therapy each week, and his teacher says she is beginning to notice some improvement in his oral reading, so that is GREAT news!  We are proud of him for continuing to try so hard! 

Dane is still loving school!  He is really starting to read and write!  I love watching him enjoy life.  He rarely likes eating meat, but recently has discovered he LOVES Meatloaf!  I can’t believe he is going to be 6 1/2 in 5 days!  WOW!  I guess that means Annika is going to be 2 1/2 too in a couple weeks! 

We have a new Sunday Tradition.  A couple weeks ago I made Grilled Cheese Sandwiches for lunch and we had popcorn and homemade ice-cream for dinner.  The kids have now decided that is what they want EVERY Sunday.  So we are starting a new Sunday tradition!

We finally made some summer plans!  We were so up in the air about when and how we were getting to WA.  LOTS of variables, that I won’t go into since this post is already really long.  Anyway, we finally decided to fly and I found  a pretty good deal on tickets and a rental car!  YEA!  So we are leaving May 25th and returning home June 6th. 

Can’t wait!

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This first week we are learning to shoot in manual mode.  So today was my very first day trying that!  I am excited about the possibilities once I get the hang of it!

By Tuesday, I have to have 4 photos, of people, to send in (two portrait – up and down and two landscape – sideways).  Two need to be taken inside (with natural light near a window) and two need to be taken outside.  We take them to the best of our ability in manual mode and then do minimal editing in Photoshop (we are only allowed to adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation).  Our teacher is going to print them in 5×7 for us and also put them into a PowerPoint presentation (with everyone else’s in the class) so we can all see each other’s work. 

So here are my top 3 of today.  Hopefully by Tuesday I will have something to turn in!

(and apparently he likes those pajamas a lot…)

- A photography class I just signed up for.  A friend from school is also a professional photographer, and she is teaching a class starting March 24th for 6 weeks – can’t wait!

- Spring will be here soon!  Soccer, Track, Spring Flowers, Garden planning & planting – all coming super soon!

- A shopping trip to the outlet mall sometime soon!

And I leave you with this:  (happy memories from Disney!)