Sometimes I Can't Help Myself

Last week I took the kids to the park after lunch. This is a cool park with a playground, walking paths, a pond and bridges, so we always enjoy going there. It was a fairly brisk day with the wind, and I was hunkered down on the park bench trying to keep warm while watching the kids play some imaginary game that burned off some energy.

I happened to look up over to my left and saw this magnificent tree without it's leaves. The sky was a bit overcast, and the sun was trying to shine through. I tried returning my gaze to the kids having fun, but I had already formed the photo of the tree in my mind, so I had to pull the camera out of the bag (which was sitting next to me, of course). Miraculous though it be, I do occasionally take photos of a subject other than my children. :-). Not to worry, we went on a little hike after they got tired of playing, so I got photos of them, one of which may become our Christmas card photo. ;-D


Here's shot #1 straight out of the camera. Not bad, but not spectacular.


Here's the same photo after I enhanced it in Photoshop. Definitely has that sunset feel to it, no?



Never content to leave my camera settings alone, I opted to switch the white balance to fluorescent because I learned a few years ago (from playing around with it) that it cools the colors for a wintery feel. Here's the photo straight out of the camera. Again, not bad, but not spectacular:



And here's the same photo after it encountered Photoshop. It's gone from a daytime to nighttime photo (I really like this one the best too).



I'm glad that sometimes I can't stop myself from taking photos. Sometimes it's worth it to drag the camera around with me everywhere we go.

A Rare Occasion

It's a rare occasion that I catch a genuine smile from Eric when he's in front of the camera. I had rather hoped his fake-pained smile would pass quickly, but it's been hanging on for a couple years now. This week we've been getting some really nice autumn weather, the leaves are plentiful, so the kids were outside playing in a huge pile of them. There's no way I could resist a photo op like that, so I joined the kids to watch them in their fun and capture it for their scrap albums (if I ever get around to printing out photos from the past 18 mos.)

I tried the photo below in color and black and white. Both look good, but I'm a fan of black and white photos. For some reason it looks a little darker on my blog than it did while editing it, but that still doesn't hide the fabulous expression I caught on my 'lil man's face!

What Did She Say?

While in the north woods we spent a day at the private lake on my inlaw's property. I happened to be on the pier getting photos of Mike and Charlotte out on the row boat when I found myself in the position of capturing a totally boy moment. See, Zachary had already been in the water (in his jeans) and was changed by Mom and told not to go back into the water in his jeans. As his Auntie, who would never dream of snitching on him, I had to take the photos for the story they told.

The water calls me......

See how it goes splish-splash??

Hmmm. Momma told me something, but I can't seem to remember.

Oh I remember now. Don't chew on my shirt.

Wet jeans were made for decorating.

But that's OK. I can just slip right back into the water and wash the sand sprinkles off!

My Crafty Self

Our local library is really awesome with all their children's programs, contests, free stuff, concerts, books, movies, and their "Adult Programs." For instance, they offer various crafts for kids and adults. I decided to sign up for one of them since it sounded simple enough - an autumn grapevine wreath - and the price couldn't be beat: Five bucks! So I went there this afternoon, and along with a bunch of other ladies and one 9 year old boy (who didn't do such a shabby job, I might add), put together a wreath in about an hour. I have to say that it turned out really nice, but that bow was a real pain!! Think hand cramps. While I'll be sad when the weather requires Mike to remove the front screen door and put in the storm door, on the plus side, I'll have something really pretty to hang up on the door!

Cinderacula

This is the first year Eric opted for a "scary" costume, and of course, Charlotte wanted to be a princess. Kudos to me for finding it this summer at a garage sale for a few bucks, lol! They sure are in stark contrast to each other.

The kids hauled in boat loads of candy last night. It'll be July 4th, 587 sugar highs, and several cavities later before they get through it all.

Flipped The Switch

I've tried holding off as long as possible, but this year I had to flip the switch a bit early. The switch I'm talking about is the thermostat where I turned it from "off" to "heat". You could say it's been a bit chilly in the house in the mornings the past week or so, but this morning it was down to 64 degrees which is a tad brisk, even for me - the heat miser. So the switch got flipped this morning, and as I type, it's a toasty 70 degrees. It looks like the sun will shine all day and heat the place up for free so the heat doesn't have to work too hard. Hopefully it'll be a very sunny winter, because we need all the help we can get. It's getting mighty expensive to live in America, eh?

Apple Picking

Charlotte's preschool class had a field trip to a local apple orchard last week. The kids had fun playing in the kid's area, plus learning about how apples come to be on a tree! Interesting tidbit: the number of seeds an apple has is due to how many times a bee visited the apple blossom. After viewing the informational video, we took a hayride out to the orchards to pick some Gala apples.

After our trip to the orchard, we all gathered in the pavilion for some apple cider and apple cider donut (these are so awesome....maybe because I only eat them this time of year!) As you can see, my fruit lovin' daughter lets the donut sit while she eats one of her fresh-picked apples (the donut didn't sit there long, though.)