Outside

Just another post of some fun pictures of the boys outside. Probably a pretty common post title for awhile!

Enjoy:)           

Boat ride!

Last weekend, our very good friends Mr. Phil, Ms. Katie, and Baby Leah took us out on an awesome boat ride on Pewaukee Lake.

This was the boys first boating adventure and it was so much fun!

I would've loved to have taken more pictures but after we parked the boat in Phil's optimal swimming spot, I indulged myself in some swimming and fun.

The boys were very unsure of the lake, but Preston did okay. I use that term loosely. He clung very tightly to us. Once Evan warmed up, he couldn't get enough of Dad throwing him up in the air and splashing. He even got to practice some of his swimming moves. (too bad I didn't get those pictures. I got in the lake with Evan and had to retire from snapping pictures at that point, maybe another time).

The boys (and us adults too) especially liked the bumpy and really fast boat ride back to land.         

We had so much fun!! Thanks Phil, Katie & Baby Leah:) !  

Summertime . . .

The commencement of summer has not done much to change our habits of playing and pretty much being obsessed with outside. My kids have some strange quirks, but the love of the outdoors is about as normal as the attributes of my boys get.

The exception is one indoor photo of Preston. He was climbing on a chair, which is not unusual. I just liked the angle of the photo. Also, I liked how changing the colors to black & white muted down the totally un-matched outfit that dad dressed him in that day. Although looking at my photos, anyone could tell that I don't need much of an excuse to use black and white or sepia enhancements. The geek chic look was red and blue striped socks with green and orange plaid shorts so the black and white just toned that look down a little bit.

Here are a few of my favorites from the last couple weeks of us just being us outside. 

         

Vacation Bible School

A couple of weeks ago, my baby  big boy, Evan, went to Vacation Bible School. Since this was his first experience at any organized school setting (where I left campus) I had to document the event with photos.

I had to really debate with myself as to whether I was going to lug my camera along with me (along with Evan & Preston) to school. Ideally, Jeff would go to work late and help me take the boys to school so I could take pictures. Well, ideal isn't reality. So, I did not bring my camera along. Doing the math, I think I would have been responsible for 60 some pounds of precious cargo (camera and boys included) and that was just too much on day 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 of school.  In fact, Jeff was gone this entire week of VBS on a work trip. The timing of VBS was not short of divine intervention as it helped give us structure and purpose and at the same time really helped Evan blossom socially.




Day 1 at school did not go well. His Elmo bag (he was the only kid that I noticed that brought a backpack to vbs) was stocked with 2 pairs of underwear and pants. Well he went through both of them on day 1. Ugh! But rewinding to the drop off on day 1 -- I had to literally peel him off of me to hand him off to his teacher. The tears and screaming made a real scene, but I was strong, and Evan did indeed complete his first day.

Monday night I had to do some real consideration on whether or not I should pull him from VBS. It wasn't fair for the other kids to be around our potty-trained child who refused to use the potty. (He told his VBS teacher, "I use the potty at home.") Well, I had decided to power through to Day 2 and if he was as bad again, I would pull him from the program.

Well, Day 2 came and the crying wasn't quite as violent at drop off.  We got really familiar with the potty before and after school and he did great! No accidents!! Yay!

Day 3 and 4 were both great for him (and me) too. Evan had no tears and he continued on his accident-free streak. Friday was the family picnic celebration. It was really nice. I got to see how Evan had progressed from his pre-pre-school experience to five days later. The celebration on Friday was mostly outside. Evan did cry a little bit saying he didn't want to leave. This experience gave me real confidence that come August, when 3K starts, that he will be just fine.

           

Zoo Day!

Preston

Peacock

 

 

It has been a challenge keeping up with my pictures and the blog lately.

We had a trip to the zoo a couple of weeks ago where I was able to practice some photography with subjects other than my boys. They literally run or push the camera out of the way lately. 

Photography at the zoo is an interesting topic to me because I always was one who said, 'really, are you ever going to look at that random elephant shot again?' I mean it's at the Milwaukee Zoo, it's not like a safari where you came face-to-face with the creature.  Well I am now one of those people!

It is giving me a chance to further my photography skills and giving me other subjects that I can potentially put up as art in the house and that's what I am going for if you see more zoo photos in the future. 

I have a lot of blog drafts in the hopper so you'll see much more, very soon. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Jamie

A couple of weeks ago, an awesome friend of mine, Jamie, (as seen in these photos) asked me to take family photos for them. I was so awesomely flattered as this was my first 'non-family' shoot!

Woo-hoo! Going into it, I was so excited, flattered, nervous, anxious and just ready to do it.

Jamie and her family were awesome! Not only were her and Chris the cutest couple, but their kids were just so adorable too! Beautiful, handsome, gorgeous . . . Just a few of the adjectives I can use to describe this family.

           
Jamie had such great ideas for posing and her creative genius is something I really need to tap into. So if I ever get a photography business off the ground, maybe she can be my consultant! :)

I came away from this shoot with so many great photos it was hard to narrow down a choice few to put on my blog but I was finally able to do it. Probably a part of the reason it took me a couple of weeks to make this post ;)

Thank you Jamie for this opportunity. I had such a wonderful time photographing your family. You all are so beautiful (and handsome) and I hope you enjoy the photos. I cannot wait to do another one for you down the road.