4th of July!

Parade, fireworks (for Evan & Dad). . . An awesome holiday!! Especially awesome parade'ing with the Barnum Clan!

Oh - the Evan sucker pictures . . . another documentation. That was his first sucker. Thank you Woman's Club of Pewaukee ;)                       

Evan's 3 year old photo shoot!

July 3, 2013~~~~ 

Sniff, sniff . . . My big boy turned 3 years old.  Here we go . . . preschool years along with his robust personality and attitude.

I was extra excited because this was the first birthday in the Lange family with my new camera! Photo shoot time!!! See ya later Target Portrait Studio and Picture People!! Time for mom to take complete control.

Like I expected, it was still challenging, because their desire to run from the camera does not go away at all. But at least he was on his home turf and I didn't have the wildcard photographer.

The whole shoot only lasted about 10 minutes because he was done, but I was happy with the few shots I got. Here they are!
                   

My new lens!

  Evan turned 3 on July 3rd. We took him out to celebrate at Red (Robert) Robin. This was our special 'day-of' activity since his party was the following weekend.

Even though it was Evan's birthday Jeff surprised me with a new lens!! I.Love.It!!

It's a 50mm 1.8 fixed lens. It's great and awesome and I love it. Fixed lens means it does not zoom so it can be a bit annoying in some circumstances; especially when others take over the camera to do a family shot for us. (In the few weeks we've had this, this has already happened 3 times.) Nevertheless, I love it. I don't think I could say it enough, obviously. So thank you Jeff!!

After dinner out, we came home and watched Monsters. They loved it. Evan thought it was a really goofy show :)  (Note that Preston isn't usually naked, he just came out of the bath that way and we didn't get his pj's on right away.)
         

Evan's last day as a 2 year old

July 2nd, 2013....

Because I'm obsessive about photographing every single moment, this one deserved it's own post. The DSLR camera brought this out in me, but even before, with my point and shoot, I dedicated a lot of time to pictures. In fact, instead of writing down milestones, I would simply snap a photo that showed it happening. The great thing about technology is that the date is imprinted with the photo so I will forever know when the said milestone occurred.

Yes, I did indeed take pictures of Evan's last evening/night as a 2 year old. Although most of the pictures in this post are of Preston. How does that work? Great question! The 16 month old who never wants to be photographed totally stole this post from his brother, just luck.

Many of the pictures I took of Evan in his room before bed that night turned out strange. The lighting was bad and the flash made matters worse. So here's what I got!  Can't wait to share Evan's 3 year old photo shoot shots!!

 

 

 

End of June

These are the last of my 'shareable' photos from June. 

We had a fawn visitor in our backyard which I had to try and shoot. That was the best I could do. I am happy to report that the deer did make it back to it's mom a few hours after I took some shots, so all is right in that deer family.

The last shot was an upward view of a tree.  I tweaked with the saturation on the computer to try make the leaves & sky stand out - something a polarizing filter would have done for me, but I'm still trying to learn how to use those!!   There are lots of great photos coming up from July once I have a few hours to edit. I can't wait to share them!!

 

 

Some inside play...

This summer has been flying by!! Occasionally, we do entertain ourselves inside. Usually when I have things that need to be done like cooking or cleaning.

Here are some shots I enjoyed from late June of us inside. I say 'us' because you'll notice in Preston's picture, with his shooter, that my feet make an appearance. (as do Evan's). Not necessarily the plan in the photo, but I like the story that it tells.

                   

The airport

Between the storms Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday last week we were quite homebound and itching to get outside!

After nap Wednesday, I took the boys to the Waukesha airport viewing area to watch some airplanes since it finally wasn't raining or storming.

They thought it was the cat's meow to be there. I loved taking pictures of them getting so excited to see the airplanes so close and 'fast and bumpy' as Evan said.

In the black and white photo, I highlighted the plane in color to see where it is.

I don't think this location will be a common spot for photo shoots as Jeff told me, it looks like they are in the jail cell yard. Well, they  had fun anyway.