a year in pictures: July 2009

Thursday, July 30, 2009

While out for a walk today I saw this beautiful clump of thistle in the field. While I was watching the butterflies and bees hovering over the rest of the wild flowers an American Goldfinch decided to stop for lunch. Goldfinches are beautiful little yellow birds with black markings, the colors were striking in the greens and purple of the thistle. If you click on the pictures you can see them larger. Unfortunately I was only carrying my kit lens so this was as close as I could get with two kids in a stroller.

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Chloe loves the swing. Lilly loves to push. I love to take pictures

The result.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

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At the shower there were blank bibs, markers, and paints so that you could make a bib for the baby. This was one of them.

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Christy was given the second of three baby showers today. She is almost thirty three weeks into her pregnancy. I am so excited. I can not wait for Oliver to arrive. We gave Christy and Ian a stroller, a blue Uppababy Vista. Life has been so busy that I did not get a chance to photograph it. I am sure I will get some pictures of it in use this fall.-

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Chloe celebrated her first birthday this weekend. Her mom put together this backdrop for the cake table. I took the pictures. When I figure out how to use Photoshop I would like to go back and edit a few of them and see how others would look in black and white. I think this was a great idea. I am hoping I can make one for Oliver's first birthday

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A girl can never wear too much jewelery.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

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If you look in the mirror you can see Lilly is totally focused on what Ms. Beth is saying and they are both up on their toes.

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More cakes! These are for Chloe's birthday party.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

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Do you have any idea how hard it is to stick to your weight lose plan when you spend your afternoon making gum drop flowers? I only ate three gum drops and I included them in my points count. I still have to bake two cakes and four dozen cupcakes this week. I need all the will power I can muster.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

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My practice cake for the baby shower.

He needs help, the cake did not rise the way it should have in the pan leaving the duck flatter on one side than on the other.

His good side.

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While I was chopping onions Kate stacked the giant zucchini I was preparing to grill Jenga style. The zucchini slices were the size of large burgers.

Giant zucchini next to average sized squash.
Photos by Kate.

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Happy Birthday Chloe Grace!

Chloe has been pretty content to play on her own the last few days.

She loves the beads...

and will chase this ball all over the house, pick it up put it on her head and chase it again when it falls.

Her Aunt and Uncle got her a little Minnie Mouse in Disney World. the first thing she did was give it a kiss.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

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Who took my cookie?

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It has happened. The cheesy, look there is the camera, head cock and smile. With pizza sauce all over her face.

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Garden Update.

We have green beans, teeny tiny green beans. We did figure out, with this our first vegetable garden, that we did not plant enough of some things. Next year we will plant twice as many green beans and peas.

I missed the chance to get a nice photo of the peas. They are just about finished in the garden. They were delicious. I love to eat them right off of the vine. We are going to pull them and plant something else. Maybe more peas.

When they finally turn red we are going to have tomatoes coming out of our ears. All three plants are loaded with fruit.

Zucchini. Yummy. We have had give some of the zucchini away, we just can not eat it fast enough.

The cucumbers seem to be growing at just the right pace for us. They are huge and crisp and scrumptious.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

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Do you have any idea how difficult it is to take your own photo? With or without a tripod it is not an easy task. You need to be behind to camera to set up the shot and in front of it to be in the picture. The following are of me playing with the camera during nap time on Friday. I had my 50mm 1.8 lens on the camera. Some of the shots were taken with me holding the camera in front of me and some are with the camera propped on the arm of the couch using the timer. This was definitely a learning experience. I want to try it again with the tripod and the remote shutter release. Don't laugh too hard when you see these.

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Chloe did not like being put down in the sand.

And preferred my hat to hers.

Thanks Melissa for this shot. That is the elusive Chloe smile.

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We had an absolutely beautiful day to spend at the beach park (aka Ft. Smallwood Park). The clouds looked like they were painted on a bright blue sky. Melissa, Josh, Meghan, Lilly, Chloe and I spent a wonderful afternoon hunting for sea glass.

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I love this one of Joshua and Meghan

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Meghan brought her little tea set on our recent picnic. It has tiny knives, forks and spoons. Lilly was working so hard at cutting the ham from her Lunchable.

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Lilly started dance this week.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

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Found!

I had been keeping an eye out for an interesting little chair to use when I photograph the kids in my life. Today Lilly found one. We went to my local photo shop to buy a replacement lens cap and on the way out Lilly started pulling me away from the car talking about a chair. She spotted this adorable little chair. I had never even noticed the antique shop near the photo store. I am really glad she saw it, it is just what I had pictured in my mind's eye. Of course she did not want to sit for pictures after her nap and Chloe kept trying to dive off of it.

Monday, July 6, 2009

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The first Sunday of the month, May through September, there is an art festival in downtown Annapolis. A portion of West Street is closed, artist and vendors set out their wares, restaurants put tables outside and bands play. I usually only photograph people I know but last Sunday I tried clicking shots of strangers. I learned a lot. I could not decide if I wanted people to notice their picture being taken or not. I ended up taking more wide angle photos of the whole scene. I can't wait until the first Sunday in August to go out and try again.

I definitely want to try one of these! (click on the picture to view it larger.)

Saturday, July 4, 2009

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Happy 4th of July

For the first time in about fifteen year Patrick and I went to see fireworks. Neither of us care for the crowds so twenty five minutes of fireworks has never seemed worth the traffic jams and other hassles. Kate talked us into trying something different. Tonight we ventured out to the Annapolis scenic overlook. I was excited to try shooting the fireworks. I took pictures of the first few minutes and then headed back to the blanket to watch with Patrick, Kate, Matt and his family. The traffic on the way out was not too bad and we were home buy ten o'clock. I am glad we went.

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Patrick has been looking for a hardcover copy of Huckleberry Finn. Sounds easy enough doesn't it. Unfortunately it was not. Amazon.com did have some available but they were pricey collector's editions. The newer ones were abridged and paperback. So yesterday when I got home from work early we went to a used book store. Way up on the top shelve of a very narrow section of classics he found it.

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Fresh from the garden. Two zucchini, one crooked neck squash and two cucumbers. We have been eating lettuce from the garden for a while and have had a few peas and some broccoli but this is our largest "harvest" to date. The tomatoes are now huge and yellow. Hopefully they will be red in a few more days. I had forgotten how much I love veggies fresh from the garden. Next year we will expand the size and plant more.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

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She may not walk yet.

But she can climb! She made it all the way to the top. At this point I had to shoulder the camera and spot her the rest of the way. But that little monkey went all the way up the slide.

I just loved this picture. You can't see her face but you can still see her concentration/determination.