obligatory halloween pics

Having Halloween on a Sunday is rough. The kids ate dinner, got in their costumes, visited one set of grandparents, trick-or-treated, ate their single piece of allotted candy, played a game of Yahtzee, helped distribute candy to other trick-or-treaters, brushed their teeth and were in bed by 7:45 (minus the game of Yahtzee, Josie was out cold by 7). Not too shabby.

field trip!

Josie's class took a field trip (her first ever!) out to a Sauvie Island pumpkin patch this morning. Her teacher told the class on Tuesday that it might be raining and muddy and whaddya know, it was (Josie was seriously so impressed by what a good guess that was!).





Aside from the pumpkins and the mud (which there was a lot of), there were some animals:


...a real-life tractor:

...and lots of cute kiddos:

many of you will recognize these two:

Such a fun morning... but just between you and me, I'm glad it's over!!

homework is for chumps

I'm not a big fan of homework. Not really for my kids (but that's a story for another day) and most definitely not for me. No huge surprise, the Photoshop Elements class that I'm taking has a bit of homework each week. Nothing time-consuming or difficult, but it's still a pain in the ass and I still wait until the very last second to get it done.

This week's assignment was particularly frustrating for me: take a photo with an intentionally-incorrect white balance setting, and fix it. First off, I don't see the point of going out of my way to take a bad photo. Second, I think we've already established that (at least when shooting in RAW) it is beyond simple to fix the white balance.

Here's what I started out with: a Yoda stuffed animal that Cayden put a hat on and then propped up on the railing of his bunk bed. When I walked into his room this morning, I saw it out of the corner of my eye, immediately thought it was a person, and was scared sh*tless. I knew he would have to be my unwilling subject.


Step 1: fix the white balance and immediate lighting concerns in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw)
Step 2: tweak any other settings (contrast, sharpening, etc.)
Step 3: post finished product here

josieism of the day

(to her assortment of princess and fairy figurines): "I like to teach your dance class but I can't teach you anymore because you all turned into iguanas and that scares me too much."

just four months 'til paradise

It's official... there's a girls' weekend getaway to Mexico in my future! March 4th to be exact, and I couldn't be any more excited if I tried. The time span from November to March is always so dark and dreary in Portland, so I'm thrilled to have something tropical to look forward to. In all honesty, I don't care if I sleep on the floor and eat nothing but pb&j for every meal. As long as there's sunshine, a beach and a lack of children, I'll be happy.

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait...

8am games in october should be against the law

photo timestamp: 07:19:32

(notice all the lovely darkness)

creative camera techniques

Whew, my brain is still hurting from class today. 3 hours of discussion and about 2 hours of practice... all centered around (you guessed it) Creative Camera Techniques. Avery asked what I learned when I got home and I had to explain that there wasn't much that I learned for the very first time ever, but there were a lot of details that I either relearned, became better acquainted with, or had just never given much thought to beforehand.

I was definitely hoping to leave class with more amazing photos than I ended up with, but that wasn't really the point. The point was to get outside and try things we might not have tried before, and since it was so bright outside (darned sun!), our options were definitely limited. No complaints, just an observation.

Here are some of my favorites (nothing that I necessarily wouldn't/couldn't have taken before today's class, but at least slightly out of the ordinary for me):






A few more here...

what a nut

Josie: "Mama, I know that 8 plus 22 is 3."

Me: "Actually, 8 plus 22 is 30, and 1 plus 2 is 3."

Josie: "You are all mixed up and it's making me really nervous."

marathoners

Keeping in line with the race-themed weekend, we headed downtown today to cheer for two of our most favorite people as they crossed the finish line of the Portland Marathon.

Amy (friend and preschool teacher extraordinaire) came in first, right about when I realized I was in a less than ideal spot for getting pictures. Hence the blurry nature of the above photo. At least the clock is in focus.

Linda (basically a third grandmother to the kids) rounded the corner not long after Amy... giving me just enough time to change our vantage point.

It was so fun to watch the runners & walkers as they took their last few steps. Many of them had tears in their eyes; others looked like they were going to collapse.

Apparently it rained until our good friends were at about Mile 18, but the sun actually peeked out a bit was the race was finishing up. A nice way to celebrate such a huge accomplishment.

zinnia: two months (minus two days)!

Seriously, is she not the cutest thing you've ever seen? I'll bet you fifty bucks she is.







And finally, I bring you today's submission for Awkward Family Photos:

just a month in the making

A month ago, I bought these frames with a birthday gift card and had monster-sized prints made of each of the kids shoving various food & drink in their mouth. That took all of about two days. Easy peasy.

Getting the frames hung in the dining room was another story altogether. The wall where I wanted them is the upper half of the staircase to the basement and no matter what we tried, we could not reach high enough to get them up.

Thanks to some dear friends who let us borrow their multi-angle ladder, and some crazy acrobatics that I would never recommend anyone trying, we finally managed to get the photos hung this evening (exciting Friday nights around here!).

I see now that Josie's photo is about half an inch lower than the other two and I'm not convinced any of the frames are hung straight, but this house is so old and crooked-y that I'm hoping no one will notice.


Because I'm not about to climb that ladder to fix it.