You Capture - Family

Wednesday, May 27

This weeks photo challenge was family. I apologize in advance for another spider picture, but check out this family. I don't know why I keep taking pictures of spiders, there seem to be a lot of them around right now.

And here is what happens when their web is accidentally disturbed. Poor little guys! I checked on them today and they had all disappeared.

OK, now on to my real family. I just didn't have time to get any creative family shots, but we took the girls to the playground to practice their bike riding skills. We really try to ride our bikes more than drive during the summer. After one short session, my oldest is feeling much more confident on her new bike and the little one learned to ride without training wheels. It took us a whole five minutes to get tired of running, finally we just let go. Sorry I just didn't make it into the picture. Here's dad showing daughter just how easy it is. This shot is a little blurry, but doesn't he look so cute? I think his quote was, "This better not end up on the blog!"

For those of you who need to see the video of girls riding click here.
To see all the other family pics click here.

You Capture - Sweet

Thursday, May 21

No time for words today, but here are some sweet things from last week.

Looks sweet.

Smells sweet.

Tastes sweet.

Sydney's preschool class enjoying their sweets during school at the park.

Sorry this pic is 2 years old, but it's my favorite sweet sister shot.

Click here to see all the other sweet shots.

Won't you be my neighbor?

Tuesday, May 19

I haven't posted an update lately about the house next door. After they finished the outside you couldn't really hear or see what was going on anymore, so most of the excitement had worn off. Well, it's totally done. They even had an open house a few weeks ago and of course I went to check it out. They have it totally decorated and furnished.
They finished the landscaping the day before the open house. Now my lawn, which actually has a higher grass to weed ratio than usual, is feeling self conscious.

Here's what it looked like after they cleared the lot. See that little house on the right. Now it's gone!

Here we go again!

Macro Monday: Spider

Monday, May 18


Don't be scared, it's just a picture. Even though after cropping it bigger that actual size! I don't really like spiders, but this one was outside so that's OK. I guess I like taking pictures more than I dislike spiders. This one looks like it's ready to explore the dollhouse.

Clowning around

Friday, May 15

Every year BJ the Clown comes to perform at preschool. It's so fun to watch the kids, he really cracks them up. Here's Sydney helping him do a magic trick.

You Capture - Color

This weeks You Capture challenge was color. Here is the first bit of color I noticed.

I couldn't not take a picture of the playhouse, probably the most colorful thing we own.
I love playing with the color accent mode on my Canon S5, but it's not perfect as you can see color in her fingers, but I kind of like it.

Too bad it doesn't let you select rainbow as a choice. Or would that just be the normal setting - as in showing all the colors. Well, I had to use photoshop for this one.

Click here to see everyone's colorful pics.

She survived!

Wednesday, May 13

Kyla did very well for her molar extraction this morning and everything went smoothly. She got her kiddy Valium, which tasted awful.
Then they set her up with oxygen, which tickled her nose.

Next was the laughing gas, she did a little laughing, but mostly looked relaxed.

I kept waiting to be kicked out of the room, but they never asked me to leave. When they were ready to work on the tooth they said I might not want to watch. I have watched a total hip replacement before, but I was happy to read my magazine. It didn't take long and after she rested a few minutes and they made sure she could walk, we went home with her tooth in a baggy.
Here's Kyla zoning out with her iPod and some chocolate pudding.

She was a little sore after the local wore off, but after some pain medication, ice and watching a bunch of cartoons with dad, she was feeling much better. I think she's trying to show off the hole in this picture.

So no one is going to school tomorrow and I hope it's not to hard to keep the girls from playing crazy. No vigorous activity for four days!

Ankle-what?

Tuesday, May 12

Kyla has an ankylosed tooth and she is having it pulled out tomorrow! I had actually heard of this term before in my work as a physical therapist. Not for a tooth, but a spine. When you have inflammation of the spinal column and the vertebrae start fusing together - not good.

Kyla's 2nd year molar (upper left side) is fused to her jaw bone. It's a baby tooth, so not too big of a deal. While all her other molars are moving down while she grows and have permanent teeth developing underneath, this darn anklyosed molar looks like it is sinking back into her gums because it is stuck. X-rays show that the permanent tooth underneath is not developing properly. So removing the tooth is really the only option for everything to progress normally.

I've stocked up on all the soft foods I can think of: oatmeal, eggs, smoothies, yogurt, applesauce, soup and of course chocolate pudding and Jell-O. I just remembered I need to get her iPod ready with some more relaxing music than Captian Bogg (rockin' pirate music).

She's a little nervous, but her I have assured her it will be way better than a broken arm. Plus the fact that I survived having a total of 14 teeth pulled over the years, 6 of them baby teeth.

She goes in at 9:30am for the equivalent of some kiddy Valium (that should be interesting). Then she'll have a little laughing gas and it should only take them about 10 min to do the actual extraction.

If your friends with Kyla, maybe you could send her an email at kylapc at gmail dot com.

I'll try to post an update tomorrow afternoon.

Just Mom, Please

Monday, May 11

Last night I was tucking the girls into bed and Sydney was begging me to stay a couple more minutes. I told her that if she would stop talking I would stay two more minutes.

"Yes sir-ee. I mean yes ma'am-ir-ee.", she said.

Hey, I resemble that remark!

Just call me mom, please.

Friday Flashback: Malaga, Spain

Friday, May 8


I'm determined to finish posting the pics from our Mediterranean cruise from last November. Once again we begged the girls to go on shore with us, but when we told them we were back in Spain, they both said, "No thanks, we've already been there!" Even though we had never been there, it definitely felt familiar. Malaga is only about an hour or so from where we were living in Granada. You know it's the home town of Antonia Banderas, but I never saw him. I guess he was in Hollywood that day.
We had a warm, sunny walk up the hill to visit the Alcazaba (a military fortress built by the Moors in the 11th century) and Gibralforo Castle. Next stop was the Cathedral of course. Every Spanish town has a cathedral and a castle. Then we stopped at a bar for drinks and tapas. Finally a place we felt comfortable eating the food, not that there is any reason to eat something other than cruise food.
Click here to see the pics from Malaga.

You Capture - Expression

Thursday, April 7

I don't know, these photo challenges seem to be getting more and more, well - challenging. This week the challenge was Expression. I instantly thought of my youngest daughter, 5 year old Miss Sydney. Most people who talk to her, comment on how expressive she is. It's something about the eyes or the eyebrows. Well, I could never capture one of her looks this week, in fact here eyes are not even showing in these photos. You never know how she is going to express herself. Maybe wearing goggles when she's not swimming...
Or with a silly head shaking scream...

This next pic is something that Sydney wrote all by herself. I am completely amazed at what the 4 and 5 year old are learning in her Music Together class. She is learning to read music! This week the parents stayed in class and the kids showed us how they are learning to write the rhythms. So she came home and just started writing all the notes she knows. A new way to express herself.This is not musically correct, she's no Mozart, but it still looks like real music. I even tried to play it and it didn't sound to bad.

Here is the big sister giving me one of her expressions. I'll never learn to raise on eyebrow. She must have learned it from her dad.

Be sure and check out all the other Expression pics.

Friday Flashback - Santorini, Greece

Friday, May 1

Friday is almost over, but we still have time for a Friday Flashback. Today totally reminded me of our visit to Santorini since it was warm, sunny and windy.

According to my cruise itinerary we visited this Greek isle on November 25, 2008. I really need to update my blog, some people might think that is an upcoming cruise, but sadly it was over five months ago. How is that possible?
The girls chose to stay on the boat and we were a little sad that they didn't get to see the beautiful views from the little town of Oia. On the other hand we had to wait for a crowded bus ride, most shops were closed since it was the very end of the tourist season and it was super windy. I didn't even know if any of my pictures turned out until we got back on the boat. We got a ride up, but walked down a bunch of switchbacks on our return to the ship. Sure wish I had found a bathroom before we started down, but I survived without any accidents!

Click here to see more Santorini pics.

I linked to this site after I had already posted so I'm adding the linky thing.