Wednesday, September 30, 2009

You Capture - Fall

Wednesday, September 30

This year fall means a lot of soccer!
The clouds bringing the rain.

Dandelions are always there, but look a little different when they're wet.
Feeling the fall of the swing.
Eating lots of soup!
The first branch on our maple tree starting to turn.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

No nomination this year. . .

Monday, September 28

for the Mother of the Year award that is. Last Friday I was all geared up to go on this great field trip with the 3rd graders - a hike at Ape Caves, the lava tubes formed during an eruption of Mt. St. Helen's about 2000 years ago. Well I got to see Kyla for about 5 seconds during the whole field trip. Here is the condensed version:

Lunches and flashlights with spare batteries packed. Kyla is on the bus and parents have to carpool. Our van of 6 moms made a pit stop (read stopped at a super slow Starbucks) and attempted to catch up with the bus. We never saw it. We passed Ape Caves, but turned around and found them only wasting about 10 minutes. We found the caves, but the kids were already below ground. Three moms rushed into the caves to catch up, but I really had to pee. Me and the other two moms found the cave entrance, but I was the only one with a not very bright flashlight. Not good since we were instructed that every person needed their own flashlight. So we went back up and checked out the map. Seemed obvious that we could take the above ground trail and meet them at the other end. We quickly hiked 1.3 miles and found the cave exit. We went down, looked around, went up and waited 30 minutes with cameras ready. No kids. OK, hike back. The field trip was over. Wasn't that fun. I made it to the bus just in time to let Kyla know I wasn't lost in a cave somewhere. Then we drove the 1.5 hours back to school. The weather was beautiful and I had a nice 2.5 mile hike with 2 strangers, but I totally missed the whole trip. Kyla was worried about me, but she was with 40 other kids so she still had a good time. Thank goodness I wasn't really needed to do actual chaperoning. I keep feeling like I really let her down, but at least nothing awful happened. No one got hurt or truly lost. Wouldn't it be nice if there was cell phone reception on a mountain or in a cave? Now that it's over, I'm going to try and forget the whole thing, except that I haven't even talked to the teacher yet. Do you think the school can fire a volunteer?

Oh, here are a couple a pics I got. Just pretend it's my kid and all her friends climbing out of a cave.

I mostly blame the mom that mentioned Starbucks - I didn't even order anything there. Well, I'll get another chance in three years. Next time I won't let the bus out of my sight!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

You Capture - Happiness

Thursday, September 24


It's been a crazy busy week and I didn't really concentrate on my photo challenge this week. We did however take the girls to the Portland Pirate Festival, which they love. So I guess happiness is having your family dress up and hang out with a bunch of pirates.
Getting to hold a parrot.
Checking out the swords.
Fighting imaginary bad guys.
And hanging out on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.
We are definitely having an indian summer, which brings me happiness while I'm laying in the sun with a book while girls are enjoying soccer practice!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Instant Soccer Mom says... Where's my minivan?

Tuesday, September 21

I didn't quite realize that having two girls in soccer would mean practices 3 nights a week, always around dinner time and two games in different locations on Saturdays. So far nothing has overlapped and I'm hoping it won't since we only have one car. We started practices a month ago already and now that we have games on the weekend, it seems we are always rushing out the door with water bottle, balls, cleats and shin guards. Yes, all I need is a minivan!

This is Sydney's first year playing on the 4/5 yo team. She loves practice, but she's not so sure about the games. They are a little rough, but after her first game I'll have to say she is a ball chasing, mosh pit surviving, goal making machine!





And another goal!!




I don't have any good videos of Kyla's game, the field is so much bigger. She is on a U9 girls team and they have practice twice a week and they are learning positions and everything. So far, her favorite is defense.

Kevin is the assistant coach for Kyla's team so the whole family is keeping busy.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

You Capture - Macro

Thursday, September 17

I love shooting macros. Here are some I got with the new dSLR. This is a bracelet I got in Barcelona last year. I love it, but somehow it has a crack (not shown) and it's not very comfy.
Those flowers that are supposed to attract the butterflies.
Obligatory rose macro.
Helicopters from the neighbor's maple tree.

The rest were taken with the "super macro" setting 0n my point and shoot. I got one with the close flower in focus, but ended up liking this version better.
OK, don't scroll down if you don't like spiders. I've never seen one quite like this and he was holding still. They only scare me when they are in the shower, my bedroom or moving too fast.

Let's go see more macros over at Beth's blog.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

You Capture - Something New


Thursday, September 10


This week's photo challenge was to find something that you have never photographed before. Let me tell you this was a tough one because apparently, I'll take a picture of anything. There was really nothing in my house or property I could think of that would make a decent photo. OK, here is one thing I found that looked kind of interesting. Any guesses? Here's a little hint: I was working on a food project in my kitchen.

So I took my camera to the farmer's market and found some cool vegetable carvings. I have taken photos of fruit carvings at a gelato shop, but not veggies! Now I know what to do with those huge zucchinis from the garden. I got pretty soaked at the market and was reluctant to take my camera out until I found this puddle that seemed to turn rain drops into bubbles. Hmmm, someone must have spilled soap on the sidewalk?


I was pretty excited about these next ones even though I took them the week before last. I have never before taken pictures of an inch worm!



Visit Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry to see the other Something New Photos.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Two big girls now

Tuesday, September 8

Today was the big day for Sydney, first day of Kindergarten!
Big sister Kyla was ready to go back to school weeks ago!
Hop on your bikes girls,
and follow Dad, while mom takes pics and rides and the same time! Don't forget to turn right.
My friend Sherry called at 10:30 to see how the drop of went and. . .
I was still there!
I did it for the teacher, I swear! Things were a little crazy this morning as the teacher's registration list was all messed up, so I offered to help out. She put me to work stapling notebooks and sharpening pencils. I made it home by 11am, just enough time to get some lunch and go to the grocery store.
I know Syd was worried about how she would like school and afterwards she reported having a great day. "I love school, I love Kindergarten and I can't wait for tomorrow!" I knew she would love school - yea!
Kyla was equally happy with her first day and her new teacher. She has a dog named Daisy her class, so that's exciting. She was only sad to discover that there will be no more silent reading time - because reading a million books this summer wasn't enough!

Monday, September 7, 2009

End of Summer

Monday, September 7

Hope you all had a happy Labor Day weekend! I always forget that Kevin doesn't get this holiday, so the girls and I just relaxed and got ready for school. We organized the clothes and the backpacks, cleaned the lunchboxes and the vintage Thundercats and Transformers thermoses purchased from eBay, played with friends and went to soccer practice. The girls are really excited that school is finally going to start tomorrow and so am I!

Really I just wanted to post the camping photos from last weekend at Alder Lake, WA. We had a little rain and no running water in the bathrooms, but the cousins had a great time together playing on the rock and driftwood filled shore, picking blackberries and roasting hot dogs on the campfire. I am thankful that we were all able to spend a weekend together. Here are a few photos to get to started.






Want to see the rest? Click here!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

You Capture - Old Signs

Thursday, September 3

Doh! I just finished my whole post and blogger failed to save! You'll probably thank me this time as there will be less commentary. Here's an old place I found while camping last weekend with my family at Alder Lake, WA. (Those photos coming soon.)
These next two will look very familiar if you happen to live in St. John's, an old neighborhood in north Portland. Here is the
McMenamin's Pub where you can have dinner and drinks while seeing a $3 movie. Yea!
This next one is my favorite. What looks like an old gas station at night is really a pizza & ice cream diner. Yummy!

Go here to visit
I Should Be Folding Laundry to see more Old Sign photos.