You Capture - Joy

Thursday, April 30

This week the photo challenge was Joy. It was kind of a rough week for joy around here since both girls had fevers and sore throats. Finally on Tuesday everyone was fever free and that brought me joy.

On Wednesday they both went to school - more joy! Here they are enjoying some spring blossoms.

My dad was visiting from California this week and we went to visit my Grandma. Every time I try to take a picture, her smile disappears and this is what I end up with. I should have had my camera ready right when we arrived because they always have a big hug with big smiles. Here is a candid that I caught.
This one turned out pretty good of everyone.
The plan was for both of them to give Sydney a kiss, but I missed it.
I think it was a loud tickly kiss. Is this a picture of joy or torture? Pretty funny either way. Click here to see everyone else's joy pics.

Macro Monday

Monday, April 27

I am on day 7 of at least one kid in my house having a fever and some degree of sore throat. So let's look at something pretty.
Who knew I would love frilly pink tulips?

Happy Belated Birthdays

Saturday, April 25

Guess who is 5! OK, Sydney's birthday was last week on April 16th, sorry you didn't get a blog post on your special day. I guess that's what happens when your the third birthday within 2 1/2 weeks. Yes, birthday season for the Cantrell's is officially over. Sydney had a great week. She played outside in the sunand went swimming with a few friends. Great Gma Nammy came to visit and took her out to lunch along with Gpa Bubba, then we went out to dinner at BJ's and they gave her a pizookie (think pizza made of cookie and ice cream).

She loves her new Hello Kitty T-shirt and pink dragon Webkinz named, Lily. As you know she is also enjoying her new pink scooter. The girls are saving the rest of their birthday money for various summer camps. (Thank you long distance family!) Sydney is really excited to be going to a zoo camp this year.

I was trying to remember when I started the blog and looking back I found this picture. The first post was April 16, 2008.

The blog and Sydney have the same birthday!

I'm not sure how many people are still checking the blog now that were not running around Europe. If you read this and you're not considered family, I dare you to leave a comment. Even if you don't read this for another month. Maybe I should just put a hidden counter on the blog. Maybe I already have - you never know!

OK, enjoy the rest of your weekends. We are resting - Sydney is trying to recover from a fever and really sore throat. I think Kyla is just starting the fever. Fun, fun.

You Capture - Letters

Wednesday, April 23

This weeks You Capture photo challenge over at I Should Be Folding Laundry was 'Letters'. This was kind of a hard one, but I came up with a few different angles. The now 5 year old Sydney helped me with this one. Hubby was glad that spelling out "Lazy Husband" was just too many letters!

Here are some letters I see every now and then on the street outside my house. You can see them better after it rains. Why do kids graffiti using their own names? Looking at this, Justin doesn't seem too bright.

Here is my 8 year old just back from the library planning to read a lot of letters in a row.
Here is the 5 year old, right after she woke up from a fever induced nap (see the messy hair) and declared, "I need to do some homework!" Poor thing, she doesn't even have homework, but I gave her some anyway. Let's hear it for the letter G.
I can't believe I got this shot. The postal carrier is very fast I tell you. This was taken through my peep hole and I didn't have time to center the shot, but I got him just before he delivered my letter to the box.

To see some other great letter pics go here.

Macro Monday

Monday, April 20

Don't forget this week is TV turnoff, so I guess we'll be outside watching the spiders take over the play structure.

You Capture - 'Rust'ic

April 15

This weeks photo challenge theme was rustic. Um, I can't do rustic because all I hear and see is rust. Hopefully these rusty pics are a little rustic too.

Click here to see some real rustic pics.

Gatherings

Tuesday, April 14


Here we all are together on Easter morning at my sister's house in Seattle. Can you believe it everyone together for a weekend and no one was too sick and I just realized, no one threw-up (unlike the two previous years). Way to go kids!

The cousins had such a great time together, they were so happy playing and spending time together. It's great how they are so close to the same ages. Grandpa Rick and Uncle Eric took them to a nearby beach, where they collected rocks and got to practice carving sticks.

The little girls spent a lot of time on the trampoline.

They also loved the tire swing at the nearby park.

Last Friday the girls and I joined Kevin at a totally different gathering - Norwescon, a sci-fi convention. I didn't take too many picture even though there were a lot of people in costume even before the big Masquerade on Saturday night. It wasn't our first time there.

Here is Sydney the cat helping out the local ghost buster.
The girls also get their annual dose of doing paper mache. Last year it was dragon eggs and this year it was 'Lost Civilizations'.
We still have to decorate them since we weren't there the next day. Sydney didn't last long handling the oooey goooey, so I got to finish hers.

Today we're picking up Grandpa Bubba from the airport and heading straight to IKEA. I wanted there to be one in Portland for so long and then I never went 'cause I was afraid I'd spend too much money. So wish me some will power, I keep adding things to my list.

Friday Flashback: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Friday, April 9
Why have I waited almost four months to blog about the cruise we took last November? I have no good excuse, but it's not because we didn't have a great time. Cruises are the way to travel with kids! Right now I'm hanging out in a hotel near SeaTac airport. We are all headed to the Science Fiction Convention today, an annual stop for us on the way to visit the cousins in the Seattle area for Easter. Yes, I could have some very interesting pictures to post next week.

Here is what I found on the laptop regarding Dubrovnik which was written on Sunday, November 23, 2008.

Cute little town surrounded by a wall that we walked on top of. It was pretty cold and the girls begged to go back to the boat the whole time. We had lunch at a little restaurant by the water and had some yummy shrimp and seafood risotto that had a little too much seafood for me. I pretty much only like peeled shrimp and shelled crab. Luckily Kevin doesn’t mind foraging for his food and for his family too.
Click here for more pics of Dubrovnik, Croatia.

You Capture - Fun

Thursday, April 9

This weeks photography theme was fun. We're really looking for some fun this weekend since we're heading up to spend Easter with the cousins in Seattle. As for last week, not much was going on around here. We took the girls shopping for their birthday and they were so happy to finally pick out some new scooters.

I'm not sure if this should be categorized under fun or scary, but here it is:

Make your own animation at Gickr.com

The pictures look kind of grainy to me. Anyone know a better way to animate stills?

That girl loves to have fun! Click here to join the fun or see more fun photos.

Macro Monday

Monday, April 6

Happy Birthday Kevin!

Sunday, April 5

Now that you have added the family blog to your Google Reader I know you'll see this message shortly after you check your email today. Hopefully it will make up for the fact that I didn't buy or make you a card. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN (aka Dad, aka Honey, in fact he rarely gets called by his real name around here). It's your last year to celebrate that you're still thirty-something and you may rather be wandering around the Alhambra

or day dreaming on some Greek island...

but thankfully you've done those things already. So I ordered up some warm sunny weather just for you. It's you're day! You can go for a long bike ride or just play some boardgames. The girls have been instructed to respond to any requests by saying, yes Master. We will do our best to help you have a great day. You're the best husband/dad a family could have. We love you!

Spring Break 09

Friday, April 3

I'm looking at the calender and realizing it's already been three weeks since we went to the beach for Kevin's spring break. huh. How did that happen? Anyway, the weather was unbelievable for Oregon, sunny and just windy enough to let us test out the new dragon kite. We stayed outside a lot more than usual, skipping our usual visit to the carousel and aquarium in Seaside. So glad we decided to bring the bikes.

Gma and Gpa joined us for the last night. We really appreciated having them over. Gpa Rick turned out to be a great beach playmate and took the girls swimming two times, which means they went swimming 5 times in 4 days. That's two more times than just Kevin and I would have taken them. Thanks Grandpa!
Click here to see more beach pictures. Please let me know if you have any problems with the link. My computer was being weird about it the other day.

You Capture - Spring

Thursday, April 2

This weeks photography challenge was spring and these are all pics I took this week. Aren't you proud of me, no old photos. There are plenty of daffodils out, but for some reason I was not in the mood to take their picture. I thought for sure the huge tulip bud in my front yard was going to pop in time for me to do a before/after pic, but instead this smaller one started to unfold. I kept thinking it would be great to get a picture of people actually springing, like on a trampoline or that bouncy teeter totter at the park, but all we've had is rain. So here it is.I'm not much of a pink person, but I really love seeing all the pink trees blossoms. I desperately wanted to have a beautiful blue sky in the background of this picture, but I never saw one this week, so white clouds will have to do.
Click here to join in or see more spring pics over at I Should Be Folding Laundry.