Best Face Photo in May

I love the expressions on the girls faces during our first camping trip this year.

 

The photo isn't a stellar piece of art by any means, its a little blurry and fuzzy....but their faces show the genuine glee of their mother allowing them to play in the fire. 

A huge 'no no' that I normally don't let slide.

And for those reasons, I'm entering this photo in the best face photo for the month of May at I Heart Faces.

No more Kung Foo

The girls had their season wrap up for ballet last week.

This is my little one clapping her little heart out.

"Go Team!"

If your a local, you know how much I want to yell "Save Money!" after that cheer..

(Its from a local car commercial. The kind where they assault you with yelling, screaming and obnoxious slogans that stay with you forever. Case in point.)

Anyhoo,

the lighting in the auditorium is atrocious..

 

 The dancing, fabticious. 

(When the English language fails me, I make up my own words).

Look at those faces!

ehhh hmmm, I swear they enjoy ballet!

 

I'm convinced they are so focused they just can't muster smile just yet.

yup.

TADA!

 

Smiles.

As a side note, my little one performed no unchoreographed kung foo kicks this year. They were the highlight of last years performance as the rest of the girls twirled and did plié's, she ran amok all over the place doing her own thing. I laughed so hard last year I nearly peed my pants.  

Nearly.

This year she stayed within the ballet routine and I must say, she did really well! I will also admit, I missed her running all over the stage making up her own dance style, but this can only mean that she is learning and able to follow a routine, which I'm also very proud of.

But....

  I totally missed those kung foo crazy kicks.

:)

End of an era

Today was the last day of my daughters life as a kindergartener. 

*sigh*

The top photo is her on her very first day....

 

and the bottom photo was taken today.

During the top photo she couldn't read a book. 

Now she can.

In the top photo she wore 4t pants.

She wears size 7 now!

In the top photo she was 5 years old.

In the bottom photo, well she is still five.

Top photo: Happy.

Bottom photo: Reluctantly resigned to letting her mom take one more picture.

And another comparison: 

Look at that happy jubilation!

  'I'm going to Kindergarten! YAY!'                                              'I'm no longer in Kindergarten! YAY!'

I will now be a mother to a first grader.

sheesh, I'm feeling like an old fart now.

Yeller.

I Heart Faces theme this week is yellow.

Last summer my oldest and I went for a ride in the country and did a couple fun photos.

She was (is) really into cowgirls, horses, and anything country so I thought this setting fit her just right.

My 'lil country bumpkin.

horses, aliens and snakes...oh my!

This last weekend was a doozy! 

The weather, awesome...the adventure, fantastic....the discovery, creep-tac-ular!

It all started out mild enough.

 but, not 5 min after we stopped and I tromped around the road to take this picture...

we saw this creature:

yes, a snake.

yes, a scary snake.

yes, a snake that can kill you if you are a blonde lady lolly gagging around the road with your face glued to your camera with no sense on what you may or may not be stepping on.

A rattle snake.

To be honest we were estactic.

One, because we were safe in our pickup,

and two because my husband has lived here for his whole 28 years and has NEVER seen one.

I'm sure we looked like a bunch of crazy fruitcakes to the group of men who drove by as we giggled, gawked and literally hung out the windows of the cab looking at this snake, but we didn't care.

Needless to say, once the snake slithered off into the grass we headed down to the lake and I no longer had my faced glued to my camera without a care in the world.

Seeing that snake changed my life.

Ok, thats dramatic....

redo:

Seeing that snake made me survey my surroundings much more carefully.

There we go.

So after a mile wide snake sweep, we reluctantly let our precious children out of the truck,

 and the fishing began.

The girls explored.

 

Ace explored.

errrrr, ummmm Ace slobbered all over himself.

How you manage to slobber all over your own face, dog, I will never know.

 And I relaxed.

And after a few hours without not even a bite, my husband caught an alien!

ok, catfish.

But I think alien fish has a nice ring to it.

We threw it back.

And headed home.

 Along the way the girls went crazy when they saw this:

Someone riding a horse.

Its the simple things in life.

Fix it!

I Heart Faces recently moved all their  Fix It Fridays to their community forum, but this week they are also hosting a linky for it, yay!

So anyhoo, here is my edit of this weeks photo:

And here is the side by side of the before & after:

First thing I did was lighten her eyes and then softened up her skin a bit.
Then I sharped the entire photo, added a layer mask and painted out the sharpness of her face (I like it a little softer).
I lightened up the photo with curves, but darkened up the background.
I did a few other zips and zings and also added a blur & vignette.

Thanks for visiting!!

You can see all the other edits here.

Quite Contrary

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, 

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells,

 and cockleshells  

  And pretty maids all in a row.

"Okay....my little maids make sure you plant things symmetrical like!"

 "If you want your grilled cheese you better hop to it!"

"Your back aches? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!"

"You reap what you sow girls!.....Reap what you sow."

"HUH? Mommy, your nuts."

She may be right.

Oh, and who am I kidding?
I would never force my maids....errrrr...daughters to garden if they didn't want to.
(they LOVED it!)
And I would NEVER hold their grilled cheese for ransom.
That would just be wrong on so many levels.

Do you garden?
What did you plant this year?

Up to no good?

All mothers know when your kids have retreated from your eyesight and its gets eerily quiet,
something is wrong.

They are doing something BAD.

They are reeking havoc on something you adore...making a disaster area out of your organized mess in the office....(yes I said organized mess, its a mess but its organized..mmmmkay?)...or possibly downloading 456 repetitive versions of MMM-Bop on your IPod.

eek!

But when I peeked in on my little one,
I didn't have a coronary,
or cry my eyes out,
or fall to my knees in despair...

No.

I smiled.

"Mmm bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du....."

Action!

I always look forward to Pioneer Woman's (Ree Drummond) photo assignments on her blog. 

Her theme this go around was 'Action'.

So of course, I hem and haw over what to enter.

"Oh dear..hmmm this one?" Garsh I dunno... Hun, what do you think?"

"Yeah sure. "

"I'm just not sure it's action-y enough..ya know?"

"Uh huh."

"I've always liked this one...."

"yup."

"Ahhh what about this? It's always been a favorite of mine."

"Yeah."

hmmmmmmm

Ultimately I did enter some of those,
but this one was actually chosen and made it into group 5!:

UPDATE: It made it into the finals! 

*gasp*

Check out all the other amazing entries here.

And give a shout out for your fav! If its mine, AWESOME, but if not that's okay too..whatever tickles your pickle. :)

UPDATE: Holy MOSES! I won! I am completely shocked!
Thank you to all the people who left kind comments on PW, my Flickr page and here on my blog! 

It truly means a lot!!

Modern Hillbilly

Sometimes I look at things my family and I do and wonder why I don't hear banjo music. 

Not in a crazy 'I hear voices' type way, but like maybe that's becoming my theme music.

I never  heard it more clearly then last weekend:

We loaded up the four wheeler...... then strapped the girl's mini ride on top.

I felt like a hick.

Next thing you know, it will be grandma up there.

Sorry in advance grandma.

And now the attire.

Nothing induces banjo music like wearing last years sweatpants and snow boots.

At the same time.

and luggage??

Well its beyond a stick with a handkerchief tied to the end.

Thank goodness.

And the music stops there.

Because I think it actually takes effort to be hickish and I was plum wore out.

Fishn'

ridn'

campn'

The End.

P.S.: If I ever try and name my hypothetical future child Jim-Bob, Billy-Bob, or anything with a -Bob. Please stop me. Thank you.

May Flowers

The theme this week at I Heart Faces is May Flowers.

These are from the bouquet my husband and kids gave me for Mothers Day.

And in true Spring fashion, it was raining outside when I snapped the photo.

Equal time.

I have been sitting here thinking about personality quirks... and what unique traits my youngest has.

Unlike her older sister, she can sleep in bare feet.

She also thinks spicy things rock.

"you know it momma!"

She doesn't collect worms and wash them in the sink cause they are dirty (that was me).
She doesn't balance her PB&J on TOP of her hand when she eats (that too would of been me).
She doesn't deposit all her Flintstone vitamins down the heat vent (yes, me...and I guess that's just bad behavior not a quirk, whoops).

Ya know, I think she must of missed out on the quirky gene.

I will say, she can rhyme like nobody's business.

 And regardless of the beginning of her rhyme....

It always ends in 'wack-a-roozer.'

If that's not talent, I dunno what is.

Idiosyncrasy

She is the only child, no..... the only person, I know who wears socks to bed. 

Every night.

Even if its 100 degrees in her room and she is hot, she refuses to take her socks off.

"Its scratchy."

That's the only explanation we have for this unique oddity.

She also wont put on jeans without socks on first.

Its a strange thing.

She also thinks Ketchup is spicy...

 ....depending on the day.

And she believes that angels come and give her kisses at night.
Right on the nose.

Cause you know, that's where freckles come from.

And the rationale behind why little sister doesn't have freckle evidence from angel kisses at night?

"They just must give her hugs."

I love 5 year old logic.

And...well...

 

 Not sure what to say about this photo.

Love ya bug! And all your quirky cuteness.

-mommy

biking, flowers and such.

My mothers day weekend was fantastic and adventure-listic!

Flowers from Mothers Day:

or flowerrrr, I should say...no 's'.
There were more of course, but I singled this one out as my favorite.

We also went on a bike ride down the road and spent the day just hanging out.

Which I have to say, is my favorite past time.

 

It was a long ride......

Especially for our 3 year old, who has to peddle like the dickens to keep up.

"mawwwwwwmom....I tired..."

"Come on baby! Make Dora proud!..

Its just dowwwwn the road,

ovvvver Alphabet mountain..."

oh wait....

nevermind.

If you don't have kids you probably think I'm crazy right now. 

Just ignore and proceed on.

*clears throat*

So we enjoyed the sights and wild life.

 Okay, docile life.
(and just how cute is that calf?!)

 Eventually, we made it to our destination.

And of course no adventure is complete without a movie re-enactment.

Take one.

Entitled:

'Frolicing' 

After a scene or two from Bambi we made our way back to our bikes.

Along the way we were ambushed by a  Cobra!

no, a-a-a VIPER!

Yes!

With Water Moccasin babies!

"EEEEEEK!!! KILL IT!!"

 *squeal*

"RUN!"

I will not deny that I screamed the loudest.

I will also not deny that my children were not scared until there mother screamed and hopped around like her pants were on fire.

Thankfully the creature slithered off into the grass after it saw that.

It was a pretty pitiful sight, Im sure of it.

phew.

We made it home.

It was another great Mothers day.

The End.