Easter

We celebrated a lovely Easter weekend with Hub’s family, and I think I needed to go back to work to recover from the fun.  Gracie girl did some fancy egg dying and even laid out some carrots for the Easter Bunny.  She was so surprised to see them nibbled on the morning.  We went for a nice spring walk after hunting for eggs, and then started baking some fun Peep-inspired cupcakes for dessert.  I love photographing the mess that comes with baking.  The colors are always so vibrant, and getting the graphics of the packaging on ingredients makes the image so interesting.  Grace set a beautiful table for us, even with the piles of stuff from the kitchen in the corner.

Little progress has been made in the kitchen as we wait for our contractor to finish up a job and come knock ours out.  In the meantime, we just walk across sticky floors and try to keep the rest of the house together so we don’t feel like we are living in total chaos.  This will come to an end soon, right?

 

Virginia is for… History Nerds

Our little Gracie is a history buff.  She is the kid that gets SUPER excited when she hears about a field trip to a history museum.  When it’s her day to choose something for the family to do together, she will pick a tour of a historic home.  When we asked her what she would like to do for a weekend getaway, she immediately requested visiting Jamestown.  She studied Pocahontas in 2nd grade, and has wanted to see it ever since.  We explored both the Jamestown Settlement, where replicas of the fort and the ships the carried the colonists have been built. They have also created a replica of a Powhatan village for us to explore and a beautiful museum.  We did a guided tour and then went back and did more roaming on our own.  Grace even picked up a deer hoof and used it to help clean the fur off a deer hide that will be worn by guides. I couldn’t believe she picked that thing up, because there was no way I was going near it.

After exploring, we had a picnic in the outdoor eating area, and then headed over to the Historic Jamestown Settlement operated by the National Parks Service.  This was Hubs’ favorite part of the day.  Getting to walk around the perimeter of the original fort was pretty cool.  The archeological sites are amazing, and seeing what historians have been able to excavate from the site is incredible.  The foundations of some of the original buildings are still there, and cross mark the burial sites of some of the original settlers.  To think that we were in the place where the first Europeans stepped foot in the New World was pretty amazing, and pretty sobering to think about how their arrival must have appeared to the people who where already here.

Grace’s favorite part of the day was visiting the original glass house and the demonstrations.  We watched the craftsman create onion-shaped wine bottles, and even brought one home as a souvenir.  We finished the day walking along the James River and dipping our feet in the chilly water.  All-in-all it was a perfect day. Beautiful weather, fun exploring, and all done on a budget.

 

Waiting face

I snapped this portrait of Gracie girl in a restaurant a few weeks ago.  We had to wait awhile for a table, and we didn’t get started until late. She had a sleepover the night before, and was still wiped out.  She barely ate, and I expecting a night of whining, but she just hung out with her head down until we were done eating.  She was lights out the minute we were on the road after dinner.  I loved this sweet look on her face at the table, and had to snag a shot of it.

 

Social Butterfly

This weekend was filled with all sorts of girlie fun, including a spring dance at Grace’s school, a sleepover with her best neighborhood friend, and a family date night to the local yogurt shop.  I didn’t get any great shots at the dance, as I was on the dance floor MORTIFYING my kid.  She just doesn’t appreciate my smooth moves.  Apparently the students I teach agree, as they would also have nothing to do with me.  I snagged some shots of the girls creating acrylic paintings on scrap wood from the kitchen reno on Saturday.  They have grand plans to sell their creations to save money for the American Heart Association.  These girls mean business.  When I asked if I could keep one, they informed me it was at least $20, and I shouldn’t low ball them because it’s for a good cause.  Snuck a few shots at the shop, but my favorite was the last one.  This is the face I got when I asked if I could finish her yogurt for her.

Clearly, she was not willing to share.

Hope everyone got out and enjoyed some sunshine this weekend!

Spring Ride

We’ve had a couple glorious afternoons around here, and we have been taking every opportunity to get outside after school.  I got a bunch of weeds pulled and tossed into our little homemade compost bin, and we have been rollerblading around the neighborhood like crazy.  We were out yesterday until the sun came down, which created some nice chances to take some shots of the water.  There aren’t many flowers or buds popping out this close to the water yet, but I have a feeling that in the next week or so we’ll be walking through daffodils.

What signs of spring are your favorites?

 

Dogs + babies + kids = heaven

My beautiful cousin gave birth to the adorable Madelyn Cole last month, and we are already in love.  She was completely adorable, and already a favorite of her big brother Copper the Doberman.  Miss Maddie gave everyone quite a scare as she came into this world, which makes having her here all the more sweet.  Gracie announced that she is about the cutest thing ever, even though sometimes she gets a little stinky. The smell of baby shampoo and the sound of little newborn grunts was enough to make me swoon.

So happy for my cousin and her new family, as well as my aunt and uncle.  They will be hugely doting grandparents, just the sort that every little girl needs.

 

Caught Reading

I snuck into Grace’s room the other night as she was curdled up with the joke book she had checked out of the library to sneak a couple of shots.  I couldn’t use the flash trick since I was trying to see what I could get away with without disturbing her.  She was just in the perfect little girl setting – wrapped up in her pink sheets, reading by the light of her bedside lamp.  Her copy of Little House on the Prairie on hold next to her.  The best part are the flowers.  Hubs always brings some for her whenever he brings any for me, and he sets them up next to her bed so she can wake up to them.

I got caught in the end, but it was fun sneaking into her little reading cocoon for a few minutes.  The best part?  I got to climb under the covers with her afterwards for her to tell me all the jokes she read.

 

boo!

Disclaimer: my Halloween pictures are super lame this year.  Grace and her little friend were joined at the hip, and perpetually in motion, making getting a shot of G in her costume impossible.  They were just too excited.  Miss G is in the Red Riding Hood, and her little friend Marissa is wearing Grace’s Dorothy costume from last year.  And truly, this is such a great neighborhood to trick-or-treat in.  Neighbors pull families hayride still through the hood, and set up fire pits in the driveway.  Kids are showered with obscene amounts of booty, and they go all out to decorate.  One neighbor had the entire place dripping with bats, and another set up an entire scene from Pirates of the Carribean, complete with music, flying bats, and pirate brew (aka root beer that smoked).

Best part? Adults can often refill a little bit of wine from the bottle by the fire pit.  It’s treating for everyone!

By next year, I will have invested in a flash.  The fund has begun!

On the Waterfront

Happy Fourth!!!

These are the last of the shots from our afternoon on the Georgetown Waterfront.  The light over the Potomac was completely beautiful, and I loved taking the shots of Googs with the river in the background.  I have been doing a little reading, and I want to play with metering a little bit the next time I shoot in bright sunlight.  I think it might help the slight under exposure of Grace’s face when the light is behind her.  A center point metering might help  correct that without over exposing the whole shot.

canal stroll.

A few weeks ago, we got a glorious afternoon in Georgetown. (I posted about it here and here.)  These are a few shots from our stroll down the canal. I loved the way the light shone through the spray from the canal, and the shots of Googs with her loves Sethy-Poo and Val.  Grace loved pointing out all the turtles and fish in the canal, and I loved catching it as we went (while sipping on a lovely iced moucha).