low light photography

this week for class our assignment was low light. So hard. Yay for a tripod and a remote. I like the idea of shooting in low light, but I'd have to invest in a tripod... Maybe someday.

beautiful

The weather has been perfect. We've been playing outside hard core.

This picture is a little dark, but I love it.I'm not sure why Gabe wouldn't take his pull-over off, but he's pretty sweaty.

Lincoln loves being pulled around and Molly is always happy to oblige. Molly was so excited that it was warm enough to wear flip flops that when she couldn't find a pair that matched she decided that it didn't even matter. :)

presidents' day

handsome

Drew and Gabe having a little battle. I LOVE it that Drew plays with the kids. He was about to leave for a run when Gabe asked if he'd play swords. Of course Drew had some time.A friend had a bunch of tickets to a U of L women's basketball game. At first we weren't going to take Molly and Gabe, but then we thought hey it's preschool. It's not going to hurt them to come home early. So we picked them up after lunch. I'm happy we did. They had a ball.

do you like Molly's reindeer shirt? After she picked out her clothes I asked her if she'd want to wear a different shirt since it isn't Christmas time anymore. She said no Miss Donna will be so surprised. She cracks me up.

We even got some free sweet metal cardinal water bottles.

I'm sad I didn't get a good picture of Lincoln. He was the only one really supporting the team. When he was a couple months old someone from the infant cognition program called and asked if Lincoln could participate in an infant study. At the end he got a shirt that says I'm a baby scientist U of L cognition lab with a big cardinal on it... Maybe next time.

a day at the zoo

This week my photography assignment was animals. We don't have any pets. A couple of our neighbors have dogs, but I didn't want to be creepy so... We went to the Z0O.

Cheese! Lincoln was so excited. He thought this rhino was a drum.

an ugly bird

and a rhinoThe weather has been pretty nice, but I wish everything didn't look so dead in the background. oh well it is February.

happy Valentine's day!

The kids right before the bus. Aren't they cute?

(poor Lincoln never gets dressed before 9:15... But he did ware a cute little red polo in honor of Valentine's day.)

Today was a busy day. Tuesdays Drew and I go on lunch dates. love love love it. Then I went to the kids' school for their class parties. When we came home I made dinner as the kids filled up on candy. Then I ate dinner by myself, high-fived Drew as he walked in the door and left for my photography class. My teacher welcomed us to class by saying something like Happy Valentines Day and... whatever lets pull out our cameras. Hopefully we'll have a "fancy" dinner later in the week. :)

a productive few days

Friday Molly got registered for kindergarten. Yay. Fingers crossed we get into the school we want and that she gets a good teacher and nice kids in her class. I think the way JCPS does things is kind of crazy. Hopefully not busing her downtown to a traditional school isn't a mistake... (I love it that Molly usually picks out her own clothes. I mean come on doesn't this make you happy?)
Pow. Today Gabe got registered for Preschool. Unlike last year it didn't take hours. 45 min is still a nice chunk of time, but remembering my last trip to the early childhood eduction building, I left feeling giddy.
We can't forget Lincoln. Can you believe that he's 11 months. Where has the time gone. He's getting bigger and making even bigger messes. He loves opening drawers and cabinets and crawling around with whatever he can find. He's getting to be a fast climber and is pulling himself up on everything. He'll take a few steps along things, but he's not very coordinated and crawling is faster.
Lincoln has been climbing our stairs for the past couple weeks. scary. He likes to play on the bottom platform. He often falls off that one, but it doesn't seem to bother him..?.. He'll randomly climb up maybe 3 or 4 steps and then screams until someone rescues him. At least he isn't completely confident with this new climbing thing.

Last night we hosted our first super bowl party. We had 19 people over. 9 of them were under 10, but that's a lot of people for our house. We had lots and lots of yummy food. Somehow a lot of it was left behind. No complaints, but it's probably not the best idea to leave me home alone with 1/2 a peanut butter pie and brownies and cheesecake bites and ... There were 11 people watching the game. 10 were rooting for the Giants. We had 1 lone Patriots fan. For the most part everyone went home happy. It was a fun, late night. Lincoln went to bed at his usual time, but Molly and Gabe stayed up a lot later than they should have (10:30). Surprisingly they weren't crabby this morning. I was pretty nervous.

love me a flea market

My friend and I went to a flea market (the trading post) last week. I kind of love flea markets or "junk stores" if your talking to Gabe. I found this big black rocking chair. I've been wanting rocking chairs for our porch. I would have loved to find a pair, but was thrilled with one. I try not to spend more than $20 when I'm going flea market or thrift store shopping with no purpose. This was a little over my budget, but I think $25 was a bargain. At least I hope... The cheapest I've seen big rocking chairs at the end of summer is about $50.

Molly likes to rock as she waits for the bus.

Drew told me that now our house looks like all the others on our street. We're starting to fit in with all of our older neighbors :)