365 ~ 2013: Day 181

Summer!

365 ~ 2013: Day 179

Today I participated in a group shoot on a horse farm.  It was put on by SOPHA, the studio that has helped me take my love of photography to the next level!  This wasn't a class per se, but I did learn a lot and it was fun to be able to talk to other photographers.  I must have taken about 300 images but I kept coming back to this one.  I knew as soon as I shot it that it was going to be my favorite.  This was on of the few set ups that was all natural light.  I'm drawn to this one because it just feels natural to me.  Shooting models is not something I am used to so all my favorite images are the candid ones!  It's definitely more me!

365 ~ 2013: Day 178

The last day of our Staycation was an interesting one.  It started out with an unexpected phone call that my brother was in an accident.  Thankfully he will be OK but there is nothing like hearing the phone ring before 7am on your vacation to get your blood pumping.  We had plans to stick around the house today but we rescheduled some plans just in case.  We were also expecting a furniture delivery and the septic guy to come and take care of our tank.  Today I learned more about how a septic system works than I ever thought I would need to know, but hopefully this bit of knowledge will prevent anything massive from failing in the future!

With no plans to be anywhere during the day it gave Charlie some time to finish the bookshelf he started earlier in the week for Shaun's room.  He desperately needs one and I found these plans online.  It's not quite finished, but so far it looks awesome.  At the end of the day it might have just been less of a pain to just buy one, but I think having it hand made by Daddy makes it extra special and now that he's built one, he'll be a pro for the next one!  The picture below, is the frame of the shelf and it's on up on it's side.  I am looking forward to seeing the finished product tomorrow after it gets sanded and stained.

We finished our staycation by dropping the boys off with my sister for the night because I have a class all day tomorrow and it will give Charlie the chance to get some more work done around the house before he goes back to work.  We took advantage of our kid free night with Indian food and seeing the new Star Trek movie.  It's been a weird day but I'm thankful for the outcome!

365 ~ 2013: Day 177

Staycation Day 4: Santa's Village

It was our first time taking the boys here and they had so much fun.  It was nice to go on a weekday, the park was not crowded at all and often the boys were able to stay on the rides and ride a second time.  I know I had been as a kid, but I honestly didn't remember it at all.  I think the most fun the boys had the whole day was finding all of the Alphabet Elves.  They got a card at the beginning of the day and they had to find the corresponding elf and punch the card.  At the end of the day, after finding all the Elves, they got a certificate and a prize!  It was a really fun day.

365 ~ 2013: Day 176

On the third day of our staycation we decided to chill out at home.  We didn't even change out of our jammies until well after noon time!  If David didn't have to go to his piano lesson, and we didn't have to pick up our CSA, we may have very well stayed in jammies all day!  It wasn't all play today thought as we worked on tackling our massive to-do list.  We did some purging and furniture rearranging in the boys bedrooms.  I also made a dent in the laundry room!  It was nice to get so much done since I have a bad habit of "forgetting" about the list.  I'm thankful for the rain today to help keep us motivated today!

365 ~ 2013: Day 175

Staycation Day 2: Monsters University

365 ~ 2013: Day 174

Today was the first day of our Staycation!  Charlie took the week off to hang out with us and since we did a big trip in April we are hanging close to home.  I bought the NH Fun Pass through the PTA fundraiser and so we are taking advantage of some discounts.  Today we headed up north to check out the Polar Caves!  It was nice way to stay cool on this hot day since the caves are very cool.  In fact one of the caves had a huge ice block inside that according to the sign will stay frozen until August!

Here is David and Shaun inside one of the caves!

365 ~ 2013: Day 173

David helping Daddy stain the base for the new bike rack.

365 ~ 2013: Day 172

First medal!  He was pretty pumped about it!

365 ~ 2013: Day 171

Concentrating really hard on his kick board skills!

365 ~ 2013: Day 170

Do you have any Kings?
Go Fish!

365 ~ 2013: Day 169

I signed up for a CSA in town for the summer and today was the first pick up!  I'm looking forward to trying all kinds of new veggies this summer and the best part is that they are all locally grown and super fresh!  David is holding our new flat leaf parsley potted plant!  We also got lots of different greens, some garlic scallions, kale, and tomatoes.

365 ~ 2013: Day 168

Working on their throwing skills using a balloon at baseball practice tonight.  Object was to try and hit the balloon because that is the force and height they want them to be throwing when they go to first base after a hit.  Their last game of the season is on Saturday, then next year he tries out for Kid Pitch! Time to start working on his pitching!

365 ~ 2013: Day 167

At of 2:45 today, David stepped off the bus no longer a first grader!  It's the start of Summer vacation and my first baby is officially a second grader!  He has grown so much over this past year and I have really enjoyed watching him wake up each morning excited to learn, and a lot of the credit goes to his amazing teacher, Mrs. Moran!

365 ~ 2013: Day 166

Happy Father's Day to one heck of a Daddy, our boys are pretty darn lucky!!

365 ~ 2013: Day 165

Evan and Daddy's new ride!  Normally we just walk around the neighborhood while David and Shaun ride their bikes, but now that they are getting older and better riders we decided to get some bikes for ourselves so we can all take rides!  Of course, Evan is still not a great rider so we ordered him a seat to ride with Daddy, and tonight we took our inaugural ride through the neighborhood.  I'm looking forward to taking our bikes out on some of the nearby trails this summer!

365 ~ 2013: Day 164

Celebrating their last day of preschool!

365 ~ 2013: Day 163

Shaun is officially a Kindergartener!  Shaun's preschool does not do a graduation ceremony like some other preschools, instead they went for a hike in the woods, searched for treasure and ended the class with a celebration cookout on the playground and even served a fresh salad made from the veggies they grew in their garden!

Here is Shaun with his preschool teacher Miss Anne!

365 ~ 2013: Day 162

My irises really bloomed nicely this year!  I'm so glad I didn't kill them!

365 ~ 2013: Day 161

Shaun celebrating his birthday again with his friend at their last Family Center.  These two move on to Kindergarten in the Fall!

365 ~ 2013: Day 160

Look who is FIVE today!  Happy Birthday Shaunie, the ray of sunshine in our lives!

365 ~ 2013: Day 159

Wising my cousin Pattie a very happy birthday!  To celebrate the boys and I met up with her for "Pancakes with Pattie"!

365 ~ 2013: Day 158

I finally got through editing all of our vacation pictures from back in April so now I can go back and start working on the rest of my images.  I came across this one from our trip to Cape Code 3 weeks ago!  This is my MIL with her mother and two sisters!

365 ~ 2013: Day 157

Yesterday while we were working at the school, Evan decided he wanted to draw a person!  Not too shabby for 3 years old!

365 ~ 2013: Day 156

Impromptu baseball game!  Can't wait to be able to do this out back!

365 ~ 2013: Day 155

My little ray of sunshine!  Next Thursday at 11am, he will officially be a Kindergartner!

365 ~ 2013: Day 154

David and Briana at her 7th Birthday party over the weekend!  Can you believe they were just 2 years old when they first met?  Friends for life!

365 ~ 2013: Day 153

Fish Face!

365 ~ 2013: Day 152

Today Charlie ran the Covered Bridges Half Marathon for the third year in a row.  This year it was HOT.  David, Shaun and I got to the finish line at 8:50am and just sitting in the sun we started to melt.  I cannot imagine how the runners felt!  It was pretty obvious how awful the conditions were this year when the top runner, who was also the top runner last year, came in 3 minutes later than his last years time.

Despite the oppressive heat Charlie managed to only be behind his last years race time by 47 seconds!  This year he ran the race in 1:25:48 coming in 11th out of 1980.  He was beat crossing that finish line but despite the exhausting he still managed to get in a couple high fives to his biggest cheerleaders!  If the conditions were better, he would have beaten his best time for sure.  There is always next year!

365 ~ 2013: Day 151

Someone had a great game at T-ball today!  He made a great stop in the field right after I snapped this picture and then had a two really big hits!