Week in review

OK, I'm officially saving up for a MacBook - a) I hated waiting to edit the pictures from the photo shoots I did in NJ, and b) I am so overwhelmed with everything I have to put in this blog post. Let me start at the beginning...

On Saturday, we drove down to NJ. We made a pitstop in northern New Jersey to meet Avalynn (her mom went to preschool with my older sister, and our mothers have best friends since), and do my first newborn shoot. She is a doll.

Then we went the rest of the way down to spend the week with family. We discovered Addison loves the beach - the sand, the waves, everything.

I had a second photo shoot - a lovely swirling of my past and present. Shannon was a patient of mine when I was a nurse in New Jersey. She will be celebrating being cancer-free for 4 years this summer. She is such an amazing, beautiful girl, and it was so nice to get to capture it. It was also really nice to be shooting a person who listened to what I said, and did it. Not that I don't still love photographing young children, but it was a nice change of pace.

The evening before Chloe left for Nationals (more on that later), we spent an evening, just the 4 of us, on the beach. It was picturesque - and I had that overwhelming feeling of love. I have great kids, a great husband, and a great life. We also found out Addy loves fireworks. I wasn't able to capture her expressions in the dark, but they were classic. And the little stuffed puppy Pete won for her on the boardwalk? Treasured.

We got lots of good family time in, and had a huge family party with Pete's mom's side on the 3rd. I don't know the official headcount, but I think it was near 50. And I left my camera in the car. 

 Playground with AJ! (His mom Becky and I went to high school together)

Cruising the boardwalk with Dad. Nope, she's not walking yet!

Corn isn't the only thing they are growing in New Jersey - something even sweeter - another new cousin for Chloe and Addy!

Julie is now 30 weeks pregnant with "Bean sprout!"

Talking on the phone like a Jersey girl - eyes rolling, hands gesturing. 

Chloe is at the World Appaloosa Horse Show in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She had a bit of a rough start to the show today, but we're hoping she worked her jitters out. There is a live stream of the show, which can be found HERE. 

We're happy to be home, ignoring the piles of laundry from the unpacked bags, and the bags still yet to be unpacked. Pete heads back to work tomorrow, but tonight, it's still vacation.

Happy 4th.

Moving Up

I'm a momma of a middle schooler. It's a little surreal. Chloe had her 5th grade Moving Up Ceremony on Wednesday night. The 5th grade performed a few songs, one of which included a strings piece that Chloe performed with a small group. I was so proud of her - she wasn't able to play her violin at school this year after the move, and she still asked to be including in playing the piece, brought it home, and learned it. Luckily, she's all set to play violin next year at the middle school. I think she's happy to be moving on. It is always tough to move mid-year, and when you move into a small, close-knit school where most kids have been together since kindergarten, it's even harder. Although she handled it well, she's ready to go to the middle school, where there will be 400 kids (from 5 different elementary schools) in the 6th grade.
I apologize for the quality of the pictures - the lighting was low, and I had to use my long-range lens.

My mom came up for the ceremony, which thrilled Chloe to pieces. Once Chloe's last day of school was done, they hit the road back to NJ, to try and get in as much riding as possible before they leave for Nationals next week. This will be Chloe's last year competing in the Walk/Trot (10 and under) division, and even though she has performed wonderfully the past 2 years, she has not yet won Grand Champion (she was Reserve Champion both years - last year it was a tie, but the other rider had competed in one more class, so it went to her). She's excited and nervous, and we're trying to negate some of the self-imposed pressure.

The weather has been rainy again, which always limits my picture-taking. I did realize it's been a long time since I talked about Addy's teething necklace. She's been wearing it constantly for the past few months, and my feelings about it were that I didn't think it was hurting anything, it looks darned cute, but I wasn't sure if it was helping. Let me tell you, it is helping. Addy had been a bit on the fussy side, nothing major, but was chewing on her finger a lot too. I happened to glance in her mouth during a recent diaper change, and saw 3 teeth pushing through. We've had to do 2 nights of Motrin when the teeth were actually breaking the skin - but that's it. For comparison, we had to do 2 weeks of almost nightly Motrin for the teeth before we had the necklace. I'm a believer!

We are also off to NJ, for a little beach time, a little R & R, and lots of family time. Because I use a desktop computer, I won't be able to do blog updates on the go, but there will be hundreds of pictures when I get back. (Because Pete starts school in 2 weeks, he's earned the next spot on the list for a laptop - but I have converted him to a Mac-user!). I'm excited to do some photo shoots while I'm down there - including a beach shoot (with an awesome cancer survivor/former patient), and a newborn shoot.

Happy Summer!

Berries

Yesterday, Sarah and I took Liv and Addy berry picking. It may have been the dirtiest activity on record, but we had a great time. The babies gorged themselves on strawberries and dirt. The moms gorged themselves on berries and laughter.

Then we had the 5th grade picnic. Because the school is K-5, the kids in 5th grade are still mostly that - kids. Next year, with the influence of the middle school, they will morph into almost-teenagers, and finally teenagers.

Addy has become a daredevil climber. She has figured out that if she pushes her little chair over to the big easy chair, she can them climb from her chair up into the big chair. Which she thinks is the funniest thing.

I had another marathon photo shoot today. It went well, with lots of good pictures for everyone. Here's a sampling.

Now it's off to bed for me. I'm exhausted, and the week isn't even half over yet.

Achievements - UPDATED

My kid is a mathlete.

Chloe does Kumon, which is a enrichment program that focuses on repetition and speed. One big benchmark for Kumon is the goal of "G by 5" - to be working on Level G by the end of your 5th grade year. This is Kumon's benchmark for successful progress because years of experience demonstrates that students who attain it remain proficient at all higher grade levels as well. Kumon recognizes this accomplishment with a national award. Today was the end of year party at Kumon, and she was awarded her Kumon star, for achieving G by 5. We are so proud, and she is so proud. This week, she reached the goal of Level G in Reading also (I'm not sure what the Reading star will say, somehow Readinglete just doesn't flow as well). She has really been working hard to achieve these levels, and earned an e-reader as a reward for her hard work.

Now that the weather is a bit more seasonal, I took the girls in the back yard for an impromptu shoot. We used these pictures for a father's day gift, which I'm not going to elaborate on until after it arrives (sometime after Father's Day, since I couldn't get my act together). It was a little difficult getting pictures of Addy; she didn't quite understand why we would be in the back yard if we weren't on the slide or the swings. She kept doing her scooter-crawl (on hands and left knee, right foot) gangster-limp on over to sit at the bottom of the slide. We had a "she's walking!" false alarm; on Monday, she took 6 steps, and I sent a gloating text to Pete. Of course since then, she has refused to take a single step. She's so close, it's so exciting!

I had the first of my marathon Mom's group photo shoots yesterday. It was a little bit hot, but we were at a park with great big shady trees, so we utilized those. It was a lot of fun - 30 minute sessions all day, so it was rapid-fire picture taking. It was nice to be able to see what works and what doesn't, and luckily most of the things we tried worked. It was also an opportunity to work with the preschool aged crowd - a little more challenging than babies! Here are a few of my favorites from yesterday - so many smiles!

(Forgot this picture. Sorry!) And are those not the most delicious baby legs you've ever seen? This picture doesn't even do them justice. So cute!

I've got another marathon shoot next Tuesday, and then can turn my eyes towards vacation. Watch out, Dirty Jerz.