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Sunday, June 21, 2009

We got Captured by Summer

This year for Father's Day the boys and I gave Rich some photos for his desk at work. He's been trying to get a good one of the three of us for ages and just never seems to get around to printing them up.

My friend Summer is a fantastic photographer. So we had her take some pictures of us one day. It was lots of fun. She managed to get a lot of really great pictures and a perfect one for Rich's desk.


I can't believe how well the boys kept this secret! It really was the best gift and he was really surprised!

Here are some of our favorites, and for more of Summer's beautiful photography, visit her photography website, Captures by Summer and her photo blog - with more of our pictures.


This really captures Sam's personality!


Goofing off!

More goofing off/brotherly love!


This is Josh's favorite one.


This is Sam's favorite.


This really captures Josh! Complete with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and all!


This one was spontaneous and oh so sweet!


I think we got them to laugh by talking about bodily functions.

We had such a great time with Summer and the pictures turned out so wonderful! If you live in Atlanta and need a photographer, I highly recommend her! She's one of my favorite people to spend time with! And her photos really do capture the kid's personalities!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Exciting Times in Legacy Park...

Our neighborhood has been infiltrated by television crews. CBS is filming a reality television show in my neighborhood.

Apparently, it's working title is "Block Party" and they've got 4 or 5 families all living on the same street taking part. The families had to move out while the building was taking place, but have all returned.

The filming started today, but the crews have been here for weeks buliding the walls and getting the set ready.


Photo Credit: Maggie Roe

My friend Maggie has lots of really cool pictures of the sets on her blog, make sure you go read it. The pictures are fantastic and really give you a good idea of what's going on.

The filming isn't in my sub of Legacy Park, but we do drive by every time we come and go. We have a few friends living in Annandale - one of Josh's best friends lives just 4 houses away from where all the filming is taking place.

We drove by today and all the entry ways are blocked off by large wooden doors and their is someone standing outside each house. And there is 24x7 police on the scene. Which is great for my friend Summer who lives just around the corner from the shooting and is going on vacation while the shooting is taking place!

Josh, who is a big fan of "Total Drama Island" and the new serise "Total Drama Action" can't wait until the Fall when the series airs.

And while I am really not a huge reality TV fan, I'm quite interested to see what's going on too!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Meeting Up With Old Friends.

Yesterday, I posted some pictures for Wordless Wednesday of the boys coming down a water slide. Today, I'm participating in "Tell Me Thursday" to explain the photos.

When we first moved here and I quit working, I made some friends through Josh's preschool. There were 4 of us with kids all about the same ages. Mary with Cade & Jack, Linda with Abby & Dylan, Val with Emma & Abby and me with Josh & Sam. Soon Val moved to Alabama (we miss you still Val!) and Linda moved to Canton which is only about 45 minutes away, but still a drive.

With the way life goes, the kids got together less and less. And while I still see Mary regularly and Linda from time to time, the kids don't all get together that often.

On Tuesday the boys and I went to meet up with Linda and her kids - she now has 4! Mary, Cade and Jack came too so it was almost a complete reunion of our old Gang!

Meeting up with old friends!
Kids: Luke 3 months, Sam 4, Dylan 7, William 2, Abby 9, Jack 4, Cade 9, Josh 8

We met up at a Japanese restaurant for lunch - and I am happy to say the only spillage came from me when I spilled my ice tea all over the table (thankfully at the end of the meal!) The poor server - 3 adults and 8 kids!

After lunch we headed up to Linda's place to play in their community pool. They have the coolest pool. There is the water slide and an adults only pool and a really cool pool for the kids that has one end with a zero entry so you can walk in like a beach. The "kids" pool only gets to 3 1/2 feet too so it's not deep anywhere. And during adult swim (every hour for 10 minutes, same as our pool here) there is a water mushroom the kids play in. Our mushroom has a pool under it, is very cold and, according to Josh, smells like pee. Their mushroom had no pool, just a drain so there is no standing water.

I really wanted to get more pictures, but I was having too much fun going down the slide and talking to my friends.

We had so much fun catching up and hanging out. The boys were so tired on the way home and slept soundly that night! We're already planning a trip back before summer ends!

And Abby and Josh hit it off. I got an email from Linda that night saying Abby talked about Josh all night and how much she liked him! Aww...

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Wordless Wednesday: Water Slide!

Josh

Sam

Come back tomorrow for details about the water slide and our day yesterday.

Join in the Wordless fun at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom!

Friday, June 5, 2009

Keeping the Kids Busy, and Mom Sane

Now that summer break is in full swing, I'm trying to keep the kids busy and active - most of the time.

I have this fear that they'd spend all summer in front of the TV playing PS3 if I don't lay down some ground rules. Plus, I want Josh to be ready for the routine changes we'll have next school year so I figured summer is a great time to ease into the new workload he'll be getting.

I've reinstated the chore chart. Both kids have some chores they have to do - and honestly it's nothing too taxing and stuff they should just be doing (but don't). When they do their chores they can earn points and trade the points in for things. Like time on the PS3.

I am also making them do "educational activities." Because I really believe they should keep their minds sharp. Sam loves doing the "Homework." Josh, not so much. But, since he can choose what he wants to do, it seems to be getting better.

I'm also trying to do one "field trip" a week and we're taking full advantage of the free summer movies at the local movie theater. This week we went with the mom's group to a "paint your own pottery" place. They had a great time. Josh picked out a guitar and Sam painted a turtle shaped bowl. I can't wait to see how they turned out. We get them next week. I was so busy talking that I forgot to take pictures. I'll take a picture of the finished products so you can see how they turn out.

Other field trips we have scheduled: a trip to the local pizza parlor for a behind the scenes tour, our grocery store and the fire station. I would also like to get up to the Tellus Museum again next week and possibly to the Aquarium sometime this month too.

All this with trips to the pool on nice days and then the normal chores and errands keeps us pretty busy. Thankfully, the boys still have some down time to rest and play like you should on summer break too!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Updates, etc...

We had the most beautiful weather this weekend!

We seem to have had some very nice weather during the week, but come Saturday and Sunday, we just get rain. I have to tell you, it gets a bit old.

This weekend was fantastic though. The weather was nice, not too hot, not too cold, and almost no humidity.

It started off, on Friday, with Josh's End of Year Baseball Party. It was a pizza party at the pool. I thought the water was way too cold, but the boys both went in and had a great time. Considering how often our games got rained out, we were all so happy to have a wonderful end of season party!

The rest of the weekend was just spent doing yard work, going to the pool, cooking out and sitting on our back deck. Rich installed some outdoor speakers so it was nice sitting outside, listening to music and playing with the boys.

This week the boys and I are keeping busy as well. My goal this summer is to keep the kids active and try to keep them learning. They have some workbooks they have to do to earn PlaStation3 time. And they have chore charts they must complete and earn points to trade in for different things - like PS3 more time. It's been working pretty well. We also have the My Personal Trainer: Math for the Nintendo DS which Josh can do to earn points. He loves that.

I'm also trying to play outings every week from now until we go to Michigan. My goal is to find free or low cost things to do. My neighborhood Mom's Group has one outing planned each week that we'll do, plus there is the free movie once a week. I'd also like to get the boys to the Tellus Museum or Aquarium at least once before we go too, since we're members there already. I'd also love to bring them to the zoo -- weather permitting. We're not members, so that will have to be a "special trip."

So that's us in a nutshell at the moment. On Thursday we're going to a paint your own pottery place. Josh's looking forward to that. I'll get some pictures and post them when I can.
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