Project 64: Red Violet

The color over at Project 64 this week is red violet.

I found it outside my house--finally!  By finally, I mean that we're finally seeing more spring-like weather.

I liked this photo a lot, until I saw the one I am going to enter.

Similar, yes, but the first photo doesn't provide the top of the branch the way the second one does.  I also like the greenish bokeh behind the flowers in the second one, since the photo is of a plant.  The tips of the leaves in the second one at the very top has red violet as well as the flowers and their stems.

Frame-A-Day: Week 17: 4/23-4/29

April 23--Easter Egg Coloring--The preparations for Easter kicked into high gear this morning, with the annual decorating of Easter eggs. Here, Earnest is claiming an egg as his own.

April 24--Happy Easter--Happy Easter! Holidays always give me a good excuse to attempt to get a decent family photo with a minimum of grumbling. As usual, we spent the day with my parents and my sister's family at their house. We had a wonderful lunch of ham, stuffed shells, meatballs and sausage, carrots, string beans, broccoli and twice baked potatoes, followed by the annual color-coordinated egg hunt and then back for dessert.

April 25--Shaking Things Up-Side Down--This is the version of our swing that has been hanging the last week or so.  Today, Trust decided to shake things up-side down, literally, in her swinging fun.

April 26--Getting His Hands Dirty--Before dinner tonight, Imp went outside to play.  Of the three kids, Imp seems to be the one to enjoy being outside the most.  When I went outside looking for him, he greeted me with "Mommy, my hands are dirty."  Of course, when you dig in the dirt, that is the risk you run; however, based on this photo, he didn't really seem to mind.

April 27--Daily Dinner Boycott--See where Imp's dinner plate is? Dinner is an ongoing battle with him these days. He comes home and immediately says he's not eating. Tonight's meal (rotisserie chicken on a biscuit, broccoli) was not quite rejected out of hand the way some are, but what you see is what he left after picking at the biscuit. What does he eat for dinner with no complaint? Pizza, hot dogs and oatmeeeeaaaaaallllll (creme brulee.) Otherwise, it's really hit or miss.

April 28--Swing Me, Please--Before Trust left for school this morning, she and Imp played a bit in the backyard. She tried swinging him and did get him going, as evidenced by the windy hairstyle Imp is sporting.

April 29--Princess-in-Training--Today was the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Although we didn't get up super early as many did, we did watch the post-ceremony carriage ride to Buckingham Palace and the first kiss live. I told Trust that Kate is a real princess and she quipped, "She's pretty pretty." Trust is past the princess stage but like most females of any age, got caught up in the pomp and circumstance along with me and kept track of the countdown clock to the traditional royal first kiss on the balcony.

Project 64: Pacific Blue

This week's color over at Project 64 is pacific blue. Unlike some of the other colors, I saw this color a lot. Here are a few possibilities.

We have a lot of Thomas items in our house, what with two young boys.

 

One of our egg-decorating masterpieces.

I liked this idea in theory, as there is a lot of pacific blue in the basket, the bowl of carrots, and some of the goodies in the basket. However, the lighting was poor and I needed to get the basket hidden so there was no time to play.

Here is the photo I'm submitting for the challenge this week.

This is my son after finding his cache of eggs today; each of the five kids picks one color so everyone gets a fair shake at finding them. This is especially important when the kids' ages range from not quite three up to eleven. I knew that the blue eggs that we'd be hiding were pacific blue, but I had no idea that he'd be the child who'd be finding the blue eggs and that his vest would coordinate fairly well with both the eggs he collected and the bag he used to hold them. Happy Easter!

Frame-A-Day: Week 16: 4/16-4/22

*April 16--Brotherly Love--Earnest and Imp sharing a moment.

April 17--Visit to the Easter Bunny--We made our annual visit to the Easter Bunny today. We have been going there since Trust was 15 months old, back in 2005. For the first time in years, Earnest was excited and gladly sat alongside the bunny.

April 18--Oh, the Waiting...Today we spent the better part of the afternoon creating homemade Easter cards with the Silhouette cutter. Here, Earnest is waiting for pink zig zags so he can finish his card to Gran and Gramps. Each kid has a personal card with two photos of them and there is one main card with yesterday's photo with the Easter Bunny. They'll finish similar cards for Nana and Grampy later in the week.

April 19--Curling Up with a Good Book--Today I didn't shoot any photos until evening and was getting desperate. Then I realized that it might be nice to have a shot of Trust reading, as she enjoys it and does it every night before going to sleep. Look how good she is at posing as if no one were there taking her picture. Cool as a cucumber.

April 20--Off to College--Trust has school vacation this week. Similar to earlier in the year, she accompanied me to school. She was so excited to go again that she packed her bag of activities three days earlier. She announced on her way out the door this morning that she was "off to college". I don't think the day quite lived up to her expectations as she had to sit through a 'boring', two-hour plant lecture and quite a few meetings. Perhaps second grade isn't so bad after all.

April 21--Lollipop!--Earnest attended his friend's Mario Brothers birthday party on Sunday.  It was quite the fete, with a clown face painter, a bounce house, balloons, marzipan shaped candies of the Mario characters and a candy table.  He and Chretien brought home a few treats, including this sucker.  For dessert tonight he finally ate it and enjoyed every lick.

 

April 22--April Flowers, Round II--On April tenth, Trust drew tulips on our driveway with chalk. Today, we have real tulips that Chretien bought earlier in the week. We're still hoping that true spring arrives soon and we see more of these outside soon.

I Heart Faces: Pet Week

The theme this week at I Heart Faces is pets.

This is one of our cats, Moe. He is almost 11, and my husband and I have had him and his brother, Miney, for almost 10 years...longer than we've had our kids. Heck, it's longer than we've been married. I captured this one morning before work, and was so thrilled that the light was decent and I was able to shoot it totally in manual. I like how warm the colors are in this photo.

Project 64: Magenta

The color this week over at Project 64 is magenta.  I took this photo last week at the playground and didn't realize that the swing looked magenta in the late afternoon sunlight.  I was mainly trying to practice capturing motion as he was swinging when I shot this.   This is a rare serious shot for my son, who loves his swings and is usually all smiles.

I Heart Faces: Wind

 

The theme at I Heart Faces this week is wind. You can clearly see the wind playing in the girls' hair, even on this roller coaster for kids. 

Click here to see more entries.

Frame-A-Day: Week 15: 4/9-4/15

April 9--A Perfect Saturday...by Imp--Today Chretien, Trust and Earnest went skiing.  Imp and I had our own fun, with visits to Nana and Grampy's for lunch, a duck pond and finally, to the preschool playground ...everything an almost-three year old could possibly want. 

 

April 10--Spring Flowers--The beautiful weekend weather continued today, and the kids were out creating chalk masterpieces.  So far, these are the only flowers we've spied this spring.  It's a start.

April 11--Make Up--Trust had a makeup lesson today for the ice skating lesson she missed Saturday.  She had her favorite teacher and it made her happy.  Here she is getting advice about her T-stops.

April 12--Bedtime Stories--Tonight was the first time in a long time that all three kids listened to a story read by Chretien or me; Trust will often read to herself in bed and Imp and Earnest sometimes want different stories. "Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf" is always a favorite, however, especially with some of the sound effects.

 

April 13--Little Men--Today was picture day at daycare. I wanted just one photo of my cutie pie little men before they left for school. I snapped 37 photos and most of them had uncooperative children or funny faces. Finally, I broke out a book (B.B. Wolf again) and managed to get this photo.

April 14--Track Time with Thomas (and Friends)--Imp realllllly loves the train table. He and Trust were playing with it before she and I left this morning. Can I say that I love this photo of him?

*April 15--Pajama Day--Today was Pajama Day at Trust's school; the kids could pay $1 for the privilege of wearing PJs to school.  The money goes to this year's fourth grade class for their fifth grade fun activities.  This was taken (with the timer!) right after we arrived home today.  For the Frame-A-Day book I've cropped it some, too.

I Heart Faces: Shadow

We went to a duck pond today to feed the ducks. Unfortunately, it's a popular spot and the ducks were overfed. There were full pieces of bread on the ground. My little guy enjoyed a piece of bread intended for the ducks and we moved on to a playground instead.

Before we left, I snapped this photo and managed to get his entire shadow in the shot. I tried at the playground as well but he was too quick for me.

Frame-A-Day: Week 14: 4/2-4/8

April 2--Pretending--Trust very clearly pretending that she doesn't know her picture is being taken. The kids were watching "Willy Wonka" on DVD, after discovering it the other night on cable and only seeing the second (better) half.

April 3--Howdy Partner! Shall We Dance?--The kids were playing upstairs and Imp first appeared with this ensemble and a cheesy, "look-at-me" grin to go with it. I burst out laughing. The color coordination just works, doesn't it?

April 4--Just a Boy and his Balloon--Imp went to his friend's birthday party yesterday at My Gym and brought home this balloon.  He had a lot of fun playing with it last night and this morning.

 

April 5--A Real Head Scratcher--Last night, Chretien took out the head massager that he gave me for Christmas 2009. The kids loved it. Who wouldn't, actually? It feels really good. Anyway, this morning Imp asked Earnest to "scratch my head" and Earnest willingly obliged.

April 6--I See the Light--Earnest was playing with his Thomas flashlight whistle tonight. When I asked him why he was shining it directly into his eye, he stated that he wanted it to be morning. I don't think this changed anything, but he had fun.

April 7--Truck Track--Earnest set the truck track up and Imp had fun playing this morning.

*April 8--Due to privacy issues, I can't post the day's photo and I don't even have any alternatives from today that would work.

For Project 64, part of our challenge was to create a diptych of our submission this week.  Mosaic Maker can make other sizes as well.



Here are this week's photos: