Got the drop on them!

Ta Dah!!!!!!!!! aren't they beautiful? (the stands!!! forget about the kids for a minute!) They can be adjusted up to 10 or 12 feet tall and around 9 feet wide AND it all breaks down & fits inside its own little carrying case... it's almost TOO MUCH!!!!!!!)

Not sure how much money I'm saving by doing all my own photography though... LOL

My girls!!!!

Big excitement for me today! The backdrop stands I bought on ebay arrived! It was like Christmas again! and actually, it sortof was since I had returned some things that then made this purchase possible! Woohooo! The mailman chuckled when I started jumping up & down and clapping my hands when I saw him at the door with a large parcel!! Luckily I managed not to trip in my haste to get down the stairs!

still working on getting those sharp eyes but also some nice depth of field & I'm pretty happy with this shot!

I finished up my jobs in the kitchen & then HAD to set it up to test it out of course. The girls saw what I was doing and actually requested that I take pictures of them. I didn't think they'd actually sit still but I did get a few shots so that was an unexpected bonus.

and this is why real photographers recommend plain clothing, my eyes are drawn right to those stupid characters on her dress. But once I look up, my mummy heart just about melts when I see that face!

Earlier in the day we worked on some math & I drew 3 different numbers on their pages. They then coloured & decorated the page to their liking. Once they had it looking the way they wanted, they got a cup of beans (like baked beans but uncooked) and they had to count out the right number to go with each of the ones on their page. I helped them get the correct amount & counted with them but they did pretty well. Once they had the right amount in their pile, I put a blog of glue under that number & they stuck the beans in the "puddle". Murray's been drilling them on numbers with flashcards some evenings before bed. They already know all the letters in the alphabet & can name several things that go with that letter but we've horribly neglected numbers so now we're trying to rectify that!

is that a Honey of a smile or WHAT? : ))))

At breakfast this morning we were talking about things that they're good at & then I asked them what I was good at. Lovey said "cooking" and Honey said "loving your girls". How's that for heartwarming? I had to be nice to her all day! : )))

Shady Ladies!

Ok, I totally love their new sunglasses! How cute are these little shades??(comment section can be found below!!! ; )))

The girls are all still suffering from different stages of this stubborn cold that has invaded our home and will not get out! Murray is now over his and I thought Honey was all better but now she's back to coughing her little lungs out too. Last night, I even started to feel a tickle in my throat so I've got to get to bed early tonight. I had a big glass of orange juice this morning & if I can get a decent night's rest, I might be able to dodge the bullet. This annoys Murray to no end by the way. He works out, eats 47 fruits and vegetables every day, doesn't snack on munchies and still catches almost every cold going. I rarely succumb to anything and if I feel something coming on, OJ & a nap are generally enough to stave it off. Can I claim a strong immune system as a talent??

I kept the kids inside yesterday, it was blowing snow and cold so we just played indoors and had a really long bath in the afternoon to kill some time. Today, it was sunny & warm & beautiful and they were asking to go play in the snow so I decided to take them out for awhile. Since it was so sunny, we of course needed appropriate eye protection. They love their little glasses almost as much as I do, maybe more.

We weren't outside very long before we were joined by one of our neighbours, R-guy. He often wanders down to play with us as there aren't really any kids his age around. I feel bad that the best he can do is a bunch of 3 year olds but he seems fairly content to hang out with us. He entertains the kids jumping around being crazy and if I have to grab something indoors, he keeps an eye on them for a sec so we certainly don't suffer from his attention!

They like to follow him through the field and walk in this tracks & make new trails so we did that for awhile, making snow angels and wandering around. He also helped them climb a "mountain" (aka snowbank) so they were pleased about that. He loves to come inside with us so when we went in he came along & worked on a puzzle while the girls did theirs.

Ok, that's it blog fans, time for bed! (anything before 1am is considered "early" around here)

Walkabout

I scored a sleep in yesterday! Murray took pity on me staying up so late Friday night & I snoozed to my heart's content. That took care of most of the morning and after lunch we put a great deal of effort into getting the kids dressed & ready to go out for a walk in the woods. It was quite a battle but in the end we won & we all got outside. Once out there, everything was fine, you'd never know it hadn't been their idea all along.

The snow is sortof in between stages right now, starting to freeze up but still soft underneath. This becomes a problem when you try to walk on it. Every step I took, it held for a second & then I'd crash down through to the bottom. Very annoying and a lot more work than I care to do on a leisurely family stroll! We didn't end up going very far as the kids were having trouble as they tripped over the uneven path in the snow. We got as far as "the mountain" (or "large rock" to most of you) and they happily climbed around on that for quite awhile.

In the meantime, I amused myself by trying to get some cool nature shots of interesting stuff. I see all these breathtaking close ups of flowers & raindrops etc and my SIL takes such awesome shots of scenery etc. This should be easy right? Nobody to chase, just stand there and you can even take your time adjusting your settings. While you fiddle, your subject never takes off, sticks out their tongue or anything. Here are my nature scenes from yesterday.

The first one I call " a clump of crap on a rock"... I got looking at them at home & said "Hey Murray! does this look interesting to you at all?" Murray: uhhhhhhhh, not realllllllllly. So it's not just me. I'm a people person I guess.

and this, well, at best it could be titled "waste of time" : ))) although I got some really good bokeh as the blurred background effect is called, the less detail, the better the effect. Looks cooler on pictures of little kids, in my opinion!