TGIF!

Bring on the weekend! and not just any weekend, the BIRTHDAY weekend! The official bday isn't til Monday but we're getting a head start with Murray's parents who arrived today.

Take THAT!

Well the sandbox is a HUUUUUUUUUUGE hit! They will play out there a long time with buckets, shovels & Tonkas. The first day I made the mistake of putting their swimsuits on first & then sending them out to play in the sand. ooh boy. Sand box, pool, sandbox, back to pool. They were in & out of each like little jack in the boxes and the pool wasn't long in turning into a muddy mess. I thought I was saving some time & effort, having them already dressed for the pool so when they were finished with the dirt, they could just jump in and go swimming. To quote one of my uncles "let that be a lesson to you." We won't be doing that one again!

my well dressed digger!

really liked this one, how they're lined up, same positioning, same angle of their faces etc.

Brace yourself for extreme cuteness, Lovey turned it on high this day!

and just when you thought she'd maxed it out....

trying for a nice silhouette of Sweetie but it just looks like I goofed my settings I think.
Ack! my dwess, my DWESS! my beautiful dress!!!!


Wednesday was quite a busy day with playgroup in the morning, then outside for quite awhile in the afternoon playing with the swimbox/sandpool combo. Murray had told them about the sandbox in the morning before he left for work so they were quite anxious to get out there by the time we got home & had some lunch. While she was playing in it, Honey said "Thank you for my sandbox Daddy, I love it very well!" Every day since they've been very keen to get back out there & it's easy to get them to clean up or do a chore if they think that'll get them out to the dirt faster!

Yesterday I tried to get a nice group photo, potentially as a Father's Day gift. They weren't too interested in sitting together until I told them it was for a present for daddy. Then they became much more cooperative! HOWEVER, they then felt the need to tell DADDY all about the present we were making for him in the sandbox. Without too much prompting, they filled him in all about it. Oh well! So much for that surprise! And after all that, I didn't even get any really good shots because the sun was too high & there were too many shadows on their faces. I haven't had a chance to see if I can salvage any of these but stay tuned they might turn up here yet!

Exciting discovery for me this week! I bought Photoshop Elements earlier this year & have been trying to figure out how to do more digital editing beyond cropping! I got that one neat tip from Shelley R on making duotones but I know there's way more this program can do. It annoys me to no end that the makers of the software provide next to NO INFORMATION on how to USE it BUT will sell you another book, separately on how to use their product. I'll be damned if the bastards get 10¢ out ME! So I browsed around online a bit & found that someone else has written a book too. I forwarded the link to Murray & told him to tuck that aside for future present buying reference. Then after reading more reviews I got impatient & found almost the same one (one software edition earlier). I went down there today & picked it up. There are soooooo many tools & tricks in there! Hopefully I'll be able to figure a few out. How many times can you renew a library book anyway????