Category Archives: Theme Thursday

Home ~ Theme Thursday

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When J. and I got married we could count on one hand the number of homes we had grown up in…combined.

Since we have been married? We have lived in Ann Arbor, went out to San Francisco, back to Ann Arbor, including a little stint in the lovely Ypsilanti. Then it was back to the Bay area, and off to Miami for a year or so, and back to San Francisco. Then we had a brilliant idea, “hey, let’s try out the midwest again, see if that snow is any more tolerable?” and headed to Chicago, and greater Chicago-land, for a bit. And I think we all know the answer to that question, since we hightailed it back out to the west coast pretty quickly and live, once again, in sunny California.

My point to all of this, besides the fact that we seem to be a bit nomadic (or part gypsy, I’m not sure which?) – we have had many, many, many apartments and houses. But I am a pretty firm believer in “home is where you make it.”

And my home is wherever my little family is.

It is where, if you listen closely, you will hear shrieks and squeals bouncing off of the thick, photo-covered walls. You will see little underwear-clad, tutu-wearing  ballerinas slide across the hardwood floors. You will smell the mingling scents of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and a crackling fire burning in the fireplace. And, if you look hard enough, you can always find some arms that are willing to wrap you up in a big, love-filled hug and whisper “I love you’s” in your ear.

I do love to travel and visit new places, but I also really do love to come home. It is the one place we can all just sit back, relax and watch the world go buzzing by around us.

At home

Find out where everyone else’s home (or heart) is over at Stacy’s.

Create ~ Theme Thursday

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Again, good intentions…not enough time. Stacy’s theme today was create, and while I have been busy creating some Halloween costumes, I did not get to create the “art” that I have had floating around in my head for the past month or so.

I use Photoshop and Illustrator nearly every day for my “real job,” so when I want to create for myself I usually gravitate towards tactile, non-computer stuff, like scrapbooking, painting or sewing. I saw a series of prints a few months ago that I wanted to rip-off borrow the idea from and re-create it in Illustrator. So when I saw Stacy’s idea this week, I was psyched. I was finally going to get a chance to sit down and do it. But my own procrastination of all of the other things that needed to get done, simply didn’t leave me with enough time to do it.

However, I am happy to report that all of the Halloween costumes are finished, pressed and anxiously awaiting two little goblins. But, I’m going to save those beauties for Crafty Tuesday next week.

I will leave you a few photos with some creations from Em’s school carnival.

Wow...that looks cool!

Best friends

Flower power

Storytelling ~ Theme Thursday

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I haven’t had a spare minute to go out and shoot photos for this week’s Theme Thursday which was storyteller. I did have the perfect photo in mind, though. And I will get it shot, but between a little ER visit for Addie (she is doing much better – just a start of an ear infection, now) and the chaos that is our life over here, the photo might not get taken until sometime early spring!

So to stretch the theme a little, I’ll tell a little story with the Pumpkin Patch photos from last weekend. Make sure to stop over to Stacy’s for some other fun stories.

Enjoy!

Bounce around the room

Pumpkins found!

Artist at work

Patience...

2 Butterflies

Checkin' out the goods

Butterfly from above

Ready to roll

Idleness? ~ Theme Thursday

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I laughed out loud when I saw that this week’s Theme Thursday was idleness. Dear, sweet Stacy – so optimistically suggested that we find some idleness to shoot this week.

It is so not happening around our place this week, much to my chagrin. Poor J., when he walks through the door each evening – he doesn’t know whether he is going to get a completely wasted, staring off into space, brain-dead wife, or one in tears. It has not been one of my finer weeks, for sure.

So I went to the archives. These photos were from the week of Ad’s birthday. I caught her in a moment of idleness, just off in her own little world.

Uppy-down

Sweet cheeks

Just takin' a moment

Her new puppy, bear, blankie, favorite sundress, and a fresh Ariel tattoo. Just lying in the sun. So gorgeous.

This week has been a little “Addie-heavy,” I know. Perhaps I am subconsciously trying to make up for the “car door to the middle of her poor forehead” incident. But that is a story for another day when I have a little more energy to deal with it, and maybe a touch more of that elusive idleness.

Playtime! ~ Theme Thursday

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It’s playtime over at Stacy’s for Theme Thursday today. So…

Are you ready for some football??

Emma came in over the weekend and asked if anyone wanted to play football. That was music to her Daddy’s ears, I think. He hopped up and off they went out into the yard.

Laces out!

We need a little work on the throwing and catching, but she definitely has the running and kicking down. Good thing she is going to be a soccer star.

That's a touchdown!

Addie found other stuff to play with…

Finding things to play with

Until the footballers took a break for a little swinging…

Better than a swing

And then they pondered how fun it is to have Daddy home for playtime.

Taking a break

Check out more playtime over at Stacy’s.

The Eyes Have It ~ Theme Thursday

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Both times I was pregnant, I spent nine months willing my girls to come out with J’s warm, chocolate-y colored eyes.

When Em came out, I realized that even with all of my willing (and eating a lot of chocolate) she was going to definitely have green eyes, like me. I was consoled by the fact that she got J.’s big, almond-shaped eyes, and not my squinty ones, though.

And when Addie came out, her eyes were even bigger, complete with even longer eyelashes – which I didn’t think was possible. Her eyes are more brown, some days they are close to that chocolate color, but most days they seem to be more golden, kinda green-brown, still definitely lighter than J’s.

In the end, (and all that really matters) I am happy to get to sing “Brown-Eyed Girl” to one of my girls. (Although I do adapt the lyrics to include Em’s pretty green eyes, too.)

Though as similar as they are, I am always astounded when I look at photos of them. The stories their eyes tell are very different, indeed.

Right after she asked what a model is.

Emma has serious eyes. Her eyes are wise beyond their wee little five years. They are always analyzing. Always thinking. Always plotting out her next move or scanning her environment, curiously anxious to ask her next question.

Even playing she is so serious

Addie on the other hand…

Double-fisted

She does not have what I would call “serious” eyes. Where Em’s eyes seem so “wise,” Addie’s are completely child-like. She wears her heart in her eyes. One minute they dance with mischief and happiness, the next they are brimming with tears. They are so very expressive – you are never left wondering what she might be feeling or thinking.

My brown-eyed girl

It is why I love raising these two little girls.

They each come from the same set of genes, growing up in the same environment. You can tell they are sisters – you can see it in their eyes, yet they couldn’t be more different. They are two completely different and individual little beings.

Stop over to Stacy’s today to look through some other sets of eyes.

Summer Fun ~ Theme Thursday

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Well, helllloooo! Looky here – summer is nearly over already! Can that really be true? Is next week really August already? Yikes…double YIKES!

Stacy’s challenge for Theme Thursday is to post some Summer Fun. Our summer has been one long batch of fun and we are in fact (probably as you read this) at the beach again today. But I did catch some fun photos of Addie this week as she was playing in the pool/sprinkler, and watering my plants – our everyday Summer Fun around here.

A little water for you...

...A bucket on the head for me!

Well where do you wear your bucket?

Fun ~ Theme Thursday

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Make sure you stop over to Stacy’s for Theme Thursday today, our theme being FUN, and she just returned from Northern California (one of my favorite places in the whole world) so I’m sure she will have some very FUN photos.

As for around here…well, it hasn’t been so much fun. Although my birthday was very fun, we have all been kind of lying low again this week. The camera has been on hiatus still and we are all just trying to get back to normal. I did think about the theme earlier this week and thought for a moment, “Hey, Ad and I should just go out and shoot some photos…” and then I got busy doing nothing something again, and never got around to it.

BUT, thankfully my little Em is totally like her Daddy and can not bear waiting to give a present until the appropriate time. When we picked her up from school yesterday she handed me my Mother’s Day present and pleaded with me to open it.

“But, Mama! Miss MarieRose said that you can open it before Mother’s Day! Can you open it now?”
“Can you open it now?”
“How about now?”

Finally I gave in and opened it when we got home. She was so very proud of her craftiness. (HEY, I totally should have saved this for Crafty Tuesday…)

If you can’t tell – it is the most adorable little purse. When you open the clasp, it looks like this…

Doesn’t that just melt your heart?? Oh, my.

We have been reading the Junie B. chapter books after we put Addie to bed at night. I have so waited for this day…reading REAL, FUN books to the girls – I’m not sure who is having more fun, Em or Mommy.

And then inside the purse, was this…

And she was so proud that she glued the little “sticks” into the shape of an “M.”

I do believe this can be claimed as my favorite Mother’s Day gift. Ever. It is so sweet and fun.

Think of all the “advice” you get before you have a child – “it is the hardest job you’ll ever have,” “that first year will really rock your world,” “sleep now, while you still can,” “watch out for projectile vomit,” etc.

Why doesn’t anyone say how much FUN it is to be the center of someone’s world. Even if it is only for a few short years?

A Collection ~ Theme Thursday

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Today’s Theme Thursday is collection. Besides my collection of dust bunnies, I’m not really collecting anything right now. I did collect spoons when I was little but I think they are somewhere at my parent’s house now, in the basement perhaps? Since Em is a bit of a hoarder (she has piles of scrap papers, all kinds of piles of stuff, and will not throw anything away) I am not surprised that she has already found something to collect.

Our trip to Hawaii pushed her occasional infatuation with the “smashed penny” into a full-fledged obsessive collection. So now we collect “smashed pennies” wherever we go. You know the crank machine where you put in 51 cents and get a penny imprinted with a logo.

Daddy found the cool little folder to keep her pennies in, and she likes to rearrange them and tell us how many spots she has left to fill. Finding a penny is never a problem, unfortunately we always see a machine when Mommy never has any quarters. I’m tempted for her birthday to get her a roll of quarters and a roll of pennies to drag around in her purse so we always have some.

collection.jpg

Don’t forget to stop over to the Land of K.A. to check out what everyone else is collecting.

Self ~ Theme Thursday

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So our “assignment” for today’s Theme Thursday was to take a self-portrait. Blech.

This is how I feel about taking photos of myself…

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Not a fan. Very rarely do I see a photo of myself and say, “Hey! Look at that – that is a pretty good shot of me!” In fact, I don’t think I have said that since possibly this photo.

But, being a good sport, and knowing that I can’t always be behind the viewfinder, I do want my great-grandchildren to know that their grandmothers actually had a mom. So we hauled the camera and tripod out to the front yard today. It was nearly impossible to get a photo with just me. Apparently my girls are fond of getting their photo taken, Em wanted to play with the camera remote, and she also wanted to show off her curly new ‘do.

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When I told Em that we had to use the remote for the camera, Addie took off into the house and then returned with the television remote. “Here you go, Mama!” She is so sweet. Remotes for all!

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Later on when Em was at school and Addie was watching Ariel (for the 40th time this month), I slipped into the dining room and tried again. I am “ok” with this one, and it’ll be my submission for today’s theme.

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Check out how everyone else fared over at The Land of K.A.

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Also! If you have a minute will you pop over to my friend Vic at Life As I Know It and wish her a very happy birthday? Wow, all my beautiful friends are turning 29 this year! How fun! :-) Have the happiest of Birthdays, Vic!