Guinness
Sorry I haven’t posted lately. We’ve been super busy! Anyway, here’s a fun image I caught a couple of months ago on a random outing with Heather.
Sorry I haven’t posted lately. We’ve been super busy! Anyway, here’s a fun image I caught a couple of months ago on a random outing with Heather.
Well, you’ve all heard about her, so I thought it would only be fair for everyone to see pictures of her. Here are some of the shots I’ve collected of Heather over the past few months.
From an art show we attended in April:
From this awesome dilapidated phonebooth we found next to House Of Pies (Yum):
Heather is also working on her own photography skills, so I thought I’d share one I loved that she got of me a few weeks ago:
I’ve recently (well, maybe not recently) decided that a modicum of silliness is essential for general health and well-being. We have more than a modicum of silliness at my house. Observe:
This is what happens when I ask to take pictures of them!! At least Bryndel was quasi-cooperative. (She had a meltdown and was whisked off to naptime moments later.)
A few weeks ago, Rixie decided she wanted to be a princess. So, we went to the closet and picked out a pretty dress, to which she added pieces of her Barbie princess costume. Somewhere during the process, she decided she wanted to be a cowgirl. This is the result:
What can I say?
And Riley decided to get in on the dress-up action, too:
Bryndel sans anything resembling clothing, much less costumed:
One more of my Rixie:
On the 9th of this month, Heather and I were privileged to attend a show of the Coronation Vintage Fall ’09 collection, Once Upon A Blue Muse. The show was fabulous. (In fact, the whole night bordered on perfect.) It was out back of AvantGarden, a quirky little bar (if you could really even call it that,) with two levels inside, and a lovely area out. The first thing Heather and I noticed walking up was the smell of jasmine. Mmmmm. And I did discover firsthand that the tiny bathroom upstairs lacks air conditioning… and gets rather hot rather quickly, (even after midnight,) in the torrid heat of May in Houston.
To be completely honest, I got distracted talking, (social butterfly that I am.) And as a result, my camera didn’t get nearly as much use as I intended! I did have some fun experimenting. (Well, to whatever degree a controlled experiment where I have a good idea what the outcome will be is wont to happen. Although, to be fair, I did shoot a good portion of these with my camera in my right hand and my sangria in my left.) I wanted to capture as much of the ambient light as possible, (as little of it as there was,) so I boosted my ISO, got low, wide angles and dragged my shutter (in some more than others.) I was pleased with the effect, which I feel verges on dreamy, ethereal, romantic… too bad I didn’t shoot as much as planned!
Well, Ryan has officially graduated. He’s now a certified commercial diver!
Unfortunately, the kids and I didn’t get to see the graduation. We were all ready to go, but the keys were MIA!! (The same keys I had carefully set aside not half an hour previously, so I’d know exactly where they were.) Ryan had gone on ahead as he needed to be there a few minutes early. I was in a frantic frenzy, which involved dumping out my purse, a basket that collects odds and ends, and flinging a newspaper just for the heck of it. My Rixie was so precious, “Don’t be sad. We could find your keys,” interspersed with, “Don’t worry, Hunny; I will find your keys.”
Turns out, the keys had magically lept into Ryan’s pocket as he was heading out the door. By the time we figured it out, it was way too late. Rixie was excited when I informed her that Daddy had the keys, “Oh! Daddy will come back and give you yer keys!” She didn’t quite understand, my sweet little cupie doll with hazel eyes and golden ringlets. And she cried when we didn’t get to go. (Well, I did too a little.) She had put a great deal of effort into helping everyone get ready, after all. She helped pick out clothes for everyone and waffled over which pair of shoes would go better with her pink polka dot dress. It was just about the time she settled on the pink, sparkly Barbie skimmers that everything fell apart…
Anyway, Ryan stuck around for his absurdly short ceremony and left lickety-split. When he got back, we took the kids to this place called Funplex and they had an absolute ball (even if was a tad ghetto.) After eating at some hole-in-the-wall-Mexican-restaurant down the street from us, (with awesome food,) we put exhausted, happy children to bed. All’s well that ends well, I suppose.
Lastly, I will post images of the “diploma” they handed Ryan on stage. Sorry, but it’s all I got!
And c’est la vie.
A couple months ago, I took the kiddos to the park armed with only my 15mm to see if I could get some fun shots. I wanted to share a couple of those images, but first I want to share a Riley story.
The girls and I raced to pick up Riley from school, so we could go straight to the park to feed the ducks. We headed back to the apartment first and I sent Riley to his room to change out of his school clothes. He dallied and piddled and I got on him more than once. He insisted that he wanted to play with blocks and not go to the park. Eventually he came out wearing his Spongebob pajamas.
“I in jommas,” he pronounced.
“I can see that,” and I sent him back to his room to change into clothes.
He whined and carried on, “I don’t want to go to va park; just weave me here. I will stay here.”
Having thoroughly reached my Riley limit, I commanded, “Riley Parker, put on your clothes and come on. You are going to the park and you are going to be happy!”
To which he responded, “I will not be happy. I will scare va ducks.” It was somewhere between a threat and a mere statement of fact. I was flabbergasted. But… he did put on his clothes, and he did come to the park, and he was happy.
And he did scare the ducks.
:)
Upon returning from the restroom, I found my dearest Bryndel standing at the counter, on a chair, eating dip with a carrot. (Notice how I didn’t say a carrot with dip.) Think along the lines of how one might eat soup with a spoon… that is how my Bryndel was using her carrot. In all fairness, her scattered little teeth struggle with those crunchy vegetables. On the positive side, she didn’t get dip all over the countertop. She’s improving.
And a totally unrelated Bryndel picture: