Day 15

Breaking out of the "posting 1x/week mold of the 365" here to post these photos of Charlotte's last day of being three-years-old. They are some of my favorites that I've taken lately.  The first one with her little smirk that she does so well.  The second of her just being silly and the third of a sweet beautiful smile. Boy, this girl is a firecracker but mostly she is just so sweet.

Linked up at My 3 Boybarians for Sweet Shot Tuesday. Enjoy!

Week 2 (Days 8-14)

 January 8th

The theme this week was intended to be "me" but I'm not sure I really captured that.  Oh well 50 more weeks to try that one out!  

So, new year...with great intentions to work out again.  I'm pretty sure I will be getting a new pair of sneakers at some point given how dirty these are!  Working out is a battle for me. I love to eat chocolate and desserts; I hate to work out. I've never been particular motivated. I've always been blessed with a pretty good metabolism but as I get older I notice that is starting to slow down. Ug.  Plus I KNOW working out is just plain healthy as I get older so it's better that I start now! This time my attention has been grabbed with the workout routines/classes with the Kinect.  It's actually a lot of fun!

January 9th
The start of a project for the thank you bags for Charlotte's party.  I have never been a particular crafty person. I am so much more left brain than right.  However, I do like creating and when I found a really cute Pascal (from Tangled) foam design with the party blowers I just had to make them.  It took much  more time than I thought but I liked how they came out.

January 10th

Primary day!  The high school was really busy. You know me at all, you know how I vote and how I love election year!  I love a good (healthy!) political debate and am very interested in what the "other side" has to say.    

January 11th

My second attempt at knitting a hat for the kids.  I made a purple one for Charlotte that in the end was too tight for her.  Round 2 coming up! This one was a green that Cole picked out.  After starting out and twisting the hat and having to start over several times I was really pleased with how this one came out.  

January 12th

Almost done!  I was really intimidated with the double point needles before this but was surprised with how easy they really were to use.  Maybe after Charlotte's hat I'll make mittens or even socks! Who knows!  I love having these projects to do.  Knitting makes me happy, especially seeing Cole's face after I gave him this.  

January 13th

I blame Pinterest for sucking my time for a lot of reasons.  :)  I found a couple of ideas for Charlotte's goody bags especially the aforementioned Pascal party blowers.  Making 25 of them was fun but tiring.

January 14th.

Party day!

I found the Rapunzel cake idea on Pinterest and the pillow case dress on Etsy.  Charlotte had a blast at her party!

Project 365 2012! Week One

 Day 1

January 1st

Last Day of the Christmas lights. I never got a fully dark picture of our lights. I always chickened out when it got cold and dark and I was nice and toasty inside.  But I had to get at least one photo of our house all decked out.  You can see the lights over the door already fell down.  Next year promises to be bigger and better!

 Day 2

Cleaning Up.  Wreath came down and I had to sweep the front stairs of the bunches and bunches of needles that came off of the tree.  Always bittersweet to take down the tree.

 Day 3

After I finally made up my mind to do this project once again I decided that I would pick a theme for a week and then go with it.  I don't know how  long "themes" will last but it's helpful for now.  This week's theme became "Before Bed".   

Charlotte is always silly before bed especially when she is REALLY tired.  Bouncing on the bed always takes some of those sillies out.

 Day 4

While Cole and Brendan were at Cub Scouts, Charlotte and I played house with her dolls.  Each doll received a cookie and a necklace. She also tried to dress them up in some way with something on their head or fairy wings.   Then she read them Good Night Moon.  Very very sweet.

 Day 5

Darling Cole right before bedtime.

 Day 6

Cleaning up the last of the decorations before I went to bed.

Day 7

We celebrated Cameron's birthday and although not technically right before bedtime, they did fall asleep on the way home.  :)  

Day 357 to (365)

 Day 357

Christmas with Mimi and Grandpa.   After presents, they covered Dakota with the paper. Dakota was such a good sport. I love that dog.

 Day 358

Charlotte got a new bike for Christmas and she took to it in no time at all!  Cole rides around like he's always been riding two wheels (he forgot how much he balked at taking the training wheels off last spring!).  They are such big kids now.  Crazy.  You notice Tuesday was a lazy day and Charlotte was riding around still in her pajamas. haha! Hey, when you have 11 days off of work these things tend to happen!

 Day 359

Dance Central for the Kinect is insanely fun and hilarious.  San took to it like a champ.  

 Day 361

We went to the Museum of Science and took in the Pompeii exhibit. It was incredible, humbling, and mesmerizing. Cole and I had a good talk about what happened, what these casts were, etc.  He told me it was very interesting.  I love he takes to these things!

So basically when the volcanic ash covered people, animals, things so quickly it  immortalized them.  Later on when Pompeii was rediscovered people found strange holes in the rock and poured the casts in and this is what they found.  Absolutely amazing.  This one is of a man and woman huddled together. The man has one hand on his mouth and one on the woman.  The detail of the casts is incredible.

Day 362

Happy New Year's Eve! 

Of course, with the days I skipped now and then I have miscounted the days and therefore came out three behind the actual 365!  Oh well.

So New Year's was a little more rowdy this year.  One awesome piece wast that our darling long lost friend Kerry came over. We have missed her so much!

So that is it. A year in the life.   Ups and downs.   I have loved this project as I have said before.  I actually have been taking a picture a day for 2012 and so will be restarting this again.  The attraction of capturing those details and pieces about every day life was just too strong.  I am excited to be doing this again!

Day 332 through 356

 December 1st

Our Elf on the Shelf arrives.  We hadn't done this fun little game before this year. I can't believe we haven't.  Cole and Charlotte loved it- coming down to see what the elf had done each morning.  They named him Christmas Light first, told him that the first day and then the second day decided to switch the name to Cake.  Don't ask. Who knows?! :)  However, I told them his magic had already started and his name had stuck so they went with Christmas Light.  

 December 3rd

Christmas Light is found reading the letters to Santa.

 December 4th

Originally Abby, Dianna and I were looking into signing the younger kids up for a cookie decorating class but we couldn't find a time that worked for all of us. So Dianna (and Jake!) had us all over with the Hynds to do some cookie decorating there.  Such a great afternoon. Love this bunch of people!

 December 9th

Decorating the gingerbread house. Once or twice I'd catch Charlotte taking a candy from the house days or weeks later. Yuck!

 December 10th

First day of basketball.  Cole enjoys it but I wouldn't say he loves it like he did soccer or baseball. Dribbling is tricky and he's still working on it. 

 December 11th

Trying to steal some of my red velvet brownie and cheesecake bars that sneaky elf! Charlotte and Cole had the hardest time finding him and then went to get the milk for breakfast and they burst out laughing.  I posted this on FB and someone asked if the Elf Mafia broke his legs. That made ME laugh. I don't know why I didn't just sit him down but I was tired!

 December 12th

Pinterest, how I love thee. Let me count thy ways!  Easy decorating tip...ribbons and candy canes!

 December 13th

Visions of sugar plums...

 December 14th

Watching Prep and Landing for the upteenth time.

 December 15th 

Reflection bokeh

 December 16th

I stayed home with Charlotte that Friday.  We did lots of things together while Cole was at school. It was so nice to relax and play.  We did crafts for awhile. Actually Charlotte did them for at least an hour. 

 December 18th

Happy Boy

I took this photo in the bath for a matching one I took of Charlotte a couple months ago. I might frame them and put them in the...yup, you guessed...bathroom.

 December 19th

Elf and Bokeh. :)

 December 20th

Manually focused bokeh.  

 December 22nd

We piled the kids in the car and drove really slowly around the entire neighborhood to see all of the Christmas lights.  

 December 23rd

Every year for the past three years five of my closest childhood friends and I have a reunion.  This is one of the reasons Facebook rocks! I never would have reconnected with these girls (well, except for Robyn of course who I have remained BFFs with!) if FB didn't exist.  These girls (plus a missing Jess who couldn't make it at the last moment) were integral to my childhood.  Robyn and I were always best friends but Holly, Melissa, Holly (same name, different girl!) and Jess along with a couple others were my rocks. We were in girl scouts together, softball, soccer, went to dances, slept over, birthday parties, worried over boyfriends and loved each other fiercely.  I am so thankful I grew up with these core friends and I wish we hadn't grown apart over the years!  They are all the same but grown up and I still love them!  

December 24th

Same beautiful family photo as on the family blog but edited differently. So thankful that I have a wonderful husband and two equally wonderful children!

Last batch of 2011 365 project to be posted shortly!

I am toying with the idea of doing another 365 this year.  I didn't want to because I felt it got to be too much work but then I spent an hour last night going through all of my photos and captions on this blog and I am so glad that I preserved each and every one of these memories and thoughts.  It is hard not to worry about perfection with each photo so we'll see.  I really tried hard to create a photo for the first quarter of this past year. It took a lot of my time and I couldn't do it anymore so I switched the focus to just capturing the day.  I wish there could be a balance of both.  We'll see. I'll make my decision this week!

Day 321 through 328

Day 321

 November 20th

End of the mountain house weekend. Boo hoo.

 Day 324

November 23rd

random IPhone photo

 Day 325

November 24

I think the dried up hydrangea is *almost* as beautiful as the fresh one.

 Day 326

November 25th

IPhone

The kids and I went to the Windham Rail Trail while Brendan was off playing his annual football game.  I love this biking/running trail.  I was smart and brought the wagon along with the bikes because I knew that walk was going to be a lot for those tired kids!  They still managed to run and play on the trail and then play on the old caboose and then again at the park.  

 Day 327

November 26th

Attempts at a Christmas card photo.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Pinterest.  It's addicting in a good way- tons of helpful tips, recipes, and ideas.  I got the white light idea from them.  This photo wasn't the ones on the card for a couple reasons but I just love the way Charlotte is looking at Cole.

Day 328

November 27th

Tree's up and the magic of Christmas has begun!

Day 303 through Day 320

 Day 303

November 2, 2011

IPhone

In photo class this past fall I have been introduced to some amazing photographers (both the people in the class and the artists that our instructor discusses).  One of my absolute favorites is Henry Misrach who took a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge every day for four years on large format film.  Here is one.  The pictures are just gorgeous.  The skies change beautifully every day. No sunset or sunrise is ever the same and each one is breathtaking.  Maybe someday I'll make that my project although I doubt one of my photos will ever sell for $11K at Christie's. :)

 Day 304

November 3, 2011

IPhone 

Taken on the way to work.

 Day 306

November 5, 2011

IPhone

Charlotte and her girls at Maddie's birthday party.  

 Day 307

November 6, 2011

SS 1/500, f/4, 55mm ISO 400

I love how the light is hitting this leaf.  

 Day 308

November 7, 2011

S 1/200 f/5.6  28mm ISO 500, external flash

Cole has a new found love for cross word puzzles and word searches.  He is singing me a song about it in this picture. :)

 Day 309

November 8,  2011

SS 1/200 f/5.6 32mm ISO 500 external flash

 Day 310

November 9, 2011

SS 1/200 f/6.3  55mm ISO 500 external flash

My friend Laurie organized a Persian inspired cooking class. The instructor was fabulous and the homemade naan was by far my favorite.  Such a great night.  Now I really want some Fiesta ware! But how to choose a color?

 Day 311

November 10, 2011

SS 1/125 f/2.8 50mm ISO 1250

I love this picture of Charlotte.  From the chipped nail polish, to the doll, to the costume, this child is all girly girl.

 Day 313

November 12, 2011

SS 1/160 f/2.8 50mm ISO 400

As I peeked into Charlotte's room to see how she was doing while I was cleaning up, I found her playing in the laundry basket.  She was in her dance clothes and had several dolls in there with her.  Apparently they were all going on a roller coaster ride. 

 Day 314

November 13, 2011

SS 1/400 f/6.3 70mm ISO 200

The kids and I went one of the less populated apple orchards to take some photos in hopes of getting one of both of them for the Christmas card. I didn't take any that I loved of both of them but Cole's winning smile made me melt on some of these.  I love this kid. 

Day 320

November 19th, 2011

SS 1/250 f/4 98mm ISO 320

This is on my favorite photographs lately.  It was mountain house weekend (post to come soon on the family blog) and I was playing with Charlotte and Caitlyn outside.  It was just cold enough that the frost had not melted away.  I think this leave looks like half of a star if you look at it with imagination!