I ♥ Faces Week 26: "Pets"

So I'm cheating and sharing a photo I'm recycling from my Project 365. I'm too consumed with editing last Saturday's wedding photos to take a new pet photo! Plus I really like this one of Zoe. She spends a lot of time napping on my pillow just like this. Don't forget to click on the logo below to check out some more pretty pet photos.

"Downtown" Photo Shoot with Grace

I did a "downtown" photo shoot with Grace this afternoon which was actually a lot of fun. Usually taking photos of Grace really tries my patience but when I get a chance to photograph her one on one she does pretty well. Especially with ice cream as a motivator. Never underestimate the power of Dairy Queen as a bribe.

Grace wore her pretty dress that my mother in law sewed for her last week and I hauled the super heavy 70-200 lens with me downtown. I had a specific alley in mind to use and it happened to have perfect lighting and plenty of space for me to work with a long zoom. I'm not used to posing my kids other then plopping them on a stool to keep them still so it took us a little bit to get in the zone. Once we got going Grace did a great job posing for me and seemed to enjoy herself!

I've had an obsession with mary janes for a long time. I LOVE them! Which probably explains why I really like this photo. It was totally worth laying on the nasty pavement.

After about 20 minutes she was all done so we headed to Dairy Queen and split a small pink blizzard.

Lest you think that I forgot about Ethan this week I thought I'd mention that pretty Ethan photos will hopefully be coming soon. He just got a haircut tonight that he desperately needed. Now that he looks like a little man again I'll attempt some nice photos. In the mean time, here he is in all his shaggy glory. Please note that I did not choose any of his attire today and the cowboy boots were a garage sale score from this morning that he refused to take off. I promise he'll be wearing something that at least matches for his nice photo shoot!

Pink Princess Dress

Last week when we were in Idaho my mother in law was busy sewing two dresses for a lucky little girl. The easiest one was this pink princess fabric that came pre-smocked and pre-hemmed so all she had to do was sew up the back seam and add some ribbon. I think even I could have managed that, though probably not quite as nicely sewn as my mother in law did! Grace absolutely loves the pink princess dress and has asked to wear it every day this week. Today I finally relented and said yes (it was finally warm enough!) and she happily wore it all day.

Since I have the Canon 70-200 L lens rented this week I wanted to make sure I got a good photo of the dresses before I send it back on Monday. I'll have to take some pictures of the other one tomorrow. It took a lot more work but it was well worth it!

Grace's Homemade Wrapping Paper

Today we bought and wrapped my husband's Father's Day presents from the kids. Grace decided to color kraft paper and make her own wrapping paper for her present. First she drew our family. Daddy is red, I am blue, Grace is purple, and Ethan is green. You can kind of see Grandma in the yellow to the left. Opa and Oma are over there too. Boo and Zoe were drawn after this photo was taken. Notice that I have orange eyelashes and green shoes. I think I look pretty good.

Then she decided to draw flowers. I admire flowers though I'm not really a gardener. I always point out pretty flowers to the kids as we pass them and share their names so they know the difference between a hydrangea and a daffodil. Hey, I try. So as she drew the flowers Grace matter of factly told me about them. This is a Bodangia flower. I've never heard of this variety either.

This is a Cinderella flower.

This is an Ariel flower. Can't you tell with all the green, red, and purple? So obvious.

She also told me about a Drapes flower but she wasn't sure what color it was. She finally decided it must be yellow, orange, and green but she never drew me one. The finished product looked like this:

I'm pretty sure that Daddy knows exactly what he's getting from the kids because they are the World's Worst Secret Keepers. Good thing he was voted Best Actor Third Period in high school, his acting skills will come in handy!

Baseball & Barbecue 2010

Did you come to our 4th Annual Baseball & Barbecue that we co-host with our neighbors? If not you missed a good time! This was the first year the weather was less then ideal but we managed to stay dry for the baseball game and since we're all web-footed Oregonians the sprinkle of rain during the barbecue didn't phase us. It did, however, mean we did not partake in the outdoor movie that we had planned.

We had a lot of kids play ball with us and it was cute watching the little guys try to copy the adults. Ethan had a BLAST and soaked it all in. He didn't understand the concept of dropping your bat to run the bases but we have a few years to get that point across. This was the first year we were able to con Grace into playing, mostly because of her Dora bat and ball she got for Christmas. She hit the ball and ran the bases twice. She even played in the field with Katie!

I have a zillion photos I posted in Snapfish but wanted to share some here. I narrowed it down a little bit but probably not enough! If you haven't received an invitation to the Snapfish photo album please post a comment with your email address and I'll make sure you get one.