Gracie: Soccer Star?

Grace's first soccer game was last Saturday and we had typical soccer weather: cool and gray clouds.  I was expecting a game similar to last year's hilarious start to the season where the kids had no idea what they were doing and the coaches were on the field telling them what to do the entire time.  Not this year!  This year we watched a soccer game.  As in, the kids knew how to kick off, throw the ball in from out of bounds, how to do a corner or goal kick, etc.  What a world of difference.  The one thing that stayed the same from last year was the herd mentality where there was no real teamwork in passing the ball but just a big group of kids following the ball around the field.  They did try to differentiate between defense and offense by having two kids hang back a little which sort of worked.  Grace didn't understand the defense concept at all and kept trying to run after the ball.  This year she is a go-getter!

I am so proud of Gracie this year, she really stepped up to the plate and is a fully participating member of the team.  Last year she took on the role of looking cute and staying out of everyone else's way as they played the game.  This year she is running hard and getting into the action.  I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw her getting into the middle of the action time after time.  She never stopped running and never hung back.  She may be the smallest on the field but she is determined not to be the slowest!

I did get Grace to soccer pictures by 8am on Saturday morning, but since I didn't buy anything apart from a team photo I took one quick "nice" photo after her game.  Her "small" uniform swims on her and she had to wear last year's shorts because this year's won't stay up even when we cinch them as far as they go.  At least the socks aren't as ginormous as last year and fit much better!

Back to School!

Back to School season is in full swing at our house.  Last Tuesday Grace started first grade and today Ethan started preschool.  It's a big year of firsts for us, the first year Grace is in school all day and the first year Ethan is enrolled in preschool.  For Grace the big deal is eating lunch at school and for Ethan it's the fact that he has a can of crayons with his name on it in his classroom.  This year I got smart and took both kids' back to school pictures separately and before the big day.  Less stress for Mommy and allows for more creativity!  I didn't forget my camera for the actual first day of school either, but I just went with the flow and concentrated more on documenting the experience.

We did Grace's back to school photos the Friday before school started after we dropped off her school supplies in her classroom.  She picked out five apples in Safeway before our photo session, one for everybody in our family and one for her teacher.  On her first day of school we all walked to school together and got a few snaps of her in her new classroom.  She was so excited!

 

 

 Ethan and I met a few friends at his preschool the week before he started as well.  He mostly wanted to play on the playground but we did get a few good ones!  This morning we dropped Grace off at school and then Mommy, Daddy, and Ethan swung by Dutch Brothers for a hot drink treat before heading to preschool to play on the playground until it was time for Ethan's class to begin.  He was soooo excited and couldn't wait to hang his backpack on his hook.  When he got to his desk he found his crayon can with his name on it and was just over the moon happy.  He told us that we could go and happily waved goodbye.  Such a big boy!

 

 

Grace has a loose tooth!

So I realize I'm a bit behind on blogging, but July is really a crazy month for us and I'm just now coming up for air.  I thought I'd share this little video I just took 30 minutes ago of Grace talking about her loose tooth we just discovered.  She is so excited about it she wanted me to call all her friends so she can tell them about her loose tooth.  Since I'm sure their Mommies would much rather not have calls about loose tooths just before bedtime I am posting this video for you all instead.

(never mind the cat fight in the background...our cats just looooove each other)

Strawberries!

The kids and I went strawberry picking yesterday and picked 12 pounds of strawberries.  That might sound like a lot, but it really isn't.  I made a double batch of strawberry freezer jam (10 cups), put some in the freezer, made strawberry oven pancakes for dinner (my favorite!), and have a bunch leftover for more strawberry goodness.  Thinking about making some strawberry ice cream, and maybe freeze some more.

We didn't pick any strawberries last year because we picked so many the year before.  In fact we're just now finishing up the last bit of freezer jam from that batch!  This year Grace was actually a helper and managed to get more then one or two in the box instead of in her mouth.  Ethan took over the taste testing position and left Grace and I to the real work.

I'm excited that the berry farm we found also grows raspberries and marionberries...we'll be back!

Little Cowboy and Cowgirl

Last weekend we enjoyed the Sisters Rodeo as we do every year on the second weekend in June.  This year I brought my camera along but only took a few photos of the kids playing around and didn't even bring it to the rodeo.  Through the years I've discovered that it's pretty much impossible to do much with a camera at a rodeo when you're a mother of two small children.  I have at least one child on my lap at all times, get to make 15 trips from the stands to the portapotties and/or to buy more bottled water or treats.  I figure I have plenty of years to photograph rodeos to my heart's content once my children can sit in a seat by themselves and don't require me to take them to the potty constantly.  Instead I snuggled with my kids and even got Ethan to nap right as the last few bullriders finished the rodeo for us.  So instead of fast paced exciting rodeo action I am sharing sweet photos of my kids in their cowboy hats.  Notice Grace's is purple and Ethan refused to wear his cowboy boots (he did consent to wear them to the rodeo though...)

A knight and a fairy princess

If you've been around my children for any length of time you know that they often exist in their own little world.  Grace spins elaborate stories about fairy princesses and knights and Ethan happily plays along.  A few days ago the warm spring sunshine got the better of me and I asked the kids if they wanted to go play in the field near our house while I practiced with my 85mm a little.  They readily agreed when I told them they could wear dress up to play.  Grace wanted to wear her zebra shirt because it matched her new tutu we made last week perfectly.  I suggested the boots over Grace's choice of purple sandals because I knew there would still be mud.  Ethan was ecstatic to wear his Batman getup in addition to his knight's helmet and sword.  It's really impossible not to have a sword if you're a knight afterall.

We hung out for almost an hour in the field behind our house laughing and playing in the sunshine.  I didn't really pose the kids since all I wanted to do was practice nailing focus with the 85mm which is very different from my 50mm.  With a camera pointed at them so often I don't like to force them to pose for me every time.  I told them to play and do whatever they wanted to do and just have fun.  Every now and again I'd ask them to look my direction, but otherwise I got my practice in and we all had fun. 

My kids are so used to my camera that they don't even pay attention to it anymore.  And with the 85mm I am far enough back that I can capture them doing their thing without their getting their attention which makes for fun candid shots.

By the way, the capes were made by my inlaws for the kids for Christmas.  The Batman cape is worn pretty much every day.  He wore it to Safeway yesterday twice (I went three times for 6 bags of cheap sugar!).  I made Grace's new tutu last week with some friends as I showed them how easy they are to make.  She picked the colors out for this one because apparently I picked the wrong pink for the one I made her 4 years ago. 

Doo Doo Doo Batman

I can't believe it's been a month since I've posted here.  Apologies!  For now I'll just share this fantastic drawing of Batman that Grace made at school today.  It's a little hard to see, but she drew white stars in the blue sky because it is night time.  She made it for her brother which warms my heart.  They really do love each other despite all the usual sibling warfare.  I really wanted to share it so I did some Google searching to figure out how to scan with our behemoth all in one printer and now that I've figured it out I'll be going scanning crazy!  Hope you're looking forward to that :)

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day from the Parry Family!  Here's a few more photos from Grace and Ethan's Valentines Session from last week.  They are sooooo excited to hand out their Valentines to their friends at their parties today.  Grace worked hard to write all her classmates names on her Princess Valentines and Ethan helped me tape on candy for his sports themed Valentines.  I went homemade this year and made David's Valentine (thank you MOPS!) and picked up a pen and sketched Batman for Ethan and Cinderella for Grace.  It's been awhile since I've done much drawing but it's something I would like to get back in touch with.  If I'm brave I'll share pics!

I Heart Faces: Best Face Photo from January 2011

I know I shared this photo on here recently, but it's still my favorite "face" photo for the month! If you want to see something new check out my photography blogsite Kellie Parry Photography for some rock star photos of Miss Gracie.

For more beautiful faces check out I Heart Faces by clicking on the button below:

Winter Sunshine

I know I haven't updated this blog in awhile but I thought I'd share some photos from tonight's impromptu photo session. I was scouting out a location for a maternity session this weekend and found this little gem around the block from us. I will DEFINITELY be coming back to this spot in the future! I had my camera with me to check out the lighting and I bribed my kids to get out of the red wagon to let me take photos of them with the promise of chicken nuggets and chocolate milk. Surprisingly Grace was my more willing model and I got a few nice ones of her with real Grace smiles and not cheesy ones!

These were all taken with my new (to me!) 1.4 50mm which I am LOVING! Gorgeous color and bokeh and it's super sharp. These are all edited in Lightroom and then I used a Paint the Moon freebie action. I've been doing a lot of dual editing these days, it takes a bit longer with the extra step but I'm pretty happy with the results.