Bento of the Week Challenge - Book

Pokemon has experience a revival in our home.  My oldest who is 17 loved it when he was little and has gotten my other two children loving it as well.
When we went to Barnes and Noble during the summer for book club Itty Bitty insisted on having a Pokemon book, and she has read the whole thing several times thru.
It only seemed prudent to make her a Poke-Themed bento for her fist day of school lunch.  In this bento we have a pokeball pizza, under the pizza is a tossed salad.  On the upper tier is a brussel sprout "oddish", pasta with a "Psudowoodo" sauce, wasabi almonds, and finally mandarian oranges.

Getting Ready to Swim : )

We are counting down until our first swim meet : )  We still have a couple of weeks but the team is working so hard.  This night we practiced starting off the blocks then swimming to the end of the lane, just to jump out and do it all over again.  Both of the kiddos are excited, they have never swam competitively before and only started the team in March.  They have both worked really hard I will update after the meet with new pics and information.       

Itty Bitty in the black and gold cap.

Jacob in the black and gold cap.

Sweet Shot Tuesday-Strawberry

"Sweet Shot Tuesday- Strawberry"

     I am so excited to share this cool strawberry shot with everyone!  I have been practicing with my Macro Lens for a bit now and finally got a good shot!  I used my Nikkor Macro 105.  

     I took this shot by setting up a lowball glass on my kitchen table and then added club soda.  Next I put an extra lamp over the right hand side of the glass.  Then I found a pretty piece of scrapbook paper to prop up behind the glass to add a nice background.  Finally, I dropped in my strawberry and started to shoot away.
     In addition, this was my shot for the My4Hens PhotoChallenge.  The theme was Small and Little.  Of course the strawberry is small and the bubbles on the strawberry are very little.  I am so excited to say that I won this week!  My first win ever!

Two Features in Two Weeks : )

I always enjoy participating in the weekly challenges that various people host on Flickr.  Each week there is a different theme and you post your interpretation on that theme.  I belong to My 4 Hens P52 group and another flickr group called Project 52-2013.
In the My 4 Hens group the admin picks photos to feature each week.  It is extremely had to get a feature because over 2,000 people belong to the group pool.  I was exetremely excited when I was chosen not once but twice in a row!!  Below are both of my featured shots.
I have found that these photos challenges help to keep me shooting, and thinking creatively about everything around me.  Sometimes the themes can stretch your imagination quite a bit.

Really Cool Sign on Castaway Cay-Theme "Around the Block"  This sign caught my eye as we were leaving Castaway Cay and heading back to the Disney Fantasy.  I thought the pointy finger was funny and the different writing was unique.

Perfect Day

I've been asked what would your perfect day look like?  It's no secret that I love, love, love, the beach which is a close second to my absolute first love, (other than my family of course) Disney and the Disney Cruise Line.  We we at Castaway Cay (Disney's private island) when I took this shot.  We were headed back onboard the ship after a wonderful perfect day in paradise. 

My Perfect Day

Mother's Day Lens

For Mother's Day I got my present early, a new lens!! Its a Nikkor macro 105!  So of course I had to try it out.  Many people online use it as a portrait lens as well as a macro, so I gave it a try.  Below are my attempts.  Man Cub at the pool during swim team practice, Itty Bitty also at swim practice working on her freestyle and finally KK while we were goofing off eating frozen yogurt.

The Lake

As we come to the end of the school year time flies by!  I couldn't believe it had been so long since I have updated!  The weekend after prom we were lucky enough to get invited over to a friends house for a cookout and some fishing, along with some picture taking.  I caught the girls and the Motorcycle Man fishing on the lake.  Unfortunately they didn't catch anything because some crazy camera lady was stomping around on the dock taking shots.  As the sun was going down I caught Itty Bitty against the sunset and was able to catch her shadow.  

"Prom"

My son had his Jr. Prom this weekend.  He had a great time hanging out with all of his buddies.  I was fortunate to be able to go and take lots of pictures of him and his friends.  They were so so goofy.  This is one of my favorite shots.  Here the guys are all re-enacting a "move" for Naruto.  Below is a more serious shot of Mr. Man all dressed up.

Spring Fling Rock Climbing

Tonight was Itty Bitty's "Spring Fling" at school.  They had all kinds of cool things to do there, but Itty Bitty was all about doing the rock climbing wall.  She tried this once before at the Bass Pro Shop and did not do so well.  Tonight though was a different story.  She made it all the way to the top of the wall and then repealed down!  She was so proud of herself and we were proud of her.  On a separate note I have been reading on working on focus and lighting.  I think that today my pictures were sharper and the lighting was luckily better.  Overall I am happy with the photos that I got.  Hopefully I will continue to improve.

"The End of March the Beginning of April"

These last few weeks have been very busy.  We just had spring break and are now on the down-hill slide to summer vacation!  Only a month or so left now!  I have been continuing my photo challenges this month but they are both hosted on flickr so sometimes I forget to post here but I will be better due to the fact that the "Edit Me Challenges" are beginning again : )  

For the theme Pride and Joy I couldn't decide between the color or the B&W version of this pic of the kiddos.  KK liked the B&W because she said her shirt was too distracting.

The next two pictures were taken on the same day.  We were at the park playing and this stream was too pretty to pass up.  So instead I used it for the theme narrow and then put Itty Bitty in front of it for warmth.  Her smile and the warm glow from the sunlight were perfect for the theme.

Theme: Pride and Joy

B and W Version

Theme: Narrow

Theme: Warmth

"Mini"

Tonight my sweet husband was nice enough to pose for me with his iPad while he read.  I participate in a couple of 52 week projects on Flickr.  One of the themes for this week is "mini".  I thought that the iPad Mini was perfect for the photo and it allowed me to practice getting sharp pictures in low light conditions.  To get the lighting just right we turned off all the lights in the room except the front porch light.  Then we had our son hold a flashlight far off to the side so the "apple" logo is lit up and you can tell what he is holding.

Beautiful Girls

This weekend was beautiful.  Kk and Mia got some picture time together and I caught Itty Bitty watching My Little Pony on Saturday morning.  I love my family. : )

Sunny Warm Weekend : )

Today was a beautiful, sunny, warm weekend!  While MR. Man was at Youth Symphony rehearsal we decided to go to the park and the Riverwalk.  Itty Bitty enjoyed her time swinging, laughing and running around.

At the riverwalk we found a few gazebos and some cool cannons.  The sunlight was so pretty, bouncing off of Itty's head.  She enjoyed posing on the neat cannons.

This Week's Challenges

This week's photo challenges were "fleeting" and "light".  The first photo was taken around town after eating frozen yogurt.  There was a tire swing that Itty Bitty was excited to swing on.  She quickly made some new friends and played before it got to cold and late to play anymore.  These moments go by fast are are certainly fleeting.  The bottom photo is one that I happened on just walking out my garage door on my way to work.  I was already running late but just couldn't pass up this gorgeous photo.

Sweet Shot Tuesday Feb #1

Endless power lines cut through the countryside. Endless beauty found in a freezing, early morning sunrise with the fog rolling in.  

Flip Flop Edit - #5

I'm very excited to be posting a new edit!  Amy from Flip Flop Edits provided the picture of this beautiful lady that is expecting.  For my edit I first cropped to highlight baby bump.  Next, I ran a sharpen layer and a layer adjustment.  I then added a vignette and enhanced her eyes.  Finally I added a layer and painted on softness around this mom-to-be.

Before

After

First Sign of Spring?

I was in my backyard and saw this flower in bloom.  I had to pull out my phone and double check my calendar... yep it's still January.  I decided to take a photo and then crop it down to showcase the ruffle in the center and the sparkles in the leaves.

Moon Shot

Shoot the Moon is the assignment for Kent Weakley's night photography e-class this week.  I was starting to feel like this was more like a moon shot!  All day long the clouds were rollin' in and it was grey and yucky and the sun was covered up.  About the time I was leaving for the park the clouds started to clear, I was feeling pretty good.  We get to the park and the moon is hidden : ( We waited and finally saw the moon.  I got two shots and the clouds covered the moon back up for the next hour.  

My Routine-M4H project 52

Our routine consists of washing the dishes nightly.  Our dish washer broke several months ago and we have not replaced it yet.  Itty Bitty is busy washing our many Tervis Tumblers.

Sweet Shot Tuesday- Pieces of Me

Sweet Shot Tuesday-Blue Hour in my City

Blue Hour in my City

I am participating in Kent Weakley's Night Photography class.  Our assignment is to take a photo during the magical hour known as the blue hour.  I decided to drag my husband and children "across the river" tonight to accompany me on my trek.  This is what I ended up with... a stunning photo of the city and its lights.

Sweet Shot Tuesday- I "Heart" Sapporo

I was enjoying a nice sushi lunch with the family and decided to order a Sapporo.  After I took a couple of sips of my drink I realized that the suds/bubbles made repeating hearts around the entire rim of my glass.  Thankfully I had my trusty camera ready to go and capture this.

Project 52

The first week's photo challenge in Project 52 on flickr is titled "alive".  This doggie (a toy poodle) is definitely alive and crazy, she spends her days running around crazy, putting the fear into squirrels, and playing with the kids.  I can't believe that I got her to sit still for a fraction of a second.  Happy New Year!!