IF: Trick or Treat

Treat!

Update

OK, I've let two weeks go by without posting our goings on, and a lot has happened. Here is a quick (or not so quick) re-cap of the past 14 days:

1. We visited the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm for a fun-filled day packed with hayrides, pumpkin decorating, animal feeding, and of course, lots of photo ops!
Finn was fascinated with the tractors, and I couldn't get him to look at me for more than a half a second, so most of his pictures include a tractor and the back of his head. He spent the majority of the time sitting on a variety of antique tractors, to which I snapped about a hundred pictures before I noticed the sign right in front of me stating: DO NOT CLIMB ON THE TRACTORS! Audrie had to take in every bit of the farm, and busied herself trying to complete each and every activity that was offered. She especially enjoyed feeding the animals and showing her brother how to do the same. Finn's animal feeding consisted of offering the goats some grass, as well as his fingers, and ended with a quick rescue of pointer and middle from the tightly clenched jaws of a very determined goat.We left the farm with pumpkins in hand, covered in hay, and a little sunburned.
It was a good day.

2. Audrie attended the last two classes of the Children's Book Illustration course I was taking and ended up presenting her own illustrated version of The Tortoise and the Hare to the whole class. She is well on her way to achieving her goal of becoming an author/illustrator.

3. We went to the annual fall festival for our homeschool group where I was in charge of the football toss game. While Audrie ran around playing games and accumulating candy, I spent the majority of the time chasing footballs thrown by kids who must have eaten their Wheaties that morning! If I'd known I would have been running so much (while holding a toddler), I would have skipped my morning workout and slept in. Thankfully Finn fell asleep after an hour, and I was able to enjoy watching Audrie in the production of The Pilgrim's Arrival: The First Thanksgiving. She played a Separatist, and although it was a non-speaking role, she had me convinced that she was truly enjoying the feast of plastic food!

4. While Daddy stayed home from work to watch Finn, Audrie and I went on a field trip with our homeschool group to the Blue Moon Glassworks Studio. While there, we were taught how fused glass pieces and stained glass windows were made, as well as shown a demonstration of glass bead making by one of the artists. We also created our own glass pendants which will be fired in the kilns and returned to us when ready. My pendant reveals my passion for the color red, while Audrie managed to fit a hummingbird and a flower on a 1"x2" square. Her creativity never fails to surprise me!

5. Finally, over the weekend we were joined by some of my favorite people for some fun, quality time. Spending time with my mom, mother-in-law, Aunt Susie and my daughter always yields lots of laughs, inspiration, and chocolate intake! This time, between talking, eating, laughing, bubble blowing, eating, and more laughing, we managed to junk three pumpkins and a gourd for Halloween. The result?? Pumpkinstein, Ghoulie, Broom Hilda, and Mebraska the cat.

Whew! So there it is....a quick update.

The Princess and the Pea

IF: Grow

"Growth Spurt!"

Fall Portrait Session

Every couple of months I decide it's time to get the kids dressed up, and have their portraits taken. Being a picky mom with an artistic eye, I just can't haul my kids to the nearest department store and get their picture taken seated neatly in front of a "blue clouds" backdrop. Nope, that would be too easy. Also, being very cheap, the idea of shelling out $500+ for a professional photographer to come out every time I need to update my photo albums doesn't seem too practical. The solution? Convert my breakfast room into a makeshift studio, and take the photos myself. This process involves removing furniture, stacking chairs on top of the table, draping fabric over the chairs to create a backdrop, and trying to convince a toddler to stay in the "studio" for more than a minute so Mommy can take his picture. On this particular occasion, I chose a set of chocolate brown curtains as the backdrop to offset the outfits the kids were wearing. Within the first 2 minutes, the backdrop fell. After I re-draped the curtains over the chairs, this time using clothespins to affix them to the chairs for extra support, I got the kids situated and start again. One picture later, the backdrop came tumbling down for the second time. At that point, I decided to move the backdrop over to the wall, using duct tape to hold it up. The duct tape proved to be too weak. So I threw out the backdrop idea entirely, and with that out of the picture, I was freed to focus solely on the picture taking......and that is precisely when the sound of the lawnmower buzzed by the window. The portrait session was over. After 2 hours of fighting cheap backdrop solutions and trying to get a 1 year old to look in my general direction, we decided to go outside and watch Daddy mow the lawn, and I managed to snap a few extra photos. Now, if only someone would print them out in a nice portrait package and deliver them to my door!