Summer day...

Love my little dumplin's...looking like Easter eggs in those colors.  :)  Had about 2 min. to take the shot, hoping they didn't get eaten alive by mosquitoes!

Pretty please, with a cherry on top...

“Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.”  Arnold Newman

Shot for the challenge of "upside down".  A little rotation fun...  Too bad Kara took these props home with her tonight.  LOVE Rainier cherries!

Spit bubble...

Still the Queen of Drool!  lol

Natural texture...

Shot for the challenge of "Only one color".  This one was hard for me, but it was a good opportunity to think about composition and texture instead of color.  BTW...more of the cool stuff Robin has around her house.  :)

Think about it...

Been wanting to do an abacus shot for a while, but didn't have one.  How handy that Robin does!  (Shot for the challenge of "numbers")

Hannah makes a super silly face...

Hannah has a little Baby Einstein book that she loves with a mirror on each page.  One of the pages has a monkey and says "Jane makes a super silly face".  Hannah's been practicing.   What do you think??

Discovery...

"What is that green stuff and can I get it into my mouth???"

"There was a little girl who had a little curl"...

Love that one little backlit curl.  Hannah is having a fun time exploring Robin's yard.  For some reason, she found the water pump extremely funny.  Have no idea what THAT was about.  lol

Shot for the challenge of "treat yourself".  Yep, we treated ourselves to a DAY OFF after much packing and hard work to simply be Grammy and G-Pa to two precious girls.   And Hannah treated herself to a rest on the swing.  Cute story:  The first time she visited us at Robin's she was very hesitant about being in a new place.  (typical Hannah)  I showed her around, pointing out things I knew she would enjoy like little dogs, bunnies, and ducks.  We walked through the kitchen and she spotted the alphabet magnets on the fridge that I had brought from our house.  She was SO excited!  I was talking to Jenny in the living room and Hannah played happily with her letters, running in every few minutes to exclaim "Look Grammy, a J for Jump!" etc.  Then she got very serious as she headed towards the kitchen and said, "I'm gonna go finish my work now."  LOL.  She's TWO!  Guess she earned a long rest on the porch swing after all her "work".  LOL. 

Shot for the challenge of "Don't forget".  Let us not forget the sacrifice of others for our freedom.  Robin's house is a treasure trove of interesting things!  We are so blessed to stay here during our remodel.  She has her grandfather's WWI uniform, complete with dog tags and combat helmet, displayed in her entry hall.  I've been itching to shoot it and thought it was perfect for today's challenge.  It's enclosed in a case and I couldn't get rid of the glare, but I actually like how it created a dreamy, almost ghost like appearance. 

Monkey see, monkey do...

Shot for the challenge of "body parts".  Summer days and bare feet go hand in hand...or should I say foot by foot?

The escape artist...

Shot for the challenge "Begins with D".  We had this little visitor today.  He belongs to new neighbors and squeezed through his fence.  Bob spent about 2 hours waiting with him for his owners to come home before he realized their phone number was probably on his tag.  DUH!!!  And you thought D was for Dog.  :)

Because we love outtakes...

 I think I remember Hannah suddenly becoming aware of Mr. Monkey at this age too.  Abigail cracks me up with her expressions.

 And this is CLASSIC Abigail!  Happy as a clam as long as she has something in her mouth!

A blurry mess, because I think I followed Abigail with the camera on her way down as she fell...lol.  Still, it makes me laugh! First, Abigail noticed the monkey, then she spotted the flag.  No worries that she fell over...she was quite happy with the flag in her mouth!  lol

All wrapped up...

Yay for butterfly towels and sweet little girls!

Keeping it clean...

 Barely any time for the challenges recently, but on this day the challenge of "keeping it clean" drew me out into Robin's garden to the freshly watered columbine.  love the light.  As I was shooting, our neighbors came out, so I asked if I could grab a portrait.  Emma used to be very camera shy, but look what she gave me that morning.  So sweet.  I wouldn't ordinarily shoot a portrait so close with my macro, but it was the lens I was using, so I just went with it.  I kinda like it.  Love her natural smile...no cheese...and the beautiful colors.  Yes, the grass really IS that green at Robin's.  :)

Yankee Doodle girl!

Well, it's a little more than a week late, but we finally managed to get Abigail's 6 mo. monkey pic.  Can't believe half the year has passed already.  She can sit very well if propped now and completely unassisted for a short time. She could probably go longer if she would just stop flailing her arms and legs.  lol.  Since her 6 mo. birthday was the day after Independence Day, we decided to celebrate with a patriotic theme.  Cutie pie!

BTW...We're staying at Robin's now, which is lovely...but too dark for photos.  It was TOO HOT outside and we didn't want to get eaten alive by mosquitoes, so we shot this in our completely empty living room while the men were working away in our kitchen/utility room.  I'm sure they thought we were nuts, but I think they enjoyed it.  :)

Gimme some more of THAT, please!

So, Abigail had her first cereal earlier this week.  We were expecting something like Hannah's first reaction   http://split-focus.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-are-you-feeding-me.html but Abigail surprised us.  She grabbed the spoon the first time she saw it coming, stuck it in her mouth and slurped away.  Then, she tried to suck her thumb AND the spoon at the same time.  Mmmmmmmmore please!  She reminds me so much of Kara at this age.  If I asked Kara if she wanted to eat, she'd flap her arms and legs excitedly.  So funny!  Yep, from the day she was born, Abigail has been all about the food!

Monkey love...

I saw this little beanie baby monkey and had to get him for Hannah. He's just the right size and she clearly loves monkeys!  She thought he was so funny riding in her pocket!  Isn't it great how such a simple thing can give child pleasure?

Pitiful Pearl...

I'm sure that no one who reads this is old enough to remember, but I used to have a doll named "Pitiful Pearl" and honestly...she looked JUST like this picture!  I've seen her from time to time in antique stores.  My dad thought that was the funniest doll.  Too bad I didn't save her, but Hannah does a good impression!  lol

Still so far behind on processing.  Think this was from a month ago.  Arg....

Too busy to shoot anything new...

A variation of a former shot....Love that crooked little smile.   And you can really tell what her eyes look like here.  See how many different colors???

Chatterbox...

Half the time Hannah has her mouth open and is talking in pics.  Lol....of course, it's not often that she's NOT talking!!  But one of our tricks to get her to look towards the camera is to tease her with wrong animal sounds.  For example....Hannah...Did you know the dog says "baaa...baa"?   Sometimes, this gets a smile, but lately all she wants to do is correct me.  lol

Hold her close...

Just keep her in her mama's arms and she's quite happy anywhere.  There was absolutely NO reaction to the water....just calm and peaceful.  We need to teach this kid to splash!  lol.  BTW...I scheduled this post a few days ago.  By the time you see this, it will be moving day for us!  Can you believe it?  FINALLY!  Let the work begin!

Which one do YOU want?

I took a short break from packing today and dusted off my camera.  Kara bought these wonderful macaroons for us from Central Market and they were begging to be photographed.  They are French and flavored with lavender, raspberry, or lemon.  Believe lemon was our fave, but the raspberry was also very good.  They have a really unique texture...light and airy and crispy and chewy all at the same time.  Yummy!  That's right...I took the shot and then we ate our subjects!

Jaunty...

Rockin' the jaunty hat!

Again?

Yep...still trotting out pics from that first swim day!  No time for shooting anything else.  I'm starting to dream about packing boxes.  lol.  Hoping to swim again at the end of next week.

Chillaxing...

Hangin' out in the deep end at the swim out...

Three girls and a shark...

I can't believe how much more gear we had to gather to take two babies swimming.  LOL ...We sure had fun tho'.  Hope we can take the girls swimming again soon. We've still only done it once, and it's already July.  :(  That's what happens when Grammy is busy packing!  We're thankful we'll still have access to the pool while we stay at Robin's and hopefully we won't be as busy once we're there.  Fingers crossed for lots of fun swim days!  Abigail was very stoic for her first swim.  No laughter...but no tears either.  :)

I love my thumb...

It doesn't stay in her mouth for long, but certainly goes in there often...and it's so cute when she smiles around it.  :)  BTW, Hannah sucks her thumb when she's asleep, but never when she's awake.  She has a nice little callous there.   lol ... I think it's really cute...maybe because neither of my girls ever sucked their thumb.    

Almost...

Almost sitting by herself, but not quite.  What a sweetie!  BTW, I'm so out of order on my pics.  This is from a few weeks ago.  Have barely picked up my camera in all that time with the busyness of packing and organizing...definitely have not spent much time at the computer.  7 more days till the work begins and I still have a lot to do.  Yikes!

Wonder of wonders...

Miracle of miracles.  All 4 eyes looking the same way at the same time.  That almost never happens!  lol

Quick change...

Yep...shot about 2 frames after yesterday's hilarious photo.  Still amazes me how quickly they change moods.  What a sweet big sister Hannah is!