Timing is everything...

"No Grammy, I would rather not step outside for one more picture in my costume."  Even if the lighting and technical details were better...there's no fixing that face.  Ha ha.  Timing is everything. 

Under Construction...

H was able to participate in a preschool children's musical last week.  So fun!  The theme was "Kids Under Construction".  And, since her teacher accidentally wrote the children's names on their aprons, she got to keep her costume.  Oops!  Favorite song:  "A silly silly man built his house upon the sand, but a smart, wise man built his house upon the Rock"!

Be still my heart...

Again, not the greatest shot technically.  I cropped the heck out of it, because I was too far away and shooting with a prime lens (no zoom).  It's full of color casts from the yellow plastic (tho' this looks a LOT better than the original after a go around in PSE).  But I still love it...that bit of curly hair...the genuine smile and those eyes....those violet eyes....WHAT?  H's eyes are BLUE....pure, unadulterated blue with not a hint of any other color in them.  But I love how violet they look here.  Guess it's a color cast from her shirt.  But I'll take it...After all, purple and yellow are complimentary colors...(I think!).  Ha ha!  And I am most certainly looking through Grammy goggles!

Rapunzel...

This is actually on ground level, but it almost looks like she's climbing out of her tower.  Ha ha!

Little drummer girl...

Cheesy title, but I couldn't resist.

Grammy, let me show you a trick!

Walking tall..

I love how confident and happy she looks in this shot!  She is much more self assured on the playground than she used to be! 

Never pass up an opportunity...

Never pass up an opportunity to shoot some colorful flowers.  These were in my neighbor's garden on the way to the playground. 

Grammy goggles...

I know I'm looking through my Grammy goggles, because this isn't the greatest shot in the world...but I love those questioning blue eyes.  Now for a vote...how many think they could say no to that face?

How to get a 2 year old to pose...

Buy a child sized bench.  Magic!!!

Seriously...

Seriously...are these not the cutest shoes?

It doesn't take much...

It doesn't take much to entertain a four year old.  H and A love, love, love the new path of stones Bob put in our front garden.  Plenty of back and forth on this day!

And finally....

The posed shot....of course, I actually think this is a composite.  Most of the shots were composites from that day.  That's what happens when you try to get four people (two under the age of 5) looking good at the same time.  Ha ha!

It's a grand old flag...

And long may it wave!  I love these shots...(even tho I should have allowed more margin around my subjects in the second one).  lol

You know the saying...

Life is just a bowl of cherries...and it appears that A felt that way...on this particular day anyway!  She was having so much fun playing with her daddy and she was in full imp mode!

Candid 4th...

Jenny asked for some family photos when they were here celebrating the 4th of July with us.  So as not to frustrate the littles, we limited ourselves to just 10 minutes.  It was hot anyway, right?  At any rate, H was not feelin' it here, but I still like these candids. 

The essence...

This is quite simply the essence of Hannah....sweet and simple.  I LOVE this shot. 

Squeaky clean...

I just love the soft water droplet bokeh in the background...and that is one CLEAN, happy kid!

More antics...

 
Silly girl got a HUGE kick out of sitting on the water...Ha ha!  She giggled big time when she saw the pic too!

And she finally tried the jump over!  Yay!  And I ALMOST captured the focus.  Ha ha!!

Clean up...

You might remember that we did sprinkler play one day last summer.  Neither of the girls were too excited about it and it took them a while to accept playing in a spray that came up to about their knees.  Ha ha!  Abigail wanted NOTHING to do with it this year, but she was already in a bad mood from her previous pout.  Hannah was hesitant at first.  I mentioned to her that it's fun to run through the sprinklers and jump over them.  She wasn't too sure about it...

 But she tried and had a GREAT time!  I should have taken a picture of Abigail watching from inside the storm door, but I didn't know she was there until afterwards. 

These are hard shots to focus again using autofocus.  Of course, there's no time for manual focus with a running subject.  I probably should have closed down a bit for a deeper field of focus.  Trust me, I was aiming for her eyes, but most of the time the camera grabbed the water.  Still...I like the look of the spray.  And I love her expressions!

The aftermath...

Well, look at that!  She did get dirty after all!

 

And her favorite was...

Chalk!  LOVE, LOVE the Crayola sidewalk chalk...48 beautiful colors!  To her credit, Hannah tried the painting and liked it.  But she REALLY enjoyed the chalk.  I think we'll try paintbrushes next time and see if they enjoy painting more that way.  

 We love that Hannah unintentionally spelled LOUD.  She can read, BTW...even tho she is only four.  And every week she is picking up new words....but loud is not one of them.  Ha ha.

At the very end, she spontaneously wrote this little message.  So sweet.  Although there was no way to capture a picture of my favorite moment from that day.  As Hannah was coloring she commented, "Grammy, you know we can pray no matter where we are or what we're doing."  I agreed and she launched into an impromptu prayer as she colored.  It was the SWEETEST thing! 

It was her prerogative...

  ...to change her mind.  First chalk...

Then paint...

 

Then a little eraser fun....

And I don't remember exactly what this was all about...but can you see her temper flare?  She was NOT a happy camper.  Oh this one has a strong will...