361 The Great Outdoors

The weather has been gorgeous ... you know, when it isn't pouring rain and threatening tornadoes out there... so we have been trying to spend some time outside. Playing in the backyard, trips to the park behind our house, or hanging out on the deck.

My peony was gorgeous ... WAS ... stupid rain and wind has beat her up. And of course, I have been checking out the dandelions. Down on all fours ... well, threes... I have to hold the camera after all.

I even pulled out the ol' Argus for some TtV shotsOH ... and a pic or two of the kids when I can convince them to stay still long enough to click the shutter. Which doesn't happen very often ... especially with Katie!!Yesterday I took the kids out to the park so that Chip could yell at Call of Duty without us distracting him. Mostly the kids ran around, picking honeysuckle and climbing all over the play equipment, but I did manage to get them to stay still for a few milli-seconds. And no, I did NOT ask Katie to pose like this. She decided to turn into a little ham for the four pictures she deigned to let me shoot. Poor girl, still has a mark from the Hula Hoop Incident.Katie has obviously been trying to teach Connor how to "SMILE" ... e have GOT to break him out of this FAST! I don't think I can take two cheeseballs!Ok, that is better ... maybe if I took the macro lens off ... I am happy to report that Winn Dixie is still alive and well... and thankfully living with his actual owners. Katie and Connor still get to play with him out at the park and when he wanders by the house, but I don't have to deal with a dog.And, what do I do while the kids play? I take pictures of weeds and park debris. Pausing to run and help Connor slide down the fireman's pole or do the monkey bars. He tends to forget he can't actually fly if he falls off the platform. I was having fun with the macro, which is a must since most of the park "flowers" are tiny tiny things.And I couldn't leave out the honeysuckle. Katie loves it. I know I did when I was a kid, too .. but now I look at it and think ALL THAT WORK FOR A TINY DROP!!!And when dealing with the outdoors you are also dealing with insects. They love making cameo appearances. From the smallest of little flies...Little ladybugsAnd super freaky caterpillars. This one looks REALLY exotic but it just turns into a plain brown moth. It is called a Rusty Tussock Moth-cat. Katie took it into school today to show off.

I hope everyone else is experiencing some wonderful weather and time outside. Fresh air seems to be re-opening my creativity. I hope ...

218 The Yellow Rose of Horn Lake

There is a house for sale in our neighborhood ... okay, so there are A LOT of houses for sale in our neighborhood, but this particular house has roses blooming all along one side. The house is empty and there is no one there to love these poor abandoned roses, so I took it upon myself to adopt one. I chose a yellow, but there were crimson and pink roses as well that may need to be adopted later. I took our new addition outside and prepared to take a few pictures of its beauty. I was inspired by Gabrielle Kai Photography, and she is also the inspiration behind buying the Argus. She takes pics of yellow roses quite often, and they always look so soft and dreamy (all her pics do). I snapped a few pics TtV. And all of the sudden I noticed a naked chubby baby coming down the stairs. And then he reached out and grabbed our adopted rose. I thought he wanted to introduce himself, but he just wanted to make sure that he was the only baby in our family.

He did get a wonderful sensory experience.

He saw that the rose was beautiful...
He touched...

He smelled...He tried to taste...(Yes, I did change his diaper as soon as we went inside) And he heard my laughter!

Yellow Rose B.C. (Before Connor)

Yellow Rose AFTER CONNOR!

Mom, try not to jump in your car right now to come see this little guy. I know it will be hard, but we will be out in a month.

208 In Mimi's Garden

We took a day trip down to see Chip's family in Cleveland, MS. It rained off and on the whole way down, the dark clouds closely followed by white fluffy ones and blue skies. I still love that you can see the rain falling in far off clouds. The slight grey shadow it creates underneath.
The moment I stepped out of the car I knew I was going to be taking A LOT of pictures. These beauties were the first things I saw!And then I took advantage of everything that would sit still. Which did NOT include the flowers! The wind was quite brisk and the flowers were waving wildly. And there is a feeling of peace and timelessness in Mimi's yard. The wind chimes sound softly.
And this patio set is straight out of the 50's or 60's. It came with the house. As I said, the wind was strong, and the flowers were swaying a good bit, but that didn't stop me from taking pictures ...

Katie couldn't wait to see her cousins. Tori was sick and was only able to stop in for a few minutes. Michael and Scott were there most of the time, and Will showed up a little later. They found a football to throw around, so Katie and Connor made a nuisnce of themselves trying to play along. Michael is a Dad, so I expect him to be patient with the kids, but Scott is just 14. Most boys his age try their best to ignore small children, but Scott is WONDERFUL with them! If they annoyed him trying to worm in on the football tossing then it didn't show. Katie had SO much fun with her cousins. She can't wait to see them at her birthday party next month!

Katie also took control of my camera for a little while. I love when she takes pictures! It is fun to see what she finds the most interesting, and to see how she improves in framing a shot. I did not retouch any of these, although there are a couple pretty good shots I might go back and clean up a little. Katie still has a bit of a problem getting the whole subject into her shot. She did pretty good until she asked me to stand by the tree. Then I ended up with a couple shots of my legs. She still tends to be happy as long as she gets at least part of what she wanted into her shot. I think she is doing great, and I am less tentative about trusting her with my camera.

And we got to see my Great Niece Presley. She started walking the night before and she showed off her new skills for us!
Connor was hilarious to watch playing football. He would just run back and forth, trying to be wherever the ball was. Every once in a while he would get handed the football, and he would walk it to the next person, or more often than not, SPIKE it like he had made a touchdown. Of course the instant the ball was taken away form him he would scream and cry. That part was not as funny.Connor also discovered Pop Pop's John Deere. What boy can resist a ride-on lawnmower??
We finished the evening off with a fish fry. The guys all sat outside and fried up a huge amount of crappie that Tanya's father had caught. It was the first time I had ever eaten crappie, and it was delicious!! Much better than the traditional fried catfish. And of course there were fries and hushpuppies. Oh, and Mimi made coleslaw that was so yummy! And to finish it all off ... PECAN PIE! Yum! Yum! and YUM!