photoblog

catch the moment 365: week twenty-nine

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Another week of summer has zoomed by and this one was filled with fun and festivities – our first trip to a semi-local amusement park, Ryan’s birthday. As much fun as we had, there was a shadow of sadness as the anniversary of my father’s death passed once again.

Linking up with Mindi from Simply Stavish, Sarah from Nurse Loves Farmer, and Stephanie from Behind the Camera and Dreaming for week 29 of this fun, year-long project.

7-16-14 198/365: July 16th. The night before our road trip down to Southern Indiana to visit Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari. Wednesday night before we left, the kids were SO excited.  I don’t think Dexter fell asleep until after 11pm. And then was awake before 6am. WHAT.

7-17-14199/365: July 17th. The sun setting over Holiday World.  I was sitting with Dexter as he slept in the stroller while the others rode a ride or two.  I didn’t take a lot of pictures at Holiday World, sadly. But that’s alright – I was busy having fun with my babies and friends.  I posted a separate post about our trip.

7-18-14200/365: July 18th.  We ended our second day at the park by running around and hitting every ride that the kids could ride but hadn’t yet.  Loved the lights on their old carousel.  Holiday World has been around since 1946!

 

7-19-14 201/365: July 19th. We camped at the adjacent Lake Rudolph Campground and RV Resort in this RV. I took a few pics of the RV inside and out as we were packing up to leave on Saturday morning. I never got around to taking any more pictures that day.

7-20-14 202/365: July 20th. Ryan’s birthday. We celebrated at Ryan’s parents’ house with a little chocolate cake decorated like a watermelon. The boys thought it was too cute.  I figured Nana would have some candles so I didn’t bring any but she didn’t so we had imaginary ones. It was just as fun.

7-21-14 203/365: July 21st. Back to life. Back to reality. Bedtime on Monday night.  One word. ROUGH.

7-22-14a 204/365: July 22nd. Theo building a Lego creation after we got home from work & the babysitter.

7-23-14205/365: July 23rd. The 7th anniversary of my dad’s death. A few weeks earlier, my friend and I had planned to meet for dinner on this day. All day I was feeling down and having second thoughts but it was a nice distraction and good to reconnect since we hadn’t been able to meet, just the two of us, since April.  We ate at Mesh on Mass and I couldn’t resist this appetizer that did NOT disappoint:  MILK AND HONEY CROSTINI: CAPRIOLE SOPHIA GOAT CHEESE / BAGUETTE / PICKLED BLACKBERRY / SWEET LIFE FARMS HONEY

Favorite pic of the week? Hmm. I can almost taste that crostini when I look at the picture. The Holiday World pictures are probably my favorite though as they represent such fun, new family/friend memories.

Does any one photo stand out for you this week?

xo,
~C~

catch the moment 365: week twenty-eight

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

I’m not one to complain about summer – ever. But why is it going by so fast?  WAAH!

Linking up with Sarah from Nurse Loves Farmer, Mindi from Simply Stavish, and Stephanie from Behind the Camera and Dreaming.

7-9-14
Day 191/365: July 9th. Just a Wednesday evening playing at home. It starts out like this: “Daddy, will you help me build {insert name of dismantled Lego set here}?”  It ends like this: “Daddy, that’s okay. You can just finish it by yourself.”
7-10-14
Day 192/365: July 10th. What time is it, Dexter?  We were out to eat, celebrating the successful completion of a project I had a love/hate relationship: “Frugal June.” I really need to write about my attempt to decrease non-essential spending for 30 days.
7-11-14a
Day 193/365: July 11th. My friend’s sweet baby boy at the splash pad on Friday evening. Why can’t they stay this age forever!?
7-12-14
Day 194/365: July 12th. This photo is pathetic. Saturday was a nice day …relatively uneventful but not without opportunities to take some nice photos. I just wasn’t in the mood. This picture was the only successful {if you want to call it that} attempt to get a picture of all 5 of these wild boys having a picnic.  A picnic with 5 kids ages 4 and under isn’t that relaxing, for the record.
7-13-14
Day 195/365: July 13th. Sunday morning bowling. I could feel a cold coming on late Saturday night so while I still felt halfway decent, we took advantage of Sunday morning happy hour at the bowling alley. Ryan and I hadn’t been bowling together in YEARS and the boys had never been at all.  It was actually really fun and I was surprised at how much the boys seemed to enjoy it. Dex tired out on the 7th frame but Theo finished his game and Dexter’s.  We’ll have to go again soon.  Also, the tiny bowling shoes were adorable.
7-14-14
Day 196/365: July 14th. This is the kind of fancy dinner my kids got once the head cold was full-blown and there were 87 gallons of snot in my head. Bologna & cheese roll-ups, applesauce, and shelled edamame.  Cleaned their plates…figures.
7-15-14
Day 197/365: A couple weeks earlier we went to a friend’s house to picnic and swim. It poured down rain on the way there and our picnic ended up taking place on a blanket on my friend’s dining room floor.  Tuesday night Theo asked me if we could have a picnic in the living room but it was a gorgeous night so I convinced him and Dexter to take it outdoors.
I felt like my pictures were a little uninspired this week. I’m sad to not feature at least one nature/landscape shot but it just didn’t work out that way. I found myself more than once feeling that me messing with my camera settings and trying to get the right shot was turning into more of a hassle, taking AWAY from the moment, and I just put the camera down.  Do you ever feel this way?
My favorite picture this week is day 193 – my friend’s cute little boy at the splash park.
Which one do you like best?

catch the moment 365: week twenty-seven

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

We’ve returned to normal life after a crappy run that was divided up over the past two Catch the Moment posts. Woo hoo & yay for good times!!

Linking up with Mindi, Sarah, and Stephanie for this year-long Catch the Moment challenge. I have to tell you — I had a hard time narrowing down my choices on a couple of the days below. When we’ve had such a good week and gotten this many pictures that put a smile on my face — life must be a-okay.

7-02-14 183/365: July 2nd. A friend and I went to a local sunflower patch.

7-03-14 184/365: July 3rd. Okay, so this isn’t a great photo at all.  I took it at about 11:40pm after publishing last week’s Catch the Moment post when I realized I had been too busy running around (getting ready for the long weekend) to pull the camera out once all day long.  The polish looked cuter at Target. I didn’t realize it was going to look like Queen Elsa had painted my toenails.

7-04-14 185/365: July 4th. “Hey Theo – think of something funny!” This is what I got. Love these crazy nuts.

7-05-14 186/365: July 5th. Our 11th wedding anniversary and dinner at a fancy (to us) restaurant. We’re easy to impress but this place was really nice and we enjoyed sitting in the “silo” with the kitchen view at FARMbloomington.

7-06-14 187/365: July 6th. The boys discovered a love of cherries over the holiday weekend.  I’ll finally be posting our July 4th weekend recap on 7/11 so check back!

7-7-14 188/365: July 7th. A night when I knew we wouldn’t be doing anything spectacular so I just snapped a quick pic of the boys watching cartoons while I fixed dinner to get the pic-of-the-day out of the way.

7-8-14189/365: July 8th. A trip to the park after getting ice cream on a warm summer night.  This is the simplicity and joy that I miss yearn for during the winter.

Which picture do you like best this week? I really don’t even know how to choose between the two of the boys (days 189 & 185) versus that nature one (the sunflower on day 183).  I’ll just print and frame them all! Yeah right — is anyone good about doing this or am I a total failure?  At least I’ve got my blog, right?
xo,
~C~