Beach Babies

This past Friday, I went up to Sheboygan to visit my sister-in-law and my nieces. We decided to take a short jaunt over to the Children's museum and play around there for a while. The kids had a blast, but, to be honest, I think I had way. more. fun.

cousin Lily, after going up and down the plastic slide a few times

cousin Evie sitting in the Bay room

J man

and last, but not least, and only 2 weeks late, J man's official 5-month photo:

Photo Challenge #18

Here are the basics to this week's challenge:
This week's challenge is to photograph numbers 1-7 (my father always make us do things in prime numbers when I was a child, since I thought 12 photos would be overwhelming we'll just stick with 7).

Rules:
1.) 7 photos total (If you feel ambitious go ahead and do all 12), one photo for each number.
2.) your photos can either represent the number or have the actual number in letters or numbers.
3.) B/W or Colour
4.) Tweaking is allowed.
5.) Photos should be submitted by either Friday, May 29 or Sat. May 30
5.) Have Fun!


I was really awesomely inspired by this week's challenge...in fact, I plan on going further with it to make a personal project of it. Something like "99 years"..still working on the full concept, though. We'll see how far it goes!







ok, so I was going to stop in by my cousin's house yesterday, cuz they have a 6 and 4 year old, but they are in Montana. Sorry ;(

My little English Country Garden

Looking East

Today was an exciting day with babies, raining, and planting! Diana came over with Sam, Katie came over with Ruthie, and we three moms -ok, my brother, Josh, put the bricks around the garden (he's not a mom)-made a day of hanging out with each other and planting our garden (which happens to be in my backyard:). It rained much of the morning, so after a lunch of chicken sandwiches, we finally made it outside.

With much planning and research, this is the design I came up with.

Looking West

Squash

SOCK MONSTER!!!

enough said.

Just been a little busy....

Have I ever told you how much I like pictures? Don't get me wrong, I love to read, but man, I could just look at a photo book for hours and hours- and come back to it again a couple days later. That's why I have worn out my "From Conception to Birth" book...full of super-cool photographs of all the stages of pregnancy, and have a coffee table book of the BEST of national Geographic photos (thanks, Little sis!)- and why I still have some of my childhood books- because the illustrations are just TOO AWESOME.
Anyway, I have read too many blogs that apologize for being picture-laden. I have NO APOLOGIES. this is what I love- and I will be more likely to read...er...LOOK at your blog if there are pictures. I am more excited about my own blog if I have some decent pictures of my own to post. So, that being said, here is my uber-busy blog for the day:

this week marks the end of my first year of teaching!!!!
whoa!
now, it was a crazy year- marked in the middle by the birth of my little J man, teaching art to around 200 children from grades 1-8, organizing the transportation of projects from the school to my kiln, back to school, then many of them to the art fair.... a little disorganized, but what can you expect from my first year of teaching? All I can say is that I have been asked back to teach next year. yay! what plans I have for next year...mwa haha...I mean..YAY.

The photo season has kicked off to a great start, with baby photos, family pics, engagements, and maternity photos. And I am now taking my camera EVERYWHERE I GO. why? because it has happened too often that I don't have a camera when I really, REALLY need it!
So here are some highlights from this past week:

family

Baby 6-month pictures

Engagement Photos

(ok...so the Dogs aren't getting the engagement pics...they just came along for the ride ;)

I also made it to J hubby's softball game this week.....unfortunately, I was too busy hanging out with J man and my friend's pup (yes, the same one from the engagement photos) to really take notice of the game, but they did win ;)


J man has been hyper-hilarious, too. He turned 5 months on Tuesday, and this is my favorite pic of him that day... I haven't done my "official" 5 month pics of him yet...they will be coming. Soon. Ish.

(yes, he is laughing)

I also began digging my garden. Well, J hubby dug up the sod, tilled the earth, and did all the HARD work, but I designed it, got the paths dug, piled the dirt into the respective spots (one garden comprised of three raised beds). It looks beautiful. In my head, mind you, it is stunning. Right now it's just 3 piles of dirt. But, as dirt goes, I think it's beautiful.
Of course, more pictures will be coming as it progresses.
AS for me, I am BEAT. J man has been sleeping for almost 2 hours now, and I should really let my head sink into my pillow for some crazy-dream time.
Have a fantastic night, everyone!

Field Trip!!

Today I went with the second grade to the Milwaukee Art Museum- they were so thrilled to be in the Calatrava and to see some of the artworks that we talked about in class up close and personal- and this was Josiah's first official visit to the art museum- he loved it!

Two of the kids looking at a Chihuly piece

Josiah in front of the same Chihuly piece

The Second grade class with Mrs. Kratz outside the Calatrava

Photo Challenge- Man vs. Nature

Thus weeks photo challenge was to take 3-5 pictures with the theme of man vs. nature:








and, finally, this one's for you, Erin :).....