This weekend was a good one. Can we rewind it? It started with Friday off from work! Yay!

I spent the morning down at Blue Hole scoping out photography spots. I found some plants and wildlife (AKA flowers and bugs…lol).

Then I got a brilliant idea to plan a Trash the Dress shoot. Here:

The plans are in motion, so we’ll see how they pan out. Keep watchin’!

Friday was also little Seester’s birthday. We ate us some lunch and then I snuck off to the store and got a card and a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake. MMMMMMMmmmm. It mixed Reese’s and Cheesecake (2 of Seester’s fave things) and whipped cream (which should be one of everybody’s fave things). Then we spent the afternoon looking for shoes. Shoe shopping with a picky shopper. LOL. It was store after store after store. Step after step. GAnd we almost found something. Well we did find something, but they were damaged and we didn’t have time to see if they lady had them at a different store. So we left empty handed. Soooooooo….If anyone knows where to get a Reef Butter Flip Flop in black size 6, please let me know and we’ll surprise her together.

Then Saturday. Munchkin spent Friday night with Mo, and they came to pick me up for a fun-filled Pioneer Day. She wanted to ride the horse drawn wagon, but alas we had no cash. So she ended up at the bubble table. She LOVED the bubble table. I don’t know what it is about kids and bubbles, but give a kid a tub of bubbles and the fun just oozes for hours.

She also washed clothes, made cornmeal, and made a cornhusk doll. Pics of those to come later.

Mother’s Day was awesome! I got a little pot of flowers (I don’t really like big bouquets. Don’t get me wrong. They’re pretty and all, but then they die.) I also got two cards from Munchkin. One Hubster helped pick out and the other she made by herself. Then she and the Hubs made chocolate/white chocolate dipped strawberries. Hubs got me a bottle of Asti Moscato and made delicious burgers with bacon, cheese and BUTTAH! (Thank you Miss Paula Dean!) He also made angel food cake for homemade Strawberry Shortcake. Mmmmmmmm. Then we all just chilled watchin’ Scooby Doo and Chowder. I love Chowder.

How was your weekend?

I went through some more Lemonade Day pics. For your entertainment:

This was during a lull. She borrowed my sunglasses. She had the hiccups and I told her that everytime she had a hiccup I got to take her picture. The first one is her “Are you serious?” look. Second one she just thought it was so funny that she couldn’t stop her hiccups. The last one was when she decided she needed a drink. Her little nose all wrinkly just kills me.

She took off the glasses long enough to show me her eyeballs.

Then it was time to get back to work and earn that bling.

Last minute Miss E decided that she wanted to participate in National Lemonade Day. We had like a week to plan it. She needed to decide on a lot of things: location, product, price, advertising, investors… She worked on her poster and we decided on the sure thing standby of Country Time Lemonade. Who doesn’t love Country Time (other than her Nini)?

She sold at the church in the morning. We started out slow (boredom almost drove her to insanity – she resorted to dancing, picking flowers, and scrutinizing roly poly pillbugs in their daily routines), but as she got more customers, she became excited with high fives at every sale. The rain did spatter on us a bit. We cautiously watched the darker clouds roll in and roll on by without seeing a downpour. The umbrella later served as a shield from the blazing sun which had emerged from the clouds and helped push them on their way.

See there in the picture below – she has REAL lemon slices which were a hit. People just love putting those in their drink. It’s all about the flourish.

Then it was time for a break and relocation. We were supposed to be at home, but management changed her mind at the last possible second. We went to the playscape. She sold a little there, but was definitely more interested in playing, rather than selling. But….because she made a committment, I made her sell until at least 3:30 and then she could play. And she did.

Overall she made around $50 and is donating some of it to charity. I’m proud of her for committing to it and seeing it all the way through. Maybe she’ll want to do it again next year!

Tonight was the 1st grade Barnyard Moosical. When I got home we tried running over Munchkin’s lines once again, but she insisted that she knew them. She loved being dressed up. She got to wear a button down shirt like her Daddy wears to work. She even put on an undershirt. She slipped on her boots and tipped her new hat. Every 5 minutes from the office she announced the time. I did tell her that we would have to be there by 6:45 and we only live 5 minutes from the school. Of course it would take about 10 minutes just to get her all together and into the car. So at 6:30 we headed out.

She was right in the middle. She sang those songs the best that she could. Wide open and loud. I couldn’t help but giggle. Then it was her turn at the microphone. I just hoped she was right when we left, and that she had those lines down pat.

She did!!!!!

She says she can’t wait until she has more plays to be in. I’ll be at them, watching the little cutie! I love my little “Farmer 5″. (I have to admit that I didn’t take the photo below just because she was a farmer in the play. I took it because it was the first time I remember seeing her voluntarily wearing a cowboy hat and I just thought it was so darn, stinkin’ cute. Total Mom mode there.)

Yesterday my Weather Channel app said 50% chance of thunderstorm. Now it says 0% precipitation. Granted, I was inside all day so I can’t say I actually witnessed no rain. But I did see no evidence of rain when I exited work. So I am assuming that it did not rain as the meteorologists predicted. Sooooo….since there was no rain, I took Munchkin and her new light-up Twinkletoes out for a little nature walk. We saw several flowers:

And more flowers:

And on our way back in, we found a new little friend:

Then she came inside, finished up her Easter eggs, and headed on over to a friends house with her Mo for more egg dyeing fun. I encourage everyone to take a walk around the neighborhood. You might be surprised what you find.

I did have a shoot scheduled this weekend, but it was rescheduled to next weekend. So….this weekend was full of photo opportunities at home. This was the weekend that Munchkin and the Hubster were going to paint her room. There were stipulations. First, it was part of her early birthday present. Second, she had to stay on Green at school (those of you within GISD know what I mean). Thirdly, she had to help. I don’t know if you’ve ever painted with an almost 7 year old. It’s quite an adventure. I added the stipulation that neither of them could paint another human being or canine. Let’s just say that Munchkin ended up with paint miraculously in places that her Dad just didn’t know how it got there (insert innocent face here). Code also ended up with a pink chin (he delved into the trash can when no one else was looking so that would be his guilty face).

During the week, she and Dad trekked to the Home Depot for a color selection field trip. They headed on over to the Disney paints and she selected “Happily Ever After”. They went back Friday after school and picked up the supplies. She suited up in some non-frequently worn clothes. They dipped their rollers and set out to cover the green walls.

She worked, and worked….and worked. (I promised Hubster no pictures of him, but you can see his black-socked toe behind her below. OOOOOpsie. My bad!)

When she was done, she enjoyed all her early presents (the freshly painted room, her loft bed, and her paw-paw surprised her with a TV). Almost her entire room is new except for toys we moved back in.

This was just the beginning of the weekend. We did more, maybe there’ll be more pictures. Who knows. You’ll have to stay tuned. -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -

OK. The wait is over. Munchkin and I went on a little hike in the neighborhood. She liked the small stream running down to the river about 20 yards away and down a cliff.

I found a patch of bluebonnets (the same patch I took munchkin’s pictures at before). I found an albino one!

I just love it when Munchkin lets me get a great picture of her. This was taken a couple weeks back. We took a little outting to the lake. A little park that is right on the lake edge. We walked up and down the cliffs. She was excited to see boats in the water, and we spent about half an hour watching people fish. Finally I asked her if I could get a nice picture of her earrings. Yes, I am a sneaky mom. I do what I can to squeeze any picture opportunity out of my child. Especially if there’s no bribery involved (which there usually is).

Pumpkin patches are fun. I’m seriously considering doing a weekend special for pumpkin pics.

This weekend we decided to go out and hunt pumpkins. We had to find one for Daddy to use for his creative side. Then we had to find a second one for Munchkin to make her own with Daddy. Nini and Mo met up with us for our adventure.

She might have found one.

Still looking….

Gotta pose with Nini.

This was a gourd that was there. Reminds me of a mushroom.

I also went on another trek around the neighborhood. This time I grabbed the macro lens. It’s fun to play with.

Summer is fading and school is almost back in session. You’ve found the right “first day” clothes, and made them sit through the much needed haircut. Now’s the time to capture the moment of them growing up and moving on to the next grade.

For the remainder of August and all of September, I’m offering a back to school special.

New clients qualify for 40% off their session fee!!
Existing clients qualify for 50% off their session fee!

Sessions are 1-2 hours long at the location of your choice. Multiple clothing changes are allowed within that time. (Prints sold separately.)

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Miss E definitely suffers from PCS (Photographer’s Child Syndrome). Yesterday’s bribe was computer time and a soda in this 100 degree weather.

We went out yesterday because there was a hint of rain. That’s exactly what we got, a hint. Spitter, spatter, but not enough to soak anything.
She felt the first drops, and I told her she could play in them.

I guess she doesn’t like getting wet in the rain. (I decided to try my hand at a little texturing. What do you think?)

Miss E is such a sweet girl when she lets me take her pictures.

I passed my CHL class. The hubster and I both did. I shot better than what I did at the range yesterday. We had to shoot 175 of 250 points to pass. I shot a 245! And I only missed 1 on the 50 question test. We’ll have to mail off our applications to get our actual licenses. No pictures from today.

The band I took pictures of a couple weeks ago now have their first song up on their myspace. Please stop by and take a listen! www.myspace.com/WeAreStruck