Last month I was off shooting a wedding during the Kentucky Derby. Our cousin Meggie was having her annual Kentucky Derby party that sadly, annually, I keep missing. This year my husband and kids were going to be able to make it. And there was a “Hat Contest” involved. AND Prizes.
Prizes of CHOCOLATE.
Chocolate for hat wearing.
Yup.
So Dunedin picked out favorite hats for herself and Griffin and later helped her dad make his choice.
I wasn’t there, so I will sum up. She won. And Meggie, with her oodles of charm and chocolate, bestowed upon my daughter the prize. 5 pounds of chocolate. My daughter weighs 30 pounds.
1/6th of her body weight was given to Dunedin in chocolate.
Let me give you an idea of what 5 lbs of chocolate does to the brain of a 3 year old. Take a normal drive to the grocery store. 2 kids in the back, one screams “GO LEFT!”
“Why?!” I ask ? ! ? ? ?
“Meggie’s house is that way!!!!”
“Dunedin, we are going to the Grocery Store. We need milk, eggs, toilet paper…”
Undeterred by timing, logic or obvious need for t.p. she responds “Quick, call Daddy, he can tell you the way. I brought my hat…and Griffin’s too!” How she remembered her hats and I forgot my wallet… Okay that is a different story.
Lets skip ahead to yesterday. This is how I have been finding them around the house. In make shift cars, with their hats on, always headed to Meggie’s house. Here you see them driving the flying blanket model car. Equipped with car seats for their wild animals who are, of course, headed to the party as well.
If only my kids had gotten to GM in time. The American car industry would have been injected with innovative car designs from the two seater towels (great for the beach), to the lowrider coffee tables (lots of spots to put your drinks), and my favorite, the model T-Toy box (with tons of trunk space) all with hybrid power (self or mommy powered). I guess it would be a problem if cars would only drive to Meggie’s house. Perhaps the auto industry will need to look elsewhere for innovation. So thanks again, Meggie!
Archive for the ‘the kids’ Category
Going to Meggies house and Wild Animal Transport
Self portraits spot on
I found my kids drawing on the chalkboard yesterday and thought I would share. The scene started with some disputes about land-rights, but that was easily solved by drawing a line down the middle and labeling the top. They then continued drawing pictures of themselves. I have to admit- a fairly close rendering on both sides. D spends much of her daily life up in her head, imagining and creating worlds of her own creation. G, on the other hand, manages to live his life as a swirling activity in the external world-but still within the confines of space allotted to him. I have to say I am really enjoying them at this age.
Photonotes: I love the way the soft light filters in on them through the shaded window. Our living room actually creates fairly tough lighting situations. Windows are on 2 sides of the room and it gets full sun that would have side lit this photo and caused far to harsh of shadows and contrast. Add to that we have a mix of lights-halogen and incandescent, which can cause annoying color shifts in photos. Blue hair and orange skin-ugggh. I actually have thought of changing one of the fixtures in our rented apartment so that I could add different light bulbs because the white balance issues I get with photos bothers me so much. To create the soft, sculptural light, I turned off the lights and closed the blinds- still getting the benefits of natural light, but creating an enormous soft box on the right.
A few belated photos
Just a few photos of some of our friends enjoying life as it is best enjoyed. With curiosity, knee high rain boots and a fishing net.
1600 ISO and full frame
Wow. Check the detail. All shot with the Canon 5d Mark ii with a 50mm 1.4 lens. Not so shabby.
Of course the kids ain’t to bad either…
However, every once and a while some serious tickling had to interupt my testing of the new camera…
In case you have forever been dying to know what ISO is or have thus far managed to not worry your brain about this aspect of your camera… a little synopsis is coming soon.
Yup somehow we made it to two.
My baby turned 2 a few days ago. Sniff.
He was thrilled. I can’t believe what a lovely little man he has become. He doesn’t fit on the guitar any more… not that he doesn’t try.
Dunedin was Uberjoyed to help with this cake. We almost had to have chocolate covered fingers on the cake instead of strawberries at the rate they would sneak into her mouth.
Can I just note… this photo came from my Iphone. For a web photo, not so bad!