chasing fireflies...

friday night we let the girls stay up late for a "special treat" (lol!) to catch fireflies. we had so much fun! as i'm sure you can tell, ella was a tad freaked. when one touched her she shrieked so loudly! we all were laughing so hard. anna wasn't a bit afraid, though. she kept them in the jar next to her bed for a night and fed them grass. it really took me back to the days of being a kid. we let them go tonight. but they can't wait to go out and get more. :)

eta: candi asked about how i managed to get this picture -
i took it with my rebel on manual with my 50 mm 1.8 lens (i wish i had the 1.4 - especially for this!)
the iso was 1600, the fstop was 1.8, and the shutter speed was 1/40. that's why it's quite a bit blurry. well and the girls are blurry because only the lid of the jar was picking up enough light to be able to get the camera to click into focus. i tried manual focus on a few pictures. that didn't work so well with my moving subjects! lol! a tripod would have been good - but there was that moving subjects problem with that too. ;) i took a TON of pictures but only managed to get a few with the fireflies lights actually glowing. i am glad i got lucky on a few! :) ooh - i also shoot in raw. that way i was able to more easily adjust the exposure after the picture was taken. straight out of the camera it was really dark. i also adjusted the levels and the brightness and contrast. i used neat image to remove some of the grain. it was quite a bit grainy, though, so a lot is still there.

the play IT forward july IT kit...

is SOOO fun! and gorgeous! this is the project i made with IT. becky novacek posted on her blog about keeping a gratitude journal. i just think it's a wonderful idea! the july IT kit also includes custom word stamps that are the CUTEST font and they fit perfectly into the 7 gypsies oval scroll stamp. i love them! i think i'll just post the cover here. the rest is in the IT kit gallery and also in my 2 peas gallery if you want to check it out. the IT kit gallery is filled with other AMAZING projects and pages!!! be sure to check IT out! :)

walnut!!!

the antique show in walnut, iowa was today. i met mimi there and we shopped until we dropped! it was HOT and crowded, but we had SO much fun!!! we got there right around 8. we made a beeline to our new favorite vendor - thanks to becky for reminding us about her. we sat and watched the vendors unload the truck. people were snatching things up as they came off! we ate lunch right across the street from their booth, and there weren't a lot of things left at all! in fact after lunch we felt like a lot of the booths were picked over. but we were sooo tired and hot that maybe our opinions were skewed. it was a FUN day for sure!!!

first popsicle...

his expression seemed to say he wasn't too sure about it, but he sure snarfed it down! :)

fred astaire in training?

a willsie funny...

this story is from kurt. as he was putting wilson to bed tonight wilson grabbed his binkie out of his mouth, threw it as hard as he could - hard enough to hit the wall across the room, laughed, waved, and said, "bye, bye." stinker!!! kurt had to put his face in wilson's blanket to hide his laughter. wilson just said his first really clear bye, bye today. guess he had to practice. lol!

pictures....

i just learned how to use screen and soft light overlays on my pictures in photoshop. (yes, i'm behind the times. hee!) i've had a ball playing with the ones i took today. i swear i did not pose that picture of wilson reading kurt's espn magazine. he looked at country living first. now that would have been a picture! lol! anna took the one of wilson and i. she's getting good!!!

a few funnies from today

anna was ready for dinner early tonight and kurt is late as usual, so she was going on about how she was staaaaaaaarving (i did feed her a HUGE lunch and a snack!). ella came along and started offering to feed her - only with wilson's baby food. lol! ella was giving her the options - pears, bananas, chicken and rice, and anna would reply back, "no thank you, madamoiselle." those two are tooooo much! they have been playing with the neighbors, outside for the most part, for the whole week. i am glad they are having so much fun. but sometimes wilson and i get lonely without them! :( we are enjoying each other a lot, though. when we aren't interrupted by them coming in and out 50 times. i can hear my mom's voice when i yell at them, "in or out!" and "don't slam the door!" lol!

one more...

and apparently rosadita's dad lets HER sleep with her backpack on.

tonight's ella comment...

kurt was trying to help her pick up the pace and head up to bed and she said,
"you are NOT the boss!!! the real boss is God and Jesus and Santa!"
well...she has a point.
lol!!!!!

look out world...

wilson's walking! he took his first steps last week and he's up to 6 or 7 now. i'm sure it won't be long until he's off and running!