Someone is in trouble

My nicely organized shoe closet is no longer so! Notice that only about 3 feet worth of shoes have all been piled to the ground, above stayed neat. I wonder who the suspect might be ;).

Sydney's Box

Jason got new bike tires a couple of weeks ago, and left the big box in the kitchen. Sydney took a liking to it, and did not want to share.

The note says:

Sydney's Box
Do not enter
Only me and Barbies, no babies (referring to her sister)

So here she is, in her box, with her Barbies...wacky child of mine:



Excuse the quality of the picture...too slow of a shutter, it was dark...whoops!

My new favorite neighbor!

We found out last week that our neighbor two doors down is going to open up a Gelato shop! And, guess what they are making in their garage, trying out flavors, and needing opinions on! I am such a great help in sampling ice cream type items :D. Here is the first batch they gave us the other day (mango and blood-orange, yummmy) - fat -free, low sugar, AND, a 1/2 serving of fruit! Last night he gave us HUGE helpings of chocolate, kiwi, and cantaloupe! Mmmmm. Blood orange is still the leading favorite.

I Heart Faces Smiles :)

The theme this week at I Heart Faces is smiles, we have a ton of those photos around here! I figured I should take this opportunity to enter my favorite toothless smile...she's not going to be like this for long!



Check out the tons of other smiles over here:

Sydney's Jog-A-Thon

Friday was the big day for the school's Jog-A-Thon. Sydney was so excited, it was hard to keep her calm to get ready for school!

Here's the class getting their final instructions from Mrs. Corry:



And everyone semi-posing for a class picture (Someone else was taking the picture for the yearbook, but I snuck in too):



Pausing for some oranges after running a few laps...how many can she hold at once?



And, she's off again! Even with a falling off number, she had to keep going...until....



She had enough laps to earn enough to get to dunk the principal! She got 10 laps, realized she had enough, and she was done :). She put in great effort though, 10 laps is just under 2.5 miles, and she raised $62.50 for her school. Thanks Aunt Kathie, Auntie Karin, Grandma, and Papa for your donations!!

She was sure this would draw in the butterflies

We went to see the butterflies at the Wild Animal Park a few weeks ago, and Sydney dressed herself in a way that she thought was sure to attract them to land on her. No luck...we waited and waited, and she did NOT want to leave until one landed on her. We will have to try again next year!

It's fun having kids around

Sometimes you find things in the oddest places, such as this pony, who appears to be flying through my back door :). It always makes me smile when I come across cute little things in odd places, knowing that one of my little people had some sort of purpose in putting it there.

Pretty Butterfly

I am behind in my picture editing and sorting...ugg! So, until I get caught up, I am taking no more pictures. I wonder if I can make it.

Anyway, here is a pretty butterfly from a few weeks ago.

The little sisters

They are starting to really have fun together at the softball games. Last week it was dropping sticks into the drain, and rolling around in the grass.

Busy day yesterday!

I was up early for spin class, then we headed up to Temecula, first for Alec's jumpy party, then we watched his soccer game, then off to Autumn's Crazy Hair Day party!

The girls had a blast! (And they slept so good, whew!)

She is focusing really hard in the outfield...

...perhaps on what color she should paint her nails for Auty's party tomorrow?

Our family, by Sydney

Sydney was hard at work on this drawing while she let me sleep. It was a nice picture to wake up to!

Sydney's New Art Box

She can make something out of anything!

Brooke's perspective

Today's picture prompt is to take the perspective of someone else, I chose Brooke who was lovingly petting Jewel. She is not supposed to be up on the table...darn cat!

Nate "Rock" Quarry

Anyone recognize this guy? I guess he's a UFC Fighter, and he was at the Jr. Carlsbad race on Saturday. Brooke was brave enough to go up and ask for his autograph (and then she attacked him with her Cheetah!)

Help Sydney help her school!

Sydney will be running laps in her school Jog-A-Thon on Friday, April 23rd. This is the biggest fundraiser for our school, so we're hoping to help as much as we can. If you're interested in donating, we appreciate the support! You can sponsor per lap (last year I believe she ran 14 laps), or donate a set amount. Email me if you want to do the per-lap rate, or if you want to do a flat rate you can visit Sydney's fund raising page here:

http://www.active.com/donate/ebselementary/sydneygriffin

Thanks for your support!

She ran great in the Jr. Carlsbad run on Saturday!

She has gorgeous eyes

Today's prompt is about focusing on the eyes, perfect excuse to make her pose for me!

Caught it!

I had to sit at an awkward angle for quite a while to catch this (and now my back aches), but it finally fell, and I got the picture I wanted! The prompt for yesterday's Picture Spring workshop was "The Sparkle of Spring", and we were to seek out droplets and see the light through them. I love how you can see a reverse image of my neighbor's house in this pretty little droplet.

I'm not needed anymore

Sydney got Brooke up into the swing all by herself, and they had a blast, all on their own...

It's Me!

The prompt yesterday for the Spring workshop was "Self Portrait"...yikes! I haven't slept in days because of my sick little person, so I wasn't too enthused at the idea of pictures of myself. I ended up having quite the giggle as I tried to hold up Sydney's small mirror in one hand, my heavy camera in the other, while looking through the camera to focus and then peeking off to the mirror. Here's my result:



Hey look! They chose my picture yesterday to be featured on the Shutter Sisters blog, how fun! :)

Huntin' for Eggs

Last week there was an egg hunt with a playgroup that Brooke belongs to. Sydney and Jackson were on Spring Break, so they got to be the official egg "hiders" for all the little kids.

Brooke was kind of excited to hunt eggs, but I had to tear her away from this cute doggie first...



And, she's off! She is well aware that there are yummy things in these eggs, so it was hard work to get her to keep hunting rather than opening each one as she went.



After the hunt we sat down with some of our buddies to check out our loot!

We're going to wait for lunch to eat the candy though, right Brooke? Of course Mom, I'm not eating anything...

We need you back Aunt Kathie!

Miss Brooke is still not feeling well, and she likes lounging in your arms!

Me, my hubby, my parents, my girls, and...

The Easter Bunny :)

Happy Easter everyone. We had the perfect day with our family!

Here he comes to save the day...

It's Coltey! A.K.A. "Mighty Mouse", he's on his way!













You're out!

Sydney's Special Day

Sydney is on Spring Break, but Brooke still had her 1-day a week Fishy class. So, Sydney got to choose something special to do for the day. She decided she wanted to go to Bead Gallery and make necklaces! Meredith got to come along with us :).

First, we took Brooke to school. It was fun for Syd to go visit her old preschool.



Then, we went for a quick coffee (and hot chocolate).



Then off to the bead store! The girls were overwhelmed with all of the beautiful beads :).



Here is Sydney's creation. We ended up having to remove the angel (because she only went sideways), and took out one heart to make the heart the main center piece. Mommy's pocketbook was thankful for two less pricey beads.



Here is Meredith's creation...nice & simple, everything symmetrical. I'm wondering if I was given the wrong kid ;).



The girls were very careful, and took their time putting every bead on the string. Here they are all done!



After we left the bead store we went to pickup Brooke, then stopped for sandwiches. The big girls got their own table which was a huge treat.



It was a great day, Sydney had a blast. We're looking forward to our next opportunity to do this again!

New Teeth!

I signed up for a 30-day online photo-a-day workshop that starts today. I figured it'd be fun to have a challenge each day, and it will get me thinking creatively for a while, as well as pick up some tips & tricks here and there! Today's photo prompt is "capture an image that symbolizes the beginning of something--of anything"...there are a ton of pictures of beautiful little flower buds, just about to spring open, I thought about heading outside to get something like that...but, it rained today! So, what better than the beginning of new teeth! Sydney's teeth are growing like weeds, she is going to have huge permanent teeth in just a few weeks. I need to capture as many memories as I can of her partially filled mouth :).