flashback to fourth grade

Air quotes

Apparently it's the "cool" thing in 4th grade.

Or at least with this 4th grader.

At least

There is rarely a conversation with him that does not involve the appearance of this face and hands to illustrate his point.

365 | four

Rubik's Cubes

It's one of his hobbies at the moment.

He is constantly watching YouTube videos, trying to learn how to solve them.

One thing about him....when he decides he wants to do something, 

his determination will not let him stop until it's finished.

Right now he is determined to figure this out.

And then start on more challenging ones.

I did not even realize there was more than one of these.

But he was more than happy to show me all the different ones he has his eye on.

This has got to be better than video games, right?

Technicalities:

(Since my goal in this project is to dig deep into my photography skills, 

I thought I would critique myself - feel free to ignore)

I like this picture and the mood it portrays. 

I wish I had moved the pillow.  It distracts me and doesn't add to the story.

I think the side lighting adds a nice depth to the image.  

It emphasizes the concentration going on and draws my eye right to his hands and the cube.

I used my wide angle 35mm lens just because it is what is on my camera 90% of the time, but I'm glad I did, because I think the distortion draws your eye to the hands and cube even more.  I did a profile correction in Lightroom, but went back to the original image because I liked the distortion  - it adds to the strength of the shot.

My favorite aspect is the somewhat of a juxtaposition of his growing, almost teenager hands holding what many would consider a child's toy (although if you've ever tried to solve one of these, you would completely disagree, so I will keep that to myself).  

It tells the story of him being in that in-between age of still a boy yet so much closer to an adult (which I'm totally not ready for).

teeth....or no teeth

I'm pretty sure the Tooth Fairy would be broke by now if she still visited our house....I think Elliott has lost more teeth in the past couple of months than in his entire lifetime!

Sometimes he pulls one out everyday.  I'm not sure how he's going to eat anything soon.  He's very proud of how many he has lost so quickly though, so I guess it doesn't bother him.

and just like that...we have a middle schooler

I knew the day would come sooner than I thought it should.

I knew it would be exciting yet sad at the same time.

I knew that, for him, it would only be exciting.

He has graduated from elementary school.

He is a middle schooler now.

Grandma and Grandpa came for the graduation ceremony.

And it won't be long before he will be looking down at me.

Someone please give me my baby boy back!

Love him.

He preferred no pictures.

No such luck.

The very last day of elementary school.

(A long time coming, too, since we didn't get out until June 6th!)

Fifth Grade Clap Out.

On the last day of school, right before dismissal, the 5th graders get to parade through our school as the other students, teachers and parents line the halls and clap them out one last time.

It's possible I shed a tear or two.

It's possible that lots of the girls were crying.

It's possible that our guy was only happy about the entire situation.

Don't let him fool you.

He had a great time with great teachers and great friends the past 6 years.

He will miss it.

But he is so ready for middle school.

the real world

Elliott's 5th grade class got to spend the morning at the JA Biztown near us.

It's put on by Junior Achievement, and the kids have been working on this for months.

They applied for the jobs they wanted, learned to balance a checkbook, learned the responsibilities for the jobs they were given, etc.

Elliott spent the morning as the CFO of the news station.

Such an appropriate position for him - working with money, everything is orderly, he gets to be the boss.

Love his bow tie?

Here he is in his "office".

So fun to watch him work!

And I had my own gig. (And so did Brian - at City Hall - but I have no pictures)

I was the adult at Build-a-Bear.  The kids could use the money they earned at their jobs to buy things during their breaks.  So some of them came and stuffed a bear.  All of the bears that were stuffed went to a charity - pretty cool.

Loved this day!

camp adventures

Unexpectedly at the last minute I ended up helping at camp the week that Elliott was there.  He was happy that it was only for half the week and I totally acted like I didn't know him.  But I was able to get some fun pictures while I was there.

The Blob.

My kids' favorite part of camp.

The scene the next morning after the faculty hunt.

It was pouring, so all of the kids' shoes and socks were soaked and muddy and left outside.

Not sure we could fit anymore wet clothes or towels on this line!

Lots of games

Awesome worship times!

Ethan went to camp the next week.

I didn't stay so these are the only pictures I have.

He had lots of friends there, and they had a blast!

early easter surprises

Grandma and Grandpa came over last Sunday to watch Elliott play flag football.

We have a running joke that it rains every time they plan to come over for one of the boys' sporting events.

It usually doesn't rain, though, until they are already here.

And that happened.

Rained out.

After they drove all the way over here.

But the boys were super excited to get early Easter baskets from them.

And so was I.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

march madness 2014

We are in full-on basketball mode right now.

Actually we are dividing time between basketball, baseball and flag football, so our weekends are crazy busy like all of yours, I'm sure.

But basketball is almost done, so I thought I should get some favorites shots added here.

The boys have both learned lots of lessons in being the underdogs this year, but they have had fun.....and they get a snack after each game so that always negates any ill feelings they had about the game, right?

And just because he can......

yes, those are 3rd and 4th graders :)

photography class

I've been taking a photography class online the past four weeks.

Its focus was on taking portraits.

Every once in a while someone will ask me to take pictures of their kids or family, and I thought this class might help me improve my skills with that so that I can do an even better job when the opportunity come up again in the future.

And, besides, I really love photography and want to learn as much as possible.

In fact, Brian will tell you that my camera is our third child :)

Anyway, these are some of the assignments that I had.

My subjects were very willing after I told them they would be paid for their work!

This first one was for a side lighting assignment.

This one was my submission for the specific age group photo.

We were to take what we had learned about photographing people of different ages and apply it.
I chose the boys' age group cause that's what I had access to and I figured that's what I photograph the most.


And this one was for a bonus creative assignment.
We were to take a portrait of someone but not of their face.

This last one was not for an assignment.

I just loved how it turned out and wanted to share it.

The last assignment was to take a group photo.

I had visions of getting a picture of Brian and the boys at a park near us, but the weather and our schedules this week just wouldn't cooperate.

I ended up submitting a photo that I had taken a few months ago with hopes of getting feedback on that one at least.

I really liked this class.

I feel like I learned a lot about taking photographs of people, and at the same time it made me realize that I knew more than I thought I did - gotta love that, too!

cheese

Oh my goodness these guys crack me up!

They were trying to do cheesy faces and poses,

but they couldn't stop laughing.

I hope that someday down the road - 

when they are teenagers or twenty-somethings or have children of their own - 

that they remember how much fun they had with each other growing up.

Read Right and Run

This was the second year that the boys did Read Right Run with their school.

Last year it started storming the morning of the race so we didn't get to finish the 26 miles

at Forest Park as planned, but they did finish it at school because they have an awesome

PE teacher.

This year was the exact opposite weather.

It was absolutely beautiful.

Plenty of sunshine.

Not too hot.

Not too cold.

We were spoiled for sure.

They had such a good time.

I'm proud of them for doing all 26 books, good deeds and miles.

The good deeds were the hardest to keep up with.

Not the hardest to do - we would just forget to track them.

But they did it and are ready to do it again next year.

They even saw signs for a 5K Halloween run and were all over doing that

in October in our costumes.  Sounds fun!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the zoo.

Along with almost every other St. Louisan I believe.

If you live here you know what it's like on those first nice Saturdays in spring and know what I'm talking about :)

Saw the new sea lion show for the first time and just walked around enjoying the day.

4th Grade Camp

This kid was so excited to go to 4th Grade Camp a few weeks ago!  

And according to him, it was the best camp ever.  

He talked about it until he went to bed the night he got home,

and then started in again the next morning.

So much to tell us.

He was most excited about the archery sessions.

He got two bulls eyes in a row!

But he really liked every bit of it - even the food.

The best sloppy joe ever, apparently.

I'm glad he is outgoing and likes to be with his friends.

I'm sure this will be a forever memory for him.

football

The boys have been asking to play football forever.

We've hesitated mainly for two reasons:

They play their games on Sundays.

We know that tackle football is a huge time commitment.

But we agreed to let Elliott play flag football this spring with the understanding that he might miss a few games if they interfered with church.  He was fine with that, and we have not had to miss any games.  We are late to half of them, but that's fine.

It's been fun for us to watch, and he has really loved it.  He has been playing Center for the most part.

Of course, he throwing bones to get us to agree to tackle in the fall now.

So far we are not convinced though.

 Every football player has devoted fans, right?

a photo for friday

Pretty much sums up our day yesterday.

And today.

Without the falling snow.

The boys are now making snow houses, Minecraft style, in the huge 

snowpile left in our cul-de-sac by the snowplows.

They love when that happens!

We got about 6 inches yesterday which equaled another 4 day weekend

for the boys.

Guess who is pretty happy about that?

a photo for friday

Brian calls this look something like "Sith Lord Contemplates Dinner".

I call it "Boy Complains About Dinner Again"

At least he ate his carrots.

And now he is saying he doesn't feel good.

He even gave up playing XBOX with a friend.

So now I'm a bit worried.

basketball

Basketball is in full swing for us.

I think this is my favorite sport that they play.  So much fun to watch,

and they both really enjoy it.  I hope they keep playing.

Plus it doesn't involve sitting out in the rain, cold, wind or heat - ever.

Elliott's strength seems to be defense.

Ethan's strength seems to be offense.

You can imagine how much fun they have when they play

each other in the driveway!

I know the pictures are pretty grainy.  The lighting in the gym could be better, so I have to bump the ISO up on my camera.  It's an older camera and doesn't like it's ISO to be bumped.  So it gives me grain instead.  I have a new one coming and I'm hoping it makes a huge difference - so excited!