B&W and Color Cell

They're over Angry Birds (which I hear has a movie or series coming out).  And Yumsters only seemed to appeal to Mommy.  Now it's Hungry Shark or Blast Monkey that has them transfixed. 

And the gloves?  Well, they haven't left her hands since Saturday... but they'll be disappearing soon.

Ptych, ptych, ptych

Di, tri, and tetra that is. 
Or, perhaps, I'll just go with polyptychs.

I'm playing with photo groupings and am completely in love with these story board style compilations.  While I firmly believe that a picture is worth 10k Words (hence the name of my photography business - which exaggerates the advertising slogan), there is something powerful in crafting photo essays.  I hardly even need to add the captions, except that I like words too much to leave them out.

The one solo shot of the bunch. Ya wasn't sure he was going to enjoy the day at the VARF. So he played shy and lazy, opting to hang out in his stroller with the sun shade pulled down to conceal him.  It didn't take long, though, for him to decide the Faire was a pretty cool place to be seen.

And in the Poppet's Playground, Ya discovered that building castle towers (while humoring Mommy with a period cap on his head) was almost as fun as knocking them down.

OOH!  Gravel walkways are awesome for rock hunting.  Or maybe it's not a hunt when the ground is covered in them?  And what better way to avoid posing for a portrait than by wielding a rock and threatening to throw and flee?

[And yes, I'm still going through our Renaissance Faire photos and realizing that I cannot spell that blasted word consistently.]

Black and White Wednesday @ The Long Road to China (and back)

B&WW: Field of Joy

I decided to waste a little time in a field down the road from Chi's TKD class.  I saw the empty space filled with wildflowers and overgrown, untamed grasses and thought it undiscovered bliss.  There are so few places like this one in our community now.

Obviously I've trained my babies right, because they took one look at that wide open space and were in love.  The kind of love that is fierce and clingy: "Mom, let's go to that field again."

"Mom, when's the next time we can go to that place?"

"Mom, I want to go over by Uncle Art's gym, you know, the grass?"

"Mom, can we go look at the flowers?"

"Mom?"

It really is the simple things, the carefree times, that mean the most.

B&W little Colonial man

No long post this morning.  It's dreary outside and I'm sleepier than anyone ever should be.  What a combination, huh?

I'm almost finished reliving our brief Williamsburg vacation through photos.  Almost, because there are a lot of clicks that hoped to become photographic magic, but they lost their lustre between sight and snap. 

Ya liked wearing his Colonial cap for the day.  I was shocked and stoked at the same time.  He never humors my desires to get him into a head covering of any kind (unless it's raining, then he's adamantly proclaiming that he must have his hood up). 

At the plantation, he tried to lug a water bucket to the well.  I swear it weighed no less than 20 pounds without water. Ugggh.  And I've no idea what that block he's leaning on really is, though I suspect it's the precursor to a hammer used to split wood (in conjunction with a metal sliver).  And all work and no play is no fun, so he spent a little time playing his hand.

the book for Chi...

This evening, Chi opened up her Bible.
She flipped to a section of Psalms I had earmarked for no particular reason.

And she read aloud.

Her words grew more fluid with each verse.

It was

beautiful.

I am blessed.

She enjoyed reading.  She plans to read to me tomorrow.  I think I'll like this new ritual.

B&W, not quite...

I had a few minutes this evening to experiment with a snapshot I took this past weekend.  It's a pretty simple picture. Composed okay, no fancy or ethereal background, no wow factor.  There's no awesome eye contact, no wide, welcoming smile, and no "take my picture" worthy expression.  And yet, I liked the shot as a foundation.

I played.
I overlayed.
I textured.
Then I erased.
And tried again.
And again.
And yet again.
And then...
Done.

My one regret?  Somehow when I was cropping, I didn't check the resolution (default is 72 dpi, 66x44").  With my crop, the largest 300 pixel image I can print is 6x9.

I want to cry.

Birthdays and Milk

Yadon's favorite Disney character used to be Handy Manny (we think it is Chuggington, now).  Our neighbor, who had no idea of Ya's affection for the bilingual builder/repairman, gave this cup to Ya as a Halloween party goodie bag gift.  And, since we're big fans of straws in this family - I drink my coffee with a straw every day - this cup is perfectly awesome.  Drink your milk, Ya!

In other news, Lisa of "The Long Road to China" has graciously hosted 52 weeks of Black and White Wednesdays on her blog.  It's been an amazing year of beautiful images - from strict Black and White  images to creamy chocolate variations.  And every week has provided inspiration.

I love being able to share my pictures sans color.  While I sometimes crave bright, bold color, I'm a dark room addict and I miss the beautiful, even bolder contrast of B&W prints.  Is it weird that I also miss the smell? 

Happy First Birthday!

Succeeding

A  B&W Wednesday  post:

Beginning training month four:
It may not be a quick progression through the rainbow of belts, but this girl is perfecting her efforts exactly the way she should.  I am so very proud of her focus, determination, and perseverance.

Somedays it is hard for her to get through class.  She's tired. Getting up at 6 a.m. can really take a toll on a young one. 

She's studious.  Chi is working hard to become a "brick kid," so she's obsessed with grades and is frustrated when subjects seem difficult initially.

And Master N seems to have a more critical eye for Chi's errors than he does for other kids.  I don't know why he's picked her, but she's analyzed and scrutinized intensely.  By the end of class, her voice is failing from hollering Ki-hop at the top of her lungs.  She has to compensate for the softer voices of her fellow white belt (no tip) classmates who are younger.  She's repeating the same forms over and over because someone always messes up something, and even when she gets it perfect, there is always a requirement of push ups or some such penalty for something. 

When the first belt cycle began, I spent one class in tears watching my baby try to hold her own tears back as Master attacked her, kept her in push up position for minutes at a time, and then forced her to demonstrate her form solo while she gasped and squelched her sobs.  She's a trooper, and recovered well, but I've since tried hard not to miss another class lest she become his target that severely again.

Play nice!

When I dream about your future

I think about you reaching goals

I picture you finding love

I envision you with happy homes

I see you succeeding in all you attempt

I hear you laughing

I listen to you praying

And I know you'll still be spending time together

-carefree moments wrapped up in each other's joy-

because you are family by birth
and friends by choice.

Moments in B&W (and color, too)

It's just another lazy afternoon for this two-year-old.

Take Chi's toys!

Terrorize everyone!

Bathtime!

Field Trippin'

When Chi went into K-5, I vowed that I would chaperone at least one field trip a year so long as she deemed it was "cool" for Mommy to attend.  Since then, I've chaperoned for a trip to a science museum, a puppet show performance, and a field day.  (And I should make it known that I haven't asked her if she wanted me to tag-along since that very first trip...)

Never would I have thought that Ya's 2-year-old class, God's Superstars, would be venturing out of their school, too.  But his teacher is determined that her class experience everything that the older kids do, so she pleaded for a Fall excursion to the pumpkin patch.  I took a personal day from work and joined two other parents and Mrs. M in escourting the GS babes to "Pumpkin Playground."

Here's my day playing hooky -- I mean chaperone:
Morning devotion includes singing "The B - I -B - L - E, that's the book for me..."  The kids make their hands into Bibles and jump, clap, and cheer on the last "Bible!"

Ya, aka ChooChoo, is known for dropping down on all fours and hollering "All Aboard!" as though he were waiting for a rider.  When he got the pop blocks, his creation was, of course, a train.  "Choo, choo!"

Next came a short review of colors and a worksheet for filling in between the lines [a time staller, as the Asst. Director/Bus Driver was late in preparation].  Ya decided blue was suitable for his dog and the vet.  Or maybe he let the brown crayon roll away before he finished...

Pumpkin Land was really just a playground with several oversized slides.  This one was so slick and steep, that the first little girl we sent down it flew about two feet away from the slide's end!  Ya saw her (totally unphased) landing and insisted he have someone catch him.

We road on a tractor wagon - a hayride sans hay - through a wooded area with a graveyard and costumed things designed to spook.

Then the kids were off!

Lunch consisted of turkey on wheat with mayonaisse, slightly boiled carrots, orange slices, and Sun chips.  Before eating, each child bowed his head for prayer.  Ya says, "God is good. AMEN."

I thought it would be fun to ride down the hill in the Tumble Tubes.  Ya didn't agree.  He let me push him up the hill once, but jumped out when it was time to send him down in a spin.  Instead, he decided to push the empty tube down the hill.  He then pushed the tube back up the hill himself... it got most of the way up before proving too heavy, when it rolled over him in a scene reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch house crushing.

He recovered from the flattening without a tear, and proceeded to push a smaller tube up the hill one last time.  What a trooper.

Afterward, he spun the wheel of the wooden fire truck.  He hopped out within seconds of getting into the cab.


There were animals at the playground.  Ya is fascinated by the fowl.  I took delight in this poor goat that was determined to protect his meal by sleeping in the bowl.

Ya's favorite attraction, not surprisingly, was this fabulous wooden crawl through:

And this is the only one he let share his conductor's seat - a tiny little treasure who is one month his senior:


I road down the slide on a carpet with Ya, so there aren't any pictures of that... thankfully, as I know my shock at the swift drop wasn't pretty.  The kids were all over the place - except in the big mound of dirt-sand that children were digging through for treasure.  There was no way Ya or any of his classmates were getting filthy looking for equally filthy plastic spiders and such.

The Asst. Director rushed us to join the last performance of Mama Sunshine  - - a woman seated in front of a tee pee wearing a bright orange Native-American style outfit. Ya was allowed to beat the drum as she chanted a Halloween diddy.

The trip ended right around nap time... Ya picked out a pumpkin for himself and for Chi. 

Within minutes of boarding the school's van, he was sleep.