Is it bedtime yet?

There are times why I wonder why I do it to myself...I know that I'll regret it in the morning...I know my KIDS will "reap" what I have sown...but still, I go overboard because I think my right brain tendencies just don't know when to shut off and my left brain is too wimpy to stop it all...I stay up wayyyyy too late, doing things that take way too much time for the small amount of brain capacity that is functional at that time of night...

It's been a week...It started off with Sweetpea's all day Pioneer Day experience, at which I was "official photographer"...I'm not sure if after seeing the pictures that they will ask me back...seeing as I have about 300 pictures of Sweetpea's class and about 10 of the other school that was there...but, ya know...these things happen...

At least they happen to a Mom whose daughter is dressed up so incredibly cute and she's busting at the seams with excitement and it's all she can do not do use up the entire compact flash card taking pictures of her daughter's apron, bonnet and little black shoes...

This all followed a wedding from the Friday before, which followed a rehearsal dinner the day prior to that...it all led into a weekend of soccer games and photo shoots as well...

I have to be honest that I am so grateful for the opportunity to do photography...I felt like, growing up, I had in my mind to be what everyone else "thought" I should be...so I studied hard, I played sports, I learned music...not that I regret ANY of those things, but I don't think it was until I got to college and even more so once I met my husband, who accepted and just loved whomever I was or chose to be...that I just started exploring new avenues...like writing and sewing and then photography...

I'm totally going off track...the gist of it is that I love what I am doing and it's fun to be able to share that with my girlies too...

Okay...so back to my bedtime blues...

I did the ole "skin cancer awareness" screening thing on Tuesday...all my moles look great...there really isn't a purpose for them being there and if it didn't require needles and knives and doctor's offices and a list of other things that really make me jittery, I'd really get them all removed...but...ya know...the needle thing...can't handle it...

Wednesday came with the promise of ANOTHER field trip...This one was to a girl scout camp about 40 minutes on the other side of the city...I should have realized the impact of this trip after receiving about 4 notices about "good shoes" and "change of clothes"...had I known that I would be called upon to assist in the digging through pond scum, ripping worms apart with my bare hands...WITH MY BARE HANDS I tell you! and then basking in the rain while my first grader says to me, "Yeah Mom, I'm thinking that this probably wasn't the best field trip for you to come on...maybe Daddy should have brought me!"...I'm not sure I disagreed with her...

But people, a Mom's gotta do, what a Mom's gotta do...and so I sucked it up and ripped apart worms and stuck them with hooks...I pretended to eat mud slime and took pictures of tadpoles...I put on my "that is soooo awesome" face when they showed pelt after pelt of poor, DEAD animals...

And then I came home and washed my hands and then took a shower and washed my hands again...

Peanut had fun...and that's all that counts...oh, and I learned what a Damselfly is...and everyone laughed at me...but it was all in the name of Mommy!!!

Thursday brought some reprieve...but not really as I dragged Little Munchkin from store to store searching for supplies for the birthday party that I must plan for Saturday...what?, that's in a mere 12 hours from this moment and you haven't gotten it all planned?.. you ask...why yes, this is what "procastinating" looks like...it's also what "staying in front of the computer until the weeeee hours of the night trying to finish photo shoot editing while cross-eyed and hyped up on Pepsi and Coffee" looks like...

And so, I'm still asking myself...is it time for bed yet?

have a great weekend!

It's Going Down on the Books...

...other Post Titles that would appropriately fit:

I'm Paranoid, but my Husband Humors Me
We Are Outnumbered
Our Weathermen and the SHOCK factor
Stupid Smoke Alarms
How to get the Worst Night's Sleep...Ever

the extent to which I am tired would probably equal the amount of rainfall that we've received this spring...

Let me explain..

In case you haven't seen the news lately, our country has been bombarded by tornadoes...awful, deadly, scary tornadoes that have left much damage in their wake...

And although, our area has never experienced one first hand, with how things have been, I'm not discounting it...and so last night, after the umpteenth time of watching the weathermen do their "hand ballet" across the radar explaining the fact that the world as we know it could be coming to an end...I had to make a decision...

The storm was supposed to role through around 3am..now, I KNOW that I'm not all that functional at 3am and after all the staying up late with editing, etc, I"m not the most coherent and/or coordinated...my fear was that we'd hear some siren and we'd have to get all 3 girls down to the basement in record time...this would mean that I'd have to actually THINK and be able to walk in a straight line...2 things of which I do poorly that "early" in the morning...

So, I made the paranoid decision to create a "bed" of sorts in the basement...it consisted of the old queen mattress on the floor with a large arm chair pushed up again one end....I was also able to crawl across the hoarding mess, which I have deemed my treasure trove in order to locate some blankets and old feather pillows.  Italian Stallion and I created this makeshift bed thinking that the older girls and I would sleep across the queen bed and Little Munchkin would curl up in the chair.  This only left my poor husband lacking a place to lay his head before his long day at work...

In my brilliance and his dear, and sacrificial heart, we threw some pillows on the treadmill and got his pillow from upstairs...my poor hubby spent a brilliant night "sleeping" on the exercise machine hoping that he wouldn't hit the on switch...

This wasn't "stellar" as is...but, at the same time, it was cooler in the basement and now I didn't have to worry about getting 3 children under shelter in the middle of the night...

For some reason...during this wonderful "solution" that we opted for last night, our smoke alarms decided to go off..only to further freak our children out and awaken us all at 5:30am to start our day...

And so...my day begins...and I think I'm heading for a nap this afternoon:)...maybe earlier...or maybe I'll just go back to bed when the girls get on the bus...

check...check...check...holy cow, how will I get it all finished?

...skin cancer screening...CHECK
(just FYI: may is skin cancer awareness month and they offered free screening...just thought I'd give it a try)
...wedding photo shoot...CHECK
...weekend photo shoots...CHECK
...Pioneer Day with Sweetpea...CHECK

...editing gazillions of pictures....ummm...

So, I've been a bit busy in front of my computer lately...don't get me wrong, I love me some computer time...but brightening eyes and saving for the web is getting a little old...

But, I suppose it's better than tramplin' through our saturated back yard and weeding the garden while mud slaps up the back of my legs...

Oh, wait...I HAVE been doing that as well...okay, not the weeding part...that would be my Italian Stallion's job...I prefer to wander back there when all the pickin' is finished and swoop in to take the credit as people drive by:) 

And although this precipitation has GOT to stop sometime, it has done wonders for our lettuce...which I plan on photographing soon...once my fingers and right arm stop tingling from all the "over camera usage" this past weekend...

I would like to share just a few pics from Pioneer Day though...it was awesome...I was utterly impressed with the parents that put it all together AND for letting me just come and take pictures all day...and eat their fried chicken and noodles...and video tape the principal squaredancing:)

I still have a long road of editing ahead of me, but I'm attempting to tackle it in steps...as I'm able, I'll shoot a few pictures up here...in between trying to plan Peanut's birthday party and eating Java chip icecream at 2 in the morning!

Back to pioneer day...I think I spent a majority of my running around time getting "detail" pictures that noone but me/I will like (I have no idea which pronoun is proper in this case, so chose one and go with it)...

gotta luv wooden nickels...:)

and the square-dancing...OHHHH the dancing...

As I said, it was a glorious day...I took over 500 pictures, of which I won't post here because 1) I don't want every parent to have to sign a waiver thingy and 2) who wants to be bored with that many photos of kids you don't know running around in pioneer clothing at a location of which you are unaware??? 

So, I leave you with yet, another detail picture...I love the little boy's shadow on the gravestone...

I'll be back soon...I promise!

Last Installment of Vacationing with Mamarazzi

Okay...so lest you think that after walking Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown settlement and Mt. Vernon...intermixed with climbing trees and swimming laps, that we were finished with our "site-seeing"...

Um, that would be a negative...

We thought it would be a great idea to force our children to walk, without a stroller, for hours on end, in the drizzle-rain and overcast day in order to see our Nation's capitol...where, I must admit they were sorely disappointed in President Obama whom did not allow them admittance into the White House...but we're just going to blame it on the postal system for now...

Don't get me wrong...we had a great time in D.C. and we know that when we return some day, the memory of seeing certain buildings and walking the mall will cause them to enjoy it all the more...

however, in the middle of carrying 2 umbrellas, 2 backpacks, and a heavy three year old after a week's worth of physical exertion, well, I won't say it was our brightest plan:)

We were fortunate enough to happen upon the Washington Monument first thing, where we learned that we must obtain tickets for a later appointment in order to ride to the top!  And so, we scurried to the ticket office and then started on our way to the White House.  We were all anxious to see their garden and see if we could catch a glimpse of anyone important...the flag was flying, so we knew he was at least home:)

We had a 12:10 reserved tour at the Capitol and so we started hoofin' it pretty fast...I was ubber impressed with the Capitol tour...the girls loved the headphones and our tour guide was a hoot!  He not only was knowledgeable, but you could tell that he loved his job.  The girls still comment that it was this tour that was their favorite thing during our DC visit.

Seeing as we made haste to get to the tour on time, we by-passed anything else along the way and our feet were not thanking us...we had a great and filling lunch in the Capitol's cafe...It was quite endearing to see older couples strolling along...one elderly gentlemen came over and put his arm on my Italian Stallion's shoulder and asked him if he had a shotgun b/c he would need it someday with all his little girls:)  It made my heart glad to hear words of encouragement from someone, even in the heart of D.C.

We had that other reserved ticket for the monument and so we quickly ate and started on our way once again...to the tune of, "I think I have blisters on my feet" and "can we go to the hotel and swim?"

We did make a quick stop into the Air and Space museum where Peanut led us straight to the Wright brothers and gave us her quick snopsis of her knowledge concerning these flying genius'. 

And then, we were out the door again and wearing out the soles of our old tennis shoes...

I've got to say that our girls were real troupers...I joke about the "feet hurting", etc..but really, they were great and were in awe of the comparison between colonial Williamsburg Capitol and our current one...

The Washington Monument was great and a few Marine accompanied us to the top...you want to see little girls squealing in an elevator??  I had to keep them from stepping on their shined up shoes...

The Lincoln Memorial was our last stop before the long trek back to the car...we thought it quite interesting that Peanut found a penny on the way there...we thought we'd show it off:)

So there you have it...our trip in 3 posts:)  It was educational, enjoyable and definitely something we'll like remembering...

As I mentioned yesterday of my overwhelming feelings that have bubbled up due to an over-crowded schedule this month...I'll apologize now if I don't make it back here on a regular basis, but I will try...

Vacationing Part 2

Goodness gracious, does anyone else feel like May swooped in and is dragging you not only under water (when will the rain stop?), but pulling you in fifteen million directions as you try to keep things structured and in place???

Maybe it's the fact that I just came off a week of munching gumballs and twirling in dresses in 70 degree weather...but whatever it is, I won't bore you with the specific details of my upcoming life events which happen to include a few field trips, multiple photo shoots and a wedding...I just feel a bit overwhelmed as I try to regain some semblence of order in my house and keep things moving as we are in the homestretch for the last day of school for the summer...

I say this as 7 loads of laundry sit folded on my couch and the lasagna that I had to put together this morning is in the oven (that's me trying to be pro-active)

I"m always in a tug of war of what I "want" to do versus what I "need" to do versus what I "should" do as well...

Needless to say, I'm a bit frazzled at the moment and in my denial of all things "to do list", I wish to reminisce about last week...and so I continue my vacationing post as we went to Jamestown and Mount Vernon...

Jamestown is field trip central...let me tell you...( if you go in the spring)

Although it is a fun place to visit and we all enjoyed getting on the Susan Constant and playing in the wigwam things that had another name but I can't recall it right now...however, there were many people there and to be honest, we just realized that we probably wouldn't have felt all that great living in those first forts and colonies...we definitely came away thankful for our microwaves and ipod touches:) 

We spent about 4 hours there and headed back to Colonial Williamsburg for the remainder of the day...we watched the fife and drum presentation and the cannons going off:) 

When we left the Williamsburg area, we traveled up to Alexandria in order to visit Mt. Vernon...and I must confess that it was probably the most beautiful and most enjoyable part of the trip for me.  Granted, we hit our first batch of rain while there, but I couldn't help but just take in the enormous amount of trees and land that we were allowed to walk through...

I loved going through Pres. Washington's home, learning about his family and what he cherished...the education center and museum is just wonderful and I could have stayed in there for HOURS (which we couldn't because Little Munch and a couple other girls whom I will let you guess, were a little "done" with reading and more into, "let's go into the gift shop and play with the toys") 

I am amazed by the mentalities of the people back then...I loved seeing the old script and just trying to guess the personalities of Martha and others on the plantation...

We were able to tour the home and the plantation work houses...I must say, that of all the places, I'd go back to Mt. Vernon first! They even had an adventure map for the girls to go through as we toured...as they got their clues, they finished the puzzle and received a free gift at the end...very thoughtful! 

I'm thankful we took a day to just do Mt. Vernon...I probably could have spent even more time there, but it just inspires me to come back:) 

My laundry is now calling to me...as are all 3 of my children who are clammering over the CD player to listen to Felicity on tape again...Lord, help me!  And so I will depart for now and return with thrilling news of our trips to DC...and by thrilling I mean walking over 6 miles, 3/4 of which Little Munchkin rode on someone's shoulders or was carried in arms...and listening to comments such as, "are we there yet?" and "I think my feet are going to fall off" that were just MUSIC to our ears! 

See you soon...

Family Vacation Planning Part I - Williamsburg

If you have an all girl household...
If the ages of said girls range from 10 down to 4...
If you have a week of vacation and have access to the following...
If you have a love of history, but still want "fun" time with the family...

Here is a "semi-schedule" should you choose to see the sites of Williamsburg, Jamestown and D.C.

This past week we decided, as a family, that we'd like to take a trip to our country's "founding" cities/capitol. In preparation, we gathered and/or participated in the following:

1) We were able to reserve a week's time share condo at a Wyndham resort entitled Governor's Green.  It was nice b/c we had an incredible 3 bedroom condo...it also had 3 pools (indoor & out), a free putt-putt area and availablity to feed the roaming ducks:) It was minutes from Colonial Williamsburg.  We bought our groceries for the week, packed lunches and ate breakfasts & dinners in the condo as all the main attractions close at 5pm.

2) We sewed and/or borrowed colonial dresses...enough for at least 2 per girl, including Mommy:)

3) Read and/or listened to the entire book series of Felicity An American Girl. Also, watched the Felicity Movie along with the behind the scenes and tour of Williamsburg that is included in the DVD.

4) Read and/or perused these other books: Mary Geddy's Day, What would it be like to live in Colonial Williamsburg?,

and for "Mommy's" pleasure reading:

just because I like that "historical fiction" reading:)

There are hundreds of Colonial Williamsburg books and D.C. books available at the library...we read through a ton of them...it's best to just find ones that fit your personality best and run with it...sometimes the girls just read through to find interesting facts and then went on to the next...the ones I listed just happened to a be a couple that stood out in my mind.

5) Planned a "mid trip" surprise for our girls in order to make it the entire 9 hours to our destination...

We finally arrived and made a "plan of attack"...So here is what I would suggest...

First thing to do is to get the "map" of Colonial Williamsburg for the week...it will give you special presentation times. 

If you are especially into scripted readings and performances, you will want to check out the outdoor presenations near the Capitol, etc..However, our girls are into dancing and therefore we would recommend the following:

*Pleasures of the Dance: it is an opportunity to actually do some of the dances of that time period.  It is a 30 minute presentation and it is wonderful! Our entire family participated in all the country dances together. It was fun to see Daddy do his "courtesy".

*Dancing on the Boards: these are theatrical dances that are performed and they are both comical, serious and beautiful.  The girls thoroughly enjoyed this 25 minutes presenation.

*Fife & Drum Retreat:  The young men (and women) play their instruments down the city street into the Magazine and then they shoot off the cannon and the guns.  You'll want to at least see this once.

There are many other options and fun things to do, but these were our favorites...and seeing as we wanted to spend time swimming, playing putt-putt and getting the occassional Starbucks, we didn't do a die-hard visit...and for Little Munchkin's sake, it was time well-spent! 

There are some really great opportunities in the evening for presentations.  These are ones you must pay extra for and it can get rather expensive, so choose wisely...however, the free options during the day are wonderful as well.  We chose to just use the daily performances for our viewing and spent our monies on a Horse & Carriage ride (as per request of Little Munchkin) Again, although it is great fun to dress up and tour the houses, etc...it can get long for children under 6...so we made sure to include things that our youngest could look forward to. 

*Must sees in Williamsburg:

Everard House:  this is the house that Felicity's movie is based on.

Wythe House: this is a house that Elizabeth might have lived in. The backyard has basketmaking and chickens:)

Geddy House: based on the Mary Geddy book, the girls loved when they recognized rooms, etc

Prentis Store: fun place to purchase trinkets, but know that they sell many of the same things at the visitor center

Governor's Palace: the tour is long, but once you get to the ball rooms, you feel transported back in time and then you step into the gardens...the girls got lost in the Maze...it was wonderful..

be sure to roam the palace green too...often they have fun games to play, oxen to see, horses & gentlemen to speak with, etc...

Charleton CoffeeHouse:  this is a new addition since 2009 and it was probably my favorite...we interacted with the "tourguide" who was "from that time period" and enjoyed a cup of coffee, tea or hot cocoa (depending on your preference) from the old recipes...the hot cocoa was a huge difference from what we are used to and the girls got a kick out of it.

We saw pretty much everything, but those were our favorites...the apothocary and millinery shops are fun too...again, just listing the "top" things for us...

Some extras you may not know about:

*There is a huge tree to climb in behind the Magazine...we passed the time climbing all through this with the girls and it gave them some opportunity to get out some energy.

*Kiddy corner to the Capitol, out back behind the bakery there is a shaded presentation area...hardly anyone goes there and it's a great place to stop and have a picnic lunch. Everytime we've gone they've been working on excavation, so that's been really interesting to watch...

*The Mount overlooking the Maze behind the Governor's Palace is a great place to have lunch as well...it's the original "ice house".  It's shaded and beautiful and then you can watch the kiddos run around the maze after they finish eating.

I'll be posting more pictures on facebook if you are friends with me there...As the week goes on I'll share with you our experience at Jamestown, Mt. Vernon and D.C. as well...it was a fun-filled week with the girls!

See you soon!

Hello? Anyone home?

We floated into May...or maybe we swam, sailed, or rowed...either way, it's been a WET ride getting here.  I suppose I could lament about the never-ending rain, the mud puddles and the hundreds of dead worms that are scattered across my driveway...I could also insert a couple of "choice" words to explain how I feel about the plethera of dandelions that have exploded in our yard due to the influx of rain as well...but, we all know how I feel about that and needless to say, the battle has already begun...

Ah, but here we are in May...in this chipper 50 degree soggy weather...do I sound a bit "sarcastic" about it?  I believe that would be because I AM!  Don't get me wrong...the rain IS making all my lettuces, sugar peas and potatoes sprout up...and I've NEVER in my life seen my oregano come up as an entire BUSH of herbs, and yet, there it be!...

At the same time, I'm itchin' to get outside and not be splashed up the backside with mud...I want to play ball with my Little Munchkin and push her on the swing with out having to slosh myself to the swing set...I'd like to actually don a pair of capris and not get goosebumps and have to carry an umbrella every where I go...

And so my time has been spent editing photos (you can pop over to CTPhotoMems to see the latest shoots), and working on "stuff" for my photography class coming in June...it's also been spent reading books whilst I'm supposed to be researching for our upcoming trip to Williamsburg and D.C....did I forget to mention that we're heading there soon? 

whooops...I suppose I haven't been around much and therefore, have left you all in the dark...

Nevis, Easter and the Royal Wedding came and went and not even a peep from me...although, I COULD go on and on about the Royal Wedding, cuz I LOVE me some royals!  but, I will spare you my lengthy opinions on her dress, the readings, the fascinators and all things Fergie & Camilla:)  I will let you know that my girls got out my wedding dress on that day and proceeded to parade around the family room...I sent a picture to my hubby who directly responded with, "are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

So...in between my speed reading of historical fiction romance novels that really do nothing other than suck me into a nether world in the midst of the soggy outdoors...we are planning our trip, gathering our colonial dresses and sewing more aprons...picking up books from the library and getting our ipods ready with books on Cd...

this is our 2nd trip to VA and we're looking forward to some familiar spots...but I'd welcome any other suggestions for must sees if you care to share:)

Stay dry!