Tag Archives: Family

12
May
2013

Mother’s Day Project

By: Megan

I love you Mom. Thanks for all that you have done and continue to do for me. You always answer your phone when I call, even when you are a work. You have patiently recited the recipe for scalloped corn every time I call and complain that my Better Crocker cookbook is missing one page and it is the scalloped corn page. I love you.

Today we are spending the day building a sand box. I get to do a project, the kids are helping out and when it is done (in theory) the kids will play nicely in the sandbox with little supervision  It is a Mother’s Day project that keeps on giving.

We are using cedar so we don’t have to deal with sealing, staining or painting it for years to come. Also, pressure treated wood isn’t ideal for kids because of all the chemicals that are used to… well, pressure treat it. The downside to using cedar is that it is spendy. We priced out the wood needed for the sandbox with cedar boards and it was $150.We were not going to compromise on the cedar so we looked for another option. Just so happens the same amount of 1×6 6 foot boards of cedar fence posts cost only $34. The only difference it that the fence posts would need some sanding. We bought a couple of packs of 80 grit sandpaper for $3 a piece and got to work. By taking the extra step of sanding we were able to save $110 and when you have 54 square feet of sandbox to fill with sand every extra dollar saved helps fill the sandbox a few square feet deeper.

 Patrick help sand too but he required more supervision so I wasn’t able to snap any photos. Patrick and power tools, even cheap, low voltage power tools without sharp points, is a scary concept. He did do great work with the mallet though. Smashing things is his forte.

Look at that almost smirk. He really does love to smash.

Tim helped with the last few hits.

Elise wasn’t very helpful with the building process. She did however get the rocks mowed, so that is one chore I can take off my to do list.

We bought 20 bags of sand from Menards where they were selling them for 2 for $3. We bought 20 knowing it wouldn’t be enough to fill the sandbox but it would be enough to turn our van into a low rider. 20 bags of sand is heavy!

SAND! This expression is why we did this on Mother’s Day. Nothing could make me happier after the last few very challenging months weeks with Patrick than to see this kind of pure joy radiating from him.

Tim used the wheelbarrow that we bought back when we did our first yard project 5 springs ago. We bought our home in the middle of winter. This mound is what was under the snow in the backyard. There was also a 15 inch dug out drop off that spanned the back of the yard (you can see some of the ledge in the upper right hand corner of the photo. This weekend’s project was much more fun and we were able to complete it in one weekend.

This is now the view from our basement office window. I can blog, Pinterest, edit photos or sew while my kids play just a few yards from me. Tim and I both have very fond memories of giant sandboxes in our respective backyards. We both remember playing for hours building little cities and giant castles. Nothing is sweeter than seeing your child play like you did as a child.

This has been my favorite Mother’s Day yet. I slept in until 9. I got to play in the sun. I built something with my kids and husband. I took a long, long, long hot shower and no one banged on the bathroom once. I didn’t do dishes but the kitchen is clean. The kids went to bed without a fuss and I got to drink a beer and eat some pizza while watching one of Tim and my favorite shows. Thank you Tim for the perfect day. I feel loved. I am blessed.

a few more pics here.

05
May
2013

Sunday in the Park with my Canon

By: Megan

See what I did there? I titled the post after the Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park with George which is based on the artist George Seurat who pioneered the pointillism technique of painting. Tim and I were lucky enough to see some of his work in a London art gallery in 2005. The paintings are breath-taking in person. I am no artist but I was shooting in Manual mode for the first time on my new(ish) camera and it is Sunday and we were in the park so yeah…. See Dad, I told you I would put that BA in Theatre to use someday. Don’t you all feel smarter and more cultured? You are welcome.

Here is what I got.

The first dozen or so photos were completely white washed out because I had the White Balance set to a “cloudy day” setting and I guess the camera thought it was sunnier out than I thought.

I love that Tim plays just as much as the kids do when we go to the park. He really is an amazing Dad. I hope that the kids will remember climbing, sliding and jumping at the park with their Daddy. Here is photo proof even if you can’t see any blue in the sky.

This would have been one of my favorites if I would have had the white balance on a better setting. The kids just loves to hang upside down.

The wrong white balance didn’t ruin this photo. I don’t think anything could ruin a photo of a Daddy and Daughter swinging. I remember doing this in Oak Park with my Dad.

It was when Patrick joined the party on the swings that I realized that I needed to do some major camera setting overhaul. I love this photo. I think it captured Patrick is his truest form. He is pretending to be the bullets on Super Mario (Patrick has always favored the villains over the heroes) and he has this look of mischief that makes you think twice before turning your back on him.  But he looks so sweet in his villain-ness that you don’t care if he is good or bad, you just love him. THAT is Patrick.

Here my white balance was good but my focus was a bit off. Playground we are at is the playground at Michael’s school. He knows this playground well and he was excited to show his Dad what a good climber he is on the “spider web.” Tim, being the awesome Dad he is, climbed the web with Michael and I am glad he did because when Michael got to the top he lost his footing. Michael didn’t fall, he caught himself but he slipped enough to scare him. He was shook up pretty bad. He is sensitive in as many ways as he is insensitive.  He was scared and feeling really nervous. I wish I was able to capture the moment better as Tim was talking to him and reassuring him. At least the sky was blue in the photo and not whited out.

I didn’t get Tim calming him down but I did get Michael taking a brave step back down.  What I am proud of most was seeing Michael make the choice to be brave and overcome a swell of fear that just a year ago would have controlled him.

Again. Not the most flattering photo of Michael but here he is looking fear in the eye. A year ago he wouldn’t look into the camera lens. Plus look at the bokeh (the blurry background) while Michael is still in focus. Win!

I will post a few more of my favorites tomorrow. For now you can find many more photos from today’s learning my camera trip to the park here. Some are better than others but before you go look at the 40+ more photos, I will leave you with this one and a shout out to Tim for playing with the kids while I played with my camera.

16
Apr
2013

Charmers

By: Megan

The last night of the AGM the kids charmed a few of our good friends into loving them even more without even knowing it. We live far from family but we have grown to be really good friends with some of Tim’s colleagues and their spouses and families. The last night of AGM is always “family night.” It is a night filled with fun activities for the whole family.

This is how they won over our dear friends.

Patrick was so intense and so eager to make a dream catcher. He later told our friends that he was so excited to hang it over his bed to catch all his bad dreams but that sometimes he likes bad dreams because the villains like Bowser are fun.

 

 

I helped Elise make hers and she picked the pinkest beads out of the basket. Thank you Beth for snapping this photo. I love being behind the camera but it makes me happy to think that the kids will have a few photos a me to look back at too.

Michael is a rule follower. True he spends a great amount of his time trying to find a loop-hole in the rules but when you ask him to do something he almost always does it. He is especially sweet, protective and super responsible whenever we ask him to keep an eye on his sister. It isn’t like we go out for happy hour drinks and leave him in charge, but he is old enough now that  if when I have to reprimand Patrick for not listening to his swim teacher at lessons, I can tell Michael to make sure that Elise stays sitting on the bench and does not leave her spot, and I know that Elise will not end up in the pool. He takes this job very seriously and will literally stand guard in front of her shuffling a basketball-like shuffle in front of her so she can not move off the bench. I knew that when I asked him to keep and eye on Elise when she and a few other kids took over an empty stage for an impromptu dance performance, he would do just that. Michael was right up there dancing away but also making sure that Elise wasn’t too close to the edge of the stage. Patrick was up there too but he was so focused on his freestyle dancing that I don’t think an elephant walking across the stage would have broken him from his concentration on his dance moves.

Look at those watchful eyes of big brother. He is so good with her.

Elise is two years old, beautiful and can give you the snarkiest looks or the sweetest smile.  She charms everyone all the time, but on Family Night she was on her A game. Maybe it was the beaded hippy shirt and sparkly pink shoes or maybe it was because it was 2 hours past bed time and she was delirious… I don’t know but I think even Tim fell in love with her again that night.

(photo credits to Nanny of the year)

I love my babies.

15
Apr
2013

Caption This.

By: Megan

Beth went with on our trip as our “nanny” but really she is my sister and the kids Aunt…. We don’t pay her, we just feed her and give her a place to sleep. She is far great than any nanny. The kids love and respect her. It is fun to have her around and she is a huge help. Plus she didn’t judge me when I was hung over like a college kid on spring break the night after the annual formal dinner. Well that is not completely true. She found it quite funny that I was sick. I don’t think she pointed and laughed but I know she laughed. It doesn’t matter though because she took the boys to the pool and played with them while Elise and I rested (Elise overheats really quickly).

To thank Beth for taking time off of work and giving up her weekend to travel with us, I wanted to share a nice photo of her and the kids as a token of thanks.

That was my intention when I went looking for a photo but I just kept coming back to this one. I don’t know what was going on besides that PJ was tired and snuggling in her lap, Michael was playing Mario Brothers and we were waiting to board our plane to fly home.

Please. Please. Caption this photo.