Maddie in the grass

Ok, so really I was just testing out my lens on these, but why not try to get some good photos out of it?

I have been having some weird inconsistant lines show up on some of my images the last two times I have had a shoot. Its not on every image ( thank goodness) I usually use my 50mm lens so I wondered if it was the lens or if it was the camera ( the lines are straight and do not show up on every photo) Anyway...no lines on these that I can see, so the verdict is still out....I used the 135 for these. I might test out the 24-70 tomorrow...then try the 50 again.

Today Maddie took a cooking class at Central Market called Cookiepalooza! They made orange peanut butter cookies ( eh), Chocolate oatmeal cookies ( yum), spiced pretzels ( nothing like a pretzel if you ask me, but not nasty in any case) and Snickerdoodles ( good, but not as good as moms).

I was looking at the ingredient list and its all natural stuff, but maybe, just maybe, these things really do taste better made with margerine and crisco....the ones she made had real butter, but they just were not as good as I remember from making them when I was a kid....or maybe my taste buds are dead. Or maybe mom's recipes were just better... Who knows?

Crafty day in Houston

Mads and I started the day not by going to an early morning swim practice, no, but going over to Sew Crafty on White Oak and being part of a News feature by Patricia Lopez which will air on Channel 13 tomorrow at 4pm and 6:30. Anyways, I then took Sadie over the Edwards to see " Up" which was sad and sweet and funny all at the same time :) Then went to the park and snapped this one. Just when her hands were healing all up we go back to the monkey bars....Ah well...

Gotta dance!- Childrens's lifestyle portrait sessions

These were taken at my daughters dance class. They were rehearsing for their recital which was held at the Wortham (!) about a week and a half ago. She takes classes at the Houston Metroplitan Dance company's school in Midtown.  They are currently seeking funding to build a new school, but the old one is delapidated in an artful way :) I am currently playing this little mind game of how awesome it would be as my house LOL. Usually I play this when I am trying to sleep ( granted I just woke up) but  I usually play this game when I see an old building that I like a lot. I like to think "hmmmmm, this room would be an AWESOME living area, and that one would be perfect for my bedroom, the girls could go here...." Then I generally run into problems when it comes to things like it does not have a kitchen....I once lived in a place in Galveston that did not have a working kitchen ( well the stove was from something like 1910 and did not work- never occured to me to just buy a new one) and that was OK, I had a hotplate, a toaster oven, an electric wok and a microwave....somehow though cooking for 4 might require a little better set up :)

Anyways, back to dance school.... or at least photos :)

Loved these kiddos and her teacher too. I need to sign her back up for classes soon, I think we are taking June pretty easy, but by July  {b.o.r.e.d.o.m.e.}  will have set in for sure...

So cute! I love her little grin and that they are all about the exact same height.

She and Sadie were in kinder together, they both LOVE monkey bars and both have blistered "man hands" because of it LOL. Actually I need to get my girl back to the monkey bars, in the week since school got out, her hands have almost healed all up.

Walking on sunshine!

concentration is key- you can see this important because she has her tongue out :)

Teacher tweaking their technique :)

Isn't she a doll?? Look at that missing front tooth! SO cute!

This little girl is SO beautiful, she has these gorgeous clear blue eyes that are amazing. Think baby Vanessa Williams. Seriously!

And last but not least, my own little dancing queen :)

I absolutely LOVE to do sessions like this, sort of a fly on the wall, day-in-the-life kind of thing, if anyone wants to hire me as a group to take photos of one of your kiddos events, let me know :) I do birthday parties too!

Schools out for summer!

I sit here this morning, writing up this post because it is the last morning I will have "alone time" for about 3 months. Sadie will now be a first grader and Maddie is now entering middle school!  I can't believe how fast they have grown, it's just crazy. So now we have to figure out things to do this summer ( while I am in the midst of a another crazy chocked-full wedding season with D. Jones)

Some of the things we have planned are:

Going back out to Dripping Springs to visit Seasha and her family again for the 4th O July.

Heading out to New Orleans, where I will meet up with some wonderful folks fron the flickr "starting a wedding photography business" group. That is going to be wicked fun!

From New Orleans, heading over to Disney World for a taste of summer magic. It's gonna be some kind of awesome :)

Other things we have coming up are a visit from the English grandparents ( kids are uber excited), classes at Central Market's cooking school and swim meets, lots and lots of swim meets. And swimming of course ( just for fun), a girl has to keep cool, cuz it's hawt out there!!! The girls might also take a dance class or two.

I think all and all it's going to be a fun one. So in the spirit of summer I present to you another watermelon photo. This one looks like the watermelon is eating my child, not the other way around!