Veteran's Day..

Today Daxon participated in a program at his school to honor our Veterans. It was a wonderful celebration. The children did a great job singing, decorating and even presented gifts to the Veteran father and Grandfathers in attendance.

There was a wonderful slide show put together of photo's sent in of our Veterans. It included this photo of Daxon and Britt.

And the last slide on the video said...

I loved the decorations! The must have taken a long time to put together. There was a wall of stars constructed out of words.

I had the opportunity of thanking this man personally for his service to our country. He even let me take his photo. I'm not sure what all these awards mean, but I'm certain he did some important things for our country.

There was a "white table" set up in the corner. A white table is a small table covered by a white tablecloth with just a few items which hold specific meanings.
The table had an empty chair, as well as an overturned wine glass, a black napkin, a lemon wedge and a red rose. They symbolized peace, sorrow, absence, love and bitterness -- all in tribute to soldiers missing in action or prisoners of war.

"mon amie"

"Mon amie" is french meaning "my friend or my loved one". Therefore my sister Amy is "mon amie". It was fun to see her this weekend and I couldn't help but laugh at her sneaking into the kids candy bowl. Amy is very much a kid at heart! She enjoys playing with the children and fits right in at the kid table. I wonder if I will always think of her this way being that she is the baby of the family? She is so much fun to be around.

Princess Avriel's 6th birthday party!

My niece Avriel is going to be six years old on November 12th. We all celebrated her birthday on Saturday. Avriel is darling and very unique. Her presents were a great representation of her personality. She received everything from baby dolls to tool sets. Happy Birthday sweetie! We love you very much!

My "Children of the corn"...

I've been very busy with work and have not posted in a few days. I'm trying to get myself back in the habit by posting these today. These were taken when I took Ryker and Z to Black Farm Islands a few weeks ago. We are headed out to Avriel's 6th birthday party today and I am taking the camera :)..

Pumpkin Seeds..

So these were taken about a week ago. I've been a bit behind with my postings. We carved our pumpkins, and the kids started talking about eating the seeds. I thought it would be fun to give it a try. I found the recipe below online. It was very easy and the kids really liked them. I wanted to make sure and post a bloggy with the recipe for those who need it and for myself next year. We will definitely make them again!

My lil taste-testers

Pumpkin Seed Recipe:
Ingredients

* One medium sized pumpkin
* Salt
* Olive oil

Method

1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut open the pumpkin and use a strong metal spoon to scoop out the insides. Separate the seeds from the stringy core. Rinse the seeds.

2 In a small saucepan, add the seeds to water, about 2 cups of water to every half cup of seeds. Add a half tablespoon of salt for every cup of water (more if you like your seeds saltier). Bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.

3 Spread about a tablespoon of olive oil over the bottom of a roasting pan. Spread the seeds out over the roasting pan, all in one layer. Bake on the top rack until the seeds begin to brown, 10-20 minutes. When browned to your satisfaction, remove from the oven and let the pan cool on a rack. Let the seeds cool all the way down before eating. Either crack to remove the inner seed (a lot of work and in my opinion, unnecessary) or eat whole.

Halloween "09" line up!

This year I had a Cat, Vader, and Tinker! I took a few photo's before we went off on our Halloween Adventures. We started out visiting the neighbors by our old house, and then to Papa and Grammie's for some dinner and fun. The kids had a blast and I think we have way to much candy around here.

And now a line-up with their favorite cousins! Kelvin was a Star wars trooper and Avriel was a witch complete with Toto! And check this out = FIVE kids and every single one of them is SMILING! (And no I didn't even have to swap heads in photoshop.. This was the real thing)!

Dang, I have cute kids!

I took Ryker and Z to the pumpkin patch yesterday, and we had soo much fun! It was more of a "Pumpkin Farm". It's called Black Island Farms. Click Here to visit their website. We went on Hay rides, through corn mazes, played in a corn box (instead of sand box), raced down slides and jumped in a big pumpkin bouncer! I felt like a kid again playing along with the children. I took a bunch of photo's to share in the days to come. But this one made me look twice and think to myself "Dang, I have cute kids!" If I do say so myself :)!

Flores Family {Sneak Peak #2}

I realize I missed yesterday's POTD. I have been very busy editing away and have not had time to take anything new. However, as I edit I've found more and more favorites of my recent sessions. Check out this cutie! She's cute as can be even when she's not smiling. I just had to post a few more here :). I'm off to volunteer at Ryker's pre-school today. We are taking the kids to the Pumpkin Patch. I will do my best to take a few photo's and share tomorrow. My parents have been in Boston visiting my little brother Mike. I know Mike reads my blog every day,, so tell Mom and Pops I miss and love them!

I have done a few different versions of this pose.

Flores Family {Sneak Peak}

I know the Flores family has been waiting to see a photo or two. Thanks for being patient guys! I had so much fun meeting and "shooting" your sweet little family.

Bystanders be gone!

Sometimes it's fun to show what all this "editing" consists of. I know I enjoy seeing before and after's of other photographer's work. Today I have been removing bystanders from the background of about 50+ photographs! Perhaps I picked the wrong path to shoot on (ya think?). But it was gorgeous and I couldn't resist! Little did I know, that a bazillion people would be walking down consistently. I thought we stopped and waited for most of them, but somehow there are still tiny little people in the majority of my photos. Thanks to some work in photoshop, I can say "poof - bystanders be gone!"
Before

After