Monday, April 13, 2009

Hoppy Easter!

I love traditions, and Easter is one of those holidays where we have a few fun traditions. I always buy the kids matching Sunday outfits. I'm sure they will hate this tradition in a few years, but for now they think it's fun. They loved that they matched the baby. Another traditon is Easter baskets with lots of candy, and a stuffed animal instead of a chocolate bunny. This year they got Webkins for thier stuffed animal. Corynn got a skunk, because she is a little "stinker." Dallin got a lion because I thought it was cute, just like him. Masen got a bunny rattle in his basket.Another fun tradition we have is an Easter egg hunt. Usually we ask the Easter bunny to come on Friday night so we can do the egg hunt and baskets on Saturday morning. I like to keep the commercial side and the spiritual side of Easter seperate. This year though, it was raining on Saturday morning, so instead the Easter bunny came while we were at church on Sunday. It was such a sunny beautiful Hawaiian day, we did the egg hunt in the back yard. We have a tradition of having each child find one special Golden Egg that has money in it. In the beginning the Golden Egg had a quarter in, and over the years it has increased to $5. The kids know that the Golden Egg is usually hard to find, and sometimes they need clues. The only clue I would give them this year is that they needed to be VERY careful when they found the Golden Egg. Dallin wasn't being so careful when he found it and nearly got tangled in this huge spider's web.Thankfuly, I was watching him, and yelled from across the yard that he needed to watch out. Once he saw the spider he wasn't so sure the Golden Egg was worth the risk :) After some deliberation he walked around to the other side of the bush (even though it was in our neighbors yard), and was able to snag the egg from behind. He was one determined kid.
Here is Corynn and Dallin proudly showing off their Golden Eggs. Here is me and Masen watching all the fun.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Easter Portraits

OK, so I'm really late on getting Masen's pictures taken for his announcements. I decided to get all the kids' pictures taken together in their Easter outfits, along with Masen's one month old pictures. I haven't found a good photographer here in Hawaii, so I just went to Sears (there's my first mistake). I was so disappointed with how they turned out. I guess I'm just used to the mainland kids studios; I LOVE Kiddie Kandids, and The Picture People. At least I got the disc so I can TRY to Photoshop the images. I am new at Photoshop, so we'll see how far I get. This picture was cropped (totally off center). Couldn't she get the baby even looking in the right direction? And she would only take one picture of each pose, so if it didn't turn out...too bad.This picture I Photoshopped. It was totally off center, and the light was so bright. If anyone knows how to make a picture look "foggy" in Photoshop CS3, PLEASE let me know how!Cropped again. SOOOO off center.I had to zoom in a little on this one. I guess I should have specified I wanted a close up.Notice the foot hanging out of the basket? It's little things like these, that drive me NUTS!This one was probably the worst of the bunch. It would have turned out cute, but Masen is crying. How do you Photoshop this? I think I'll just have to chuck it.Corynn's and Dallin's individual pictures turned out good. Maybe the photographer just didn't work well with babies? Next time, I'm hiring a REAL professional. Anyone have any recommendations?

Monday, April 6, 2009

Grandma Turns ??? Years Old

For any of you that know my mother-in-law, you know she is young at heart. She has the energy of an 18 year old, and loves life! These past 2 weeks with her visiting us have been great. We have taken drives, gone to the beach, gone shopping, and our favorite activity; going out to lunch! Every place we go, she winks at me and tells me that we are celebrating her birthday today :) With all the "birthday" celebrations this week I think she has turned about 100. After many of these lunches, I started taking a picture of her with her "birthday" dessert.The Cheesecake Factory, Chris' Outrageous Chocolate CakeChili's, Paradise Pie

Red Lobster, Ice Cream

Keep in mind, this list doesn't include:

  • California Pizza Kitchen, Hot Fudge Sundae
  • Rosita's, Fried Ice Cream
  • Macaroni Grill, Chocolate Cake
  • Mexican in Kailua, Fried Ice Cream
  • P.F. Chang's, Tiramisu

Her REAL birthday is coming up next week on the 16th. Happy REAL birthday, Mom!