Columbus Day at the Pumpkin Patch

I had the day off on Columbus Day and the kids' school was closed for the day, so we headed over to Maryland to meet up with some friends at a pumpkin patch.  It was a small farm, but it was perfect for the kids. 

Calder found this sunflower and ran across the field to deliver it to me!  Such a gentleman! 

This is probably my new favorite picture of the two of them.  I love the way they are running together, just having fun.  Even though you can't see Tessa's face, I think it is so sweet how Calder is looking at her, and I have to imagine she was smiling right back at him! 

Tessa was intrigued by all of the dirt on this pumpkin!

Another sweet sibling photo. :)

Getting a little grumpy before lunch!  

 Calder and Tessa check out the sunflower field.  I was so excited about all of the beautiful sunflowers! 

 Carly and Tessa:  Best Buds!

More sunflowers! 

Tessa and Carly visit the adorable pumpkin house before we head home.

Math Whizzes in the Making

Math Whizzes from courtney on Vimeo.

Body Building

Chicken

I took this video tonight with one purpose.  To show it to Calder next week, when he insists that he HATES chicken. 


The Chicken Song from courtney on Vimeo.


He's really into making up songs about anything and everything...so I'm sure there's more of this to come!

I'm getting there...

So, I splurged and bought Photoshop Elements several months ago...and I just haven't made the time to really learn how to do it.  This week, my friend Carrie inspired me to get back into it...so tonight, I broke out my handy dandy instruction book and went to work. 

Occasionally I take my camera settings off 'Auto' and try to get a little fancy with the settings.  I usually like to play around with the different lighting settings...but the only problem is that I frequently forget to reset them...and then I end up with a picture like this:

This is my cousin's adorable son, Blake, and I totally ruined the picture by having my camera on the wrong settings.  Actually, half of my 4th of July pictures came out with this horrible blue cast over them, and I was SO mad at myself when I uploaded them to my computer...I guess I wasn't paying attention as I was snapping away.  I tried quickly color-correcting them with my standard photo editor, but they were all still completely washed out. 

Enter Photoshop...  After a few simple steps, the image improved drastically!  However, the green grass still seems really washed out and his skin tone doesn't look quite right. 

A few more steps...and voila!  Total, undeniable, 1-year old cuteness!!!

I still wouldn't say it's perfect...but it's SO much better than what I had before.  Now, off I go to fix the rest of my July 4th pics...maybe then I'll actually get around to posting them on the blog!

Two Little Helpers

Daddy had two awesome little helpers while doing some yardwork recently.  Calder truly loves to help!

And Tessa likes to do whatever Calder is doing...

They really worked well together.  Calder enjoyed teaching Tessa everything he knew about how to clean up the dead grass. 

The little one takes a break to pose for Mommy...

Trio

Trio building blocks by Fisher Price are totally awesome!  They are sort of like Legos, but much bigger and Calder can easily manipulate them by himself.  He actually got these for his 3rd birthday.  He played with them a lot at first, making all of the different creations shown on the box, and then he went through a period of not playing with them much.  Recently, he has taken a renewed interest in them...but this time he likes to make up his own creations.  They really inspire his imagination and Dave and I are continuously impressed with what he comes up with!  Here he is posing with the giraffe that he created.  :)