A rainy/lazy Sunday

The girls rolled out of bed shortly after eight this morning, and we had them all pancaked-up and ready to head home by ten. This party gets an A+. Clara has such lovely friends. Lovely girl, lovely friends, I guess.
Chad went off to do some football watching today, so the kids and I finally wrote our thank-you notes for Christmas gifts, and then we puttered around the house in various ways.

Trev and I disassembled about twelve Lego space vehicles in order to stockpile gray bricks for castle building, and Trev began construction of the portcullis that will restrict entry to said castle. Full disclosure here- I had never heard of a "portcullis" before this little castle project began. Now, I'm a full-fledged portcullist.
And then I decided that it was about time I learned to use the photo stitch program with my camera, so that I can take panoramic shots. I'll need to venture into the great out of doors to actually experiment with this cool feature, but for now here's the kitchen, as panorama'd as I could make it:

Tomorrow's the start of the Chinese New Year, so I'm thinking it might be a good day to squeeze in a long workout, instead of sitting around eating leftover cake.

Slumber Party!

Today was the big day. Clara's buddies came for pizza, makeup, dress-up, dancing, fits of giggling, and (ostensibly) slumber. They were flat out adorable with their giddiness and independence. I just sat back, took pictures, and occasionally offered food. Easy peasy.(Yes, there really is that big of a height difference among these girls.)

The cake was pretty easy to manage this year, as well.(Good heavens, do I really look this haggard all the time?)


Dare I say that the girls practically polished off the cake? *snicker*

The Guys

A sweet little moment...and, as luck would have it, I was holding my camera... :)

Um, still playing with the camera

It just happened that both kids were wearing their second pair of (previously unphotographed) Christmas jammies today, so I figured I should snap a few pics. Oh darn, oh rats.

Here's sweet Clara and her beloved (albeit fat, stinky, and weird) cat, Flora.Still lots of color experimentation going on. Lucky for me, I have some very willing subjects.Apparently the camera does not think Trevi's hair is at all blue.Trevor, by the way, is gearing up for his big "Famous American" project, and has opted to learn about Thomas Edison. In homage to Edison's interest in all things telegraphic, Trev built a telegraph machine out of (what else?) Lego.

The reason my neck and eyes hurt right now

Trev and I built a medieval village today. A fair accomplishment for a Sunday afternoon. We make a darn good construction team, actually. And we've got the lingo. "Trevi, can you please hand me four flat brown twos and four light gray threes?" "Sure, Mummy, and can you please hand me six black grids and a black lance?" Experts, I tell you.

Playing with my camera

I just discovered today that I can do that thing with my camera where you make the whole photo black and white, except for one color. So of course I had to walk around the house taking a million ridiculous pictures of everything. I noticed that black and white makes your house look way cleaner.
And Trevor's hair, according to my camera, is at least partially green.
And, oh! The wide angles on this puppy! It makes me want to photograph kids slurping soup out of a ladle.I wonder what earth-shattering moments will beg to be photographed tomorrow.....

Call the Patent Office

After school today, Trevor was humming while holding a book (well, a Lego catalog, actually) open in front of him. All of a sudden, he shouted, "Mummy! The book is catching the sound waves from my humming, and my hands can feel the vibrations! I think I just invented something!"
I love this boy's mind.

Eleven!

Clara, you are so independent these days, so wise, so confident, so responsible, so capable. You amaze us every day with the things you can do, and with all of that growing up you've been doing. Rest assured, though, you will always, ALWAYS be our baby girl. We're so proud of you, and we love you to distant galaxies and back. :)

January 11, 2001
January 11, 2002January 11, 2003A couple of weeks before January 11, 2004 January 11, 2005January 11, 2006January 11, 2007January 11, 2008January 11, 2009January 11, 2010January 11, 2011January 11, 2012
And, before the celebration among the streamers (above), some other moments of today:Happy eleventh birthday, Honeybun!

A footnote: It's harder than you'd think to come up with eleven years' worth of birthday portraits, when your child's first eleven years span three cameras (one film and two digital), four computers, two Shutterfly accounts, one defunct zip drive, one malfunctioning external hard drive, a couple of misplaced thumb drives, and a few half-completed scrapbooks. Argh!

Happy almost birthday

Since Chad's heading out of town early in the morning, we did the birthday-dinner-at-a-restaurant thing a day early. Clara must really be looking grown up, because instead of bringing us a kiddie sundae for the birthday dessert, the Chili's crew brought some sort of chocolate lava cake. As tasty as it was sophisticated....

Another one biteth the dutht

Okay, how cute does this boy look with a giant gap in the front of his mouth? Trev apparently wiggled the tooth free during class today (good way to avoid doing your math work?), and came running to tell me at recess. And then I ran to tell Clara at her recess. Luckiest mother in the world to work where my kids spend their days....

Should I admit that I took FIFTY pictures of this smile tonight?

Of course, Trevor only stood still for about half of those.
Good thing it's not corn-on-the-cob season.

Snappy!

This is turning out to be a banner week for documenting memories in our family. My new Canon G12 arrived today!!! Zippity doo dah!

Okay, I just have to gush about this camera for a minute, because I've figured out a few things just from playing around (and taking about 200 pictures tonight). Crisp, clear, beautiful colors, amazing zoom, great pics in low light, quick reaction time, and on and on.....It even knows what you want to focus on! It's a mind-reading camera. Awesomeness and then some.

The camera's image stabilizer is so good that it doesn't even blur shots you take while doing the dance of joy in celebration of its awesomeness.

And the coolest feature (that I've discovered so far)? You can set it to snap up to ten self-timers in a row! Watch out, folks! I'm going to be a self-timing machine...
Within minutes of turning the camera on for the very first time, and indoors, I managed to capture the kids' exact eye color. No red-eye. No giant pupils. Just take a gander at these gorgeous peepers.Oh, this camera and I are going to have some good times together....