Happy Birthday to me!

While my parents were visiting, I celebrated my birthday. Although it didn't quite feel like a birthday, just another day, that only lasted until dinner time. The guys were still working on the deck, finishing up the railing, and Mom and I were still painting the kitchen cabinets.

After dinner, we came home and apparently some fairy prince/princess left presents on the table for me. Inside, was something I was not expecting to see:


A Sony A330 digital SLR camera with tilting viewfinder and so many cool characteristics, I wouldn't even know where to start.

I was excited when I opened the present, but apparently not as excited as hubby would have liked. Little Man had been acting up for the past couple days. My mom and I seem to think it was because of all the changes going on in the house. I also had been extra tired and still needed to prep for a yard sale for the coming weekend.

It wasn't until I actually had time to sit down and play with the camera that I completely fell in love. Not only do I get pictures like this where you can see every speck of pollen and dew on the flower petals:


But I can turn them into this:


Just by using the creative functions built right into the camera. Granted to biggest difference between these two pictures was the time of day that they were taken (morning in the first, and evening just before sunset in the second), but the contract and vivid coloration were convincing enough for me.

My next goal: To go revisit my aunt Wenderina and Uncle Carl to take pictures with him at places like Indian Brook.

A birthday to remember

We had a really good day for Little Man's 2nd Birthday.

First, we headed out at 7:15am toward Baltimore to visit Santa at B&O Railroad. Although the breakfast was a little lackluster, all that mattered was Little Man A was so excited about seeing all the trains again. We even got a really good picture of us with Santa.


After hanging out with Santa, we were able to venture around the museum. Local model train clubs were displaying amazingly detailed layouts of construction sites, zoos, ice skating by city hall, and an amusement park. Little Man was in heaven when he spotted the firetruck at the back of a train car.


Then we boarded a train for a short mile long ride out from the museum. Another quick visit by Santa on board and we were back to touring the museum. A volunteer who knew an astounding amount of information about trains was nice enough to catch this photo.


Unfortunately for Little Man A, we couldn't stay all day as we needed to return Gramma and Pop-pop's rental car to the airport and get ready for a train birthday party. I thought Little Man could stay awake until we got home in time for lunch, but he fell fast asleep about 5 minutes out. Fortunately, he was able to sleep for an hour and a half because he was wide awake and ready for the second half of the day as soon as we stopped in the driveway.

While Pop-pop worked on making homemade pizzas, Daddy was busy hanging decorations, Mommy was putting goodie bags together with fun magnet frame kits (that I wasn't brave enough to have the kids put together with glue at my house), Gramma was busy designing this masterpiece.


Yes, that is cupcake train cake. With twizzlers, tootsie rolls, m&m's, and sprinkles. All a parents' worse nightmare at 6:30pm.

Little Man was right at home with all the train decorations. I tried to put out a few small trains on the table for decoration, but Little Man didn't recognize them so they needed to be played with.


When we started to open gifts, I was about to grab his Tigger chair, but Gramma had a different idea.


The bottom cushion folds up and it's equipped with a throttle to make "chugga-chugga" sounds and make the wheels on the bottom go round and round, a train whistle, and Thomas' theme song. As Little Man opened each present, he was less and less interested in opening more presents. Especially when he received a bulldozer, a loader, and a tractor book with wheels. It's a good thing because the other kids were more interested in opening the gifts for themselves.

After everyone cleared out, Gramma brought out her gifts and we were able to have some quiet time with Little Man.


All in all it was a good day. I hope Little Man had a good day too.

Happy Birthday, baby!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday dear Little Man,
Happy Birthday to You!


Happy 2nd Birthday Little Man!



P.S. Thanks to Uncle Carl for some great portraits! (psst - TRUCKS!)

Happy Birthday to me!

In case any of you read Wenderina's comment from yesterday's post, today is my birthday. Yup, I'm getting old. Although the funny thing is... I really don't feel like it. Nor do I really even think that I look like it either. But that's just my point of view. I'm sure if there was an 15-year old walking past me on the street while I was pushing my 18 month old son in the stroller they may think otherwise.

Anyway, although it didn't turn out exactly like hubby had planned (he didn't even tell me he was able to get the day off until this morning), I think it turned out to be a very nice day.

We started our day at Gymboree art class making a "ring of posies". Too bad Little Man is not entirely sure of what posies look like or even what they are for that matter. Alas, he did a great job painting inside the ring ... and all over the table.... and adding a little to his tongue for good measure. Unfortunately, hubby who was doing more observing than picture taking didn't get a shot of Little Man putting his masterpiece together. No worries. This time in art class play-doh was a hit! However, I think I'm going to leave play-doh and it's mess to Gymboree.


Since my camera decided to die halfway through Gymboree and I wasn't too sure what was in store for the day, we decided to run back home and get the reserve camera battery. Before we got home though I noticed that Little Man was really rubbing his eyes and they appeared red. So instead of hitting the road right away, we stayed home until after his nap. Once he woke up and had his snack we hit the road. Destination: Unknown.

I kind of had a feeling of where we were headed. I had only been hinting around about wanting Sonic for my birthday since I found out the closest one was just south of us in Fredericksberg, VA (about a 45 minute drive - if we're lucky). Well apparently we weren't lucky, because traffic - rather should I say, people of Virginia love to look at other people's mishaps therefore causing the road to back up about five miles or so. Although I'm sure that's the same anywhere else in the continental U.S.

Hubby had originally wanted to take us to a local winery for a tour and tasting session. Not only did they have a good record, although I had never heard of them, they have a child's play area where you can "drop them off" while you drink up. Unfortunately they close at 5pm and by the time we would have arrived, we would have been rushed through the tour. So we are going this weekend instead.

Instead, we found a local Petco and let Little Man run crazy stretch his legs and look at the animals. He loved to run up to the children in the store and point to whatever animal they were peering in at, like he was telling them all about that particular animal. The birds and the turtles were a favorite.


But we did make it to Sonic!!

We had our favorite: chicken finger dinner with a Route 44 Cherry Limeade. Little Man had the corn dog, although he wasn't too sure about the coating at first.

On top of that, hubby was super husband and ordered me flowers. And, a good friend of mine made me this :


Is that not a great birthday present?! Because of this, I am inspired to scrap more little moments of Little Man rather than trying to capture ALL of the moments and leave me feeling like I am so far behind in scrapping. So I am going to put together a small 8x8 album of "Little Special Moments". Also, instead of doing double page layouts, I've decided to try my hand at one page layouts highlighting only one or two photos. Now I just need to finish his first year album and Wenderina's wedding album.

All in all, it was a good birthday.