Sunday, April 26, 2009

Just a little change

I just wanted to let everyone know that you can now leave a comment on our blog without having to sign in. It will post as 'anonymous' so please leave your name in the body of the post so I know who you are.

Thanks for reading everybody!

Before & After

My wonderful husband gave me my birthday present a little early this year....

A Laptop Computer with Photoshop installed on it!

I was so excited when he gave it to me and I have been having so much fun playing with my pictures in Photoshop. I still have a lot to learn, but I already am loving the editing possibilities. So here are some before and after shots, let me know what you think.

Before:
From Photoshop before and after

After:
From Photoshop before and after

Not a huge difference, but added some color and light.

Before:
From Photoshop before and after

After:
From Photoshop before and after

Did you know not all Black and White edits are the same?

Before:
From Photoshop before and after

After:
From Photoshop before and after

Lots more color! Still needs work on the eyes though.

Before:
From Photoshop before and after

After:
From Photoshop before and after

How great is that picture! Like Father Like Son.

Before:
From Photoshop before and after

After:
From Photoshop before and after

Only small changes, but I think it makes it a little softer.

Before:
From Photoshop before and after

After:
From Photoshop before and after

Wow, genetics is a powerful thing!

Ok, so thanks for playing along! Can't wait to hear what you think. I promise I can take a little criticism ;)

Where Did My Baby Go?

From 2009-04-26

Look at that, there is almost no baby at all left in that face. It's like you wake up one day and your baby is gone and replaced with a little person with their very own personality.
From 2009-04-26

Independent and strong-willed.
From 2009-04-26

I love the person she is becoming.....tough as nails, but without losing all that girlyness. Never missing an opportunity to twirl.
From 2009-04-26

From 2009-04-26

(Notice how short that 4T dress is on her already. She has grown an inch since Christmas!)

Alayna is growing up so quickly, but she will always be my soft and sweet Baby Girl!
From 2009-04-26

Check Out The New Ride

These kids just get bigger every day and have totally outgrown their old modes of transportation. In the past 3 weeks we have acquired quite a few new 'rides' for the kids. First Calvin got a new Razor scooter.
From 2009-04-26

And you wouldn't believe how good he is on it already! He just flies around the house and can even make turns while balancing on it.
From 2009-04-26

Next Alayna got a new bike courtesy of my friend Caroline who is moving and unable to take her daughter's bike with her.
From 2009-04-26

Alayna loves her new Barbie bike; it is a great upgrade from the tricycle she was riding.

And the final addition is a new bike for Calvin. The chain kept falling off the old one and it was getting a little small so we decided to get a real big kids bike!
From 2009-04-26

It's a Tony Hawk BMX 16" bike. Calvin was sooooo excited to ride his new bike, but some assembly was required first. It took Ryan and I 3 hours and lots of 4-letter words to get the thing together. We have decided that from here on out we will pay extra to have these things assembled for us.

Finally it was time for the maiden voyage....
From 2009-04-26

From 2009-04-26

He was sooooo happy to be riding his new bike!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Little Ted

Calvin was the "Star of the Week" at school this past week! He was so proud. They get presented with a certificate in front of three year groups (3 classes each) so it is a pretty big deal. The best part though is the Star of the Week gets to take home Little Ted for the weekend. And since it was spring break Calvin got to keep Little Ted for the whole week. And when you have Little Ted you are suppose to bring him with you every where and take pictures so you can add it to his journal that travels with him.

He went to Happy Hour at the Embassy.
From Little Ted

He enjoyed Easter with us.
From Little Ted

He went on lots of play dates with us.
From Little Ted

Then we went to "the fun place" and Little Ted joined us there as well.
From Little Ted

From Little Ted

Overall, I think Little Ted had a good week with us. Calvin even took him to bed with him every night. Calvin is going to miss him when we have to take him back to school.

Happy Easter!

On Easter Sunday we had lots planned. The day started with finding the Easter baskets here at home.
From 04-18-09

From 04-18-09

Quickly followed by consuming large amounts of candy before 7am!

The kids and I needed to leave before 9am to go to our friends house for some egg dyeing and an egg hunt. Ryan was to stay home and cook the ham and meet up with us around 11:30. All of this meant we were a little more rushed than we were the morning before and weren't able to take the time to get great pictures. Fortunately we did get one good one.
From 04-18-09

It also meant that I didn't think to empty out their baskets and bring them with us. So when we did the egg hunt at our friends house,um....well you'll see.
From 04-18-09

Terrible isn't it! The kids didn't seem to care though. They had a great time.

We came home had a nap and then we went to my friend Nena's house for dinner. Calvin and her daughter Gwyneth are in the same class. They are from Nigeria so no Easter ham here! We had Chicken Stew with rice and fried plantains. It was fantastic! Here are the kiddos.
From 04-18-09

It really was a good day. To think how far away from home we are, and we had not one but 2 invitations for Easter day. We are truly blessed!

Easter at the Embassy

On Saturday the 11th the Embassy hosted an Easter party for all the families assigned there. We all got dressed up to go, but I think I made an error in judgement....I didn't put on their "Easter Clothes" I put on other cute things saving the actual Easter clothes for, well, Easter.
From 04-18-09

In retrospect this was the day filled with many more photo ops and I should have put their finest on for it. You will see THE Easter outfits in the next post.

The kids were cooperative(and Mommy wasn't running late), so we were able to take some good photos before we left home.
From 04-18-09

From 04-18-09

They really do love each other!

After the photo shoot it was off to the Embassy. This event was actually held in the Ambassador's residence garden area. Made for some more nice photos!
From 04-18-09

From 04-18-09

They had lots of fun activities for the kids and then the Easter Bunny made his appearance.
From 04-18-09

Calvin is getting entirely too smart. He immediately said "That's not the Easter Bunny! I can see skin!" Luckily we were able to convince him that this was one of the Easter Bunny's helpers since he was so busy getting ready for the big day.

The day ended with an Easter egg hunt. And they smartly had divided it by age group. Unfortunately for us our kids were in two different groups. That means no pictures of Calvin hunting eggs and no video of Alayna hunting eggs. We did the best we could. Here is Alayna on the hunt!
From 04-18-09

From 04-18-09

From 04-18-09

They both had a great time. We are so thankful for our connection to the Embassy here.
From 04-18-09

Pillow Pond

The kids were off of school all this week for their spring break. The new game that filled their week was "The Pillow Game". They basically would take all the pillows in the whole house and put them on the floor to make a kind of Pillow Pond.
From 04-18-09

Then they would run down the long hall way and jump into the pillows!
From 04-18-09

They had such a blast and I was so happy they were able to use their imaginations to come up with a game they could play together.
From 04-18-09

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Ryan's Trip to America

Dawn has allowed me to guest author this blog post, so here goes. I had to go back to the States to attend a one-week class at Fort Belvoir, VA (just south of DC). This is where we were stationed from 03 – 06, and where both of our kids were born, so I know the area well.

Since I was already back in the good old-USA, I intended to make the most of the 14 hour non-stop flight from Kuwait to DC. My parents were renting a condo in Ft. Myers, FL for a few weeks, so I flew down to visit them.

Florida in March is beautiful. My folks got to escape the seemingly never ending WI winter. We tried to not over schedule our days and relax as much as possible. Everyday we took a morning walk around the man made lake, went to the pool, and did a lot of relaxing.
From Ft Meyers 2009

I got to enjoy a nice glass of wine (and more than a few beers).
From Ft Meyers 2009

Mom and Dad also planned some fun outings. Dad booked us on a day-cruise that left from Sanibel Island and went to Cabbage Key (a small almost deserted island 10 miles off of Sanibel into the Gulf). The boat we were on is pictured in the background in the above picture.
From Ft Meyers 2009

On Cabbage Key we ate lunch at the island’s one restaurant – other than it being the only place to eat, the restaurant is famous for their hamburgers. In fact they claim Jimmy Buffet authored the song “Cheese Burger in Paradise” after visiting Cabbage Key.
From Ft Meyers 2009

After lunch we climbed to the top of an old water tower which afforded an awesome view of the Gulf.
From Ft Meyers 2009

Mom and Dad had a beer at the top of the water tower.
From Ft Meyers 2009

Here is a shot of some of the mansions on one of the exclusive islands we cruised past. It was a fun half day. We even saw dolphins and a manatee.
From Ft Meyers 2009

The condo had an awesome view. This is what we looked out at every morning while having coffee out on the screen porch. The condo has a great view of a small lake and the 13th hole of the country club’s golf course is on the far side of the water.

Dad and I even got in an afternoon of golf. We did see an 8 foot Florida gator sunning himself on the banks of a water hazard, but of course I did not have my camera.

It was awesome to spend some quality time with my parents. Big thanks to them for hosting me for the four days. We had an unforgettable time. Maybe we can do it again with the kids.