Dogs will be dogs.....stupid that is

Is it time for another Lizzy story? I think it is.

So yesterday evening was a little busy. Andreas had a dinner date with a friend and it just happened to be on a "back to school" night or "meet the teachers" night or whatever they are calling it these days. And so I got the joy of attending on my own. It started at 5:30 with a volleyball meeting in the gym. Followed by a code of conduct meeting at 6:00 in the auditorium. Followed by time blocks up until 8:15 pm, meeting all the teachers. I was starting to wonder when these people expected us to feed our children and ourselves dinner.

Since it was just Hanna and I (Eden and Emma were at G-ma's) we snuck home after the mandatory meetings for a quick bite to eat before heading back to the school to meet her core teachers. Sorry gym and music teachers, dinner was more important than meeting you.

Anyway, I had just made myself a wonderfully tasty egg sandwich with the very last English muffin and the last 2 slices of turkey bacon. I was starving so sinking my teeth into one of my very favorite foods was heavenly. All of a sudden we heard this strange noise and Lizzy took off barking like the crazed maniac dog she is toward the front door. We heard the noise again and Hanna looked at me and said, "was that a cat?" I was just as puzzled and said, "It sounds like a hurt dog." It really was hard to decide what the noise was. It sounded like a child, then it sounded like a child in pain, then it sounded like an animal in pain. Curiosity got the best of us so we both went to the front door to look outside.

That's when we discovered that the noise was actually coming from upstairs. At that point, Hanna was freaking out BIG time. Because no one else was home. "WHAT was THAT?????!!!!!!" It took a second for me to realize what it was because the noises were intermittent. But I finally said, "It's gotta be that dancing dog thinger in Emma's room. Sometimes it does that" although to be honest, I wasn't sure what the heck it was.

And that's about when we realized that while we were standing at the bottom of the stairs trying to figure out what Lizzy was barking at, Lizzy was nowhere near us anymore. She had moved on to more exciting things.....my dinner. Hanna said, "Lizzy is in the kitchen....I think she has your food."

"the WHOLE thing???" I said

"yep"

And indeed she did. I sprinted into the kitchen to find Lizzy hungrily scarfing down my egg sandwich. I can't believe how fast she gobbled that thing down. I can't even describe how pissed I was. Number one, it's not like I could have made another one because I was out of half the ingredients to make it. Number two, I was in a bit of a hurry. And number three, the one bite I got was really really good and I really really wanted to eat the rest of it. I put Lizzy in her room and ate two pieces of bread with a thick layer of nutella on top, cursing Lizzy the whole time for forcing me to make such an unhealthy choice for dinner.

Andreas wants me to believe that she orchestrated the whole thing. That she waited for her chance to get me out of the kitchen quickly so she could go back in and steal my food. I will never believe that a dog who will bark nonstop for 20  minutes at a plastic bag blowing around the yard, would be smart enough to pull that off.

Never.

Incidentally, the next day it dawned on my what the noise was. Emma has a Littlest Pet Shop alarm clock. And this morning I wondered why the alarm didn't go off at 7am like it's supposed to. After fiddling with it I realized that it was because Andreas had accidentally set it for 7pm, and I put two and two together. That was around the same time as the dinner fiasco the night before. So I reset the alarm and listened to it to see if it was the sound we heard. Yep, it was cat's meowing, dogs barking and birds chirping. Emma has been waking up before her alarm so we'd never actually gotten to hear it yet. Which was why the sounds seemed so odd.

Tonight, I went to the store to pick up some more turkey bacon and English muffins (among other things) because I've been jonesing for another egg sandwich. Of course when I got back home and unloaded the groceries I discovered that I had forgotten the English muffins. What does the universe have against me eating delicious egg and turkey bacon muffins??!! On the plus side, I got all the ingredients to make cake pops for Eden to take to school on Friday.

Chocolate Eden

I'm having a hard time deciding which pictures to post. There are SO many cute ones from last weekend. A lot of the same poses, with slightly different looks, and to most people they would seem repetitive, but to a mom, each one, although only slightly different, is unique and wonderful. It's also hard to decide - do I go vintage, vivid, black and white, chocolate, hazy, bright.....so many fun and wonderful ways to bring out the best in a photograph. Almost too many.

I don't like to favor any one particular girl, but Eden is just SO easy to photograph. Unlike Hanna, who is more uncomfortable in front of the camera (like her mom), and it shows in a lot of her pictures. Strange facial expressions, one eye closed, awkward body language. Eden is more at ease. She is confident. Emma is ok. But she overdoes her poses (think extreme head tilts) and like Hanna, squints her eyes when she has to smile on queue. But she's 5. All three of them take beautiful pictures when they are willing to be photographed. And a good photographer should be able to capture great photos of anyone, by making them at ease and bringing out their personality.

This is totally Hanna's personality.

Yay...pictures!

Ok, so it took me ALL evening to get reacquainted with photoshop again. It had been so long since I've used it, I forgot my tricks! I'm always trying to improve my editing because it's SO EASY to go overboard and make your pictures look too edited. It's so much fun and the effects can be so cool. But sometimes, a photo can end up looking worse than SOOC. I am guilty of this at times. I am trying to let myself learn that sometimes less is more.

In the photos above, the first one is SOOC. And the second is with a little help. Just a little. It didn't need a whole lot. Basically, a lot of the time all a photo needs is a little color boost, maybe some sharpness or contrast and in this case, a little owie eraser too. The lighting and bokeh were already fabulous so I knew if I just did a few things, this could really be a great picture.

I know it's not professional grade photo editing here, but considering I have taught myself EVERYTHING from figuring out my camera's manual settings to editing techniques in Photoshop CS5, it's not too shabby.

Oh, and it helps to have one of the cutest 5 year old models on the planet to capture!

Lazy Sunday

I mean it. L-A-Z-Y. And it was perfect.

First of all, it was a rest day for me (which means I didn't have to workout). Second, I made a big breakfast and we all sat down together as a family and ate. I made a microwave berry coffee cake for my husband and he loved it. The fact that I just threw it together without a recipe and it turned out edible is still a mystery. Third, we went on a picnic.

I love picnics. I always want to do them when the weather is nice and today the weather was perfect. Beautiful, sunny, no wind.....just perfect. We went to our usual spot not far from home - convent park. There really isn't much there but a boat landing into the river and some frolfing baskets, but there is a nice grassy area with many big shade trees which make it a wonderful picnic setting. No playground equipment of any kind but the kids love going. They can let their creative imaginations run wild. I love that they can have fun with sticks and rocks and not much else.

From a photography standpoint this place is stunning. There are tiny beams of sunshine casting sporadic rays through the leaves- a photographer's delight. At least this photographer. But I'm just a hobbyist so don't listen to me. I mainly say that because I don't want to share my favorite spot on lazy Sunday afternoons ;) The bokeh from today was breathtaking. I can't wait to upload some photos.

Anyway, we brought our picnic basket, some blankets, the camera, the dog and had a wonderful relaxing couple of hours. I snapped many pictures of my beautiful girls using nature as my studio. We helped them build forts in the trees using big sticks and our picnic blankets. We sat in the shade and did nothing. Absolutely nothing - except enjoy the beauty of a quiet summer afternoon. It really was splendid.

We came home, built more forts in the yard, and ordered Chinese food. Now I'm on the couch blogging while my husband plays Civilization a few feet away. The dog is sleeping on the floor and the kids are at the neighbor's house playing. Still a perfect lazy Sunday.

Emma's trip to Sweden

Emma got to spend a lot of quality time with Farmor on her almost 2 week trip to Sweden this past month. My husband took all the pictures and I think he did a fabulous job capturing the sweet moments between grandmother and her grandchild.

Even though I have been to this area a few times, I am still in awe at the beauty of it. How can I not be? Living in a flat prehistoric lake bed isn't exactly scenic. But the island in which they live seems so quiet and majestic. The houses and countryside are very charming. Here is a small bit of information about the island of Orust.

One of the many wonderful things about Lisbeth is that she is a very "hands-on" grandma. She is either on the floor or on the run, playing with Emma. She gets down to her level and really interacts with her. Plays with her. Gets involved. That's the kind of grandma I hope to be someday.

So many wonderful memories Emma will have of her childhood trips to Sweden. What a special bond she has with her Farmor. She is one lucky girl.

First day of school success

First day of school yesterday was a breeze. The only "glitch", if you can even call it that, was that Emma was awake at 4am. Starving. My gracious husband got up with her so she could eat. Then they came back to bed and we attempted to sleep a little longer. It didn't really happen though.

I was a little concerned that her new earlier bedtime was to blame for the ridiculously early morning. But since we had to wake her up at 6:45 this morning, I think it's pretty safe to say she was still running on Sweden time.

My little darling was eating her bedtime snack when I went out for a jog last night and by the time I came back, she had already been asleep for a half an hour (according to Bigs). Wow! We are two for two on successful bedtime!

Wednesday night I tried to bribe the crew into taking a walk with me. It was such a beautiful evening and it seemed such a waste not to get out and enjoy it. So I said, if you take a walk with me, I'll go to the store and buy everyone a donut to celebrate back to school. (seriously, getting my family to take walks is like pulling teeth) Of course everyone thought that was a perfect deal. Andreas counter offered with a trip to the dog park instead but I insisted on a walk. I honestly don't understand why the man avoids any and all forms of exercise like the plague.

But, I got my wish and we all went for an evening stroll. It didn't end up to be the perfect walk though because Emma tripped on her flip flops (Emma and flip flops do NOT mesh well) and skinned her knee to match her already beat up face. While in Sweden she took a header off Farmor's retaining wall - another flip flop mishap. So I carried her on my back about half of the way.

She runs everywhere. Always running. I'm thinking of changing her name to Forrest.

And here she is in her kindergarten classroom on the first day of school. Sitting next to her new friend, Drew, whom she calls "Drool" and adamantly protests when you try to correct her. I figure one day Drew will get sick of getting called Drool and set her straight.

The Arffs....unplugged

Yesterday was the last day of summer vacation. Today, the children head back to school. My baby is a kindergartner and I will be lost at home without her.

Andreas took the day off yesterday so we could have one more last fun day together as a family. We took the kids to Thunder Road where we played games and won tickets, rode the bumper cars and go-karts. We would have played a round of mini golf but Hanna had to get back for volleyball practice. It was so much fun. That place can cure even the worst sour puss. *right, Andreas?? -- haha*

Then, on a whim, we decided to get Emma's hair cut. I was looking at her in the regular messy pony tail and thought, that's it. No matter what we do to her hair, it gets messy within 5 minutes. Now that she is in school, our morning routine would be so much easier if we didn't have to worry about her hair. I never thought Andreas would go for it but he said sure. We took her in and this is what walked out....

Really...could she BE any cuter??? I don't think so.

So, anyway, we spent the day "unplugged", which means no computer. Although Andreas still had his Windows phone at ALL times so I don't know that it really counted for him.