I'm back

Well, I've been gone for what seems like ages. I took gads and gads of pictures. So many in fact that I don't even know where to start. Our family travelled by car to Connecticut for an overnight stay then on the road at 4am to Washington DC. We spent a few hours there - so much fun. My first post of pictures is from there actually. We stayed overnight in Virginia then headed to the Outerbanks NC the following day. It was so beautiful and low key there. The beaches were gorgeous as was the weather. I will be posting some of my favorite pics from my trip in the next few days as soon as I get them all sorted out. Here are a couple from Washington DC, although they could be from anywhere. I love flowers (who doesn't?) and since none had really appeared in Vermont before we left, I just couldn't take enough pictures of these tulips. Here is Griffin checking out flowers for the first time in his life.

Starry night

Tonight I say farewell for the next 10 days. We are going on a journey to the beach - yay! All of us are heading south for a little r&r...although I'm not sure how much rest we'll get with the kiddos running around. But, different spot different mind set. I'm really looking forward to getting some different shots of kids on the beach, cool sunsets - or I guess I would be sun rises since we're on the east coast. Hmmmm, not sure if I want to get up early, ha ha!
I also wanted to say thanks for everyone that looks at the blog and those who post comments. It means a lot to me when I see that someone has taken the time to write a word or two. Ellen, if you're reading this...I thought of you when I shot this. Even though my subject was a real light, I did like the differences of the two lights - stars vs. the light out the window.
This shot was taken right after I put the girls to bed. The stars hang in their room. Lately they have been afraid of the dark (even though you can tell it's still light outside!) so I have been leaving the stars on for them. When I peeked in tonight to make sure they were all sleeping soundly I saw the glow of the stars and the reflection of the light on the wall. Cool.

Water works and more

Tuesdays and Thursdays are pretty nice days but a little wierd too. My two daughters both go to pre-school, one for half a day and the other for a full day. Griffin being only 15 months just gets schlepped around dropping off and picking up...and doesn't really get a nap unless he cooperates (never). So, it's too late for him to nap because we have to pick up Madeleine in 45 mins. but he's fussing up a storm so I take him outside for a walk in the backpack. Since I didn't show any water shots yesterday on my post, here's one now. It's not as impressive as yesterday but hey, this is what I was taking pictures of today. This is our waterfall just next to our driveway. It was a little precarious since the ground is a boggy disaster, I'm carrying my precious little boy on my back and my new camera in my hand on a very steep embankment.

Across the creek I see these very cool mushrooms...they are everwhere but I'm always pleasantly surpised when I see them. They remind me of fairies and elves!

This next picture is really dorky, but those who are studying photography know...the art of getting a tack sharp image. So, I practised on this barb. (I just found out this was beside our property yesterday too, I wonder why?) Here is the full image...

And here is the cropped image of the barb I was working on! I know, I told you, I'm a nerd! But pretty good, eh? Ha ha!

Then of course here is my trusty side kick. She loves these jaunts!

That's it, or at least that's all that's worth showing. After the frog pond I grabbed the mail, headed back up the driveway, hopped into the car to get Madeleine. Griffin was asleep by the time I got to the road.

Tree Hugger

The north east had a crazy storm last night. Luckily we didn't get the brunt of it since we are not coastal but we still got about 4 inches of snow. The thing is, the snow was super heavy and wet. We were afraid we would lose power but it never happened. From our patio we could hear our creek roaring from all the snow melt off. So of course we had to all check it out. Here are the girls being silly by our creek. Sorry I'm not showing any pictures of the water because I thought the girls were cuter!

Just another Saturday

Today I finally got up the courage to send in my registration for my business. Ack! This means it's real. When I get accepted I will get a letter returned I can then file with the state for my tax ID number. I'm hoping that one day I will say..."remember when I put that letter in the mailbox? That was only the beginning."

Here's another pic for you. The snow is finally melting and leaving behind mostly brown drab grassy type stuff. But in the forest it's a different story. The ferns are starting to unfurl their fiddle heads and the moss is in full vibrant color. This tree is in the middle of our "fairy forest"...

The hand that feeds me

My hungry boy getting tidbits from his daddy at the breakfast counter.
I really only wanted to show the size difference of their hands during this waffel exchange, but was then pleasantly surprised when I saw how back lit it was.

Keeping in the lines

Madeleine is not yet 3 1/2 but she is always trying to keep up with her big sister Ella. She does a pretty good job with all of the physical things but one thing that she strives for is better coloring skills. She is still at the point where she scribbles over the whole page whether it's a blank piece of paper (which I prefer) or one with pre-drawn images. Today she was getting so frustrated as she saw Ella's nicely colored fairy while her own was under a layer of deep red crayon. She asked me to teach her how to color. So sweet. I'm not a believer of staying in the lines but since she asked me so sweetly how could I refuse? Here she is with a firm look of concentration as she tried to keep in the lines.

Easter pictures of my children

I have been wanting to take pictures of my children in their Easter gear for about a month now! It has never seemed to work out. Either one is sleeping, the other is sick or they are all not in the mood. Today the girls really wanted to wear their dresses so I said only if you let me take a couple of pictures. And there it is....no planning or anything. Sometimes it just happends that way. Luckily my studio was pretty set up. We had lots of fun, well, it only lasted about 15 minutes. But I got a few. Here is my favorite. But since there were so many that I love, here is a link to see the rest! http://www.louisalarson.com/easter/

Griffin in the zone

Here's Griffin watching his big sister jump on the trampoline. I wonder what he's thinking?

Look at my pretty smile!

Ella being smiley for the camera! She has gotten so good about the camera lately I only hope that Madeleine and Griffin will follow suit soon! We are just hanging out in the living room. I was practising with my open aperature.

Crayons - don't you love the way they smell?

OK. It's probably just me but don't you love the smell of crayons. Not when they are used and all raggedy but when they are fresh out of the box? Ha ha! I also love the smell of play doh but it's probably just a psychological thing that takes me back to my fun play-doh childhool.

This picture is going to to be for my contact page on my website. Now that I view it here it might be a bit too saturated....hmmmm. What do you think? I did kind of go crazy with it using a color pop and boosting my saturation a bunch.

Oh, by the way...if you read my last post about spring showing its face, well forget it! It's snowing today and looks like winter. We are told to expect between 4-8 inches of snow. I wonder what happened to the crocuses?

The signs are here!

We are finally coming out of the deep freeze! Ella spotted these crocus' growing in our future flower beds. You don't know how happy we were to see these little guys! I know that warm weather is still a long way off but at least there's hope now.

Spring is starting to show it's face

Again, I apologize to anyone who looks at this regularly. I have been very busy not posting on this blog. I have been working hard on my new web site which is now up and running. You can check it out if you would like to: http://www.louisalarson.com
My pictures for today were taken at the weekend. We all have spring fever very badly. The weather hardly warrented short sleeves, but at 50 degrees it feels like we are in the carribean (OK maybe not that drastic) but anyways. Here are some pics of Madeleine climbing a tree, Ella coloring all of our stepping stones and Griffin in the sand box for the first time.