A couple of weeks ago, Kayla had her “field day” at school. She had a lot of fun and did really well although unlike field days when I was a kid, there were no first, second, and third place ribbons. Just the same ribbon for everyone no matter how they did. Seems ridiculous to me. I happen to think competition is a good thing and gives kids something to strive for rather than just being in one big homogeneous...

Kayla has been saying for some time now she wanted to play soccer. After she convinced us she wouldn’t want to quit after her first practice, we went ahead and signed her up. The team voted to name themselves the Tigers (probably along with half the other...

One of the kiddos favorite things to do is go outside and play in the puddles after a rain storm. Even if you tell them 100 times “OK, but no getting soaked!”, they will invariably end up...

Let’s see… in the last 2 weeks we’ve had FIVE Birthday parties!! Family only parties (just the four of us) for Nathan, Amy and Kayla. A bigger family party for all three of them with Amy’s parents, my parents and my brother and his girlfriend. And finally today was a party at Kids in Action for both Kayla and Nathan and some of their friends. Here are a few from Nathan’s party. Be sure to click on them for a...

Like the “5 minute family photo shoot” post earlier, these were taken in front of the back sliding glass door. This time, I had a chance to be a little more precise and I added a reflector to the left of the camera so the shadow side of the kiddos faces isn’t so dark. I should clarify from an earlier post about Nathan. When we are trying to do a family shoot with more than just him, he’s a stinker and...

Well, we were all dressed nice for Church so I decided 5 minutes before we left to take advantage of it. It sorta worked out. Rather than taking the time and trouble to set up lights, a big north facing window will do the trick. In our house, that’s the back sliding glass door. Nathan just does not like to participate in “formal” photo sessions – even the 5 minute rushed variety. We couldn’t even get him...