Miscellany Monday

We had a big weekend this past weekend. Gavin had a baseball game and he got the game ball plus, we had his 8th birthday party with his friends at our house. Fun times!

1. Here are the photos from his gane:

{the first hit}

{off to 1st base}

{getting congratulated by one of his coaches on first}

{a second hit...I missed the third one with my camera}

{high-fiving his dad (a coach) at home plate}


Below, he got the game ball for catching the ball at second and throwing it to home plate to his buddy Luke, the catcher, to get the opponent out before they scored....it was awesome!




Gavin with his game ball is on the left, his buddy Luke that was the catcher is on the right, and my hubby is in the middle...he is assistant coach. :)


2. Then, his Lego-Ninjago-Skateboard Party!
{the boys}

{some decorations}

{the big girls}



{the birthday boy}

{getting a skate lesson from my husband...the builder of the half pipe skateramp in our backyard!}

{my husband who can still skate without getting hurt at 41...go Tim!}

{the facial expressions on the kids faces behind Tim in all these pictures crack me up ;)}



{Gavin with his lesson from Dad}



{a very happy birthday boy}

{my loves!}

{the girls}

{Chelsea much prefers to ride on her bottom down the "slide"}

{my loves...again...I never tire of their faces}

{the best dog in the world...loving all the activity}

{no party is complete without a pinata}

{the boys before going home..the photo is missing one that left, and then two of his best buds that couldn't make it but it's cute nonetheless}


3. My kids took STAR testing last week, and we got a break from homeschooling...but this week, it's back to work.  So I am out til next week...

Happy last week of April to you all! 

Friday Favorite Things

My sweet boy is celebrating his 8th birthday this weekend with his friends, Lego style of course!  We are excited and are acting like busy bees as we prepare for this awesome Lego Party.

Even though I have been contagious sick this past week with a sinus infection, I was able to get out and take my daughter to her piano lessons.  

It's like the end of the world to her when she has to miss, and I really relish over how much she adores playing the piano.  

I also love Mr. Huie's garden outside of the piano lesson room...it's so relaxing to lay on his lounge chair, surrounded by flowers, while I listen to relaxing piano and stare at the view of the ocean!

Gavin loves his garden too...it's fun to play in while he waits for his sister's lesson to finish.  :)

After her lessons, I took the kids to Velvet Yogurt to celebrate!  

Chelsea finished her first piano book today...18 songs with two hands...and she is graduating to the next level.  

We are SO proud of her!

Yum-O! Velvet Yogurt is the BEST. :)

And my kids...

my loves...

{both halves of my heart that walk around on the outside} 

are best buds 

and it makes my heart swell with joy.

The kids and I are doing Apologia's Flying Creatures of the 5th Day for Homeschooling Science {which we LOVE}, and we are making a field guide type of scrapbook of the birds that live in our neighborhood.

We learned about field markings, so we go on nature walks to look for birds, I photograph them, and then we come home and figure out which bird is which based on their markings.  

I have been slightly obsessed....you know, me, birds, outside, a camera...you get the picture :)

These are my favorite non-hummingbird photos of birds, so far.

Regular birds are SO hard to photograph...but not this Mourning Dove.
It looked like it posed for me.
It was very aware that I was there, and did not care at all! :)

I love where it was walking around too, as I couldn't have chosen a better background for a photo :)

I will post pictures of our Bird Notebook when we finish it...we are creating our own as the already made stuff isn't pretty and cute enough for us. :)

My last Friday Favorite Thing this week is my photography business...and this picture I took of my church's Worship Pastor with his wife and first child...a sweet handsome baby boy.

He is THE happiest baby I have ever met.
Seriously.  
He hammed it up infront of the camera and anything I said or did made him smile and laugh out loud.
When I finish editing their choices,
I will post more so you can see the joy that pours out of this sweet baby's face,
but for now I leave you with just this one above.

For more Friday Favorite Things, visit Rachel's blog...

and Happy Weekend!

Miscellany Monday

1. This past Friday, we had a 6 hour long beach day!  It was 82 degrees, clear, and perfectly beautiful.



 I relished every moment and couldn't possibly have been filled with more joy.

 And as all the pictures in this post reveal, my kids were filled to the rim with just as much joy just because they were at the beach.

2.  This past week has been so beautiful that we frequented the beach a lot even when we couldn't stay for hours on end...sometimes we drove down just to watch the sunset and I captured images on my cell phone



another time, I captured a sunset image from my phone during Chelsea's piano lessons; the more of the beach we see, the more joy we have!

3.  I love capturing waves on my camera

if you read my blog regularly, and look at my photographs, it's clearly one of my most favorite things.

 I love zooming in as close as I can so I can get a picture of the inside of a wave

catching it on film, right when it starts to spill over itself

almost being able to see through it, as if it's a glass figure.

seeing the color changes throughout the wave, like a painting; a masterpiece of art. 

Waves are amazing. They are sometimes used as a metaphor for the rough stormy trial-filled times of life, yet they also soothe the soul.  

Even while they crash into the shore, the rhythmic sound relaxes me into a trance-like state.

When our kids were babies, the waves always lulled them into a peaceful sleep.

There is something so surreal about being at the beach...the salt air, the crashing waves, 

the majestic sunsets....

It feels as if I am as physically as close to God as I can get on this earth, as this masterpiece, this work of art, is His creation.

I don't think there is much more on this earth that I love more!