365 Days of Photos - Day 16

Insects.................well what can I say, they aren't my favorite thing to photograph. I am not a big fan of insects of any kind. While we were at the beach on Monday my husband had a "friend" land on his shoulder. Now normally I wouldn't get close enough to take a picture like this, but lucky for me, I had my big lens on the camera. So this was the bee that joined us during our picnic lunch!

365 Days of Photos - Day 15

So how do you keep an 8 month old girl occupied? Give her something she can see her reflection in. This is my cousin's daughter Hallow. We were trying to get some family pictures before they headed back home to Calgary.  Of course, trying to keep Hallow interested was a challenge. She is just as busy as her Dad was when he was that age! My father and I, whom are both huge M&M's fans, got these dishes at Christmas with M&M's in them. My Dad keeps his dish in his office with M&M's always in it. It's rather shiny, so I decided to dump what candies were in it and give it to Hallow to play with while we took some photos in the studio. She was so enamoured with the dish and the fact that she could see herself in it was a bonus. This is the product of Hallow and the candy dish!

365 Days of Photos - Day 14

My oh my what a week thus far. I am so behind! Looking forward to getting my posts caught up!  Have kind of a neat picture for "Plastic". Friends of ours had their sons first birthday on the weekend, and they purchased a ball pit for the kids to play in, the little kids of course. All the "big" kids were just throwing the balls around! The kids had a fantastic time in this thing. I can remember when my kids were little, we had taken the kids to McDonald's one night the twins were only about a year and a half old then. My girl friend Dayna and I had been out for our nightly walk, and we decided to take the kids for an ice cream. McDonald's was unusually empty for a Thursday evening. We figured we would stay in and eat our ice cream and then finish our walk home. We took the kids into play land. It was deserted.  So Dayna and I thought it would be fun to take the kids through the tunnels and down the slide. They loved it. Then they discovered the "ball pit". The ball pit at our McDonald's was pretty big and deep, so Dayna and I got in there with them. We had the most unbelievable time in there! They were trying to walk around in there but sank every step they took. Dayna and I laughed, like I have never laughed before. I'm not sure who had more fun, them or us.
Now I also know that a lot of the McDonald's have taken their play places out all together, in order to establish a more "mature" restaurant atmosphere. Some have removed the ball pits due to cleanliness. I know our McDonald's used to remove the balls once a week and vacuum out the area to keep it clean. It's a shame really that the play places have been removed as I'm sure there are many of us who have great memories of a McDonald's birthday party, or just simply a play date with friends, while your parents had a coffee and some catch up time!

365 Days of Photos - Day 13

I found this poem, and my oh my how it made me think. We as parents do this all too often. So if you're reading this, and have wee little ones or haven't had children yet but are planning to, this is most definitely something for you to keep in the back of your mind. I can honestly remember saying at times, I wish they could walk, or talk, can't wait until their first day of school. Oh what I wouldn't give to have my babies, be just that, babies again. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love who and what my children are becoming. They are 3 of the most wonderful, beautiful, thoughtful, helpful, empathetic children I know. But just to hold those sweet little babes again..............

Perspective.........

As the years go by, you forget the bad parts. Or at least you put them in perspective as unimportant.

Before you know it, you're wishing you had a baby around again. But be careful not to wish you life away.

First you wish you were pregnant. And then you wish you had a big belly to show off. But when the belly gets to be a burden, you wish for labor to come. And as soon as it comes, you wish it were over. You wish for the baby, and then you wish he was older. You wish your children toilet trained and off to school. You wish them grown up. And then you get what you wish, and your children are gone, and you've wished motherhood away.

The time it takes to have a baby is so fleeting and so full of everything, that maybe there isn't opportunity to savor it until it's over. And when it's over, you're left with you photographs and your memories and your regrets that you didn't appreciate it all the more at the time. You forget how busy you were and how tired. You remember only how wonderful it was to be a mother, and is.

So savor every morsel of motherhood as it comes along. Especially if, like most women today you're only having one, or two, or even three children. In the course of a lifetime, that not so many times to do something as precious as making a baby. It's important to make it count.  ~~ Alexandra McCall ~~

365 Days of Photos - Day 12

My husband and I love going to the movies together! It's a nice night out for us, and relatively inexpensive.  We most often will head to the old movie theatre in down town Barrie. The old Imperial building. Yes it's old, but the inside has a comfortable feel to it. Now of course our newer Cinema in town has the big comfy chairs and what not, but you also pay the price for that. We love the downtown theatre for it's price, not to mention the staff there are fantastic!!!

365 Days of Photos - Day 11

Shoes..............what girl doesn't love shoes? I think almost every woman has a shoe fetish! It is just something we women do! I know I'm guilty.  I can't pass a shoe store or a hand bag store with out making a purchase. My youngest daughter is her mother's daughter. She has more pairs of shoes than I care to think about. But she comes by it honestly! She will save her allowances, birthday money, Christmas money, pretty much anytime she gets money, it's spent on a pair of shoes! These are her latest find!

365 Days of Photos - Day 10

There is just something about water. Good old H20. Even mucky rain puddles have their way of calling out for a photo opportunity. I love photographing water, whether it be the spray off the back of the boat, or the still calmness of the early morning lake, it's all gorgeous.  Let's face it water = beauty. We use water to wash our beautiful faces, we put water into our bodies to flush away the toxins, impurities and of course unwanted fat. Water is a natural resource that we could NEVER live without!  I most definitely love the water!