New SLR Camera

Allie's birthday party

Mama taking the boys down the slide
A future gamer perhaps? Dada is so proud!
Trying some macro shots of fire ants and bottle brush pods
Johnny was thrilled to help mow
Sporting his new safety goggles for his toy weed whipper
Happily playing with the hose
Sammy loves to kiss

Soft Sammy
Angelic Sams
Chatty Johnny
Serious Johnny

I'll keep the text short this time and just say that we upgraded to a digital SLR camera and discovered a big learning curve trying to use it. In the end, it will take photos vastly superior to our old point and shoot digital, but for now, we are still taking a lot of photos with poor exposure, wrong depth of field, off color balance etc. It has been a lot of fun so far and has opened a new and exciting common interest for me and Keith. Keith is great at researching equipment and photo editing software tips and has been a great help in getting us on our way to being better photographers. The photos in this post are certainly not all included because of their quality. We're still very much in the learning stage and some of the poses were cute even though the photo quality was substandard. I'm really excited about our new camera and having some fun family time together with Keith's newfound interest in photography. Stay tuned!

Johnny's Fabulous Pool Party

Going down the water slide with Juliana and Little Guy

Splash!

Johnny taking the slow approach

Maia looking devious

Julian playing in one of the sprinklers

Sammy loving his mobility in the 8 - 12" water

Little motorboat

Johnny giving Sammy a cruise of the entire pool

Thumbing a ride

Mama and her boys

Mmmm ... pizza!

Ella and Maia enjoying lunch

Opening lots of great gifts

Home made race car cake

Johnny celebrated his fourth birthday with a pool party at the Magnolia Plantation kids pool. The party was a wonderful success with bright sunny weather after more than a week of storms. We enjoyed the company of 15 of our friends (including moms and siblings) and everyone seemed to be having loads of fun. I believe it is the best kids pool anywhere around here. I wish we had pool tags ... sigh. I had thought summer birthdays in Texas would be miserable to have outside, but after this pool party I now think summer birthdays can be pretty terrific! Just add water.

The slides were everyone's favorite activity, save Sammy. The shallow end of the pool which goes from 8 - 12" was perfect for Sammy in his floatie. He wasn't used to walking in water and kept falling face first, not having much fun until I put him in the little boat. Then he could stand up and walk around but he couldn't fall into the water. Sammy thought that was just too fun and cackled with laughter and walked all around and through the various sprinklers and misters.

The one drawback to the hot summer sun was that my homemade cake that I slaved over for hours (seriously) was melting and leaking by the time we cut it. It looked good, but perhaps the fresh strawberries and cool whip inside was a mistake for a hot day. Oh well. Next time I'm ordering a cake, unless I happen to have oodles of free time on my hands.

Johnny received just perfect gifts from all of his friends ... they must know him well! I'm glad the stress of planning and preparation are over now, but I'm completely happy with the success of Johnny's party. Yay! Thank you everyone who came to the party! A special super-duper thanks to Jessica's sister-in-law Wendy who made it possible for us to book a party at this fabulous pool ... three cheers for Wendy!!! :D:D:D