updates

you need updates....

1. I didn't say anything about the sweatshirt/coat. Damn non-confrontational personality. Honestly, I figured after a whole weekend, anyone who didn't check the backpack for a coat wasn't going to remember it happening.

2. Orange Baseball Cap's girlfriend's dachshund, Blaze did not win his race. However, he took 1st prize in the costume contest! Unfortunately, we didn't stay that late... and no one else took his picture in his banana costume! Can I just say, I really want to go over to his house and do a session with him in it?

3. my mother found the General Mills International coffee mix in Pumpkin Spice.... my sis in law told her they had it at the dollar store. Well, turns out, since the product expired at the end of Sept 2009, it was on sale... 2 for $1!!! Now, c'mon, I do not want to hear a single one of you saying that date makes it bad only 3 weeks later. Go check your cupboards. You'll find something worse, I'm sure. Heck, I have boxes of blue diet gelatin from Shaw's. Shaw's is a grocery store chain in MA. We lived in MA from 1996-1998.

4. Gretchen & I did Pumpkin Pounding again at the children's museum... again, camera-less. Maybe, just maybe I'll bring it next week. She was all business today doing it. The museum girl helping was a different one and so she didn't realize Gretchen did this already. She was pretty impressed with G's ability to get that golf tee to stick right in so she could grab her mallet.

5. not an update, but you just need to know that Frick & Frack slept in until 8:10 this morning! Lately, they have been waking before 7:00! And, they just got up from a nice close to 2 hour nap!

today is my camera's birthday

On October 19th, 2006 my Nikon D50 arrived in the mail! It was already one model retired, and was a demo camera I bought from a camera store on Long Island, NY, but it really has shaped me ever since. She is still going strong - and you know I work her out a lot! Only 6 megapixels, but I can print some pretty big photos with high quality. before that, I was using a small point and shoot HP camera. The lag time on the shutter (you know, you click the shutter and it takes a second to snap the picture) had gotten to be too much for 10 month old babies. I would snap a shot and they literally had time to crawl out of the frame before the picture took! That is what prompted me to buy a DSLR. Plus, I had owned a film SLR before going digital. the twins' birth and first couple months are in film and negatives.

This post times perfectly with a question Carrie asked me about an hour ago in her comments on my last post. I owe a lot of my camera knowledge to a message board I read online and the advice I have soaked in from those ladies, many of whom are professional photographers now. I also belong to my local camera club and take advantage of field trips and outings to shoot with my peers and get feedback from them. Once a month we have a competition with an outside judge and it always helps to hear what someone in the business thinks of your work. Tomorrow night we are holding a review session within the club. There will be about 10 of us who signed up to bring a couple photos to discuss amongst the small group.

So, here is a visual representation of the difference in equipment. I took both of these pictures on 10/19 right in a row with each digital camera. Amazing, huh?

Angus:

This was the very first picture I took with the camera.

Molly:

And two shots of those babies, too..... They were 11 months old... look at Gretchen's gummy grin! She didn't get teeth until about a month later!

I look at these shots and see so many technical issues I would do differently now, but that is all part of the learning curve. I have come a long way and I have a very, very long way to go still.

So, some is equipment, some is my vision and some (OK, lots) is PhotoShop Elements and editting skills.

Happy 3rd Birthday, D50!!! Oh no... I should have made a cake!!

I have become...

... my grandmother. At least in one little aspect today. Aside from the fact that if my nails get long, several of them curl under just like hers did, I don't resemble my mother's mother anywhere near as much as I do my father's mother. At least physically.

So today, I stopped to look for something my mother mentioned she was looking for. Instead of finding the flavor she told me about, I ended up buying a can of International Coffee mix in French Vanilla... in decaf and sugar free. (Why bother, right? ha ha) It was Nanny's favorite. She used to go on and on about how much she liked having one cup of it every day. I'll admit, the Pumpkin Spice my mother is seeking is much more up my alley, but that didn't stop me from picking up the French Vanilla anyway. And, you know what? During naptime, I mixed up some. Sure enough. It was pretty good.

I probably won't grow my nails that long anytime soon, but I might start a habit of having a hot cup of fake coffee during naptime.

wiener dog races

(Let me start out saying... the brochure spelled it "weiner", but my spell check wanted I before E... an online check seems to reveal it spelled both ways fairly equally. So, I don't know how to spell "weiner/wiener")

OK, if you haven't gotten the opportunity to see these in person... seek them out! Bring your kids and a camera! Yesterday, we went to Oktoberfest here because we learned weeks ago about the Wiener Dog Races. It was one of those times when I really thought I was setting myself up for a big disappointment, but luckily - I was wrong!

I think every other person at Oktoberfest had at least one wiener dog along with them. I have never seen so many dachshunds in one place. And it was crowded there. Everywhere you turned someone had a leash or a purse with one peeking out. You had to watch where you were walking because they were underfoot. It was a riot! Honestly, the name Oktoberfest wasn't as appropriate as Wiener Dog Fest would have been. And yet, only a few were barking. None seemed to be fighting or upset to see other dogs. I did not see one piece of dog poop all afternoon.

OK, the races.... they had 100 dogs entered, but we talked to at least one guy who didn't get there in time to register... I'm telling you there were more than 100 dachshunds there. They races 4 dogs per heat. One owner at the starting line and another at the finish line calling the dog. People were all over cheering like crazy. The dogs were a riot!!!! Sometimes, all 4 would take off running. Most of the time, one ran fast and the others kind of wandered. One heat, all 4 dogs stayed put! They had to cross the finish line to be the official winner, so in some races, one raced down close to the finish line only to get sidetracked while another doggy sauntered over the line and won.

kids waiting for the races to start
I took a ton of photos, but this one happens to be someone Lew works with. Orange Baseball Cap is racing his girlfriend's dog. (I guess only 3 dogs were racing here) She must have been at the finish line. At the time, we didn't realize it, but once we figured it out after, I was glad I got 4 cool shots of his race. His dog didn't win, the dog on the right as you are looking at the picture won. After this, I got a chance to move down and sit right at the edge of the finish line, so I got more head on shots. But, here's just a couple of this hilarious event. I tried to leave the crowd in this one just to show you how into this people were!

Carl is standing right at the fence of the finish line... cheering!! He was woofing a bit, too!

Gretchen asked this lady if she could pet her dog. She kind of chickened out before he gave her a real kiss, though. The dog's tail was wagging like crazy!

Lew even took a picture of me with the kids! After the races, there was going to be a costume contest for the dogs, too. We didn't stay through all the races - so we missed the contest. The kids had been so good waiting and just standing around, but we were pushing our limit on 'positive public behavior', so we ended up leaving and taking them to a playground so they could run as a reward!

But, I caught this group before leaving. Doesn't that ladybug up front look just like Benny? And if you can't see... he is joined by a bumblebee, a devil, a karate dog and a striped witch! Did I mention how cute this whole event was? If the German music hadn't been unnecessarily loud - and if my kids would eat German food (we didn't see any edible hot dogs) we would have stayed longer. Lew did have a beer during the races with another friend from work and we got pretzels after. Get this, our foolish kids both turned down hot Bavarian pretzels. Fools, I say.

This wasn't even our only event of the day yesterday! We started out our morning at the play place for their Fall Festival. We arrived to find a small crowd and not much going on. Turns out, the event was Friday, not Saturday! Now - before you go thinking I am not organized - the October issue of our city's parent magazine had it as Saturday 10/17. I use that calendar to plan most of our events, so... it is their fault! It's OK, they had more fun with less kids. I thought they would have a bouncy house, but they didn't even yesterday, so Carl didn't miss anything. They did still have the Happy Fall, Y'All board out.

reward...in pictures

Since you read my earlier rant... I thought I'd better reward you with photos from yesterday. Two in Halloween clothes and three from bedtime. You earned it!

I'm going to stew all weekend over this one

This is pissing me off. At pick up today, I got scolded by Gretchen's teacher and the assistant director, "When it is this cold out, you need to send her with a coat."

1. it's 58* out
2. she was wearing a long-sleeved dress with long pants underneath
3. it's raining
4. there is a sweatshirt in her back pack

#4 is what I forgot to throw in their faces. I am pissed at myself for not coming right back with, "Did you get her sweatshirt out of her backpack?"

All I said was, "It's raining. I didn't think you'd take them out in the rain." and I got a "Oh, you never know what the weather will be, we go a lot." Then I heard, "I have to mention this to a lot of parents." I don't know if you know this... but I don't care about the other kids in their class. I hate it when they compare my kids or myself to other families there. I want to know how my children react in certain situations, not how they stack up to their peers. What I see happening is they tell me how the class reacts to things (ie fire drills) but can't tell me how my one child fits into that puzzle. To me, that says they aren't paying individualized attention to the kids. And I hear, "There are 18 kids..." yeah, well, if 18 is too many for the teachers to care for, maybe 18 is too many in there.

Why didn't I think of the sweatshirt? Especially since they recently sent home a note telling us that we needed clothes for all weather in their bags.

I can't wait for Monday at pick-up (not going to do it at drop-off because the assistant director won't be there. Oh, she isn'tin the room, just outside at pick-up and always there to add her two cents when she hasn't been in the room with my kids at all. Did I rant about the fire drill comments on here??? Don't get me going....) so I can tell them to be certain to check her back pack before scolding me again for not having appropriate clothing.

I should feel better after writing that down, but I don't. Can you just imagine how I'll react when something really big happens?

woo hoo, whine, wish Wednesday

1. woo hoo... Carl picked his own outfit out today. The pants have candy corn and stars on them prompting him to say, "I want stars" and he asked for the shirt, too, "I want bones." I love Halloween clothes. We've been wearing them since September. But, once Halloween, is over, we'll jump right into our cool Christmas clothes. 2 months for each season... and still not enough time to fully enjoy the clothes!

2. whine... I really don't have to explain this Girl Moment, do I? (oh, I do have to draw attention to her shorts... Uncle Kenny's... so close to 35 year old shorts!)

3. wish... this was the cause of the Girl Moment. She wishes (really, really, really, really, really badly) that she could have a princess bedroom. Of course, Carl said "no". She has actually stopped asking already, but I think I might get her a Disney poster to hang in there. It's all my fault - I casually asked Lew in Home Depot the other day, if we could paint the bedrooms now that we know we're going to be here a few more years. He said "sure" and we stopped to pick up swatches and start brainstorming. I saw no harm in picking up this flyer for her to play with. We always grab a swatch from the Disney wall of them because they like the Mickey Mouse shaped colored swatches.

Of course, she was hungry at the time of the fit. She may not look like Grampie, but let me tell you... when it comes to being grumpy when she is hungry, she is him through and through. Even as a baby, we called her Blood Sugar Betty because fruits would affect her mood and get her hopping. Something to keep an eye on, I suppose.