Monthly Archives: June 2012

Lakeside Sunsets

by Adel Posted on June 29, 2012
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There are not enough words to describe the beautiful sunsets we got each evening we were there.

Of all the 5 kids that were there I could only trick, um I mean CONVINCE, one to come with me down to the water for some of the golden hour. My sweet little baby Jack-Jack. I’m really happy she’s still up for hanging out with her mama wherever that may be.

I will say this though, she doesn’t care to look at the camera too much so I get a lot of these type of shots!

Oh well, at least I had a cute subject :)

*sigh* What I wouldn’t give to have sunsets like these every day.

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Lake Lopez Camping – Part 2

by Adel Posted on June 28, 2012
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As promised, here is the 2nd batch of pictures from our camping trip. Our friends arrived on the 2nd day.

It is always fun to camp with another family. Especially when all the kids are so close in age.

There’s so much to do for the short amount a time we were there it felt like we had to cram everything in.

I always wish we could stay for at least 5 nights every time we do this. It takes a night or two just to unwind from the city pace.

And the sunsets, well they’re just unreal. Nothing like our foggy SF sunsets. Our site was right by the lake so we had these breathtaking views the entire weekend while we played, ate and woke up.

My city kids. Even they forgot their iPhones and iPads after the first day or so.

Well Lopez, even though I always feel our visits are way too short, this time we’ll be back sooner than later. Yes for our annual trip in September!

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Click It Up A Notch – June Favorite

by Adel Posted on June 27, 2012
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Here we go again. I can honestly say, this time the end of the month caught me by surprise. I really wasn’t thinking we were at the end of June. Surely not yet.

But we are.

So here is my favorite.

My baby girl playing at our lakeside campground a few days ago.

As usual, check out all the great submissions over at Click It Up A Notch!

Click It Up A Notch

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Lake Lopez Camping – Part 1

by Adel Posted on June 27, 2012
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I’m still here :) It’s been a few days since I’ve popped my head in over here. We took a much needed break from city life and headed to one of our favorite spots to camp over the weekend – Lake Lopez. I took over 800 shots! So yeah, going through them and selecting the ones I want to keep and edit has been a huge task.

And I’m still not done.

But I figured I’d share some of what I have finished working on here first.

These shots are from our first day there. We camped with another family that didn’t arrive until a day later.

I love how Rex loves helping in the setting up of all our tents and equipment. And for the first time, he is actually helpful. Before he’d always been too young to really be able to manage all the little tasks his dad gave him. I love watching him grow and do more each year we camp. We’ve been taking him with us camping since he was 6 months!

This is Jack-Jack’s 2nd year camping. Last year she was a new walker and was constantly tripping and falling over the uneven ground. This time, she’s quite the pro-camper. Hat, fanny-pack and all.

It was nice to get some quality time in with just our family. I’ll share more of when our friends arrived tomorrow.

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Full Sun Style

by Adel Posted on June 21, 2012
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I’m taking my 2nd workshop with The Clickin Moms! Yay! It started this week. It’s called Natural Light With Atmosphere by Megan Squires. And right off the bat it addresses my least favorite time of day and type of light to shoot in. Full OVERHEAD sun! Yuck.

However, the materials and samples I received this week were incredibly eye-opening. I learned quite a few tips and tricks in both positioning my subjects and myself as well as in post-processing. Awesome.

Here’s one with my boy taking the sun on.

Here’s another from my full-sun experiments :)

Taking a little break from the blog for the next few days. Have a great weekend. Blogging will resume next week! :)

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Project 52 – Laundry

by Adel Posted on June 19, 2012
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Laundry. Hmmm… I was just as enthusiastic about this theme as I was about Office Supplies. And just like office supplies, I did a complete 180 after I decided to do a “location shoot” instead of photographing our boring old freshly laundered t-shirts and jeans at home.

Here’s my favorite for the theme.

And this one is just my favorite shot I took there. I just didn’t think it said “laundry” as much as the one above.

I did get a few odd looks when I put my baby in the basket and instructed her brother to push her around. Ha! Good times :)

I thoroughly enjoyed our little shoot at the neighborhood laundromat. The basket/cart with the rows of giant washers and dryers were pretty cool props and backdrops. I may try and hit a different laundromat if I have time! ;)

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100 Degree Swim

by Adel Posted on June 18, 2012
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Nope we were not in SF for this fun little activity. And yes we had a ton of fun frolicking in the cool pool waters under the super hot marin sun that day. But man, we were slowly wilting in the 100 degree afternoon.

My city kids who are used to layers and layers of clothing at all times didn’t fare too well. Even with all the fun we had with our friends swimming in the JCC’s awesome pool, we were ready to leave after a mere 3 hours!

These SF kids couldn’t wait to get back to our windy city! Frankly I was ready too. It was way hot for what we’re used to!

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Makeup Art

by Adel Posted on June 17, 2012
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Summers around here have become more challenging now that I have two. My oldest is getting increasingly harder to please when it comes to craft projects and activities.

Yesterday’s GAK was a success but it isn’t always that way. These days just pulling out plain old paint is “too boring” for my picky 6 year old.

Jack-Jack though is still easily entertained with almost everything I throw out there. Including some old makeup that I almost threw away when cleaning out my closet. Instead I had decided to save it for her to “play” with.

I should have led with the old makeup. Maybe then Rex would have stuck around. Instead since he had gotten tired of paints, he had moved on to his Legos and would not be enticed to return to play with makeup. Oh well. Jack-Jack of course LOVED it.

I’m still a little worried about the message I’m sending with all this makeup play. But she’s so happy messing around in it all I’ll take my chances.
By the way, I just love how she holds the lipstick like a crayon!

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GAK Fun!

by Adel Posted on June 16, 2012
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So we made some GAK the other day.

What is it? It’s like a less slimier version of slime. It’s homemade and is made up of water, Elmer’s glue and Borax powder. And a little food coloring for fun! I found the idea on a blog I follow here. I pinned it on my Pinterest board and tried it a few days later with the kids.

This is one craft project that was a total win! Hours of entertainment to be had!

We did the first batch while the babe slept. Rex just loved it. He is not one for getting his hands dirty or sticky so he was hesitant at first. But he quickly warmed up to the gooey stuff and started all kinds of imaginative play with it. Yeah there were more than a few Lego minifigure casualties!

When Jack-Jack woke she decided she wanted in on the action too. So I let them mix up a 2nd batch. I love that she is old enough to participate now. Under close supervision mind you. But at least she can take simple instructions.

But that whole icky gooey consistency though? She would have none of it. So Rex had at it again. The child was having a blast!

I have to say, when I first saw the post about GAK I thought it would be a fun little craft the kids would enjoy for an hour, tops. 3 days later I’m still cleaning out little Lego clone troopers!

If you have not tried this with your kids, I highly recommend this simple craft!

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