Baby Katie!

...as Natalie likes to call her! Kathy and Eric couldn't make it to Henry's birthday party, so they came over the next day to hang out for a little while with us. Of course I used this as an opportunity to take some adorable baby photos!

Baby feet!

 Little Katie smiles!

Katie in the air! 

 Proud Eric with Katie...complete with spit bubbles!

 It wouldn't be a visit with Kathy and Eric without Natalie doing this!

Natalie the Photographer!

So, this is my 600th blog post! I feel like I should do something to honor that...or at least have there be some sort of "extra special" post in honor of hitting what I consider to be a pretty big number! I'm on track to do the highest number of posts in one year yet - I'm beating my previous highest (2010) by 11 posts already, so here's hoping I continue at the current rate. I'm definitely on track to break 200 posts this year - maybe I'll aim for 240, which would be an average of 20 posts/month. Not bad if I can keep with it! Luckily, I'm not planning on traveling too much in the next couple of months; the one trip I have planned is to a conference in Canada, which should give me plenty of fodder for photos, along with the various family events we have planned. And if you see the list to the right, then you'll see I've got at least a week's worth of posts coming up! Then it just becomes a question of what goes on here or on my photography blog...oh, for that to be my biggest problem, right?

So anyway, for the 600th post, I thought I'd highlight not my photography, or something I've done, but instead continue to focus on the kids and highlight Natalie's photography from the past two weeks!

The first two were taken with my phone, hence the little bit of blurriness.

The next three photos were taken using my basic point-and-shoot camera.

I really like this shot - a close up of her tiara on my head.

Natalie took this photo of the 3 of us at the recent Flower & Garden show in Leesburg. Photos from that to follow! I did a bit of minor cropping to get us in the center, but otherwise it was all her!

Calla lilies we passed while walking in downtown Leesburg

Kids in vests!

In honor of our upcoming trip to Charlottesville (and hopeful walk around UVA grounds on Sunday, after the Foxfield races), here are the kids trying on our Pep Band vests!

I really like how this photo came out - Henry in focus but Natalie blurry while moving. I did not retouch this photo at all - it's just how it came out!

Natalie's yoga class

Two weeks ago we tried something new for Natalie: kids yoga! There's a new studio open in Leesburg, Happy Soul Yoga, and there was a coupon online: 5 classes for $15. That's my kind of deal, and even better is that I can use the coupon for classes for the both of us. We unfortunately haven't been able to go back yet, but I'm hopeful to get here there again soon...and to finally get to go myself!

One of the nice things about this class (ages 4-7) is that the parents don't stay! I did hang out for a bit to get some photos and make sure that Natalie was all settled in, but then I left to run some errands. Before class started, Natalie and the other kids had fun running around a bit.

and practiced some basic poses (a little "cobra", anyone?)

Then it was time for some more formal poses - I love these next two shots of her!

You'll note that I played around with the one above, and I really like the color fading effect! It also amuses me that they were supposed to go to the opposite wall to balance on the other side, yet Natalie turned around and did the same side again! Oh well :)

This was the last shot that I took of the whole class, and then I went and ran my errands. I was so proud of her for not being afraid to do the class by herself.

When I got back, the kids were all lying prone on their mats with eye pillows over their eyes, relaxing. So cute! I can't wait to take her back again.

Outside fun with Grammy and Pop-pop

On the day after Henry's birthday (friday the 13th), I took a half day off of work so that I could spend some time with my parents and finish getting ready for Henry's birthday party. The weather continued to be really nice, so after running our errands it was time to go back outside!

Pop-pop helping Henry with his new t-ball set.

...and then taking his own turn at it!

Natalie loves any excuse to ride her bike, and showing Grammy and Pop-pop how well she's doing is a great reason!

At one point I laid down on the ground to take some photos of dandelions, and Natalie thought it would be fun to lie down so I could take her picture. I love how this came out - no edits or anything!

It's a race! Who's going to win?!

Grammy helping to push Henry too (he had not yet received his new bike)

Look at my handsome big guy - just turned 2!

I'm especially happy that I managed to get this picture. My parents do not like being the subject of a photo, and they just look so happy here. Thank you both for humoring me while I took your picture - I love you!

Loudoun County JJ Dinner 2012

This past Saturday was the annual Loudoun County Jefferson-Jackson (JJ) Democrat dinner. We went together four years ago, but had not been back since (although I believe Evan may have gone on his own since then - I honestly don't remember). I remember thinking that I was overdressed last time, even though it was supposed to be a dressy event - this year, they really stepped it up! The invitation said "black tie preferred", and everyone looked really lovely. 

As chair for the county, Evan was a little bit "master of ceremonies". He wasn't on the committee, but as chair everything pretty much went through him. One of the best things he did was arrange for Essie to run daycare at the event - the Lansdowne Resort provided us with a room for free, she made a little money for the night, and we knew the kids were right there! Natalie of course wanted to dress up, even though she wasn't at the main party, and so we used the opportunity to take a nice family photo of us all dressed up.

After dropping off the kids, it was on to the reception and dinner. I didn't take too many photos, but tried to get one of each of the speakers. There were some really great speakers...I won't bore everyone with a political discussion here, but I'm definitely excited by a couple of candidates for Virginia elections this fall!

We were seated at the "head" table, which included former Governor Tim Kaine (left, below). He was the keynote speaker, and a super nice guy! He's running for US Senate this year, and he definitely has our support.

Evan delivering closing remarks

 

Evan and I

Kathy decided to attend the dinner as well - I think mostly to keep me company, although she and I both said that we enjoyed the speeches far more than we expected to. I think we clean up quite well!

Henry's birthday party: Family portraits

So like I said in my previous post, I took TONS of phots of party guests at Henry's birthday party (although almost none of the grandparents - sorry to the 4 of you! Guess my efforts were focused on the kids). I have even more than these that I'd love to post, but you'd all probably get tired of reading the ridiculously long post. I've already emailed out the best ones to the parents...this is for everyone else to see!

Beth, Jason and their daughter Ellie. I took quite a few photos of Ellie, but put my two favorites here.

I took the photo above *before* Ellie tried to take a header off of the playset and bloodied her lip. Poor thing! I think cupcakes made her feel better.
 
 Deb and Ryan, and their son Chase.

 Alison and Anne-Marie

 I unfortunately failed to get a good photo of my coworker Paige and her son Jasper, but here's the closest one I have! Paige is standing behind him :)

 Kelly, Chris and their children Sydney Chase and Reese. I took a ton of photos of the 5 of them so choosing which ones to post was difficult!

 Ruth and Natalie. I didn't have a chance to get a photo of Ruth with her dad, but got quite a few of Ruth and Natalie - they may as well be sisters!

 And lastly, a photo I managed to get someone to take of me with my mom and sister. It's hard to convince Mom to be in a photo, so I was glad to get this one :)

Henry's 2nd birthday party

I posted on Henry's birthday about what we did that night to celebrate - now it's time to show how much fun we had at his birthday party! We had the party a week ago on April 14; I chose to hold it in the same room at Ida Lee where we had Natalie's 4th birthday party. I had thought about just holding it in our backyard, but the thought of getting rained out scared me - I'm not prepared to host 10 kids, our family, and all of the parents in our house! Of course, the weather turned out absolutely beautiful, but the location was still a good one I think. This may be our new go-to party location!

Let me preface all of this by saying that I have over 80 photos from the party, as I wanted to get good shots of everyone who attended (particularly the kids). In this post I'm going to focus on mostly the birthday boy, but I will soon do a second post of all of the kids/parents so you can see the fun had by all!

We started the party off with a game of...well, I'm not sure what you'd call it. I opened up a bag of about 15 balloons and threw them all around the room, and for about 20 minutes the kids had a blast running around with them!

After that, we took the kids outside for about 30 minutes. There's a small park behind Ida Lee that's technically for the preschool, but since it was the weekend it was open to us! The nice part is that it's pretty well fenced in so corralling all of the kids wasn't too difficult.

 After that, we came back inside for birthday cupcakes! We had two dozen - the other dozen were vanilla. The primary colors went well with the circus theme, although I had originally planned for orange, green, purple, etc to also be included. Regardless, they were super yummy - thank you Wegmans!

Henry enjoying his cupcake! 

 In fact, he enjoyed it so much that he got a nice glob of red icing in his hair. The mark of a good party!

A pretty decent family photo!

After the party, it was time to head home and open presents. It's nice that Henry's finally old enough to really participate in opening his presents. Our family and friends were very generous, with some really fun new toys and adorable clothes that he desperately needed for the spring/summer!

Henry's big present this year was from us and all 4 grandparents - a new bike! We have a "big wheel" push bike, but Henry isn't big enough to reach the wheels on it yet, and with Natalie riding her bike so much now, it would make our lives much easier while going around the neighborhood if Henry were on a bike as well. I found this one, and it's great cause it so easily converts! Henry still can't quite reach the pedals, but there's a platform to rest his feet on, and when he gets big enough to do it himself the handle is removable. It's not quite a "big boy" bike, even when it's a tricycle, but it's definitely more than a big wheel!

Happy birthday Henry!