March weather is weird

...but we went outside anyway!
On March 5, it snowed about 6". Everything was beautifully covered in white, and after watching it fall for a couple of hours we decided to take the kids out to burn off some energy. The snow was still falling, and it was cold (with a little bit of a wind at times), but we still made it for about 30 minutes before needing to get back into the house. You may note that there are spots in the first couple of photos - it was still snowing as we were walking around!

 

Natalie's pants really are this pink! It's nice because we can always see her. Similarly, we let Calla run around in the snow, off leash, because we can always find her. She does love the snow!

 

Three days later, Natalie and I went out to take some photos, which I've already posted. (I actually thought I had posted the photos from above, or else I wouldn't have done this out of order! Ah well). It was definitely warmer then (you can see in the photo of me that I'm just wearing a sweatshirt and scarf), and with the sun out, the snow was definitely melting.

And only 4 days later, one week after the snow pictured above, we were outside enjoying the first bike ride of the spring, as the sun was setting! You can see there was still some snow on the yards, but for the most part it was gone. Fine with me, as it let us enjoy the evening.

 

And it's always fun to play with the setting sun, and light. Look how pretty that sunset is!

One of the fun things the kids wanted me to do was to "race" them as they rode their bikes. Let me tell you, it's a pretty good way to get my daily steps in! First was Henry's turn

And then Natalie! She of course is much harder for me to grab.

Henry at school

About once a month they do a "fun" activity at Henry's preschool.  In March, it was "Storybook Day", where the kids could come dressed as a character from a favorite book. I'm not really sure if this Spiderman book is one of Henry's favorites, but he does like it, and he was able to use it as an excuse to wear his Spiderman costume. With how adorable he looks, how could I say no?!

One "special" thing that they do every week is their swim lesson. Twice in March I was (finally!) able to get to Henry's school to watch him swim. I really hadn't been able to get there at all on swim day since last fall, so I was really happy to get to observe! He loves swimming, and it's so fun to watch him in the water.

And also out of the water! At the end of each class they get to jump in, which they all obviously love. Check out Henry's big (assisted) leap into the pool!

We are very much looking forward to swimming this summer, and seeing how these swim lessons have worked out for him. I'd like it if they were doing a bit more lap swimming, as they did with Natalie's class; one of my friends agreed that this class doesn't seem to be advancing as much as earlier classes have. But, he's far more comfortable in the water than he used to be, and that's a really good start.

Amy's baby shower

After planning to publish a post every day for the rest of April (I even pre-wrote a ton to facilitate this!), we then had our annual Foxfield event this past weekend, and that completely screwed with my plans. You know, with all the eating, and hanging out, and eating, and being cold outside, and eating, and drinking a bit, and eating (can you tell what we like to do when all together?), I never got on my computer. I think this one is appropriate to post today, however, since my friend Amy couldn't come to Foxfield due to her impending baby...a little less than 2 weeks away! So, here's my post about the surprise shower that I threw for Amy back in March :)

This shower was a surprise! I'd already arranged with her to host a Jamberry nails party at my house, for which she came down from NY (where she lives). Since we don't get to see her that often here, I gathered up our mutual friends (who were coming to the Jamberry party afterwards) and had them come over earlier for the shower. I had asked Amy to come over around lunch time so we could "hang out", and I ended up surprising her with our friends!

We had lunch (I neglected to take any photos, but yes there was yummy food), played a game of memory (with baby products - all of which she got to keep), and then did our activity. I had a ton of paint in the house, and I bought small canvasses, and then we each painted a canvas for the baby's room! Amy was excited for this, as she didn't really know what they would put in there, so hopefully she's happy with how they all turned out and there's a little something to put in the baby's room.

 I had Natalie use my phone to grab a photo of all of us with our creations.

And here they are closer up, so you can see what we made! I should mention that I had pre-painted the canvasses before the party, so each one would be a different color, and they'd be dry before everyone painted their pattern. 

Meanwhile, a bunch of us had our girls there (because they also wanted to be at the Jamberry party). I had paper and markers for them, so they could each make a sign for the baby. 

 Finally it was time for Amy to open her presents! She hadn't registered for anything so we had to make assumptions, but as everyone else attending already has kids I think we were able to get her some good, necessary stuff :)

Then it was time for the Jamberry party! I had a few other friends from Leesburg come, who didn't know Amy, and we all had fun trying the new spring samples, playing games, and placing orders. The girls in particular were excited for us to apply on them.

I also wanted to show off my first Jamicure from the many wraps (over 15!) that I got at a huge discount after hosting the party. It was a very successful party! This pattern is definitely in my top 3 wraps (and applications) ever. I painted my nails a couple of days before, and then put this clear wrap (called Dancing Lilacs) over it. I love how it came out! And it applied so nicely (no issues), and lasted for 10 days (which means the nail polish lasted almost 2 weeks without chipping). On the left is the first day I applied it, and on the right is 9 days later. It held up pretty darn well!! Love this pattern; I'm definitely going to have to do it again.

 

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge

Look, more reports of Abbe's travel!

As I posted earlier this month, I went to NYC in January with my colleague Brooke, during the "blizzard". In late February I headed back to NY, this time Brooklyn, for a two day conference with my colleague Jason. The event was really great, and we explored a part of NYC that I had never really been to before. Brooklyn just across the bridge is pretty great! Lots of little restaurants, and the coolest Trader Joe's that I've ever been in (an old converted train station).

Most of our time was spent in the hotel/convention center. However, on the second day we did take a lovely walk across the Brooklyn Bridge into lower Manhattan. I had never walked across the bridge before, even with living in lower Manhattan for 2 years! And Jason hadn't spent a lot of time in NYC at all, so we thought we'd go exploring.

Walking across the bridge, even in the ridiculous cold, was a lot of fun! It helped that we had such a beautiful day. Sadly I only had my iPhone on me, but I think I was still able to get some pretty darn good photos! I absolutely love days like this: clear, cold, and bright!

 I really enjoy the lines of the support cables crossing everywhere. It made for some really great images.

 Here we are about halfway across the Bridge, looking at lower Manhattan. You can see the Statue of Liberty off on the left, and Freedom Tower on the right.

 And on the other side is the Manhattan Bridge. Look at all of the ice in the river!

 After wandering about lower Manhattan for an hour or two (including checking out the WTC site, which Jason had never really been to), we headed back across. This time Jason grabbed a shot of me on the bridge, with Manhattan behind me.

 And I instagrammed this photo of the Bridge. I love it!

 And finally, I played with the panorama feature on the phone to try to grab the entire view from the bridge.

That day, we walked over 9 miles and were exhausted and cold...but it was totally worth it for what we got to see!

San Diego: February 2015

In mid February I had the good fortune to spend 4 days in Southern California for work. While everyone back home was shivering, and dealing with additional snow, I got to ride around in a convertible for 4 days, going between San Diego and LA, with my colleague Chris. When Chris picked me up at the airport in a Mustang convertible, I knew this was going to be a pretty darn good week!




We arrived early to our first appointment, which was at the Salk Institute, just on the water in San Diego. We thought we'd walk over to the water to take a look at the ocean, and it turned out we had a much more exciting view: a hang gliding school!

 People were basically launching themselves off of the cliffs to glide. It was beautiful to watch, and we were this close to going back at the end of the day to do it ourselves. It's not cheap, and I think I'd be somewhat terrified, but they have an instructor go tandem with you and it would have been really cool! I'm ok that we didn't go, though. Maybe next time!

 I think the above photo gives you an idea of how high up we were. Can you see the red silk in the lower left? That's right, someone steered themselves down along the cliff, gliding along next to them nearer the sand. The photo below shows it a bit better. The control he had was amazing, and really illustrates the height of this cliff!

 

After watching them for a while, and enjoying the sun, we headed over to the Salk Institute. A small but beautiful place! Below is the central courtyard, with the really cool research buildings surrounding. Throughout all of the floors are labs! The whole thing is very open to the environment, and so different from any research lab I've ever been in. I really don't know how they concentrate on work.

 Here's a view of the ocean from the far side of the Institute.

 That night, after getting some dinner, we headed over to the beach to where Chris knew there were tide pools for us to check out. As we walked to them, we saw harbor seals! Can you make them out below?

 I used one of my attachable lenses (telephoto) on my iPhone to zoom in a bit. The focus here is on the mom and seal pup in the center of the photo.

 We then walked along the cliff a bit to where stairs were cut in to get down to the beach. We walked across rocks to the tide pools, which are lovely at any time, but particularly as the sun set!

 I really enjoyed working with the sun flare as the sun set.

 As the tide was starting to come in some, we went back up to the beach and sat on the rocks to watch the sunset. As we climbed back up to the road, I captured a few images as the sun was actually setting. Truly beautiful!

Valentine's Parties 2015

On Friday February 13, both kids had their Valentine's Day parties on the same day! Of course they did - why would it be possible for me to go to both? Luckily Evan and I were able to split duty. Since I had helped to plan Natalie's, I felt like I should go there, so he went to his first party of the year at Henry's preschool (I had gone to both the Halloween party, which I was in charge of running, and the winter party, with Carrie). Evan got some great photos of Henry enjoying the various festivities.

 Craft  time!

 The class as a whole, getting ready to sing for everyone!

Evan grabbed a few videos, and I love Henry and his friend Hunter in this one - they are adorable! Please pardon Henry repeatedly adjusting himself at the beginning of the video; we're working on stopping that.

 Meanwhile, I enjoyed Natalie's Valentine's Day party. I wasn't able to go to her first party of the year (I believe I was traveling), so she was very excited for me to be there for this one! I helped the other two room moms  plan the events - we had a couple of games and activities for them to do, after opening all of their valentines from each other. First up, I had to grab a couple of photos of Natalie and her best friend Sara! These girls are too sweet together.

 And silly together!

 At the end of the party I managed to get all of the kids together for a class photo.

Natalie the Photographer: March 2015

Ugh, such a backlog to get through! I have 14 blog posts drafted, which doesn't even quite catch me up to now (I think that will take a 15th post). I had anticipated getting a ton posted up while I was traveling last week - I even took my portable hard drives with me on which I have all of my photos saved - but between running a workshop all day and working in the evening I just didn't have the energy for it. Hence, a week in between posts! Bad Abbe.

There has been so much going on: events with friends, our trip to Boston (I have two more posts from that!), work travel (I think 3 of those to write about), a wrap up from March (where I took a lot of miscellaneous photos and I'm going to throw them all in together), our Easter weekend, Henry's birthday weekend...whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it. My hope for today is to pre-write at least half of those so that I can just post them up this week. Cross fingers! Part of my delay on blogging was also that I was trying to finish two books, and in the last two days I finished both of them. So maybe I can make myself be on my computer more now!

Anyway, into the post. This one should be an easy one to start with before I have to pour through the many other photos I have! In March, about 6 weeks ago, Natalie joined me on a photo excursion behind our house. We had just gotten snow, and the sun was out, making for some of my favorite weather/environment for taking outdoor photos (in the winter). I was focusing on macro photography, due to the photo challenge of that week. I let Natalie bring out my Canon point and shoot and take photos that struck her interest. I set the settings for her, and off we went! Because I was focusing on the plants, she wanted to do the same. Here are her photos, as always unedited!

 I think this one is her best - excellent focus on the cattail!

 Well, ok - really, I think THIS one is her best. I love us shooting each other at the same time! Unfortunately I was in manual mode and didn't focus on her correctly, so my photo came out terribly. Well done, young photographer!