Graduation Presentation:

God Bless America! The graduation presentation began with the children marching into the sanctuary singing "God Bless America" which was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.




I'm not sure what this song was, but doesn't it look like fun?! The sunglasses were a nice touch.





These are the colors of the color wheel. The still photos really don't do this song any justice. When each color was called out, the children raised their colored circle and shouted the name. So cute!





Let's go fly a kite! Low-lighting really stinks for photography, but the movement in the photos is nice. I can't wait for the DVD release, can you?



Let's go to the zoo! Each child with an animal-on-a-stick got to dance across the stage when their animal was called. Mason got many compliments on his dancing ability!




Shhhh! There's a spider next to me!!!


They all had their alphabet down pat! The little smarties! Each child was given a letter and told us what sound it makes and an object that started with that letter. School isn't all fun and games...it's serious business!



The founder of Kids R Kids joined the ceremony and handed out the faux diplomas! It was a shining moment seeing the children in their caps and gowns!





One last song before CAKE! Congratulations class of 2021 – Love, Mom and Dad!

Good Lighting Never Lasts...

Every photographer swears by north-facing evening light. It's fabulous...it's soft and pretty...and it doesn't last as long as I would like for it to! No matter, Mason wasn't thrilled about me taking his photo anyway. Graduation photos and videos to come!

Anybody Out There?

This blog's for you, folks...and yer lack of comments iz givin' me a complex!

Fun with Letters...

The children learned every letter of the alphabet and each sign for the object. More videos to come after graduation. I wish you all could be here to celebrate with us!

Game, Set, Match...

Just when you thought this blog should have been titled "The Famous Mason", I change things up a bit by posting about my hubby, of whom I am so proud! I knew nothing of tennis (with the exception of that foxy Andre Agassi) until I met Brian. Since then, I still don't know much about keeping score; but I do know a good serve when I see one.

Just look at that focus! This must be where Mason gets his concentration from. To those that know me – my mind tends to wander from on thing to another; which makes me a good multi-tasker but not much of an athlete. Good genes there! Thanks Bill and Janet!

Check out the height on that ball! Good thing Brian is 6'2" or he'd be waiting a while for gravity to take hold of the ball again.

He wasn't as thrilled with this action shot as I was. I'm sure he's not too keen on me posting this photo of his body all twisted. Maybe a good tennis serve is like a good guitarist – you have to get your body knarled up to get the best results. I was impressed. Hey, I can't do it!

He and his partner went on to win the match in 2 sets – 6-1, 6-1.

The team won 3 out of 5 matches...which takes them to the semi-finals tomorrow! Best of luck guys!!!

Musical Genius in the Making...

Today Mason's class helped their mothers celebrate Mother's Day in style. We were all treated to a fantastic display of musical talent and then ate muffins. It was certainly the highlight of my Friday! Happy Mother's Day!

School-Aged...

Almost! It seems like only yesterday that I was jiggling Mason around in my belly. It seems like only yesterday that he took his first steps and it seems like only yesterday that he learned to smart-mouth me (oh wait, that WAS yesterday!). Now look at him – so grown up and full of personality! His graduation from Pre-K is officially on May 16. Off to Kindergarten in the fall. Look out New Life Academy!

I was fascinated!

This little guy basked in the sun as I took his photo over and over. No need to say cheese.

Spring has Sprung

We have 3 beautiful flowering trees in our back yard (if you could see the size of our back yard, you would know this is an amazing feat in itself). The ladybugs seem to really like only one of them. Nature can be very strange sometimes.

Proof Positive:

Visual proof that a man's love affair with trucks begins at a very early age!

Swingin'

Up Close...

Just in case you've never taken a close look at your child's belly button. All I need now is a good macro lens to get even more up close and personal with the cavern in my son's belly! Perhaps this is where he is storing all of those groceries.

Elsa the Enigma

I often wonder what cats think about. As I was taking Elsa's photo, he became more curious about what I was doing. He sniffed my lens a few times, then continued to clean himself. The he sniffed a few more times, and continued to clean himself. He needs to look good for the ladies, of course.

Water Baby

With summer fast approaching, I felt this to be a perfect time to reflect upon Mason's favorite summer pastime.

Mason's love for water started very early in life. Not unlike most children, his love began with bubble baths. You can't have too many bubbles!

Water+baby=splashing. Basic math, right?

I was nearly 18 the first time I saw the ocean, so it became a goal of mine for Mason to be not only comfortable in the water, but to visit the ocean as much as possible. This photo is from Mason's first visit to Virginia Beach, and his first time seeing the ocean. He was 18 months old. Granted, he doesn't remember this visit; but there will be plenty of opportunity with us living a mere 4 hours from the coast.

Aaaa-choo!

Allergy season is upon us once more. To allergy sufferers, like myself, this time of year is bitter-sweet. We welcome the beauty of the season; but know that because of the beauty of the season we will, in turn, suffer.

This is a photo of the pollen that has blanketed the South over the last week, or so. The South is particularly vulnerable to this amount of pollen because of the amount of pine trees here. Thank goodness for Tylenol Allergy Sinus. If you catch me sleeping at my desk, I'm sorry.

Dishwasher...

Behold the mixing bowl of my Kitchen Aid mixer, the little hands of my 5-year old and a silicone spatula.

Again with the concentration! He'll do great things with patience like that!!!



Well worth the work!

April Showers

A boy and a seemingly innocent puddle.

A little splash here, a little splash there...


Wow, can he get some air between him and the ground!

If only this puddle were deeper!

Addendum...

Yes, commenter David, I AM wearing UGA flip-flops to shoot a wedding. I wore a regular pair of shoes to shoot this event, but since my toe was still a grizzly mess from my run-in with a fence, I had to borrow some shoes! Thankfully, this event was for a friend of a friend...so that friend (who went to UGA) let me borrow her flip-flops for the day! AH!!! Thanks Angela!!!

Workin'

Shooting weddings is serious business...unless you shoot with Heidi! I have had the pleasure of learning from Heidi over the last year+ and every time we shoot, we come to the point in the day where we start taking pictures of ourselves for amusement. This is what I came across while I was editing...

Fun Dippin'...

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. There are two packages of Fun Dip pictured here. No, my beautiful, and very thin, son is not on his way to obesity by consuming mass amounts of pure, artificially flavored sugar. So I ate one too, so?!

How is it that consuming your own saliva that clings to a sugary stick be so elating?

Just look at that concentration...

...and precision!

It didn't take long for him to figure out that bypassing the stick-and-spit method would take entirely too long.

The stick, which is the best part of Fun Dip, is the reward for working so hard to finish the powder.

What makes Fun Dip so fun? The red tongue, of course!

Lucky Me!

Today was a short workday and so I was fortunate enough to not have to sit in traffic today! Not only that, but when Mason and I got home, we were browsing through our neighbor's clovers and I spotted this little beauty! Lucky Me!