My Heroes

This is Henry. My beautiful, smart, rambunctious 4 year old son.

I can't help but think that this could have been the last photo taken of my sweet boy. I am ever so grateful to these two:

Last night Henry, Zoe and Charlie were playing in the backyard at my parents' house and I was just inside the door. All of a sudden I hear Zoe screaming and crying. When I looked out the door she was standing at the door banging on the window. As I opened the door to see what was wrong with her she pointed to the pool where I see Charlie attempting to pull a crying, soaking wet Henry out of the pool. I jerked him up out of the pool and all was fine. I am beyond impressed with how Zoe (2) and Charlie (barely 3) thought fast to come to the rescue of their brother / Cousin / friend Henry. I always say that they look like they could be twins and wonder twins they were to Henry last night.

Fun with the kids.

This week the kids and I dyed Easter Eggs then I dressed them up and hid eggs in the front yard. It was our Easter Egg hunt done on Wednesday! Here are some pics of the day.

My new favorite

I have gained weight( :( boo!) and I want to spend more time with the kids. The last 2 nights I have decided to go for a walk with the kids after dinner. It's so nice that they are old enough to go for walks with me now without worrying about pushing a stroller or them getting too tired. I (of course) brought my camera along too and thought I'd share some from the past 2 nights. Tonight I was trying out a new lens that isn't really great on focusing I'm discovering so of course, I get really cute pics of the kids and they are all out of focus. I don't care, I'm keeping them anyway! I just know now not to use this lens with a client!

they love to run around the street. Luckily I live in a pretty quiet neighborhood and we don't have too many cars to get out of the way of.

Becoming

I signed up for a very interesting e-class that started this week. It is called Becoming: Six Weeks to a More Adventurous (Business) Life. It is put on by Kristen Kalp the blogger / author and adventurer at Brand Camp.

Every morning I have been journaling specific questions. Each week we are supposed to pull a random "adventure" task. Tomorrow morning I will be completing my task. I will share photos of it. Should be fun!

This journaling has really helped me to reconcile some things and has also brought up some questions that I need to ask myself. It has helped me to see that sometimes I put my business and clients before my children. I have too many times sat my children in front of the TV so that I can get some editing done, prints ordered or some emails answered. Today I had a photo shoot. I generally will come home from a photo shoot and get right to work editing for hours. Instead today, I decided to spend time with my kids, the editing can wait! We went to the park, ate lunch and played for a couple hours. No computer, no phone, just my undivided attention to my kids. When we got home from the park, I loaded the photos onto the computer and started editing. Henry begged me to play a video game with him and begged me to go outside with him. I said to myself "Self, you can edit tonight when he is in bed, go play with your son. He won't be 4 forever" We played outside then we played Viva Pinata (which Henry pronounces "Pianta") He loves watching me play it. I was proud of myself for putting my business and work on the back burner and putting my kids first.

I'm trying not to think about how far behind I am now though..... :)

American Idol - Elton John Week

This blog post will be short. Feeling a bit uninspired this week and not sure if its me or if the show just wasn't great tonight. Maybe a little bit of both. Henry watched the show with me tonight and he likes to talk and ask questions (and make me draw pictures).

Scotty sang "Country comfort"

It was good, not anything amazing about it but nothing bad either. It was nice to see him play his guitar tonight.

Grade: B

Naima sang "I'm Still Standing" with a reggae feel.

First of all, what was up with the fake Jamaican accent? Was that cheesy or what?! Jennifer and Randy agreed with me. Randy said her performance was corny. Steven, not sure. He just said "boom shaka laka laka baby"!

Grade: C

Paul sang "Rocket Man"

I think Paul just isn't right for this competition. I think in a regular world, with him singing his own music I would dig Paul. I didn't like him this week again.

Grade: C

Pia sang "Don't let the Sun Go Down On Me"

Amazing! She sang another ballad but I don't care, she sang it so great!

Grade: A

Stefano sang "Tiny Dancer"

He was much better this week.

Grade: B+

Lauren sang one of my favorite songs of all time, "Candle in the Wind"

I loved it. Favorite performance of hers all season!

Grade: A+

James sang "Saturday Night"

The piano was on fire and so was he. Awesome performance. I love how he has fun on stage.

Grade: A

Thia sang "Daniel"

Can't say much about it because I fell asleep halfway through it.

Grade: B because she sang it pretty but it was so boring.

Casey sang another favorite of mine "Your Song"

Ah, it was just perfect! I was so glad he got a haircut / beard trim. He was starting to look like an extra in a werewolf movie.

Grade: A

Jacob sang "Sorry seems to be the Hardest Word" (or something like that)

It was good, as always.

Grade: A

Haley sang "Benny and the Jets"

She did great. Sometimes the growling that she does can be a bit much. I think she came close to overdoing it tonight. Sidenote: In the lyrics to this song, I always thought they were singing "she's got electric boobs.." (anyone else? LOL)

Grade: A-

I was sooo terribly wrong last week about who got voted off. Luckily, the judges saved Casey!

This week my predictions are

Bottom 3: Thia, Stefano, and Naima

Going home: Thia and Stefano

Fun craft idea

I did this with the kids yesterday and they loved it. It was so easy and I am having all kinds of different ideas I can do. I'm sure that I'm not the first to think of this but I thought I'd share it anyway!

All you need is a sharpie (or other permanent marker), some craft foam sheets, scissors and imagination.

Henry loves sharks and anything that lives in the sea. He brought me a sheet of craft foam yesterday and said, "mommy, can you cut a hammerhead shark out of this" I was in an adventurous mood and thought, why not?! Of course when the hammerhead shark came out to his liking he kept asking for more fish. He even requested a princess for Zoe. (how sweet)

He played with these foam sharks for at least an hour. Today I was giving them a bath and an idea came to me. I ran and got the foam sharks and brought them to the tub. The foam stuck to the tub wall, instant tub toy. I was afraid that the marker might come off in the water but fortunately it didn't.

Here are some pics of them.

I am thinking that I could make puzzles, "paper" dolls, simple shapes for creating more complex designs. The possibilities are endless. Let me know if you try it out with your kids!

American Idol- Week 3- Motown - Unleash the Beast!

So, not to gloat or anything but I was totally right again last week on who would go home. It's kinda scary :)

This week the top 11 sang hits from Motown, let's get started on what I thought of the performances.

Casey started the night with his version of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine". Performed by such artists as The Temptations and the California Raisins. Casey put his own special spin on there. The beginning of the song had a little too much growling for me but the end was much better. There was NOTHING karaoke about his performance and it was definitely entertaining

Casey gets a B+

Thia was next up singing "Heatwave". She listened to me and the judges last week and decided to do something a little up-tempo for us. She looked beautiful, as always and she sang the song great. There was still nothing about the performance to make me want to vote for her though. She seems like a nice girl, I'm wondering if maybe she is just a little too young for the competition.

Grade:B

Jacob sang "You're All I Need" and the producer (Jimmy Lavine) suggested that Jacob pull back a little bit, which I thought was excellent advice. He was brilliant, like always. The judges even gave a standing ovation which doesn't happen too often. Heck, Steven Tyler and the whole first row went up on stage and gave him a hug which, has never happened.

Grade: A+

Lauren sang "Keep Me Hanging On" It was good, I kind of wish they had let her put a little bit of a country spin on it since that seems to be her niche. She performed and sang well. I was a little scared that she might trip over her long zebra print dress, thankfully she made it through!

Grade: B+

Stefano was next up and shared some of his mother's leftovers with Ryan.........Stefano sang "Hello" and Jimmy also suggested to Stefano that he pull back a little. The judges wanted him to connect to the audience a bit more and I agree with what they said. That would really make him shine because we all know that boy can sing!

Grade: A-

A little aside here: Did anyone else think it was terrifically awkward when Ryan had Gordon Ramsey / Ramsay try Stefano's Mom's leftovers? I felt really bad for her!

Haley sang "You've Really Got a Hold On Me" and she sounded great. I was glad that she didn't tumble down the stairs in those high high heels she was wearing!

Grade: A-

Scotty sang next with a country version of "For Once in My Life" and I think that what they did to the song was a good move for Scotty. I don't think he could have sang the Stevie Wonder version of it and sounded believable at all! A little aside that isn't really important, but I still want to ask. Does the way Scotty holds the mic bother anyone else? It just annoys me for some reason. LOL

Grade: B+

Pia, lovely Pia sang "All in Love is Fair" and as the judges pointed out it is her 3rd ballad. She really needs to sing something more up-tempo next week. She did sing beautifully and I loved her, as always!

Grade: A

Paul took my advice last week and played his guitar tonight. He sang "Tracks of My Tears" which is one of my favorite Motown songs. He messed up the words at one part but, I'll forgive him for that because the Paul that I love is back! Tonight's performance reminded me of why I liked him at the beginning of the season.

Grade: A

Naima was up next singing "Dancing in the Streets". I totally disagreed with the judges tonight. I thought her outfit was hideous, I mean, some gnomes could live in her pants! She was pitchy and I thought the dancing was strange and weird. I might be in the minority. I'd like to know what other people thought.

Grade: C

James Durbin was in the "pimp" spot tonight and sang "Living for the City"

He sounded great and he really picked the perfect song to sing. Nothing much more to say other than I really enjoyed it!

Grade: A

This week is tough because they all really did well tonight. The only performance I didn't like was Naima but everyone else seemed to like it.

I am totally guessing when I say, Thia, Naima and Haley will be bottom 3. Thia will go home. I really have no idea this week though!