Slip 'n Slide fun

Angel got a Slip 'n Slide for her birthday and is in LOVE. In fact, she asks to play with it ALL the time. Here's a slow-mo play-by-play of her sliding (sorry they're a bit blurry - these are purely documentary!!) ...

Lovebug watched her for awhile trying to figure out whether he liked it or not. LOL.

These goggles are what Angel picked out for her thing to buy at the beach - both the kids got to "buy" one thing while we were in the store. And actually, it's because of the goggles that DH took Angel to the pool (she wanted to test them out) on our last day at the beach that ultimately resulted in the super-nasty fall (which you can still see the effects of - poor kid!). One of her front teeth got knocked a little loose, so we've been basically mincing her food and are being really careful.

Lovebug ultimately decided this was the best use for the Slip 'n Slide .... and why not?! LOL. This kid cracks me up!

DH and I are in agreement that the following image is totally bribery material - we're definitely pulling this one out the first time Angel brings a boyfriend home :-)

They had a blast with this thing - we were outside for over an hour watching them.

I don't know what's best about this last one ... Lovebug doing something other than drinking the water or Angel jumping for joy in the background. LOL. It's a shame I didn't get her whole body in this one!

So in conclusion, I would most definitely recommend this toy to parents! It's cheap and will provide HOURS of fun. It doesn't have the best reviews online but it sure made these kiddos happy!

Birthday Cowgirl

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANGEL!

I've been soooo ready to do these shots and I finally got my chance on our mini-vacation at the beach! Happy 5th Birthday to my big girl! You'll see I was really into the vintage look with these, it totally fits though and Angel ROCKED this little session out!

You would never guess how much bribing and coaxing took place to get these shots. DH even resorted to throwing (small) things at me to get Angel to laugh. WHY is it always so difficult with my own kids?!?!?!

Thankfully all of the work paid off. We got some really nice shots. Here are a few black & whites ...

I posted both the color and b&w versions of this one so you can get the full effect of the storm clouds behind us. The storm started heading in our direction as we were getting ready to head to the beach, so I was a little worried about getting everything done before it hit. The wind was insane (as you can see with these b&w's) and the temperature dropped a bunch too (yay!). But we had perfect timing though - as we were getting in the car the rain started falling. We were soooo lucky (and I ended up with some pretty adorable shots too!).

I'm glad we got these done too. Angel fell today and really (really) busted her mouth. She has scratches on her shoulder, chin and nose and we think one of her teeth is a little loose too :-( We feel just awful but we're taking it easy with her and are hopeful for a full recovery!

A Sunset, a Kite & Moonlight

This sunset is what we saw our 2nd evening at the beach - AMAZINGLY gorgeous! This is on the bayside where we were staying. We went over to the beach side after I snapped this to fly a kite!

Here's Angel and her "cheese" smile and then Lovebug down below watching Daddy set up the kite.

It's in the air! Angel's there watching too :-)

A few more shots of the kids before I lost the light ... Lovebug was super intrigued by the kite.

Isn't the sky cool?

Moon Dance anyone? LOL. This shot reminds me of the Lisa Loeb song. It was the last one I got before it became way too dark to get anything.

Here's some moon fun - my first shot at trying to photograph the moon. I handheld my camera for 6 SECONDS to get these shots. That's right - not even 1/6th of a second - 6 seconds total. LOL. Considering that, I'm pretty proud of myself :-) Some of the other shots I did were even longer (like 15 seconds) but ... but these were the best ones.

I love this one! I took another one a few years ago in a similar position with the sun instead. I might hang them next to each other?

1st Night at the Beach!

We surprised the kids with a trip to the beach this morning. Lovebug didn't really get it, but Angel sure did! She asked us if we were "teasing" her and kept laughing. I even had to show her that the car was packed and ready to go - then she knew. LOL. She was MORE than excited. We took a leisurely drive down and got there late-afternoon/early-evening. We headed straight to the beach just about as soon as we got there.

Angel, of course, knew exactly what to do and was on Cloud 9. It was so awesome to see her this happy.

I mean, seriously ... LOOK at that face!! LOL. She was in heaven. It's amazing what a simple surprise trip to the beach can do to a child.

Lovebug, on the other hand, was not that excited. He didn't want to have much to do with the cold water.

But as you can see, his frown got turned upside down pretty darn quickly!

Lovebug was doing really well until we got hit with a really big wave. After that he was kind of afraid to let go of me but he did GREAT considering he isn't old enough to remember our last trip. Actually he probably didn't get in the water then anyway.

I took this one to show the sand all over Angel's back. It was pretty much everywhere (yes, I mean EVERYWHERE). She was practically rolling in the sand.

One last snap to finish out the night - Angel the Frog, sitting on the lifeguard chair :-)

We went to grab dinner after this and then put the kids early (which was actually on time at about 8pm) because they didn't have a nap on the way down. Are my kids the only ones that don't sleep in cars?