May 31: Day 144

The kids had a great time making me a delicious meal with their play kitchen. This is the mess that was the result.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 28 mm
ISO: 1600
Flash: Off

May 30: Day 143

We held our Annual Baseball & Barbecue with our neighbors yesterday and had a blast despite the gray weather. This was the first year that Ethan really understood that we were playing a game and he LOVED it as you can tell by his face below. He sat on my lap while I edited the RAW images and narrated the whole thing. That boy loves to play ball! I have a ton of baseball photos I'll share with those who participated. If you want an invite to the Snapfish Album when it's ready send me your email address.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/800 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

May 29: Day 142

We met my Mom in Amity yesterday afternoon so that she could take the kids for an overnight visit. We've left the kids with my Mom before, but never for no real reason but it was nice to get a break! We waited about 10 minutes in the car before my Mom met us so I took some photos to kill the time. I love this one of Grace because she was making a silly face at me and suddenly spotted Grandma and her whole face lit up!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 56 mm
ISO: 800
Flash: Off

May 28: Day 141

In honor of my daughter's last day of preschool I decided this would be a good photo of the day. I tried to get a few photos of her at preschool when I dropped her off and picked her up but she wasn't interested in taking pictures. Of course she never is! This is the row of coat hooks in her classroom.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/100 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 33 mm
ISO: 800
Flash: Off

May 27: Day 140

We made the world's best sugar cookies this afternoon to bring to the Indoor Park End of Year Luau Party tomorrow. Of course we had to sample one apiece! I took this photo in my favorite spot in the kitchen in about 30 seconds because that's all the longer he was willing to sit still. With the amount of sugar in these cookies it's no surprise!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

May 26: Day 139

I took this photo while waiting in line for a Dutch Brothers iced Annihilator right after picking my daughter up from preschool and driving up to Portland. I was about 3 cars back and had my camera next to me so of course I took about 50 photos before it was my turn to order. Just be glad I spared you the terrible self portrait I took in my rear view mirror. Yikes!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/100 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 28 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

May 25: Day 138

I used to think deer were cute timid creatures. And then we moved to our home in a subdivision and discovered that deer are not like Bambi. Oh no. The deer are pretty insistent that our yard isn't really ours though they do let us borrow it every once in awhile. They've munched on the azaleas and hydrangeas until they're barely poking out of the ground, have enjoyed eating our two ornamental trees, and seem to think our we keep our grass lush and green just for their snacking pleasure. They even drink the water off the swings on the swing set on wet days. No amount of me yelling, the kids roaring, or the dog barking seems to affect them in the slightest. In fact they don't even look my way when I bang on the sliding glass door to make them stop eating my flowers anymore.

So it wasn't a big surprise to look out the window yesterday and see two deer laying in our grass. One of them was right next to the kids' swing set. Our yard isn't very big and I didn't even have to step out of our house to take these photos. I just opened the sliding glass door a little bit (notice they didn't even bother to get up when they heard me do that) and snapped away. I did break out my 75-300 lens which I very rarely use. It's not my favorite lens and I feel like it's pretty soft but it worked.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 190 mm
ISO: 100
Flash: Off