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They wore their helmets

Written on September 21, 2011 by Jennifer in Little Monkeys, Pictures, playing along

We don’t waste these gorgeous fall days. Sunshine and warmth tucked between the rain and gloom, Carson and Ella rode their bikes on chalk outlined race courses. Around and around. Everyone gets a chance to win.

In our front yard, they ride, hoping the neighbor kids will see them and come play, too. A whole gaggle of bike riding kids with their sweaty heads in helmets. I get to be the kool-aid wench. It’s all so much fun, until it’s time to go inside for dinner, bath, and bedtime. Promises are made to play again tomorrow, sometimes through tears, sometimes with eager waves.

Didn’t someone say once that parting is such sweet sorrow?

:::

Join Story Bleed Magazine and the Go Go Gang in celebrating Worldwide Day of Play. Story Bleed is hosting a blog carnival, all the details on how to join are there, and help celebrate this day of play. Two entries will be published on the magazine!

Like GoGo squeeZ on Facebook and when the GoGo Gang is 100,000 members strong, GoGo squeeZ will team up with Action for Healthy Kids to renovate a play space in an under-served community. Cool, huh?

This post is sponsored by Story Bleed on behalf of GoGo squeeZ as part of the #GoGoDayOfPlay photo carnival.

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Little Gifts

Written on September 16, 2011 by Jennifer in Pictures, Quirky Me

This week has been full of little gifts. The best gifts all came Tuesday, the day I posted my last post about having a hard go of things.

1. Tate called me Tuesday morning and offered to take me out to lunch. The offer alone was a gift, actually sitting down alone in a restaurant with him was just the cherry on top.

2. A friend and long time reader, mpotter, told me that she had seen me in Redbook Magazine! I had completely forgotten that I was going to be in the magazine. My name is in a magazine because of something I wrote (that was heavily edited and added to, but whatevs. I’m in a real, live magazine!)

3. I was asked by Old Navy and Babble Voices if I’d be interested in shopping at Old Navy and talking about the trip and our purchases on my blog, Southern By Proxy. I gotta say, shopping with $150, courtesy of Old Navy, doesn’t exactly suck.

In fact, it was pretty awesome. Please see below, Ella jumping up and down for joy in a dress she picked out on her own. I felt the same joy and I might have jumped up and down for joy, too. It doesn’t hurt that they are having a huge sale right now, lots of items starting at $5.

Here is my article about the shopping trip, complete with even more pictures of my cute kids in their new clothes.

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Back Home

Written on July 27, 2011 by Jennifer in Lucky Me, marriage, Pictures

I met a fantastic man last weekend. He was handsome, with dark hair and a charming, sweet smile. We flirted and made eyes at each other while holding hands and breathing in the salty air. Sometimes we spoke of deep, heart, secret things and sometimes we talked about the ordinary. We really heard each other.

When I spoke to him, I didn’t raise my voice. I looked into his eyes and really saw him and nuzzled my cheek in his neck without thinking about what was on my to do list. The only distractions were the sand between our toes, bright sunshine, and the waves breaking noisily just steps away.

We got to go back to our home place and reset. No kids. Just me and that man I forgot I knew.

That man I met with the dark hair and sweet smile, his name was Tate and we fell in love all over again.

Hilton Head, the beach, and tiki bars serving pina coladas will do that to a girl.

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Officially official

Written on July 20, 2011 by Jennifer in confession, Pictures, Quirky Me

There’s this picture quote going around Pinterest that says, “you’re not a photographer, you’re a mom with a camera.” Oh the disdain! Silly moms and their cameras! They can’t possibly know what they’re doing. It’s not like their expensive camera makes them a real photographer. Anyone can buy a fancy camera and pretend to be a photographer, but it doesn’t actually make them one. Which the automatic assumption is, OF COURSE, pure crap, because there are lots of women who happen to be mothers that happen to have professional cameras and ARE photographers.

I will say I’m very self conscious about this whole “mom with a camera” thing, though. It’s on my mind every time I go anywhere with my camera. I assume that’s what people are thinking of me when I’m carrying around my big, professional camera. “Look at her,” I imagine them saying. “How cute that she thinks she’s a photographer.”

I know that I’m messed up in the head about this. Photography is something that I love, but I struggle so much with my confidence when it comes to the quality of the images I produce. It’s easy for me to look at the photographers I admire and see how much better their photos are than mine. I mean, I’m just a mom with a camera, right?

So obviously I was totally not at all freaked out about photographing my cousin’s wedding a few weeks ago! I’m not sure if I prepared as much for my graduate school finals as I did for this wedding. I read, I studied, I practiced, I bought equipment, I practiced some more, I drew stick figure pictures of poses I wanted to get.

The wedding? It really went well. None of my greatest fears happened, my camera worked the whole time, I didn’t accidentally erase any of the memory cards, I didn’t miss any of the big moments. The only hitch in the day was that my battery did die right after the last bridesmaid and groomsman started to walk back down the aisle after the ceremony and my battery charger wouldn’t work, but luckily that didn’t affect any of the pictures!

I’m really, really proud of these photos. I’m so honored that my cousin trusted me enough to photograph such an important day for her and her new husband.

I guess I really am a photographer.

Now only 900 more photos to sort through and edit! This photography thing is easy peasy. (That easy peasy part was meant to be a joke, just for the record.)

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Hot days call for laziness and ice cream sandwiches

Written on July 12, 2011 by Jennifer in Little Monkeys, Pictures

I had such plans for the day, plans that didn’t include the TV, but when it was already 90 degrees and it wasn’t even the afternoon, I decided we were going to have a do-nothing-lazy day.

Ella celebrated by staying in her PJs until almost lunch time, sucking her thumb, and enjoying a little Spongebob. These cute butterfly jammies are from Tea Collection, an online kids clothing boutique. Super comfy, soft, and she’ll actually wear them because she picked them out.

I celebrated the lazy day by editing photos from the wedding I shot over the Fourth of July weekend. I can’t wait to share a few with you!

After we felt sufficiently lazy, we got dressed and celebrated by eating ice cream sandwiches on the front porch. Actually, the kids ate ice cream sandwiches, I didn’t because I don’t really like ice cream sandwiches. I know, I’m weird.

Carson’s shirt and shorts are also from Tea Collection. So is Ella’s butterfly top. (Butterflies are sort a theme for Ella. Unless it’s a butterfly dress. “I only wear dresses to weddings, Mom.”)

Tomorrow we will be more productive. Probably.

Disclosure: These clothes Carson and Ella are wearing were complimentary from Tea Collection. They didn’t tell me to say these things, just so you know. These clothes are very nice, soft, and have washed very well. And they’ve been washed A LOT. The PJs haven’t even pilled and gotten scratchy. They also didn’t tell me to mention this, but all these clothes are on sale right now.

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The (good) exhausted summer

Written on June 8, 2011 by Jennifer in Little Monkeys, Mommydom, Pictures, Quirky Me

I almost cried when I dropped the kids off on their last day of school. Oh, it wasn’t because I was sad. School ending felt like personal affront to me.

Visions filled my mind of Carson and Ella, zombie-like and drooling in front of the TV, surrounded by spent fruit roll up wrappers (organic, OF COURSE). I imagined myself unshowered and muttering nonsense. So the first night of summer vacation I made a schedule of our daily activities, from writing practice and reading, to scheduled rest times and craft times, with a designated ONE HOUR ONLY of TV time each day. (Stop laughing at me.)

But you know what? It’s all been okay. The schedule lasted for about two days and then the pool opened. Summer went from being something I’d dreaded to breathing in my kids sunshine and sunscreened, sidewalk chalk, and popsicle scented little bodies. I think I kind of love summer.

Well, maybe it could be a little better if they’d sleep past 6:30 and if I didn’t have to hear, “Mom! Mom! Watch me!” over and over at the pool.

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Birthday party hosting neurosis

Written on May 17, 2011 by Jennifer in Little Monkeys, Mommydom, Pictures, Quirky Me

If I’m being completely honest, which, I am, I have to say that one of my least favorite aspects of parenting is the whole birthday party thing.

My aversion is specific to kids birthday parties and the throwing thereof, as I very much enjoy inviting my adult friends over to eat and drink and be merry. Carré d’agneau au moutarde with gratin dauphinois, adult conversation, no problem! Pizza, cake, and ice cream and children just about gives me hives. I feel nervous and clammy, and thoughts of “I’m never doing this again, next time they can invite one friend over to play for a twenty minutes where I’ll serve capri suns and Ho-Ho’s” run through my head as I make the third batch of buttercream icing with a cramped hand.

And all of you other parents! You keep throwing these fabulous parties at jumpy houses and gymnastics places and pizza joints, so I can’t very well tell my Carson and Ella, “Sorry, kid, all of your friends get parties, but you don’t. Can I just give you $50 and call it even?”

In my former life as a Speech-Language Pathologist, I basically entertained children for a living, making saying /r/ and /s/ “thupah” fun. (Get it?!) But entertaining children at birthday parties is STRESSFUL, it’s just so much PRESSURE. I feel like there are expectations, expectations from preschoolers for a good time, expectations from parents for I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT, but STILL.

So of course when Ella asked for a Mario party for her 4th party I silently cursed very bad words that start with “f” and end in “uckity” and set off to figure out how the heck I would pull off a Mario party. Thank goodness Shab came to the rescue and helped me out. She had some awesome ideas.

Despite my birthday party hosting neurosis, I’m pretty sure I met all expectations, including my own.

We played Pin the Mustache on Mario, complete with a Mario that drew with my very own hands.

(Ella wore both Princess Peach and Luigi costumes for the party. Carson was Mario.)

Since Mario collects coins in the Super Mario games, the kids had a coin scavenger hunt. I thought this game would be sort of a dud, but it wasn’t. At all. Carson is still talking about it.

I made chocolate cupcakes with both regular and chocolate buttercream icing. I made the cupcake toppers, but I also saw them on Etsy. I made the cupcakes stand with cardboard cake rounds, styrofoam, and wrapping paper, inspired by this tutorial.

For the party favors, I made item boxes from mini Chinese takeout containers I found at Hobby Lobby and glued a yellow question to each. They were filled with Mario stickers, mini Mario markers, and more coins. I also found some mustaches on sticks that we gave everyone, found on Etsy.

If I’m being completely honest, which, I am, one of the best things about being a parent is the genuine “thank you!” and , “Mom! That was the most fun party ever.” That doesn’t mean I enjoyed planning the party, NO, but I guess it was worth it.

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