Here comes Peter Cottontail...

Egg dying:

Easter Morning (iphone photos):

Webcam with the Grandparents:

On to the next year!

Time sure does fly!  How did I already live 36 years?  I have had my drivers license for 20 years.  I graduated high school 18 years ago.  I met my husband 15 years ago.  I got my ears pierced 26 years ago.  I have been wearing glasses for for 24 years.  I learned to read 31 years ago.  I went to my first New Kids On The Block concert 23 years ago.  I have been a mother for 10 years.  I got my first cell phone 16 years ago.  I got my first job 21 years ago.  I moved out of my parents house 18 years ago.... and so on and so on!

My birthday was last week, it amazed me that I am no longer excited about it.  I am of course always happy to know that I've made it another year, but I am also scared of getting older.  I recently had a friend that is 40 say she's halfway to death.  Amazing when you think about it, but if I am lucky enough to live to 80, I've already almost lived half my life.  I've know far too many people that have been taken from this earth far too young, and it definitely makes me thankful for my 36 years and appreciate every day that I am given (well almost every day, there are those hormonal days where nothing seems to go in my favor that I may loose site of the big picture).

For my birthday this year I kept it low key (okay every year is low key, but I guess that's how I like it).  I took the kids to school and then headed off to do a little shopping for myself.  Steve met me for lunch and then I headed home for a little quiet time before the kids got home.  I made dinner and had picked up some cupcakes earlier in the day.  The kids got me gifts that they picked out themselves (Tyler gave me a stuffed bunny and a box of tissues shaped like a kiwi, and Juliana got me a pink squishy ball that I have to pick up and squeeze every time we walk by it in a store).

All in all a good day and a great year I was able to celebrate.

A little bit of this and that...

Every time I finally get around to downloading pictures off my iphone, I realize how many things I missed blogging about.  We are constantly on the go, and I usually just have my iphone with me to capture the memory.  Here are some of the comings and goings of us:

Juliana had a band and a chorus concert before Christmas, this is her and her best friend Kerri before the chorus concert...  Juliana even did the introduction, so cute that she can speak so well on a microphone.

 While at the mall they thought they would try being store window models:

As usual, we've consumed many sushi lunches:

We saw the new Muppet movie:

We had our cousins sleep over:

Tyler made many Lego creations:

Juliana sold Girl Scout cookies:

 We realized Tyler is freakishly flexible:

 Juliana and I sat on the side of the road for 45 minutes while Steve and Tyler walked to get gas (yes, Steve let us run out of gas... again)!

 We had many nice days this winter, it was fabulous:

 We routed for the Patriots in the Superbowl (no need to discuss who won the game):

 We went to the aquarium with our friends:

 We had a small snowstorm:

 Tyler started reading chapter books:

 The kids had a picnic outside for dinner (in March):

It's a father daughter thing...

Every year since Juliana was in kindergarten she has gone to the father daughter dance.  It's always exciting for Juliana to get all dressed up to go on a date with her father.  Since she is getting older, her and some of her friends decided to do a father daughter night out this year instead of the dance.  It was four girls and their Dads.  They went to a yummy italian restaurant for dinner and then bowling, I hear they did father/daughter teams and the competition was steep.  I think we may have started a new tradition!

Juliana had me go to two malls to get the exact shirt she wanted, it says "Daddy's Little Girl".  She also had on Daddy's Girl necklace.

Full moon rising...

I decided to try a few shots of the full moon the other night for the first time, there's definitely room for improvement, but it was fun trying to capture the correct exposure.

A great winter...

Anyone that knows me or that has ever came into contact with me knows that I HATE WINTER!  That was me yelling from the tree tops!  Thankfully this winter has been fabulous (considering we live in Connecticut).  It hasn't gotten too cold and we've barely had any snow, yay!  Spring is just around the corner, even though winter hasn't been bad, I am still super excited for warm weather!

I hope we don't see any more of this:

Individual Nacho Appetizer... super easy!

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for some fun new appetizer ideas for Bunco night.  I found a recipe for Individual Nacho's and they sounded so good I had to try them.  I tweaked it a bit to make it my own, the best part is that it's a no bake recipe, you heard me right, you never have to turn on your stove!

Ingredients:

- One can of refried beans.
- One bag of Tostitos Scoops.
- One jar of Salsa (choose your own heat).
- One 8 ounce package of Mexican Cheese.
- Sour Cream (I used light sour cream).

It's best to have everything out and ready to do at once, I filled each one with all ingredients except sour cream, I saved that for last.  Grab a chip and first put in the refried beans, then a little salsa, next a sprinkle of cheese, and finally a dollop of sour cream.

And there you have it, a super easy, no cooking required appetizer.  My only advice would be not to make them too far ahead of time, the juices in the salsa can make your chips a bit less crunchy, these are best to make right before your guests arrive.

It's just money... right?

I was going through our book, I mean credit card bill from December and noticed a charge of $26.00 at the M&M store in New York City, and it reminded me how much we spent on candy at the store.  My kids love going there and picking what color M&M's they want to fill their little bags with, and even though they didn't buy too many, it still cost $26.00!  I could of bought a half a years worth at Target for that price, but the smile on my kids faces makes it all worth it, I mean it's only money... right?  At least that's what I keep telling myself!

Valentine Marshmallow Pops...

We usually make cookies around Valentines Day, but this year I tried to think outside of the box and look for something different.  I came up with Marshmallow Pops, dipped in red chocolate and topped with sprinkles.  The kids had a blast and they came out quite yummy!

All you need is chocolate to melt, marshmallows, sprinkles, and lollipop sticks.

We melted our chocolate in a fondue set, you can use the stove top or microwave as well.

We put a stick into each marshmallow and dipped them into the melted chocolate.

I  put down waxed paper so the chocolate could cool a bit.

To allow them to completely cool and the chocolate to harden we put them into glasses, and made sure they were not touching one another.

The kids had a blast, we'll definitely be making them for other holidays...  I am already thinking green for St. Patricks Day!

Simple Photography Lesson #2 -All About Aperture (AV Mode)

If you've read your camera manual and looked up photography online, you must of heard of aperture.  If you have not, aperture simply controls the amount of light the lens allows to reach the digital sensor (how bright or dark your pictures will be, and the amount of the picture that will be in focus).

The most confusing thing about aperture is understanding that the higher the number (f-stop) the less amount of light that will reach your picture.  The lower the number (f-stop) the more light that will reach your picture.  It's kind of backwards in your thinking as you would normally think the larger number the more light, but thats just not how it works.  So bigger number = less light, smaller number = more light.  The number I refer to is called an f-stop.

If you put your camera mode dial into AV mode you'll be able to experiment with with the different settings and amount of light into your pictures.  AV mode will set all your other settings for you (ISO, Shutter speed, etc... more about those setting later).

So the question is what aperture do you need with what picture settings.  Many people like the look of the blurred background, to achieve this you will set your f-stop to a low number, the lower the number the more light there will be on your subject and the more blur you'll have in your background.

This picture was taken with the f-stop set at 2.8 (the lowest setting on the lens I was using):

You will notice how the background is blurred to the point that you can't even make out what it is.  Now here is an example with the f-stop set at 22 (the highest for the lens I was using):

The focus is still on the subject, but you can see the trees in the background.  

The next question is when would you use a high number f-stop.  When shooting anything other then a subject directly in front of you, you would want a higher number f-stop.  When shooting a landscape or a group of people it's imperative to use a high number f-stop to keep everything in focus and to showcase all the details.  

I shot at each f-stop of the same subject so you could see the difference, there is only a subtle difference between some of the shots, but a big difference from the ones at the higher and the lower end of the scale.

Those were all shot in AV mode, which means my camera did all the other settings for me, I personally only shoot in M (manual mode) as I like to have complete control over my images, but AV mode is fine and really helps you learn and practice what different apertures will do to your images.

One final note, lenses are rated on focal length (the magnification distance) and their aperture value.  If your lens states that it's a 70-200 5.6, that means your maximum focal length is 200mm, and the widest aperture is 5.6.  

The smaller the aperture value the smaller the depth of field (more blur), and the larger the aperture value the larger the depth of field (less blur, more focus on the entire scene).  

I hope this lesson was simple and gives you a better understanding of aperture, of course the best way to really wrap your had around it is to practice, practice, practice.  Many point and shoot cameras have an AV setting as well, so your not limited if you don't own a dslr.