Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Wheels and Strawberries

This week is a very busy one for us. We're getting a new roof on our house, almost finished today, and as luck would have it we had two very big events to keep us out of the house most of the afternoon and away from the roofers.

Here are the boys watching the conveyor belt as they moved the roofing supplies to the roof. They were fascinated, but at a safe distance. When they were outside watching they got scared.

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Later that day we went to the annual wheel-a-thon at Erik's preschool. I was thinking about this event and it really isn't a big deal for the M/W/F crowd as most of the kids are leaving the school this next year. Erik definitely won't be there again. We still have two more years through Elliot so I asked for donations and went with full enthusiasm.

This event is organized chaos and as luck would have it, this week is very hot, and so was this event. It didn't stop the bike riders. Red faced, huffing, hungry, they kept on biking. Poor Elliot had to sit with me most of the time and looked longily at the bikes. He REALLY wanted to ride a bike in the wheel-a-thon.

Gearing up for the big race everyone was excited and Erik could hardly contain himself he wanted to ride his bike at school very badly.

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Then they were off and riding in circles at school. In the meantime Elliot and I bought pizza and drinks and ate them watching Erik. He had enough kids to talk to and play around with to be happy for a limited time. Once he spotted the bounce house upstairs I couldn't keep him around anymore.

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Snow cones were perfect for a hot day of riding bikes.

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Erik's medal for participating. Unfortunately we lost it that day, but luckily Erik has completely forgotten about it. Better not show him this picture!!

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As if the wheel-a-thon wasn't enough excitement, the very next day Erik's mommy & me school had a field trip to Underwood Farms to go on a tractor ride and pick strawberries. I was thinking, leading up to this, how perfect an activity this is for Elliot who is fruit and animal obsessed and how it wouldn't be that big of a hit for Erik. I was right on the money. Erik went along with it and by the end was sitting by me crying in exhaustion, but Elliot could have kept on going all day if I let him.

So while we were waiting for all the parents and kids to arrive we played on hay, climbed hills and looked at animals. A perfect way to start. Unfortunately Elliot fell running the down the hill and got a bloody nose and I had no wipes for the dried blood. Excuse his nose in the strawberry pictures.

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Then we took a tractor ride to pick strawberries. My only lens I brought didn't work on the tractor so only a iPhone photo which I posted on Facebook.  The boys got really into picking strawberries. We had three baskets to fill and the boys were very picky about finding the reddest strawberries and filling their and my basket. Seriously, I have to do this again, they LOVED it a ton.

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Then back on the tractor I let them eat a strawberry. Elliot chose to hold his and Erik chose to have a taste.

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Then we had lunch before heading off to look at all the animals and the other amenities that Underwood offers. There are a lot and it costs a lot of money. Its only $3 to get it, but they get you other ways.

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This picture is fun for me because everytime we are here I take a picture of each boy in this window. We haven't been here in about 1.5 years so here is our updated picture.

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We mostly wandered around the farm looking at the features but it was SUPER hot, like almost 90 degrees hot, so we were miserable. I didn't want to wait in line for anything and the boys weren't super pushy about wanting any rides. Eventually they did ask to ride the tractors. Elliot as usual quit and hated it and Erik rode it but without enthusiasm. Basically they were over the farm quickly. Erik was so tired by noon he was almost hysterically in tears and begging to go home, but Elliot was having too much fun in the train to leave. When I finally got them in the car Erik was asleep in mer minutes which is unusual for him these day. Definitely a hot day at Underwood.

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About Heather

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I am a Los Angles based photographer and mom of 2 wonderful boys. Photography has been a passion of mine over 15 years now, ever since I picked up my first camera in journalism school and started developing my black and whites in a darkroom. The instant an affordable DSLR came out on the market in 2002, I had to have one and have been shooting digital since. Once I became a mom I realized how much I enjoy photographing children and how much better I could understand their nuances so it became a passion of mine. Their is such innocence and beauty in their pictures and I feel privileged to be a part of that. I am constantly trying new approaches and tuning my skills to create the art that is in my head, not just the art that I can create right now. I am very interested in off camera flash, and the depth and clarity it adds to my photographs. Sometimes I take breaks from my blog and photography, but it seems to never leave me completely. I always come back.