Backyard Fun

We had a fun Friday with the Wietrzykowski Boys! I suited everyone up to go play in the backyard after lunchtime. The kids played in the pool for a little bit and then wandered up to the swing set to play and then would go back to the pool... They played outside for HOURS and had a ball. I watched the following scenario play out with various kid combinations.

Lauren and Bohdan swinging and having a ball.

A stream of water can be seen in the right hand corner...

Ah ha! Stas has climbed up on the slide and is shooting the swing with his water gun.

Stas eyeing the pool to reload his gun.

And he's back!

Now Stas and Bohdan are swinging. Stas had Bohdan move over so he could grab the pole and get them swinging really high!

Here comes the water!

Climbing up to the water shooter spot.

A watering can isn't nearly as effective as the water gun.

Now Bohdan has hopped down and Lauren has taken his spot.

Stas is really focused on getting the swing going and Lauren looks a little uneasy.

Uh oh, here comes a water sniper!

Bohdan climbing up to get into position.

He's ready, but you'll notice his gun has NO water in it.

Lauren and Stas think they are about to get sprayed. Bohdan looks confused.

I helped him load his gun with water!

The lovebirds in the hammock.

Bohdan looking so peaceful!

Strawberry Picking!

This morning, without saying a word to Lauren, I got dressed and ready to go out for the day. I picked out some clothes for Lauren and said, "Would you like to go pick strawberries at a farm today?" Her eyes lit up and she was ready to run out the door in her pajamas!

We headed out the door with two baskets and directions to Beechwood Farms in Marietta, SC. It was a beautiful drive and easy to find with lots of signs guiding us in. Once we were on the farm, we were directed to go to row 3. Holy COW! So many rows and rows of strawberries! The moment we stepped out of the car, I could smell the sweet scent of strawberries. It was amazing.

Lauren and I set to work picking strawberries. I talked to her about which ones were the "perfect" ones (i.e. NOT the ones that were green, had a lot of white still on them, or ones that were OVERLY ripe and dark). She did so well! At one point she saw me eating a strawberry from my basket and her eyes got really big and said, "Why are you EATING the strawberries Mom?!" I told her it was ok to eat a few, but that we were going to pay for our strawberries so we shouldn't eat too many! From that point on, everytime I turned around she was gobbling up a berry.

We came home with so many strawberries it makes my head spin a little! Good thing we girls LOVE fruit! I see some freezing of strawberries and some strawberry freezer jam in my future!

Of course I took pics...

After we first arrived and Lauren had picked just a few berries.

Inspecting the quality of each berry.

Here's what happens when I say, "Smile at me!"

After she learned it was ok to eat some of the strawberries.

Up close, caught in the act

This shows how AMAZING the farm was!

My basket of berries.


I kept telling her we probably had enough, but she was addicted to picking!

Lauren the Photographer

Lauren and I set out today on a nature walk. I told her that I was going to teach her how to use my camera to take pictures of things she found along our trip that she thought were intriguing. Our lesson began with her taking a few pictures of me to get comfortable holding the camera, looking at the screen and pushing the button. After two shots, she was ready to continue on our walk. She put the camera strap around her neck, made sure she turned the camera off between shots, and was very deliberate about putting the lens cover back on each time. She was so cute! Of course my first thought was, "I need a picture of her with the camera around her neck...oh wait..."

Here are her first two practice shots:





We talked about the different types of trees we saw and different flowers (and some weeds!) along the way.

Beautiful Magnolia. I showed her the flower buds all over the tree and explained that very soon the buds would be big, beautiful, fragrant magnolia blossoms!

Azalea

Weed...errr...lovely yellow flowers!
After she took this photo, I showed her how to use the zoom button.

Same weeds...flowers...after the zoom was figured out

More azaleas. Next lesson will be learning how to focus better.

She loves azaleas!

After each photo, Lauren would show me and I would give her a critique. In this shot I said, "Do you see your shadow?" Then we talked about where she needed to stand to be sure not to have her shadow in the picture...

This was the follow-up photo! She zoomed in and moved her shadow! Nice job!

Dianthus

Oops...another shadow!

Take Two! She's learning!

Pretty little weeds...flowers.

Weed! a.k.a. clover blossom

We saw a black cat at the end of the street and Lauren tried to get a picture but was too far away.

But Mom got closer and got this sneaky shot!

All in all we had a great time and I think she did AMAZING for a little person! I'm a proud Mama and can't wait for more photo lessons with my junior photographer.