a look at her eyes...and through his.

pinterest is proving it's worth in countless ways...and i've only been a member for, like, a month.

i checked out some photography pointers for bringing out the eyes in a photo.

and who better to practice on than the sweet pea.  she is really the only one who has the patience for my camera being shoved in her face at every turn.  plus...i promised her a reward if she would traipse around the yard with me...experimenting with shadow and sunlight.

technically...you are supposed to use a light reflector shade and also be able to do some touching up with photo shop...but i don't have either of those.  so these babies are all natural. 

she has really unique eyes.  they are not really a specific color...which makes them hard to highlight.  the outsides of her iris are dark blue and then as you get closer to the pupil...they turn from blue to hazel.  and...one is lighter than the other.  in order to fully appreciate the color...she has to be looking at the sun...which makes for a squinty photo.  i used to turn her highchair toward the window when i would feed her when she was a baby...just so i could study her eyes.

i just love those eyes.

this particular night...we went to top water grill.  chad...nor i had ever been there before, so we didn't know what to expect.  all we knew was that the restaurant had been featured in southern living magazine.  so it had to be good.

and it was.

the highlight of mine and annslee's meal were the hush puppies.  she kept saying,

"uuuuppiiiiieeees."

the highlight of chase's and aiden's was the ginormous fishing poles.

the girl could catch some serious fish with this baby.

it is always a little uncomfortable when strangers go out of their way to talk to my children.  and that just makes me so sad.  this man had been sitting at the bar with friends...and got off his stool to come and talk to annslee.  he was so kind and complimentary and it's a shame that...as a parent...i constantly find myself questioning people's motives.

it's just not the way our world was supposed to be.

they played a serious game of air ping pong.

and then we hit yogurt bear.  who doesn't love yogurt?

chad's dad and his wife got the meal.  my parent's got the yogurt.

generosity is a thread that weaves deeply in and out of both sides of our families.  and that example pays off in tangible ways.

like when you witness your 11 year old give some of his birthday money to a "feed the poor" table outside of walmart on his birthday.  i had to tell him that it was ok to not give it all away.

sister was hungry and decided to take things into her own hands.

and...she enlisted a helper.

yesterday, the kids had a holiday from school...so i tried to come up with something fun for us to do that didn't involve spending any money.

picnic in the backyard it is.

i layed out the blanket...prepared the lunches...and announced to meet me in the backyard.

that's where i instantly became majorly irritated due to the wind blowing everything everywhere...making it nearly impossible to eat.

the blanket blew in the food...the soda cans blew over on the blanket...our hair was in our mouths.  it was a mess.

i started getting all irrational about how everything i try to do ends up a hot mess...

and then i looked at the kids.

they didn't care that the blanket now had food all over it.

they didn't care that the soda cans had tipped...or that their hair was in their faces.

because, you see...

superman can really get some good flying done in weather like that.

and that's what really mattered to him.