Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Halloween Portraits








Tes as a fox and Meg as a bird.




Sally as a flapper.

Elliott as Ant Man.

 Zoey as Rey.



And Matias as Foxy from the game Five Nights at Freddies.

Love the painting his mom, Gaby, did:

Had fun doing these Halloween portraits and finally put together a website for my photo business.

Here's the link: http://shaunamh.wixsite.com/facefirstphotography

Someday I will buy a domain and get rid of that tacky site address.

Monday, January 30, 2017

Fall Break

10.10

The pumpkin weigh-off in Half Moon Bay had been on my bucket list for a few years.
Finally got to cross that one off.



Owen and Drew had zero desire to go on this adventure, but Owen's best friend Cal did.

There was a lot of down time in between pumpkin weighings.
Down time = bottle flipping time.
Please bless I never have to see another bottle flip in my life.

The pumpkins were massive, but I was expecting even bigger.
Cool to see once but probably won't be repeating this one.

Cal is a softy for August.
And fun fact: Cal's middle name is August.

We stopped by Arata's Pumpkin Farm on our way home to do their hay maze.
It was legit.
I worked through it with Auggie for awhile till he just got frustrated.
Cal gave up too and climbed over the top to get to the minotaur in the middle
who was handing out golden pumpkins.
Cheater cheater pumpkin eaters.
I am still frustrated that I never finished the maze.
So we WILL be repeating this.

August was really hoping for one of these $20+ balloon creations.

10.11
Took the boys fishing at a new spot in Watsonville.
They had high hopes, but didn't get even a nibble.

Since we were close to Gizdich, we had to stop for fresh apple slushes and pie.


10.14
The rest of the school break was spent with the kids doing sidewalk sales.
A super generous guy in an Audi R8 gave them a $100 bill the first day.
I heard a lot about both the car and the money.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Garland Ranch with August








10.4

I don't know if I need to explain anything more than what these pictures already say.
I had big plans to do a hike with August in Garland Ranch.
But after 1/2 mile and lots of pit stops, he was done.
Weather was perfect and it was still a good morning.
Love that place.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Beach, Bookshelves, Braces, and Soccer

9.2
First high school football game of the season.


9.3
Made the most of it and spent the day kid free shopping and eating in Palo Alto.

9.5
Labor Day at the beach for the kids and me.
Justin was awesome and drove 6 hours to pick up our new bed.
It was on a big sale at West Elm, and that was the only one in stock anywhere near us.
Happy day! Love it.

9.7
Sarah organized these shelves and made the most of our unattractive
Arabic, photography, and church-related book collection.
Wish I had taken a before picture. This is a HUGE improvement.

9.8
Braces day for Sally!
She'd had an expander in for a couple months (hence the big gap between her front teeth).


9.16
Back-to-school sports physical.
The nurse had him put on some HUGE disposable shorts.
Weird that he didn't want to pose for a picture.

9.17
Sally played soccer for the first time.
We had signed her up for an all-girls team in Pacific Grove.
She got assigned to a team in Carmel.
They gave her the option to switch to a local co-ed team.
Co-ed wasn't our first choice for her being new to the sport, but she went for it.
I was pretty proud of her for sticking with a team made up of kids from the other school here,
none of which were her friends.
Can't say that she contributed much to the team being undefeated,
but she was a great runner and had fun.

Her biggest cheerleader:

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

4 Going on 14

Present-opening view from outside the front window.
Got the balloons in an assorted pack at the dollar store.
They must have been rejects as there were some questionable shapes.

His favorite present of the day was a new scooter.
Side note: That scooter is a pro brand (Madd Gear) for a great price (compared to similar options).
It has held up awesome even with the older boys using it. Way better than rickety fold-up Razors.



I threw together a (very) last-minute party at Jumpin Around.
Every time we've gone in the past, bringing in our own food hasn't been a problem.
But of course that day it was.
Since I hadn't reserved a party room, Tyler came to the rescue with her pop up tent.

Which, yes, we used right outside the front door.


Desmond in all his glory.



Dinner of choice was Buffalo Wild Wings.
The tablets they offer was the draw for the kids.
The food...not so much.

We had cupcakes at Jumpin Around earlier that day,
but I was unprepared with a cake for the family.
Baskin Robbins solved that problem on our way home from dinner.



This crazy kid is still all of our favorite,