zoom mode and the rainy picnic.

rainy day at the whyte house.

hardly stopped the kids from playing.

it was so nice out,

and the swing set stays pretty dry since the trees block it,

so the kids went out to play.

and so did i.

in my class,

eric had shown us a shot of a crowd,

along with movement happening between the crowd.

the blurred effect was majorly cool.

so i got to practice my 'zoom mode'.

the rain started to pick up during lunch time.

so, i brought out a blanket

and we ate lunch under the covered patio.

i'm a firm believer that everyone should have a covered patio.

the kids dined on their fave rainy day food...

"long noodles" aka ramen.

haha.

the boy eats like...

well, a boy.

when emily was 1,

she use to laugh and laugh at her mama eating "long noodles",

slirping them up.

now she enjoys doing it herself.

nothing like a picnic.

germany,

the bowls have been deemed the "long noodle bowls".

i never put them in anything else but those bowls. :)

 

justin has been busy packing and shopping for his trip next weekend.

while he's busy,

i have time to get photos put together to print for him to take on his trip.

when he went to bahrain,

i sent a note for him to read each day during his 19 day stay.

i don't know if he'll have a photo for each day,

but he will at least have a note and some photos to open each day.

since he doesn't really look at the blog,

it makes it easier to surprise him! :)

we've been trying to do more family things.

fireworks last night.

fireworks on sunday with my sister.

i'm sure a date to china star will come up, too.

justin loves chinese and emily has been hounding me to go.

we have a free movie day with the officers coming up,

so we are taking the kids to see toy story 3.

emily below--this is the "but i want more noodles" hand sticking out.

the kids enjoy looking at themselves in the camera.

pre-fourth of july fireworks.

we wanted to do our fireworks a little early this year.

actually, this is the first year we've done them at our house by ourselves.

usually we go to justin's parents

or watch them at my sister's house.

i hate lighting fireworks.

i burnt my hand really bad the last summer my dad was alive.

he always lit them for us.

i never really enjoyed them after my dad died,

so it wasn't a big deal to me not to do them.

since we've had kids,

we've never really had any money to get any to do,

plus the kids hate the noise.

this is what doing fireworks usually looks like.

ears covered.

sadly, that's just for pop rocks.

our neighbors are getting ready to move to thailand.

our favorite neighbors, i might add.

we asked for them to come over and watch fireworks with us.

not much of a show with $6 worth of fireworks,

but hey.

scott and sarah have spent the last 2 days doing a moving sale at their house.

last night,

this yellow cabinet(pictured below) was sitting out by the street.

scott told justin if someone came by and stole it,

he'd be okay with that.

i told him i wanted it.

so i ran across the street,

paid him for it and brought it home.

he said it had been in his parents garage

and there had been a grinder sitting on top of it

at one time,

 his dad used it to sharpen blades.

love it even more.

it's gonna need a little rehab done to it to

make it safe for the kids.

the legs in back are splitting off,

so i may have to cut them off

and add casters.

i love the yellow,

so that will stay.

i want to get some paper to line the inside--

you know, something light that will show the spiders

if i open it and one happens to be in there.

haha.

(if my sister's read this, they'll laugh--they know how much i hate spiders!)

the boys-- older and cooler, seth.

he was 1 when we moved into our house.

i remember a very pregnant sarah coming over

to our house with scott and little seth

the first few days after we moved in.

you could usually spot him or his brother early in the morning,

moving the elderly neighbors newspaper from their yard to

their front porch.

simeon-- the lively one. :)

he usually came over to drop off stuff during the day,

as he wasn't old enough to go to school.

and last but not least, sheldon.

sarah and i were pregnant at the same time,

she being due before me.

i ended up having aiden a day before sheldon came.

both of us having c-sections,

in the same hospital,

rooms just down the hall from each others.

justin even visited them when we were there.

aiden and sheldon are very different in size.

aiden's huge!

he actually just had a check up on friday and he weighs 37 lbs(!!!!!)

and is 2 ft. 3 inches tall.

his weight is around 83 percentile for his age

and his height,

91 percentile.

definitely runs after my mom's side with the height!

sarah always says, "what a difference a day makes!"

haha.

little lone sparkler.

it wasn't actually this dark,

but i adjusted my cameras settings to make it darker.

we were suppose to do something like this for class.

i swear i don't know what i'm doing.

it's all luck.

eric, i hope that's along the lines of what you wanted!!!

justin accidentally lit all of the sparklers at once.

there were about 6 in his hand.

we had the hardest time getting them to light with the wand,

but they had no problems against the other sparklers. :)

enjoying the short little sparklers.

if it doesn't rain on sunday,

we'll do some more fireworks and photos

at my sister's house.

thanks for the last hoorah,

scott, sarah and boys!!!

in the theater.

okay.

i went.

and it was good.

(my bestest twi movie buddy and me at the warren oldtown)

it was missing a few of my favorite things.

and rushed,

but it was good.

the things i was worried about weren't as bad as i thought, either.

though there were a couple of "huh? what?" moments.

1. victoria--while not convincingly mean,

she did well.

i'm glad she was in it,

cause i loved riley and xavier samuel would not have

matched up well with rachelle lefevre.

he did a great job as riley.

2. all of the back stories were great.

rosalie.

the legends.

jasper.

oh, jasper.

amazing.

3. jake and bella scenes were great.

i always get sucked into their conversations.

the last one especially.

4. edward.

while i'm not a 'team edward' gal,

he was very emotional, believable.

oh, rob.

i don't know why i was ever worried.

the best edward performance to date.

kristen was great, too.

no stuttering.

stumbling.

clear and precise.

thankfully, jen and i had a great audience to watch the movie with.

the theater had more people in it than i wished for,

but it was pretty quiet.

no squeals.

laughter when it was appropriate.

a lot of guys present, as well!!

this is the best movie so far.

i say best as in "entertaining".

mostly true to the book,

but like i said,

missing some key ingredients.

'angry grizzly bears', for one.

oh, well.

just one.

morning trip to abilene today.

visited my sister carrie.

her little one is turning one in a few weeks!!

photo time!

buckets are fun to relax in.

and flip over.

a little doubtful of the whole blanket idea.

but he quickly changed his mind!!

cue the cousins.

little music lesson.

there's always that one kid that ruins things.

it's usually my kid.

aj's clapping tells me it was a successful visit. :)

hope you like the photos, carrie!!