Bright and Shiny Theme

Something about this photo just tickled me so. So playful and vibrant. And I loved the title so I am using it as the inspiration of this weeks theme...STAR.

While you're over there, browse through Dale's Flickr stream. I'm always so inspired by her work. Sigh.

Shine on!

The Happiest Walk on Earth

Last week my family and I had the opportunity to attend a Parent Blogger Reception at the happiest place on earth. Yep. And considering the yummy food, the sweets, the kid's crafts and the chance to experience Disney's Halloweentime, we were pretty happy.

For the family, the fun was just being there but for me, it was that I got to be there with a bunch of other mom bloggers like Kirsten, Mandy, Elaine and Y ! I love when that happens and I will tell you, it doesn't happen nearly enough. We had a ball hanging with Mickey and Minnie and dancing with Belle and Chip and Dale. Maria Bailey of Blue Suit Mom and newbaby.com fame (among like a gazillion other amazing achievements) hosted the event in conjunction with Disney. Thanks Maria for inviting us! It was great.

After we gorged ourselves we got to attend the Halloweentime extravaganza at California Adventure. We WALKED

and trick or treated

and WALKED some more. We danced...

and WALKED again. When is was all said and done we were all pretty tired. Happy but tired.

Where did you WALK this week?

A Worthy Walk

I recently caught wind that Moreena and her family are helping pull together the Bloomington Liver Wellness Walk and Fun Run for a fantastic cause. I have written a little about Annika before (dang that girl is something else!) but thought it'd be a good time to talk some more.

If you are interested in helping out a very worthy cause, in honor of this very special girl and her awesome family, please get behind Team Annika and lend some financial support.

And, in case you didn't guess, the theme to shoot for this week's Thursday's Theme is WALK. Mostly because I'd way rather WALK than run any day. And in cases like this, both walking and running are a worthy thing to do.

Wide Angle Fun

It's time this photo mama gets herself a new lens. I decided before I take the plunge and plunk down some serious cash, I would rent a few different lenses to see what fits me. Last weekend I test drove a Canon 17-40, 4.0. Glory be ladies, that was fun! I'm so used to my fixed 50 that the WIDE angle option was really liberating.

I was about 1 foot away from my daughters feet when I shot this one. Now, that's WIDE.

Share with us your angle on WIDE.

A Sizable Theme

WIDE.

Interpret that!

Ritual in the Rain

You know I was planning on doing something wonderful like what Jen did (the whole inspiration behind today's theme) but I didn't. Instead I reflected on the one Rainy Day we've had in months and what kind of day that was.

My Best Shot this week showed the boots but my interpretation of RITUAL is better told perhaps by a portrait of a little someone we found on our rainy day walk. Mind you the boots and umbrella were out at 7am and we began our stroll not much later (like we always do in the rain) but long before the neighborhood awoke; quietly conversing about our observations and sharing our thoughts and we discovered the critters and creatures that were up with us in the early morning hours.

I think what makes this RITUAL special for us (rainboots and nature walks) is that it doesn't rain very often here so when it does, it's something to celebrate, something to mark with time spent between a mother and her daughters walking in gratitude of what Mother Earth offers us.

Let's Go Let Go

Since reading this post by Jen Lemen, and enjoying her beautiful images,I have been musing about doing my own sort of symbolic ritual to rid me of my roadblocks (aka fears).

In light of that, I would like this week's theme to be RITUAL.

There's something magical about that word, isn't there?

I'm Feeling This Theme

Since my girls have both been in school full time (have I stressed the magnitude of those 2 little words--full time?) I have felt nothing but the overwhelming and glorious feeling of FREEDOM. Perhaps some may call that callous or cruel as maybe I'm supposed to be lamenting at how I miss them being home. Well ladies, not this mom. I haven't had this much time at my disposal in TEN years. TEN. I am thankful for every minute I have to myself.

My take on today's THEME was shot in my car, while I was just about to leave the coffee shop to pick up my daughter from school. I caught a glimpse of myself in the reflection of my laptop and I liked what I saw.

Me as a free woman.

And you?

A Theme to Live By

FREEDOM.

Three for Thursday

We all love to play Yatzee around here. And who knew it'd be a game that could cover the entire span of ages of our family? My oldest and I play by the rules (large straights, small straights, rolling for threes, full houses, Yatzee!, etc) while my youngest rolls the dice and shouts out Yatzee phrases at random. My favorite is when she yells, "open house!". I don't have the heart to correct her. Once she throws her THREE rolls, she likes to add little circles in the score pad squares. It's really cute!

Here's a shot that I thought worked perfectly for this weeks theme.

What photo games did you play for this week's theme?