Favorite Photo Friday - " Milana's Gotcha Day! "

August 9th is Milana's Gotcha Day! And we are 3 years home with our littlest munchkin.


And in 3 years, Milana has gone from almost shutting down and not even walking at 22 months (!!) to this - spunky, bright, charming, grabs your heart tight and will not let it go - child who has found her rightful spot in our family and in this world.

It's been quite a ride.

To celebrate our Milana's Day, we went out to dinner with our dear friends who share the same special days. (Our 2 families traveled to China twice together and both our 2 daughters share the same gotcha days. And, if you don't know our story......our eldest girls were from the same place and knew each other since infants and are best friends ever since and our littlest, while not from the same province, still share the same day and they too have become holy terrors best friends!

It really is a fairy tale story that we ought to write one day. Such a rare bond that very few people share.

(Joining Lisa and friends at The Long Road to China.)

(Now...about that first picture at the top...the family one. I get asked a lot how I manage to get everyone in the same picture with me in it too. So....here's the madness recipe. Set up the scene, warn the troops...." it picture time!" WHAT? AGAIN? , get someone to sit in the sweet spot so I get my focus....oh....camera is on tripod of course, put the camera setting on delay shooting - 8 seconds, press the shutter, yell "sckoosh over so I can get my bum in.....here we go....now smile!!".

And that's it!

Another year has passed with this most interesting child in our midst, who lately just makes me stand back in delighted wonder at just how she is blossoming.

From "cling-on" child who lived on my right leg for over a year to "Miss Wild Thang" to " get ready world...cause Milana has arrived" so brace yourself .

She is all that and soooo much more.

She's our love bucket......
.....our beloved daughter! 

Sunday Snapshot - "Our favorite park"

Though we don't go nearly as often as we'd like....when we do get to our favorite nature park - it never disappoints. 

And it's especially great when we get to share it with our great friends.

My friend Helen and I  have brought our kiddos to this park since the first ones were wee little......in strollers. We will never tire of it....as long as the kids don't. And there's no sign of that happening anytime soon.

There is just so much to see and do....and it's practically in our back yard.

 
This was just a sprinkling from our visit the other day. I'll try and post more later this week.

Joining Stefanie and some other great bloggers for this Sunday Snapshot post.

Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: 28-75mm F/2.8
Aperature:  f/2.8 - f/8
Shutter: 1/160 and faster
ISO: 200

Happy Sunday!
xoxo

Tuesday.....around the world. "Crazy for bubbles"

Absolute, unabashed joy!!!  What is summer without bubbles and lots of them. And when they're huge like these ones......even better.

Hey....I get more as excited as they do only I have to hold the camera still to catch a few shots. The size of these  bubbles alone were awesome.

Still lots of summer left on the calendar AND in my girlies. 
Happy last day of July!
xoxo 

Join in or just take a peek at some other happenings this
Tuesday.......around the world.

 

Tuesday.....around the world - "More flowers"

One very cool thing about having a Florist as a Bestie is I get to pop into her Floral Studio anytime I want and capture some of her beautiful flowers.

I recently did a shoot of some of her wedding and bridal arrangements (swoon) and I'll share those once she gets them up on her website. (I won't "out" them until she has the chance to....though I'm mighty tempted.....)

Just look how the middle point of this rose comes to a peek. You could almost miss this because of the captivating color and design of each petal.

I've planted many rose bushes in my garden through the years, and besides just gazing at them or strolling by and breathing in that intoxicating fragrance - what I love most is to take a rose petal.....place it right up to my nose and breath in very deeply. The petal kind of goes up your nose....but it's so soft....like puppy's ears....on the inside. 

It's just one of my little "things".

Enjoy a little tour around the world now.

Tuesday...around the world. "Monkeying around"

With a slightly looser schedule and the kiddos home for the summer....our closets and drawers were calling out to us so loud,  we couldn't ignore it any longer (though we gave it our best shot.....)!

And you know what happens when you start cleaning out, sorting, purging etc? 
You find.....TREASURE!!!

And what could be better than finding mama's old hats and shoes?


Maybe that's where the expression - "hitting the mother lode" comes from.

I seem to recall doing the same as a kid. Opening my mother's old trunks was like finding the jewels of the Nile.


Not much has changed.

(I'm posting these pictures....not for their quality, obviously, but for their joy factor which hits the top for me.)

Enjoy a little trip around the world now.

Sunday Snapshot

I have yet to find a flower  that doesn't absolutely fascinate me.

What an amazing engineer who designed these beauties I found in a friends backyard. 

Nikon D300

Lens 28-75mm f/2.8

F2.8

1/160

ISO 320

75mm

Maybe I should rename this post...."Short and sweet Sunday"! 

But sometimes....words are superfluous...don't you think?

Have a great start to the week.

xoxo

Favorite Photo Friday - BFFs

(Milana, above, looking pretty in her party dress....chewing her fingernails which is her habit lately. Hmmm....must try and break that.)

 

It was a week of birthday parties and celebrating good friends here. Dahlia and Milana have the most amazing friendship with Angel and Georgia.

(Georgia as she turned 4 this week with her bff - my Milana.)
 
When my dear friend Helen and I traveled to China together for our first daughters, we never imagined how close our girls would become. They were friends in the same orphanage and have become inseparable ever since. 
They just adore each other!

(Angel and Dahlia - BFFL's as they like to say. Best friends forever for life.)

So even though our second trip to China brought our two families to different provinces (much to our great disappointment) we never could have anticipated that our second daughters would fall in love with each other so intensely like they have.

(Georgia getting smooched by Milana. It's funny, but both my girls are huggers and they hug intensely. We have so many pictures of their hugging and kissing...I need to get them all together in a collage.)

It's really the most amazing bond and attachment that only seems to be growing deeper. We could not have wished for more.

 

(why yes....that is a tattoo on Milana's little arm. They had been playing around with them the day before and I'd washed them off at bath time only to discover, too late, that I'd missed this one. I hate dislike tattoos on kids, especially little girls in pretty white dresses, but...oh well....at least it was a cute little birdie and not a skull. )

Great friends are so important (I can't imagine my life without mine) and we're so very glad our girls have found each other and have become so close.






It's Friday!! I booked off this week - no shoots, so I thought I would catch up a bit. Ummmm.....NOT!! But I made a dent into the pile of work waiting for me at least and even got a bit of housekeeping done too. Both girls have been home for 2 weeks now so it's harder to get chunks of time alone but...it's summer and our schedule is looser - even got to sleep in a few times. Woohoo!

Happy Week-end !
xoxo