90 months!

While Mommy and Daddy are gallivanting in England, the boys are having a great time with Grandee and Larry.

Look at those smiles! I should probably hire Larry to take monthly pics from here on out, huh?

Not happy

I had a little pre-emptive 90th monthly photo shoot since George and I will be out of town on the 4th. (I’m also going to have Larry take a picture of the boys on the 4th, but this is my insurance in case the boys don’t cooperate.)

They were sad. I was sad. I miss my boys already.

(They perked up after I mentioned the many British souvenirs we’ll be bringing back for them.)

PS We will be taking advantage of being away from the house by having some work done on it. At random times. And we have an alarm system. And we have very attentive neighbors. So there.

Excuse me while I hyperventilate

Today is the last day of first grade. Um, excuse me? How did that happen, exactly? Well, those official “end of the year” pics will be coming later, so I can get photos of the boys with their teachers. But we had an end of the year play date after school yesterday with Miles’s class, and I got some nice pics of the boys. If I may say so myself.

and then Miles got in another tree by himself and the light was so pretty and I couldn’t resist.

This one’s my favorite. How lucky am I to have three that are this adorable?

The boys with Miss Claire, who taught Linus in PreK-4, Oliver in Kindergarten, and Miles in first grade. I’m not sure how I’m going to cope with not having her as one of our teachers!

Oh, Ollie and his weird smile. I think he’s really self-conscious because he hasn’t lost either of his front teeth yet.

Month 89: Our Nation’s Capital

Taken in Kiki’s backyard, in their souvenir t-shirts she got them.

Hey little dude!

This little guy was just hanging on our fence.

I seem to have become quite the nature photographer lately.

Month 88

You know what this means? Twelve months from today, we’ll be taking #100. Then, maybe I can consider stopping. (No, not really. As if.)

This month, we had a very special guest, all the way from Los Angeles! Give it up everyone, for COUSIN ELLIE!

Then and now

My brother and niece came to visit in August 2012, when Ellie was 7 years old (plus a few months.) We took a walk around the LSU campus (where my brother and I both went to school) and I took a picture of my brother with his daughter and nephews.

Today, Ellie is almost 10, and the boys are 7 (plus a few months) and we went back to LSU, visited Mike the Tiger again, and found the same bench in the quad for a reprise of that old photo.

Looking at the boys’ legs dangling above the ground in the first picture compared to today’s kind of kills me.

Cousins!

My brother made standing in a line, in birth order, into a game. Voila! Pics of the boys and almost all of their cousins. (Andrew is at home, but we’ll see him next month when we go to Virginia.)

Kids. (Mostly not mine.)

This is what happens when I pull out my camera around my friend Mary Catherine’s kids.

And then there’s my kid. Cooperate for a picture? I think not.

Zoo pics

Some more pics from the zoo yesterday. Still loving my new lens!

It’s funny because for the past seven years, we had zoo memberships but the boys weren’t interested in going. And when we did, it was mostly to ride the carousel or the train. So we let the membership lapse. But ever since they had their time at the zoo for school, they’re obsessed and have been dying to go back. So we renewed our membership yesterday and actually went around and looked at animals.

These are the photos that I think are good…

Some muddy animal. Linus could tell you what it is.

Turtles on a log. If you don’t look for the fence in the background, it could almost look natural. Ish.

Giraffe. (I guess I didn’t really need to label this one, huh?)

George the peacock. Apparently all the peacocks at Audubon Zoo are named George. (Foreman? Not sure.)

And here are the photos that I just find amusing.

They all wanted to pose in front of their favorite animals. Oliver is excited about the sun bear.

Miles loves the spider monkeys because they use their tails like hands. Linus was just ready.to.go.

Dancing in front of the Jaguar Jungle sign.

New lens fun

I recently decided to sell two of my lenses so that I could get a much better lens. I found a great deal on an L-series lens (which I’d previously only dreamt of, never imagining I would ever have my own) and pulled the trigger.

Canon 24-105mm f4 — Look at that gorgeous red band.

It’s a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L, and it’s exquisite. Yes, it doesn’t open quite as much as my beloved 85mm f1.8 that I traded in, but the photos are so crisp, I have absolutely no regrets. And now I have a much wider range of focal lengths than I had before.

One of the reasons I wanted to get this lens was so I wouldn’t have to lug around several lenses when we go to England this summer. I’m determined to only bring one carry on roller bag, so these are the tough decisions I have to make. Heh.

Here are a few very random shots I’ve taken with this lens. The weather’s been icky so I haven’t been able to play with it as much as I’d like, but in conjunction with my recent body upgrade (that’s camera body) I’m pretty smitten with photography again.

(You can click to view at full size to see how freaking clear they are!)