Photo Ops

My camera cord greeted me at the door today.  Obviously, I took a lot of photos of the kids to play around with it and here are some of my favorites.  From Tessa's photo shoot:

 And here are some from the birthday party.  I love his face in this one.

 And the excitement over the Little Einsteins card from Aunt Cortny, Uncle Mike, and Elliott!

 Love the train conductor dress-up, hat and all!

 Yum, yum!  We were pleased Morgan chose a "boy" cake.  He does seem to enjoy most of Tessa's toys...

 Hooray, he did it!  Look at that grin!

 And a later, outdoor shoot with Tessa. Her hair is a bit crazy (I'll blame the wind) but I like the fuzzy background.

So, there you have it.  Morgan is two, and I have a new camera!

Sneak Peek

So Nate bought me my fancy camera (thanks, honey!) and we christened it at Morgan's birthday party.  And then I went to download the pictures and the camera kit came with virtually everything but a USB cord and none of the ones we had at home fit.  So...the camera cord was ordered online last night and should arrive tomorrow.  Until then, here are two I snapped on my phone.  The first is Morgan opening his present from Tessa (a playground ball).

 And the second was actually taken the next day, wearing his new boy train conductor outfit.  I'm not sure what he is doing, but every time we take his picture now he smiles, puts his finger by his mouth, and leans sideways.  Which will certainly make taking his two-year pictures fun!

And on that note, I am going to attempt to take them myself.  I've been playing around with the camera (a Nikon d3100) all week and have figured out some of the cool features, like how to blur the background, emphasize certain things, etc.  So far, it has been self-taught through reading the manual and watching how-to videos on youtube, though I will eventually take a class.  I am hoping to take the 2-year pictures this weekend and will post them afterwards.  Let's see what I can do!

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

Happy Birthday to You,

 Happy Birthday to You,

 Happy Birthday, dear Morgan,

 Happy Birthday to You!

 The cuddliest,

 most energetic,

 bug-loving,

 friendly,

 daring,

 playful,

inquisitive,

two-year old!  We love you more and more each day, little buddy!  Happy 2nd birthday!

Next Year Is The Year

Tessa frequents the 4-year old birthday party circuit that comes along with the daycare center. Today it was the Little Gym, but we've also headed to parties at various other venues. I think next year we'll have to bite the bullet and host a party, as she says, somewhere other than our house. These were all from today, and I will say, she had a great time! A lot of the parents just left their kids and came back afterwards, which I have to say, freaks me out a bit. Not only is Tessa my shy one, but I also had never met these parents before. I ended up staying. I think Tessa would have freaked out if I had left, and I got to spend some time with other moms and dads who were waiting as well.

The whole crew!
Tessa sitting next to the birthday boy while he opened her present.
So I guess that gives me about 9 months to plan the next birthday party...

Another Easter Egg Hunt

Disclaimer: Blogger started these stupid automatic ads. I don't like them. Clicking on anything that is hyperlinked takes you to an ad. Anyone know how to turn this off? I couldn't figure it out...

We had a great Easter. Really. There was a ton of kid-friendly activities, I got some one-on-one time with both kiddos, and we did a lot of Easter egg hunts, which means my classroom candy bucket has now been restocked! I've been debating whether or not to purchase a fancier DSLR camera to take photos of the kids and was set on getting one, until Nate pointed out a Wall Street Journal article to me titled, "Is the iPhone the only camera you need?" Which really made me second guess my decision. So I played around a bit with some editing features this week trying to help me make a better decision. Here is one of them: (Tessa and Anna at Anna's church Easter Egg Hunt)

And here is the Bullock family Easter egg hunt line-up. The kids all looked so cute in their Easter finest!

Later that day, we headed to my Aunt Sally's for another Easter celebration and egg hunt.

And that was Easter in a nutshell. This week, Tessa was chosen as the star student at preschool. She was so excited to pick out pictures for the bulletin board at school. Here it is:

And perhaps the cutest thing she did this week was color a picture for our dog. She wrote Lucy's name on it, signed hers at the bottom and disappeared. A few minutes later I found her taping it into Lucy's cage. I thought it was hysterical! She thought Lucy would like to look at it while we weren't home. I think she was right...

And lastly, one moremore "edited" shot from the smartphone ap.

I think we'll probably still get the fancy camera...especially since someone I work with just referred us at daycare and we get a $500 bonus. Sounds to me like I already have a use for it!

Easter EGGstravaganza!

Kids R Kids hosted an Easter EGGstavanganza last night, which was the perfect kick-off to our long weekend! Morgan LOVED the Easter bunny. Loved. Loved. Loved. He must have hugged the Easter bunny at least 50 times. There were activities hosted in each room, and somehow he kept making his way back to the bunny. He even went back to the bunny after doing the egg hunt to show the Easter bunny his eggs. Tessa took awhile to warm up, but eventually did and doled out several hugs of her own!

The snack was decorate-your-own graham crackers with sprinkles and marshmellows. Yum!
One of many hugs...I kept missing Tessa's hugs, as they were shorter in length.
One of the activities - blown up Easter eggs and hula hoops. Lots of fun!
My girl :)
The Easter egg hunt on the playground.

And there you have it! I love that the center has seasonal evening activities, as it is nice to meet some of the other parents and for me to see how much my children enjoy going there. This afternoon, we're off to Run, Jump, and Play followed by making Easter candy and dinner at my mom's. Happy Easter!

Rounding it out...

Our spring break that is. Today marks 9 weeks left in the school year, with several 4-day weeks thrown in there, so I think it will go fast. Spring break is always such a tease of the summer that is to come. Alas, it will be here sooner than we think. Tessa was disappointed last night when I told her she would be going back to school today. I think both kids enjoyed there time off, as we kept busy. I did some great workout classes at the gym each morning while they played and then we always headed out for an adventure of some sort. One of those was a visit to Gym Nation in Mason. It is a gymnastics place that also has the four-story slide/climbing/maze tower. I played too as Morgan wasn't tall enough to master some of the obstacles. Surprisingly, it ended up being a bonus workout too.

Tessa really wants to take gymnastics, so perhaps we'll get her started there this summer! I also LOVE being home during naptime. Since we closed on our house November 1st, Nate has been parking in the driveway, and I am pleased to say that Tessa and I used one of Morgan's naps to make room for Daddy's car. It was quite a project and involved a lot of trips to the storage, but our mission is accomplished!
I also made homemade Easter baskets. I found the link on pinterest several weeks ago and took the kids to pick out their own fabric. Tessa chose Easter eggs (left) and Morgan chose a Charlie Brown/Snoopy print (right). They ended up pretty cute, but if I were making it again, I would definitely make them bigger. I didn't realize the instructions were for such a small basket.
But they used them for the first egg hunt of the season at our church. Tessa was really into it. Morgan, eh, not so much. He preferred to sit and eat a snack, but did eventually get up to find an egg. (They were already gone by this point, but a kind volunteer scattered a few for Morgan so he had something to "hunt").

And we rounded out the break with a visit to the Children Theatre of Cincinnati's Rapunzel. It was a ladies day: my mom, myself, and Tessa. I will say that Tessa enjoyed the experience of going downtown and wearing her Rapunzel dress, she was a bit confused at the play. It wasn't the Disney version of Rapunzel, and therefore my girl was a bit confused. My favorite was about 3/4 of the way through the play she leaned over and asked, "Mommy, when is Flynn going to come and cut Rapunzel's hair?" She also enjoyed posing at this fountain in front of the Chiquita Center.


Happy Spring! Nine week countdown to summer and Disney World!