On Location With Mama

A couple weekends back my little lovees went on a photoshoot with me. Matt even sported the fisheye and got some great wide-angle shots. Quinn was amazingly good....let's face it, she is not the easiest kid in the world. She does not have much patience and she can be a little demanding. She isn't fond of sitting in her stroller--and even if you give her something to play with, she throws it. So we were shocked when she was content for over 2 hours with just a bottle of ice. It was H-O-T, too! It turned out to be such an enjoyable evening spending time with some of my very favorite people. I am editing the photos from the session and will post soon, as I know everyone will want to see our little lovebirds, Trent and Mayra!

At Mimi's

I can just hear her now...."NO, April! BACK, April." I think her favorite thing about April is she can boss her around. :) Isn't that the cutest pajama-clad toosh you've ever seen?

Thursday night I had a photoshoot and Matt and Q met me toward the end of it, as we were going to get dinner as a family. Quinn decided SHE wanted to be the star of the show instead of my clients. She was showing off like crazy...dancing, smiling, waving around my props, and just plain begging to have her picture taken!

Quinn and April

(thanks for pic, Mimi!)

Saturday night at the duck park rocks, in our book!

Another from school.....

"S'cuse me!"

Quinn says "s'cuse me!" so sweetly when someone is in her way. What nice manners. Except she thinks that saying the phrase means anyone and everyone needs to move out of her way. Case in point...We were at the pool and I had been sitting in one spot talking to my friend for about 15 minutes. Q comes over, says, "S'cuse me, Mama," and tries to push me out of my spot because she's decided she wants to be there. Silly girl!

TICK TOCK

Quinn has a cd of baby rhymes and songs that she absolutely loves. They use the same cd at her school and she seriously knows all 30 of the songs. The very second she gets into her carseat she starts yelling "TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK." That's her favorite song on the cd.....

She knows her colors!

I made her a little cat game....it goes with a song that says:
I'm Scat, the cat
I'm sassy and I'm fat
and I can change my colors
just like THAT! (snap fingers)

She loves playing with the cats and telling us their colors.

Fun in the Country!

We visited some friends that just moved out to the country. They have two girls who are now almost teenagers! Matt and I used to babysit them when they were a bit older than Quinn, so they're very dear to us! Of course since they live in the country there was all sorts of fun stuff to do! We braved the outside even though it was 98 degrees and H-U-M-I-D......While I drooled over Alejandra's garden (and harvested a few peppers, tomatoes and 4-o'clock seeds), the girls introduced Q to her first trampoline!

She was a natural! She jumped and jumped and jumped!

And talked the girls into jumping with her. And even Mommy had a few jumps until I was a sweaty, sweaty mess!

Quinn is so fun this summer because we are getting to introduce her to some of our favorite "summer things." Going on the "tramp" at friends' houses was how I spent a good portion of my childhood summers....so it was neat watching her learn the bouncy world of trampolining, too!

Jumping is hard work and it sure tires a girl out! She plopped down on Jacky's lap for a little break.

Then we explored the girls' fort! Quinn was totally obsessed with the stairs, of course!

There were baby chicks! 2 weeks old. The girls taught Q how to hold them. She held a black one and a yellow one. I told her "Don't squeeze it too tight" when her grasp around chicky's neck was a little too firm...so the rest of the time she has holding the chick she told everyone "too tight!" and shook her head no. And don't worry, Pirate the dog is quite the gentleman--he only gave the chicks a brief sniff, licked Q's leg, and went on his way.

Quinn said, "A kiss." Then she put the chick's whole head in her mouth. Not sure who has been teaching her how to kiss lately. The rest of us started laughing so hard we could barely keep standing. So of course she had to do it like 2 more times.

The girls worked with her for a couple minutes and convinced her to kiss the chick with a closed mouth. She tried this, and the chick decided "enough kissing!" and bit her on the lip. She thought about some tears, but put on a good show for the big girls and shook it off without even a whine!

She pointed out the feet, wings and beak for all who cared for a poultry lesson.

Quinn didn't hesitate about climbing in with the hens one bit. She was all about feeding them corn and watching them eat up! She didn't even mind when one pecked her shoe or when the rooster started crowing at her.

(click for fullsize)

Chasing Chickens!

And of course with all the kids in and out of the chicken coop, you know what happened...Quinn was more than happy to take a turn chasing the chicken back toward her home!

Good news on my desktop!

Yeaaa! Finally some rain! Look at my little weather-forecast application!! A thunderstorm! Quinn sang, "It's raining.......BUMPED HIS HEAD!" That's the only parts she knows, but she was oh-so-excited to have an occasion to sing it tonight!