Meredith's First Holy Communion

The weather on First Communion is always up-in-the-air...we're always praying for no rain... and, thankfully, it didn't!  It was a little cool and very windy which made for some entertaining outside pictures. 

Meredith read a petition for the prayers of intercession and did a great job.  

All four of our daughters have worn my wedding veil with their First Communion dress...I have loved that tradition.  I thought someone would not want to wear it somewhere along the way, but they all have been excited to participate in the tradition!  Or at least they're good at playing along :)

It's such a beautiful sacrament and this was our last child to receive it so that made it bittersweet...

We had a nice party with about 40 total people here.  The food was gone - either we didn't plan very well or it was really good!!

Easter 2014

We spent Easter weekend in Cleveland this year.  The kids really enjoy being with their cousins and a house full of 9 kids is pretty exciting!  

We visited the West Side Market in downtown Cleveland which was so cool - I wish I would have taken some photos of it.  It is huge and has so many vendors, it could take a whole day to get through it all. 

The Easter Bunny in Cleveland leaves the eggs outside...way more fun that way.  

We enjoyed a beautiful Easter Mass and it was a gorgeous day being sunny and about 75 degrees.  

Texture Tuesday, Volume 16

Linking up with Kim today for Texture Tuesday - the theme this week is yellow.

We went to Holland, MI for the Tulip Festival the day after Meredith's First Communion.  It was a nice day...could have been a little warmer...could have been a little less windy...but, it wasn't raining.  Most of the tulips were not in bloom yet, but we found a couple of patches on 8th Street that were in all of their glory!

edited with kk_0312

Happy Tuesday everyone and have a great week!

Texture Tuesday, Volume 15

update:  well...wow...I posted this Monday night wondering why Kim never posted a Texture Tuesday post.  I was worried that something had happened in her camp!  Here's the official link -


I'm getting this in late, but...better late than never, right?!

Joining Kim today for Texture Tuesday...even though there isn't a link for today...I hope everything is okay. 

I used kk_ruemarion, kk_way and kk_cora to edit this...and added a sepia filter, increased contrast and decreased saturation.  If you mouseover the image you will see the SOOC shot.

I looks vintage...I like it.

Have a nice week :)

Spring!

I love to shoot flowers...did you know?

Even though I have been using some expensive, and supposedly better, camera equipment lately, I am still very pleased with the quality of pictures produced by my 6 MP camera :)

I used a 4+ macro filter on my 18-55mm lens for some of these...

Getting ready

I am going to be teaching a couple of camera classes at work and so I have borrowed some full frame cameras to get used to shooting with them and using their menus. 

It's been great! 

I have used the 50mm f/1.4 lens each time and I love it.  Its capabilities in low light are amazing.  I really don't like using flash if I don't have to. 

We took it to the park with us to try it out...

Spring Break 2014

We are lucky to live about an hour and a half from Chicago because that is our go-to place for any kind of vacation.  It can easily be a one day trip.  

We bought a membership last year for the Shedd Aquarium (only $10 more for our family to buy a membership vs. a one-time visit!).  We went to our favorite exhibits and then went to the Museum of Science and Industry.  Now we have a membership there for the next year!  

As part of the membership, we got to tour the U505 which was amazing.  The kids really enjoyed it too and we talked a lot about it on the way home.