Birthday celebration

When Hannah's 10th birthday came around on October 5th, my computer was down--failing hard drive--so I couldn't post pictures of her on her special day. Then, when my computer was "fixed" a week later, I was way too busy to post about her birthday. So, here is a re-cap of the morning she turned 10:

I'm not really sure why she is laughing so hard here....I didn't buy her a funny card...

She got some temporary tattoos...

A Hello Kitty shirt...

And a video recorder.

I had to take this picture of Emily. Even though she was excited to help me pick out Hannah's present, she sure wasn't excited to watch her be the center of attention! Emily has trouble with not being jealous of Hannah at times...

Later that night, after Emily's soccer practice, we headed to Golden Corral (her choice) for dinner.

Of course, you all know that last weekend we celebrated with the Heckles. This weekend, the Durbins came over (minus Sean, even though I purposely planned the party so Tanya's kids could come and then she lets him go to a camp out...)

I love those 2 pictures of her (she is wearing an old Halloween costume, by the way. I also invited Bryan and his kids to the party, and all the girls were playing dress up)

Kaleb who couldn't wait to leave...

Hannah and her Great Grandma Gigi...

Hannah and Liza...

Hannah and her mom...

Oh wait, nope. No Durbin ever takes my picture (or even brings a camera to document the lives of my kids...I'm not bitter)...

So there you have it. A little run down of Hannah's 10th Birthday celebration.

A few more

Here are a few more pictures of our cute babies...again, not so sharp...:-(

I took these pictures of the trees the day we had the storm...the sky was dark and the tops of the trees just seemed to glow, and the colors were so vibrant...

but as usual, my pictures disappoint me...i really can't wait to take a class to learn how to take better pictures!

Some cute babies

I've been trying to practice using my new lens with some so-so results.

Here is Avery at Mom's house. Cute, but somewhat blurry.





This one was also taken at Mom's.



The next 2 pictures were taken at Hannah's birthday party.

(I think I'm going to buy a diffuser for my flash!)

Mya at Hannah's birthday party...I love when she stands like this...she is becoming such a little person now.

Isn't he just soooo cute! This was just after he used the potty at Mom's house.

I was so hoping this would turn out when I took it...I like the white space on the left and where his head is (although, his head could be further down...), but it didn't come out very sharp...:-(

So, those are my pictures of the cute babies in the Heckle family. Stay tuned, though. There are more to come!

Karate Halloween Party

Tonight the girls went to a Halloween Party at their karate place. It was a great dry run for both the costumes and my new lens (YEAH!! It came super fast. I found it sitting on my front porch yesterday). The costumes turned out pretty cute but I have a bit of a learning curve with the lens. I have to watch where it is focusing...I have quite a few out of focus pictures (like only Emily's big red nose is in focus!)

Any way, here is how they are dressing for Halloween...

Emily, a scary, dead clown...

Hannah, a dead bride...

Unfortunately, Hannah's pictures are victims of my poor focusing...I put her in the sun to catch the sparkle in her hair...not a good choice on my part!

As soon as Hannah and Emily learned they could take friends to the party, they invited Maggie who dressed as a Hippie (her full body picture got damaged in the upload somehow)

All together...

This picture makes me laugh because they are each trying to "get into character." They posed themselves like this...

Hannah is begging for her man to marry her...

We picked up some of the costume supplies in between Emily and Hannah's game, so, of course, Emily wanted to wear her wig and her nose so Jo Ann (who came to Hannah's game) could see them.

It was fun fixing them up for this party and now I'm kinda looking forward to Halloween.

GASP!!!!

OMG!!! I can't believe I just spent $349 on a new lens for my camera....

I did some soul searching on my secret blog and came up with 5 new goals (kinda similar to the ones I posted a couple of weeks ago but bigger and bolder and more out of my box). One of these goals has to do with photography (won't share it all just yet) and this is a HUGE step for me toward reaching that goal...

I'm giddy and nervous and scared and hesitant and a whole bunch of things right now. I actually took a step toward making (dare I say it???) a dream come true!

Go me! :-)

Happy Day Off!

Hannah and Emily were off school today (I think it was teacher in-service), so I decided to take the day off too. Originally, Ray was scheduled to be off as well, but since he took this new job, his day off was cancelled. Bummer. Especially since he didn't take one day off all summer and he leaves tomorrow morning and won't be back for 10 days.

It was a nice day, though, with me and the girls staying up late last night watching T.V. and then sleeping in this morning (I didn't get up until 9:00). Around noon we headed to the park for a picnic lunch. (We invited Ray, but as usual, work came first, so he was a no-show)

We stopped at Popeye's for what turned out to be an expensive lunch ($15.00!) and Kroger for some beverages, and headed to Julief's (if that's how you spell it)--the same spot where we had our first picnic in June.

It was soooooo relaxing sitting in the shade on such an awesome fall day!

I sat (sometimes lounged) and watched the girls play on the playset and the soccer field and graded some papers (proving there is no real "day off" for teachers, especially during the school year).

But, it's days like today that make it REALLY hard for me to go to work the next day...Hopefully this blissful feeling from today will be enough to get me through the next ten days.

Windmill Farm 2010

Today marks our second trip to Windmill Farm in Springboro. The last time we were there was in 2004 when Emily was only 2 years old and Dad had been gone for only a year. That's what I remember the most (besides a hilarious hayride) from our last trip--how so very sad I was then.


This time, I wasn't as sad. I did think of Dad quite a bit while there, but things have changed a lot since then. I mean, look how big our family has gotten! And it's still growing!


As I was editing these pictures, I decided to create a mini-album about today's trip and the first 2 pictures I posted will be the cover and the inside cover.





( I need to convert these pictures to match the others...)

Aaron



Avery



Avery giving us the finger...


Brian and Avery



Ed


The farm









The hayride
















































The pumpkin patch





















And the end






Just like last year, we had to skip out early to get to Hannah's soccer game, but unlike last year, we had warm, delightful weather that made today very enjoyable.