Poolside Party - Fun in the Sun!

These kids keep getting older and older!  I swear my niece looked like this just the other day:

Now here she is, hosting her very own pool party at the ripe age of 12 years! (that's her in the yellow wrap)

As guests arrived, they joined in on the fun in many different ways.  Some were tossed in pool rather unceremoniously:

 While others made their own way in:

 and still others chose to hang poolside:

One of the party highlights was celebrating the first losses of teeth for two of the cousins - here they show off what they gave up for the money they earned (something like $14 between them - damn!!)

One of the nephews appears to be morphing into a Dennis the Menace mode here:

While a sweet niece posed rather nicely for me:

Note to self:  Do not tell these kids to say "cheese" anymore.  They take things way too literally:

Now here we have a REAL slice of CHEESE!

...and a glimpse of some sisterly sweetness:

 ...and back to the CHEESE:

 ...more CHEESE:

 another glance at more sweetness:

After hours of swimming, snacking and sunning, the party girl was finally ready to settle back and do some gift opening:

 a very happy kid opening her new keyboard from Noni:

Of course, as is the custom around here, as soon as the paper, ribbons and cards are swept aside...the cake must make it's appearance.  Someone, I WON'T SAY WHO, was a little excited at the prospect of random crumbs falling to the ground:

Here is the birthday girl in all her glory:

While wandering the house later on I came upon this quaint scene of grandma helping the birthday girl set up her keyboard:

A lovely party day was had by all - I even managed to get one of those "awesome type" photos that come with a combination of luck, timing and many, many throw away shots before and after the winning one appears:

Stretching my artistic muscle

In between the endless kid parties, various vintage film showings at the Stanford and the ever present work, I take a lot of general photos of the nieces and nephews. August was a particularly busy month, camera wise. It's also the month I finally took the time to learn how to utilize some of the photoshop effects available for my use in gussying up the photos.

We begin with a so-so photo shoot of the 3 year old and soon to be 2 year old. This is a HARD age to photograph, since they are completely mobile and completely uninterested in sitting still for any space of time longer than .8876987 of a second.

That said, I did get a few good shots. The girls are wearing dresses that are almost 100 years old:

A unscheduled harmonica jam session helped keep things fun:

Of course I had to reward the kids for their hard work with some fun play time with auntie:

(no, they are not playing naked - they actually did have pants on)

After they mercifully went home, I had some fun with photoshop. I learned how to layer and peel back to allow color in specific areas:

and I used some of the simple photo effects, like fading:

and a "fresco" paint effect:

This next shot represents what photographing toddlers really looks like:

Later on in the month, my cowgirl sister in law requested some photos of her cowpokes at the local ranch where they ride.

Here she is with her little cowpokes:

The kids did a great job posing for a ton of photos against the many natural backdrops available:

Our photo shoot was briefly interrupted by the arrival of a curious barn cat:

Three hours and almost three hundred photos later, it was time for me to play around in photoshop again:

I managed to sneak into one of the photos:

Using the color effects in photoshop was much easier than I anticipated - I think it's a great addition to a good photograph, and can vastly improve a "not so great" one. After these two photo shoots, I had a lot of requests for printouts - so I'd say they were a success!

Three years old and counting...

Ah, another Saturday, another party. This time, one of the 11 niece and nephews (second youngest) was turning the big "3" - and was she ever excited!

Here are some vital stats:

Potty trained - 95%

Loves Dora the Explorer

Knows her ABC's and 123's

Favorite Game: Hide and Seek

Super Power: Can dress herself in 3.5 seconds when Auntie is going to take her out

Nicknames: Lissy Lou, Sissy and Sassy

So the family gathered on a COLD JUNE AFTERNOON to celebrate the greatness that is being three. There was a definite theme to the presents:

The birthday girl held off while I managed to get ONE SHOT:
And then she let loose! It took her approximately 15 seconds to rip through the pile of presents. All we heard was paper tearing and "ooooh!!", "Dat mine!!" and "yeah!!!":
Some of the older cousins were immediately pressed into assembling the various toys.

Gratuitous Rant:

What the hell is up with the toy manufacturers and their insidious need to anchor every toy in the packaging as if it was a weapon of mass destruction? The twist ties, the rubber bands, the tape, the molded plastic around each and every tiny little molded plastic thingy...it was too much!!

But I digress. Time for some photography while Mom and Dad set up the cake:

Handsome older brother:

Then, the cake - picked out by the birthday girl herself:
she was a little wary about the whole blowing out of the candle activity....Took her awhile to warm up to the idea:
Some people, I WON'T SAY WHO, were a little impatient:
Then, after party specifics were complete, it was time for silliness before the annual "sit down and smile, damn it!" photo sitting:

For a three year old, she did pretty good - I took about 40 shots, and got about 4 that were really good:

Of course I had to fool around with them in photo shop, just for kicks:

A last image of the day, with the baby sisters exploring in the backyard: