Day 213 - Toothbrush

Today I was after a photo of a toothbrush and I took a pretty nice one of mine loaded up with sparkly toothpaste for Photo A Day. However, I thought I should share Henry's here! This toothbrush is about 2 weeks old, would you believe? Henry does enjoy a bit of a chew and a good slurp to get all the water out from it!

Day 212 - Education Week

Today saw the beginning of Education Week. Our kids had the opportunity to visit a science fair held by the local high school in our hall. Despite a long queue, my class really enjoyed themselves and when  I spotted this chemistry experiment, I thought the colours would make a great picture! The kids saw all sorts of things like baby chicks, lizards and leaf insects, physics and paper gliders and other hands on type science that I wish we were able to do more of!

Day 211 - Happy Birthday Henry!

Today Henry is two years old! Although he found yesterday overwhelming, he has shown a lot of interest in 'birthdays' and of course 'cake' over this weekend! This is Henry sitting with Hoot, after his bath tonight after all of the visitors had gone and everything was back to normal. We are looking forward to our sleep going back to normal after a couple of unsettled nights!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful little man! We think you are pretty amazing :)

Day 210 - Henry's Birthday Lunch

We had a little family gathering today for lunch and in order to celebrate Henry's birthday which is tomorrow... yes the little man is turning 2!

Dale did a fabulous job seeing the cupcakes out to completion. He really can cut it in the kitchen under my guidance, ha ha. We made Henry Hoot cupcakes, which I have seen a couple of places online lately. Blue icing on a chocolate cupcake was topped with two halved Oreos, each one with a brown M&M in the middle and between those, an orange M&M for Hoot's beak. Yes, Henry finally relaxed enough to enjoy himself, despite being very overwhelmed and he made time to enjoy some cake!

Day 209 - On the Road

Today's Photo A Day July project was "On the Road" and so being time poor, I went literal. Here is the wheel of my Mazda, 'on the road'. Coincidentally my family was on the road this afternoon, driving to Canberra to celebrate Henry's second birthday with lunch tomorrow! Friday and hitting the road really do go together for my family with all of us doing the Canberra / Sydney run regularly!

Day 208 - Beauty in Unexpected Places

Sometimes beauty can show up in unexpected places. Adjusting this photo a bit revealed a beautiful blue sky as backdrop to some golden rays of sun. You wouldn't think that this was taken on a greyish kind of day, but I took it anyway because I was in need of a photo of sunshine and at 5pm it was fast disappearing after a brief appearance!

Day 207 - Dale the Hand Model

I have taken quite a few photos lately using lollies as the subject. They have great colours and then you get to eat them! After trying a few different ways to photograph jaffas as a heart shape, I think we nailed it. Apparently this pose was very taxing for Dale and I will just advise you that eating the majority of a packet of jaffas can give you a headache!

Day 206 - Sick Day

Henry is doing what most people like to do on a sick day... curling up on his couch by the window, reading a few picture books in the winter sunshine. A cold and conjunctivitis kept him (and me) home today for the second time in a few weeks. I have to say though, that although I had to run about finding him fresh tissues all day he was fairly much his usual self today. We watched a lot of Sesame Street (remember the "12" song? Saw the new version today... not as good!), had a very long lunch,  had a short sleep, read books, went outside for a bit and lastly went to see Dale at work, so that Henry could go home with his Daddy and I could get over to my 5.30 pilates. Exhausted by his day, Henry was in bed by 8.15.

Day 204 - Mirror, Mirror

A photo of a mirror was the challenge today and I wanted to try something a little different than just a mirror on the wall. So I set up a still life on top of the glass. Obviously if you look at the components of the still life, you will see that they are things you do in front of a mirror!

I love the frame of this mirror. Silver and aluminium are two of my favourites and when I saw this one (not sure what it is actually made of) at the bus depot markets I had to have it. It's probably one of the first things I bought after moving to Canberra.

Day 203 - Again?

Well you really wouldn't know that Henry didn't feel great today. By evening and after his bath, he had definitely perked up a little and had lots of fun hanging around (upside down) with Dale! After each time he laughed, looked at Dale and asked, "Again?". I notice that hanging upside down is also quite flattering to his little podgy belly!

Day 202 - New Shoes

As a great start to the weekend, I got two pairs of shoes in the mail when I got home yesterday! I decided to use them as objects to photograph this morning, but apparently Henry feels he is a better stylist than me. I did have a nice scarf out to sit them on, but through the lens I watched as Henry's little hands appeared and my shoes disappeared! This is how he wanted them! Oh, and he refers to the studded shoes as his "spiky shoes" heh heh heh...

Day 201 - Baby Doll Eyes

Doesn't Henry's eye look like one of those dolls that you can lay down and their eyes shut? I haven't seen one of those for ages, but I always remember the thick, black lashes that they had!

Day 200 - Our Beloved Rexy!

I don't think Rex has featured on my blog that much and today I got a great little snap of him, so I thought it was about time! Rex is Dale's dog and he is about 12 we think. He is Milly's constant buddy and his funny ears amuse us a lot! Last week he had a full health check up and he is doing very well for his age. He behaved well at the vet (well, no wees) although he did break out his tough side by barking very loudly at an Alaskan Malamute and then also a Chihuahua. Yep, he's a tough one!

Hey... day 200!

Day 199 - Young Artist

This is a plate that I decorated in preschool. Funnily, I remember doing it quite distinctly. We had to draw it on a round piece of special paper and the drawing was somehow transferred onto the plate and returned to us later. In my picture I had a green tree and a red autumn tree. I even drew a sun shower, rainbow and a little ladybug by my feet (my favourite part)! This plate is quite a memory and it seems a few other people remember doing them too as it had a number of comments when posted on Facebook!

Day 198 - My Addiction

I have many addictions and with today's Photo A Day theme being just that, I had a few to choose from! I ended up posting a collage with a few previously taken photos of nail polish, my camera and cook books, but the above was shot today. I have always wanted to do a little group shot of some of my brightest coloured shoes and you will notice that although I own black shoes too, coloured heels are my addiction. 

Day 197 - Henry's New Game

Does Dale look like he is enjoying this game as much as Henry? Henry's new game involves slamming himself and a pillow (very softly of course) into Dale's face! Many giggles ensued!

Day 196 - Future's So Bright

Yes, my little clown does like my glasses and he knows how good he looks in them! He does however, have some trouble stopping them from falling down over his tiny nose!

Day 195 - Photo Shoot at Home

I wanted to take another chance at practising with my camera today since the holidays are nearly at their end and it was one of my personal goals for the break. It was a miserable day weather wise and Henry wasn't in the most cooperative mood, so we had to shoot indoors and make do! I love so many of the pictures we got today, but think that this one is particularly good. I love how creamy and smooth Henry's skin looks and how blue his eyes are. He also looks kind of contemplative (which he probably wasn't!). All good experience!

Day 194 - Open

Today's photo challenge was Open. After an extremely busy week involving gardening, tradesmen, odd jobs and a whole heap of work at school as well, this is what I had open come Friday night! After the weekend I am back at work, when all of the jobs during the term will build up to make the To Do list for the October holidays. It's a busy life!

Day 193 - Texture

Funnily after the plethora of photos to choose from yesterday, it seems that I only took photos of one thing today; my faux fur vest. It was my Photo A Day Challenge to take a photo depicting "texture". I had to laugh after putting it online, when Mum asked if it was Dale's hair!

Day 192 - A Letter

I took so many photos today that it was so hard to choose one. In the morning Peta and I went around to Sarah's house to do a proper photo shoot (proper for us anyway!) where we spent an hour photographing Cooper. In the afternoon I took Dale, Henry and Jenna out into the yard and got some great family shots as well. I have chosen a photo of a letter today though, which was part of the Photo A Day Challenge for July. It is about 5 years since we lost Nan, so I thought that since she has probably been the person that has written me the most proper letters ever, that I would take a shot of one of hers. I love to see her handwriting again. This letter is from 1991 (yes, 21 years ago) when I see postage was only 43c. Nan would often tell me many things over and over, stories of what she had won at the club and also jokes and riddles which we swapped for a long time when I was little.

Day 191 - A Wet Day in the Garden

I have to admit that I took my photo in the garden the next day. After such a long, wet, soggy day outdoors, taking photos was the last thing on my mind. By the time we were done, all I wanted was to get inside a hot shower! First thing this morning we got onto hiring a chipper / mulcher, was was more difficult than I expected. Anyway after tracking one down which was just out of town, we got home, started it up and then the first rain drops fell. They didn't stop all day. Unfortunately when you have hired equipment, you just have to keep going if you don't want to waste your money, so on we went. We swept and mulched up all the gum leaves (blower vac didn't work in the wet weather!), mulched up all the twigs, branches and tree offcuts that would fit, pulled out two non living plants and generally tidied. It didn't look like we had done a lot until pretty late in the day and even Dale admitted it was worth doing. So that's one more thing crossed off my holiday list!

Day 190 - A Productive (and Expensive) Day

Today was a big day of work and the beginning of a really big week. With Dale back from his trip yesterday afternoon, we had set aside Monday and Tuesday to get a few things done about the house, before Dale and I go back to work. First up today was the shower repair man at 7.30 am to degrout and reseal the shower. An hour later 4 men turned up to remove the hanging bough in our tree. It was hard to get it to show up in the photo that I took so early in the day, but basically if it got really windy, theoretically it could have fallen out and done some serious damage, so it had to go. Later in the day the carpets were being steam cleaned so we also had furniture to move. I don't know how I actually have time to go to my paid job!

Day 189 - Nice!

While Henry played in the yard this morning I decided to cut up the pumpkin for the soup I had planned for lunch. I cut it up in the yard so I could keep an eye on him. It was actually quite nice sitting in the sun doing so. However, Henry kept insisting on taste testing the pumpkin! When I asked him if it was good, he kept saying, "Nice!" but I could somehow tell he was saying it to be funny. I ended up grabbing some oranges, which we cut up and ate in that beautiful sunshine. I usually hate the smell of orange juice on my hands, but with the garden tap handy, we had a nice little feast!

Day 188 - Henry and Milly

Henry and I had a fun little photo session this morning in the yard. I took so many that I love, but I keep coming back to this one because it gives me a laugh! It somehow reminds me of the painting American Gothic by Grant Wood. What do you think? I don't know how I managed to snap Henry and Milly standing still together, because Milly really doesn't sit still much. I love how they both look so serious!

Day 187 - TV Dinner

Dale is away at the moment on a 5 day trip on his bike... no doubt you will be able to catch up on his blog when he has a chance to put up some pics. I have enjoyed the last couple of days with Henry a lot and I have tried to make our evening routine as easy as possible... therefore I let him watch a little television at dinner tonight (foregoing The Project!) He enjoyed watching The Night Garden and I somehow captured one of those moments when he looked at me as if to tell me that part was really funny!

Day 186 - Giggles

After a few days of Henry not feeling his usual cheery self, this afternoon he was back in his usual fine form. We visited Sarah and Cooper in the afternoon and with Peta, Olivia (Ava was sick) and Sue there, he chatted away - even more than he usually does when we are out visiting. Back at home later, he giggled away at a video he found on my Facebook page. You may have seen the one with the little girl, soap bubbles and the snappy dog. He thought it was hilarious and played it over and over giggling along. The boy is back!

Day 185 - One More... Two More

I took a photo of Chocolate Freckles for the Photo A Day challenge (today was "fun") as I thought they would make a pretty cool photo. Henry and I did share a couple as well. He did surprise me though when he grabbed my hand and led me to the kitchen to ask for another "coclet". I said he could have "one more". His reply? "Two more!"

Day 184 - My Favourite Part of the Day

I haven't taken a lot of photos today so I turned to the photo a day challenge for some inspiration. After a few days of Henry being sick, it has been a relief to have him sleeping soundly in his bed. So although I love spending my time with him, on a day like today when he has had a rough day, I am happy when he is resting and I can relax! Here's to Henry feeling better and to getting out the camera a bit more since I am on holidays!

Day 183 - A Sick Day

Poor Henry was a little miserable today. I caught him in a quiet moment watching some tv with Little Ted in the picture, but on the whole, he was one unhappy chappy! After a visit to the doctor this afternoon, we had a very painful visit to the supermarket and chemist which included Henry throwing away all the grocery money, waving a $50 note around and then having a very spontaneous nosebleed resulting in half a used up box of tissues and me driving home with blood on my hands, clothes and shoes and Henry with it spattered all over his clothes. What a sight we must have looked!

Day 182 - A Self Portrait

Today's photo assignment was to do a self portrait! As this has come up before as a photo topic, I decided to try and do something a little different. Most self portraits are of the obviously self taken, arm outstretched, face to camera variety, so I decided to get out the remote for my camera and refamiliarise myself with how to set it up to use it. We have used this before, most recently my photo of the day from New Year's Eve last year. This time I set it to manual focus and it worked out better. I love to learn something new! Oh and no, I didn't spill a drop of polish :)