2012-2013 Ski Season is Officially Over

Now that temperatures are in the 80's and I am ready to turn on my air conditioning I think it's time to update everyone on what we've been up to all winter: skiing and snowboarding!

Everyone is bundled up and ready to go!

2012-2013 was a great ski season for us. We made it up to the mountains to ski several times this winter. The big kids started out the season with a lesson to brush up from last year but finished out the year as independent skiers and snowboarders. 

View at the top of the run

View from the chair lift

It was so nice to not have the added expense of lessons all season on top of the expense of skis, snowboards, kids winter clothes, etc. We are blessed to have access to deeply discounted lift tickets through my hubby's work. Eldora Mountain Resort is only 1 1/2 hours from our home. Even better, no dreaded I-70 ski and weekend traffic to fight with.

Nate riding the lift to the top of the mountain

Nate and I during our ski date

Nate and I even got a whole kid-free day of skiing at the end of the season in. I can't wait for next ski season to come around again and explore the slopes.

Soon enough this little guy will be skiing too!

*This post was sponsored by www.winterkids.com and I was compensated for this post. All statements are solely my opinion. 

12 Months of Orion in Pictures

Throughout Orion's first 12 months I managed to capture a photograph of him wearing his month onesie sticker I bought off Etsy every month on the 5th. Some months I captured great shots. Some months I captured funny shots. Some months I'm just lucky I have a photo of him looking at the camera in his month onesie. These were the photos I displayed on the clothes line at his birthday party (except for his newborn photo which I had an actual copy of his birth announcement). It is truly amazing how much he has changed over the past year.

Newborn (photo credit Maren Miller Photography)

1 month old, a serious little guy

2 months old, a happy little guy

3 months old, not amused with mom's picture taking

4 months old, getting pretty chubby

5 months old, already great at sitting up

6 months old, at his chubbiest before he started rolling everywhere

7 months old, happy boy

8 months old, look at all those teeth

9 months old, crawling everywhere

10 months old, showing off his new skills

11 months old, a rare moment of calmness

12 months old, what a big boy

Outer Space Themed 1st Birthday Party for Orion!

Yesterday was Orion's 1st birthday and we threw a big outer space themed birthday party to celebrate. I found a custom shirt I loved from Etsy which served as the inspiration for the party theme. I incorporated the primary colors of the shirt into the party decor. I also found a lot of great ideas from Pinterest. I even had a whole board dedicated to 1st birthday party ideas. I also used my Facebook page for my blog to ask questions about the party like whether I could use fondant on a smash cake. I started the planning and prep early since I wanted to do a lot myself. The results were great and we all had a lot of fun celebrating Orion's big day!

Orion's custom birthday shirt

 Balloons and "ONE" by the front door to greet guests

Dessert table with handmade backdrop, banner, outer space themed cake, and cupcakes with stars and the planet Saturn.

I love how the cupcakes turned out!

 For the cake I made a vanilla cake and vanilla butter cream from scratch but bought pre-made fondant and just rolled it out and used cookie cutters for the rocket ships and big stars. I free hand cut out the small stars.

 I used ribbon and clothes pins to display all of Orion's monthly photos from his first year.

For party favors I had custom cookies made with the photo of Orion's birthday shirt. I bought a helium tank and balloons and we attached a balloon to each cookie. Really cute favors for less than $1.50 per child.

Custom cookies

 We ordered sandwiches so we didn't have to worry about a main course. I then bought a bunch of fruit and veggies to serve with hummus and ranch.

 I hung these brightly colored balls above the drink station to add to the festive atmosphere.

We served martian punch (lime sherbet, pineapple juice, and ginger ale), water with lemon and lime slices in it, and rocket fuel (iced tea).

 Target had affordably priced paper and plastic ware in primary colors so I went that route instead of rounding up enough dishes for 50 guests. I love the coordinating paper straws.

 The smash cake ended up being a lot of work and was very big. I decided to give Orion a giant piece instead of the whole cake.

 He's had a couple tastes of sweets before but he doesn't seem to like them or even many bread products. I was pleasantly surprised that he dug into his cake.

 He may not have swallowed a lot but he sure smashed it up.

 The adorable birthday boy playing with a balloon (one of his favorite things).

After Orion got a nap and most guests had left we opened presents with Nate's family. Orion stayed interested most of the time and liked checking out all his new toys.

Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate! It was a great day!

Mother to a Teenager

Yesterday my oldest celebrated his 13th birthday. It's hard to believe I am a mother to a teenager. It makes me sound old, doesn't it? I've been a mom for 13 years now and man, the lessons I've learned. Brennan is a great kid. Very smart, inquisitive, loving, and helpful. I know he'll do well wherever life takes him. 

Over the weekend Nate took him and his best friend for a day of food and fun at Dave and Busters (Brennan's choice). Yesterday we celebrated with dinner of his choosing (BLT Mac and Cheese), dessert of his choosing (Pumpkin ribbon cake - recipe coming to the blog soon), presents, balloons, and decorations. He said he had a great night so that's all that matters. As an added bonus he also got the day off school as we got a freak May snowstorm and school was closed.

 A 2nd Xbox 360 controller

 Classic Wynter and Brennan expressions

 The only birthday gift he asked for was money and he got a lot of it.

 Funny card the girls picked out for him

 I like money, cha-ching, cha-ching

 He also loves candy!

 Yum, pumpkin ribbon cake

 Time for a birthday song

and a wish!

Happy birthday Brennan! We love you!

Photography 101

Last month a Living Social deal came up for a Photography 101 and Photography 201 all day class. Since receiving my DSLR as my Mother's Day gift from my hubby last year I've been wanting to take a class. It seemed like every class I found we had a prior commitment that day. Also, up until a couple months ago Orion nursed every 2 hours during the day so being away from him for a whole day for a class was complicated. Now that he is getting older it is getting easier to do these type of things. 

Photography 101 was held in a University lecture room. The class went over all the basics: aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc. and how to find the controls on your camera. It was helpful but I'm a hands on learner so I don't think I really grasped the concepts until the afternoon photography 201 class which was outside and task oriented. The teacher gave us a photography assignment, we each spent some time completing that assignment, asking for help as needed, we then re-grouped and he assigned the next task. I liked this format except I was always the first one done. I like to do something, master it, and move on to the next thing.

I captured some decent shots and know SO much more about my camera and how to capture the shots I want. I still need to purchase Photoshop as these photos were all just edited in Picasa. I also need a camera bag so I can safely carry my camera and equipment without feeling like I'm going to break or drop my expensive camera. Right now I only have a 18-55mm lens so a future upgrade will be at least one longer range lens. Another thing I struggle with is juggling a wiggly baby and a DSLR camera which is bulky. Not sure that will get easier but maybe I'll get quicker at setting up the right shot.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the afternoon Photography 201 class:

The location of the Photography 201 class. The Swetsville Zoo is a sculpture garden made from recycled materials. Admission is free, it's local, and a neat place to check out.

 Working on lighting

More lighting 

 Working on focus

 Same shot, just different focus

More focus work

For this assignment we were supposed to take a shot of something and then get in close and take shots of all the parts of that item. Sometimes in the moment you can miss the detail shots which turn out to be some of the best shots.

 Up close

 More up close shots

Same sculpture

 Last one of this guy

 This assignment was framing. You were supposed to look for natural framing. I set the shot up to look down the center of the one part. Most of the day it was cloudy and excellent light for photography. At this point in the day the sun came out from behind the clouds and was blaring down. I never did get the light perfect. The bright sun washed the photo out a bit. This is why I decided to edit  it with focal black and white to take away some of the harshness of the bright sunlight.

Bird's nest inside one of the sculptures

Our last assignment is a shot that is hard to get but a fun one to practice. We were supposed to get a shot of a fast moving car (approximately 55 MPH) and capture the car but blur the background to emphasis the motion. The teacher even said you'll probably only get 2 good shots for every 10 you take but with digital you can take as many as you want without worrying.

 Another car zooming by

I can't wait to practice more now that I have the tools to become a better photographer. Not sure how much time I'll be able to devote to photography but I love taking pictures so why not take good pictures!