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Daily Photo Challenge - Week 12

This week hasn't been one of my best.  I know I'm full of excuses, but this week has been one of the busiest of the year, for no other reason than life itself.

Monday and Tuesday this week, it rained and it poured.  This led to chaos on the motorway, and 90 minute trips into work for myself and Mr A.  Tuesday, taught me to put the kiddy lock on his door, as while on the motorway (going at snails pace), he decided it would be entertaining to not only get his arms out the straps of his carseat... but also OPEN the door.  So if you saw some crazy lady driving a silver Suzuki Swift, screaming at her child and swerving all over the road trying to get the door closed again - yes that was me.

So some would say, why the hell do you live in Helensville and drive into town every day?  The 50km trip normally only takes me 40 minutes, so 90 minutes was very extreme, even for the distance I travel.  The only problem was, bad traffic in the morning also lead to traffic at night, so its fair to say this week I have spent more than my fair share in the car.  As a result my photography suffered, as it was the last thing I felt like doing when I got home plus I had little to no light left at the end of the day.

Added to this, I had a second infection in just a couple of weeks which had me flat on my back Friday afternoon/night.  Literally I could not get out of bed, and even yesterday I spent most of the day feeling sorry for myself.  So poor Mr A has had a pretty grumpy/tired mum of late, fingers crossed next week is better!  Big ups to my amazing hubby who took over on Friday night, and left me to my devices for a few hours.

So, this week's theme was progress.  I didn't really stick to the theme that much but tried where I could :)

Swan Lake

Raindrops keep falling my head (and hindering progress for EVERYTHING)

Lack of progress (in the eyes of not quite Mr 2)

Knitting progress

Cherry picker fun

Sunset views from the deck (West is best) 

Washing progress (coming from a full time working mum!!)

Daily Photo Challenge - Week 11

This week's theme was toys which is fairly easy when you live with a not quite 2 year old.  The weather was quite settled this week too which definitely helped getting outside to take some shots of Mr A doing his thing.

What I have learnt this week:

• Light is ones best friend and also mortal enemy
• Matchbox cars are a great investment - some of those in March 5th are coming up 30 years in age
• Carasouls make you dizzy

Enjoy!

Carasoul fun

Rocking daddy's hat

Bike

toes

Cars

Bubbles

playing with 'anma'

Water Play

Well the weather has certainly come to the party this week and it was very welcome in our household!

Getting back to the country roots...

This weekend we have spent working at the Kumeu Show.  Poor Master A was dragged along for the ride (and oh my did he handle it extremely well), so in our down time we went on lots of walks to explore the place over the two days.  Lots of photo opportunites but a shame the weather didn't come to the party!

Baby Gemma (wearing a hat I knitted for her!)

Ash with his girlfriends on the 'dactor'

Riding the carasoul and having a photo with the Totalspan Dog

How more country can you get?  Cow, pigs, tractor, and hot chips!

My amazing hubby doing his thing

Ash riding the 'dactor'

Daily Photo Challenge - Week 10

This week has been a mixed bag for me but I really liked the "kiwiana" theme.  I didn't meet it every day but I found it much easier than previous weeks.

What I learnt this week:

• Cows are nosy creatures
• That Ashton has nailed the forward roll, kicking the ball (including at my head), and can nearly count to ten (when they hell did my baby grow up so fast?)
• Being flat on my back with an infection for nearly a day does not contribute well to taking a daily photograph
• I am growing more in love with photography every day

Morning glory

You can't beat the All Blacks

No. 8 Wire

Buzzy Bee

Kiwi kids... are weetbix kids

Forward roll madness

My proud moment

Enjoy!

Daily Photo Challenge - Week 9

This week was a real struggle for me - here is what I learnt:

• Don't leave your camera at work
• Don't leave your camera at work
• Don't leave your camera at work

Because of this small oversight, and a genuine lack of time (traffic has been a B*TCH this week so been home late most nights, equals tired hungry child, tired hungry mum, less light to get photos with and less enthusiasm overall!), so I didn't really get into the theme of "up" until further down the week.

But however, this is a challenge and I will keep challenging!

Enjoy :)

PS. Massive congratulations to my brother in law and new sister in law who tied the knot last night!  BOOM!

Going up the ramp

heading 'up' home

sitting in traffic

'up'-side down

climbing 'up' the ladder

looking 'up' at the world

hooking 'up'

Time for a gloat...

A really really long time ago now, Plunket put out on Facebook that they wanted some babies to be involved with an upcoming photoshoot for a campaign the following year.  With nothing to lose I sent a photo of Ash in, and was contacted and asked to come in for an 'audition'.  We managed to get him to smile and anyone who knows how much of a charmer my son can be he won the 'judges' over.  So we did the photo shoot which wasn't a great success - I think he was a little overwhelmed with all the bright lights and people who just weren't baby people (he was only five months old at the time!), and when we never saw his photo we assumed that they had decided not to use him.

Anyway, a year and a half down the track I get an email from the advertising agency who we had done the photoshoot with - apparently the campaign was cancelled after the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch, and they have since actually started it - and they're using him!  If you sign up to be an online collector its Ash's photo you see holding a little blue teddy bear.

Now any new mum who has dealt with Plunket knows that although some of their information can be out of date, but generally the service they provide is fantastic.  And when babies are at their most difficult in the first few weeks, Plunket provides an amazing service which fortunately I never had to take advantage of but I know plenty of mums who have.

So, if you're a mum, or feeling generous give some money back to Plunket (and check out the cute baby on the appeal page!)

Plunket Appeal