Daddy's New Camera

Due to our slew of impending vacations we decided we needed a new camera- so after months of ad nauseum research, Patrick picked a camera...we now own the Panasonic DMC-ZS1. We have been borrowing my mom's really spiffy Canon Rebel but it is now time that we have our own camera. True it is not as spiffy as the big Digital SLR with lenses and flashes and the like but this will suit us just fine for playdates and vacations where we don't want to haul all of that camera paraphenalia. It does have really cool features like baby mode that you set the name of the baby in the picture and in any picture that you associate with that baby it will tell you how old he/she was based on the birthdate you input in setup. So it will say Madelyn is 13 months and 26 days when I took her picture today...pretty cool! You also can tell it the date of your trips and what time zone those are in so it knows when we leave for Maui to not tell us a picture was taken at 9pm when it is full sun outside and actually only 3pm local time...such small things amuse me! I guess it has other cool features too like good picture quality and good warranty but these are mundane details really...

In true Patrick format we had to immediately test our new camera so here are the Maddy action shots in the yard this morning playing with her bubble mower and garden tools-she is such a boy...we need more girls in playgroup, Mia and Madelyn are being turned into tomboys!!!

OK Dad, seriously....this is about enough...

Have a great week everyone!

At Home Fun

For the past week, Madelyn and I have been holed up in the house due to various reasons like Madelyn not sleeping, possible poison ivy, taking 23 lbs. of peaches (thanks Mom) and making every imaginable cannable peach recipe (tart filling, pie filling, preserves, cake filling for Jen's wedding cake, etc.) and getting ready for our numerous traveling expeditions. I leave for San Diego next week for Jen's shower/girls weekend festivities, we leave the day after I return for Mohican, we then leave for Maui 2 weeks after that and then back to San Diego for Jen's wedding 2 weeks after that! That is a lot of packing to do...my one guest room looks like a closet exploded in it due to the myriad of various piles of clothes and accessories dedicated to each of these trips!

Even though we have missed our friends the past few weeks, we have kept very busy in the house...


Playing in an awesome octopus sprinkler- thanks Uncle Travis and Aunt Sarah!


Relaxing with some juice and Disney Channel in our new Mohican Camping Chair-


Doing some light reading with Piggy in our new Maddy-sized chair from Grandma and Grandpa-

We even tried on last year's Halloween costume and would not take it off for a whole day...despite the 99 degree heat and the costume being velvet...peek a boo baby!

Hope everyone else is having a great summer too (but we are obvisouly looking forward to fall!)

~Kristin and Not-So-Spook Witch Madelyn