The day before we closed on our old house, I told the kids (with a bit of drama and gravity) that we were going to the old house to have dinner for the last time. I wanted to gauge their emotions, did they seem reluctant to go to the old house? Excited? Apathetic? Mary Virginia
Tom’s paternal grandparents visited from Pittsburgh last weekend. The trip from Pennsylvania to Virginia is a long one and they aren’t able to visit often, so when they do it’s particularly special. To mark the occasion, I balanced my camera on an up-turned bench and a bunch of encyclopedias and dusted off the self-timer. And also,
Before I start, I’d like to frame this post by telling you that I love wildlife. I’m not at all squeamish about bugs or lizards or even spiders. I love wildlife and the environment, and when I was a kid, my best friend and I started a club called “Who Says You Can’t Save The Earth?”
When I’m taking pictures I almost exclusively use my 35mm lens. That’s my #2 photography tip (#1 is to bring jelly beans to get kids to sit and smile). The 35mm fixed lens takes great photos, even if you’re like me and don’t know what you’re doing. This week I broke out my zoom lens and took these at 18mm.
Our new yard is full of beautiful blooms — hydrangeas, calla lilies, butterfly bushes, and Hibiscus. You can tell the previous owners cared about their home. They were thoughtful about things like irises and hydrangeas, and I imagine they looked forward to seeing them bloom every year. So when I noticed hydrangea blooms bigger than
Happy 4th of July weekend from the Kriegers! Yesterday I tried to explain why we celebrate Independence Day to the kids and was baffled by the number of concepts I had to introduce. War, taxes, sovereignty, the existence of our country and also other countries. Two minutes into it I gave up because my kids already understand hotdogs and hamburgers
Every year as my kids’ birthdays approach, I swear I’m not going to do it. Then, after the birthdays, I swear I’m never going to do it again. The parties, I mean. They’re just too much work. The cleaning, the food, all that prep. And then there’s the small matter that Mary Virginia asked me
It’s week 26 — we’re halfway through the year! I can barely recognize these kids from week one because they’ve changed so much! Ok so maybe I can. They haven’t changed THAT much. But two out of three have gotten haircuts (sorry Thomas) so I suppose some things have changed. A portrait of my youngest children, once a week, every
The other day “Happy” by Pharrell came on the radio and David and Mary Virginia both started screaming from their carseats, “IS THIS MY SONG? THIS IS MY SONG!! MOMMY!!! MY SONG!” And then they started having a fight about whose song it was, and I rolled my eyes because does this song belong to
This is Thomas’s 12-month update, even though he’s 13 months and two days old. I wrote most of it when he was 12 months — before his birthday, before we moved, before Mary Virginia’s birthday — and then it sat unfinished in my drafts folder. Even though he’s 13 months old, and he’s standing on his