Beautiful Day & Photo Assignment

We had a wonderful time outside this afternoon playing in our backyard. Can you find Polkadot in the background? She's in the bouncy seat by the door just above Mary's shoulder.

This is the first year that Mary can really start enjoying the great outdoors. We played with chalk, bubbles, and then ran around the backyard.

Mary and Mama

Mary loves her kitchen! I took this picture because her hair looked so funny and cute after her nap, but this picture doesn't really do it justice. Mary is a burrower, like a mole burrows into the ground. Her hair always looks SO wild when she wakes up because she rubs the front of her head on her pillows and bed as she sleeps. I've walked in her room during naptime before and seen her bottom in the air and her head under a pillow - fast asleep! 

Mary looks like she just stepped out of the "Love is a Battlefield" music video from the 80's! 

I have an art degree from the University of Delaware. One of the neat perks of taking art classes was that I didn't have tests like normal classes. There was no blue book to buy (hated those!), no multiple choice questions, no essays; instead, we had assignments and critiques. As long I used the proper terminology and spoke the lingo, I could convince anybody that anything was art. Sometimes it really is all a lot of nonsense. For example, this could be an excerpt from a painting critique:

Instructor: Melody, I like this painting of the park, but I think you were rushed. There's a white spot in the upper right corner of the canvas, and it looks like you forgot to paint it. 

Melody: Oh no, sir. (panicking) Um. . . that white spot? (totally losing it) Oh, yes, um. . . (I got it!) Oh! That white spot, it's an integral design element! Notice how it draws your attention up and out of the painting? Well, I wanted to remind my audience that the beauty of the park is not limited to the park itself. Without the sun, there would be no grass and trees to make the park. The white spot carries the viewer's eye up and away, as though he's looking past the greenery and up to the sun!

I'm totally not kidding. Sad, but true. This artsy-fartsy (shout-out to Julie here) mumbo-jumbo is how I managed to turn a discarded piece of screen door iron decoration and interwoven twine into a commentary on the ties that bind families together. Shameful. Anyway, I've always enjoyed the photography assignments (that was primary medium), so just for fun, I've decided to give myself a photo assignment. For one day, tomorrow, I'm going to take one picture of every hour that I'm awake (not including the nighttime nursings) to document a day in the life of our family! I'm really excited to share the photos, and I hope to capture the essence of a typical day in the Stroud home. Since I can only post five pictures at a time, I'll break up the assignment into three posts tomorrow night. See you then!