Just steps from the edge of my backyard is an amazing dog park…which is also a wonderful place for a toddler to roam safely.  It was one of those moments that made me so happy that I am a photo taking lunatic and brought my camera along on our evening stroll.   In fact, I would recommend this to anybody, no matter their skill level…esp if you are a parent…bring your camera with you whenever possible.  Please don’t wait for special occasions or for your children to be perfectly dressed in order to get that great shot.  Take your camera with you during seemingly mundane trips.  You never know what you are going to stumble upon or if your child will be in a particularly agreeable mood.  Plus, even a mundane trip can be filled with wonder and discovery for a little one.  Try to capture them in the moment…these are the things that you will miss when they are older.  Also, you never know when a moment will become a very special memory.

This trip to the dog park was our first as a family and it will always be a wonderful memory for me…if only I had one of my photographer friends with me so I could get in some of the shots.

Have a favorite place that your family likes to spend time together?  I’d love to photograph some of those special family memories.

Cheers!

Claire

It was a beautiful day and there was a good turn out but not an overwhelming amount of people.  They divided the kids into age groups and gave them each their own area to hunt for eggs.  I thought this was a great idea because you wouldn’t have 8 year olds trampolining 4 years olds, etc.  Also, just in case a child did not get any eggs, they had a separate area reserved with more eggs in case of an emergency – another excellent idea!  Gavin was fortunate to get about 9 eggs, we had left some behind for the little girl behind us, or it would have been a bigger total.  Some eggs had a ticket for a free prize, like a stuffed animal or a calculator.  It was a great event that will probably become a family tradition.

The website for the Ridley Creek State Park – Colonial Plantation is: http://www.colonialplantation.org/

This house is historic and beautiful!

Animals living in harmony!

They were trying to socialize this bull so the kids were able to pet him.  Gavin was excited but a little leery – he still has one hand on his father as he gives the bull a pet.

You couldn’t ask for a more calming environment for an Easter Egg Hunt.

I spy with my little eye – 3 eggs. 

Finally – Mommy is in a shot too!  I set the camera up for my husband and he clicked away.  We got a few good ones as well.  Thanks babe!

How cute are these guys…all furry and little.  ;O)

A motley crew…

Their contact info is:

137 West Knowlton Road  Media, PA 19063

610 876-7116

http://www.linvilla.com/
My son and I last visited just before Easter as a play-date with my pregnant cousin, Alexis, and her son, Michael.  As soon as we arrive, my son shouts “PUMPKINS”…clearly remembering our visit at Halloween with his little friends.  The pumpkins have obviously been cleared in order to make way for everything Easter.  Here are some pics from our fun filled play-date.

Beautiful view at Linvilla Orchards

Our first stop was for a hayride to meet the Easter Bunny.  You are driven through their expansive property and get to see all of the beautiful areas where you can pick your own…I never knew that peach trees where so beautiful.We sat at the front of the tractor and were the first to meet the big guy.  Michael was eager to give the Easter Bunny a high five, while Gavin was a little leery of this gigantic bunny.  (I was afraid of anyone in a costume as a child so he gets it honestly.)  He was excited to get the goodie bag from the Easter Bunny’s helpful, which had yummy candy.

After was a little snack and trip to see the animals.  There was a very nice family that was feeding this cow carrots and let us have a couple to feed her as well.Afterwards, little Michael had to take a nap so there was an adorable hug exchanged between the cousins and then Gavin was off to the play area.

Gavin loves the wood play area and darts from one area to another.  I can not post images of all of the equipment because I did not get a signed release form for all of the kids that would’ve been in the shots.  However, there are wooden airplanes, trains, tractors, ships…it goes on and on.  Your kids will love it.

After the playground, we stop by the farm market, which has so many great treats.  I picked up some fruits and vegetables for our house and had to keep myself from straying to some of the wonderful baked goods.  Gavin likes to entertain himself while I shop with some of the great Thomas the Train toys.

The other part of the store that Gavin loves is the the baby chicks.  Aren’t they cute? 

The day end with a visit to see these lambs.  The little sweater on the white lamb kills me.

Adorable baby lamb with sweater at Linvilla Orchards.

There will be many more trips to Linvilla Orchards this year…esp since we moved so much closer.  Our next trip will be to pick our own Strawberries once they are in season!

There is no question about it…my son is all boy.  He loves trains, planes and anything transportation related.  He is immediately drawn to rocks, sticks, bugs and worms.  However, when we lived in Philadelphia, we had limited access to all of those wonderfully dirty things that he loves to submerge himself in.  There was only one tree on our street and absolutely no grass.  We have moved out of the city and, even though it is only a 25 minute drive from our old house, my son has access to a whole new world.  The house has a few acres of land, mostly wooded, and came with a small red barn plus a tractor so we are already feeling a little “Green Acres”.  We can now go on daily walks in our backyard so he can search for frogs, salamanders, snakes, and even spot some deer.  It is exciting to watch him explore his new surroundings and watch him be enthralled by it all.

On a side note, my husband, who has been as equally excited by the tractor as my son, has been great at maintaining our new property.  It is a big deal to go from now grounds to take care of to acres and he has been doing a great job.  Thanks Baby!  Also, a shout out to our friend, Carl, who is also on the tractor in this post.  He has been a huge help with so many aspects of our new place…we would be lost without him.  Thanks Carl!!!

So we found a cute, split level in Garnet Valley with three acres of land to start our next adventure!  We put our house on the market last November and prayed that it would sell quickly.  It started out as a very straight forward and almost easy process.  We had purged our house as much as humanely possible, had the main areas painted a neutral color and staged the heck out of the house…using our neighbor/close friend’s artwork as a finishing touch for our house.  The moment it was listed we had multiple requests each day to see the house for a week’s time.  The first person who saw it put an offer in. Unfortunately there was an unknown moisture issue in the attic and that is when the chaos began.  To keep a long story short, we did not end up selling the house until March.  There were still ton of showings and, of course, lots of money spent to fix the issue.  This time period between November to March was probably the most stressful time in my life.

It can be stressful to 1.) be a stay at home mom, 2.) have a child that needed some developmental attention, 3.) run your own business. 4.) sell your house, 5.) buy a house…I was doing all 5 of these things at once.  The simple task of making sure that the house was showroom ready for every showing was extremely difficult – esp since I was working and raising a toddler in this small home every day.  There are so many things that made this process more difficult than necessary but I won’t bore you with the details.

In the end of this 5 month process everything worked out but I almost had a nervous break down in the process.  If it wasn’t for the help of my mother, I think I actually would’ve had a nervous breakdown.  (Moms are the best!)  Thankfully, we had a trip to Anna Maria Island, Florida planned for early March, and we were able to take a much needed getaway after all of the chaos.  Here are some images from that trip, of course I am in none of them but some of my favorite people in the world are in them so that’s ok.  It took me awhile to decompress and fully enjoy things but it was an amazing trip.  I had never been to Anna Maria Island before but it was just what the doctor had ordered.  I didn’t pick my camera up too much but made sure to bring it along when we went to beach.  We already have plans to go back next spring and I can not wait.  Our days mostly consisted of eating, sleeping, swimming, shopping and trips to the beach.  Being that we were on the gulf coast, seeing the sunset on the water was such a treat.  I have always envied west coasters for their sunsets…esp since I am not a morning person and seeing the sunrise at the beach can be a painful occurrence.

Now that we are moved into our new house and are almost settled in, I plan to post much more heavily.  My business had to take the back burner so I could concentrate on my family for awhile.  They are still my number one but now I have the ability to give more attention to my business once again.  I hope to interact with so many of you and post your family memories on here soon!

XOXOXO!

Claire

Here is the orange tree at our rented house…the flowers smelled amazing.

Here is a picture of my mom (on the left) and a very special family friend, Cass (who I consider my second mom).

What is a beautiful, beach-side sunset without a little drink.

My parents…aren’t they cute together?!  Omari and I can’t thank them enough for including us on this amazing vacation…esp since they footed the bill on so much of this trip during a time when we were very cash strapped from moving.

They are amazing grandparents to my son…who is the only grandchild in the family, so of course he gets spoiled like crazy.

Gavin LOVED the beach.  The sand is so powdery soft and amazingly beautiful.

This was a magical time of day…

Our house had a great tree out front that Gavin loved to play in…here he is with his father on the left and our friend (and former neighbor) Colin…aka Tutti.

Back to the beach…my parents were in full grandparent mode, helping Gavin make sandcastles.  Gavin also loved playing in the beautiful and insanely clear water.

The amount of starfish in the water really amazed me.  I would just look from afar but Gavin did not have a problem picking them up.

One of my favorite shots of Gavin from the trip.  His laugh and smile are some of my favorite things in the world.

Had to sneak in at least one out of focus shot with backlighting.  This is our other former neighbor and dear friend, Luisa (aka Lu Lu), who is a wonderfully talented artist.

Tutti and Omari with Gavin in the water…they had a blast.

Lulu wanted to get in on some of the fishing…she did catch a little one and was extremely excited!

Our house had a pool and a canal out back.  This put my husband in heaven.  He rented a kayak and got up early every morning to go fishing.  Here he is with Gavin and some flounder…of course we had it for dinner and it was delicious.

Gavin took a quick trip out on the kayak with daddy.

Gavin was admiring the sandcastles left on the beach. 

My dad and husband…they always have something to get in deep discussion about…Lord knows the topic.

Some more of the amazing starfish.  In my mind, it is a mother and child. 

Tutti was brave enough to pick the starfish up…

This little lizard must have been on our wagon when we brought it to the beach.  He was frozen in this position for the duration of our time on the beach. 

Gavin loved running through the birds.

Another one of my favorite things on this beach…the gorgeous sand dollars.  Omari found a few whole ones for me…a rare treat since they are so fragile.

Our pool out back always had birds landing for a quick rest or drink. This one was a little big for me to get close to so I took this shot through the screen.

Our wonderful real estate agent (Linette Carol, with Keller Williams if you  need a realtor) and her husband are close family friends.  They are great with Gavin and were trying to get him to feed the birds. 

This guy was a character.

One of our last days at the house, Gavin was eating potato chips by the pool.  We did not want to leave this place.

Thanks for viewing!!!

One place I like to take my son, Gavin, is the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge.  This is not a quiet jem hidden down a secluded, dirt path…it is in fact a great spot located in the middle of constant activity – just off of I-95 and down the road from the Philadelphia Airport.  I take my son here often when I want to get some of his excess energy out and he loves it.  When on the property, it is hard to believe that a major high way is just steps away.  The property is quite large and I don’t think I’ve explored all of it yet.  The parts that are easily accessible are surprisingly pretty.  There are great little walking trails with plaques that talk about the wildlife found on the grounds.  We have seen deer prancing by at dusk, turkeys waddling through by the exit gates, and bald eagles sitting on light posts.  One of my favorite parts is the boardwalk that crosses the water.  My son loves to look for fish and turtles peeking out of the water.  In a time when electronics consume so much of our life, it is so nice to have a place where families can easily go to get away from the chaos.

This year we took our friends, Colin and Luisa, to experience the wonders of Christmas in NYC.  Thankfully this year the temperatures were a bit more tolerable. We added a stop at FAO Shwartz to our tour this time…bonus tip – having a child in a stroller gets you in the store via the short line…a huge time saver.  On our way to see the tree in Rockefeller Center, we were privileged  enough to see the hardest working Salvation Army officers.  They are the most energetic officers I have ever seen and put on a great show…I hope Santa treated them well this year.  It was a great day to make memories with family and friends.

In addition to being dear friends, Colin and Luisa are also our neighbors.  They have been lifesavers on many occasion and have been amazing to our son since he was born.  Luisa is an extremely talented artist whose work you can see here.  She was even so kind as to lend us her artwork  for our house that is currently on the market, which you can see installed in our dining room here.  No longer living on the same street with a couple that we hold so near and dear to our hearts will be tough and it made the Christmas trip a little more meaningful.

I met Monika through Detra Perotti’s amazing online workshop called The Lighting Workshop (a class that changed my life by helping me find the light…but that will need to be covered in an entirely different post).  Monika lives close to my in laws so I am able to get together with her while grandmom has some much needed quality time with my son…it is a win win situation.  During the last meet up I got to meet her beautiful family for a photo shoot.  It was Thanksgiving weekend and we were so fortunate to get a 60+ Degree day!!!   Here are just some of the photos from that beautiful day.  I had a blast with Monika and her family.