A Do-Over: Chinese Royalty Visit Local Park

**This post was written for the photography blog, so for those of you folks that have already seen this, my apologies.

Lately, I've been struggling about how to add more hours to my day. Life is so crazy, busy at the Bombardier household between school, work, and play that it's getting tougher and tougher to keep up with my old therapeutic buddy, my blog.

So, I thought I wouldn't keep you waiting any longer and would post a few pics from one of our visits to the park the other day. These two little critters make me smile....A LOT! I'm sure they'll do the same to you.**

After running errands with the Chinese Royalty, they begged to go to the park.

Knowing that they could definitely use the release of some energy, I obliged. Not to mention the fact that I, of course, had my camera with me and what a better opportunity to take pictures than at a park with two of my babes.

So, they jumped,

and they swung,

and they slid,

and they climbed.

They played games,

and they giggled.

They took a candy break.

and like all siblings, had to compare whose tongue was greener and whose lollipop was licked the most.

Then they tried to decipher graffiti ancient Hieroglyphic writings.

It was an afternoon filled with fun...

and love.



What a perfect way to spend the day!

HONORING OUR MILITARY

As a tribute to our troops, I am honored and proud to offer a free photo family session to any active duty or disabled military families in SW Florida.

If you are one of these families, or know of one, please EMAIL ME privately.

.

WOOT! WOOT! ARE YOU READY FOR A GIVEAWAY?????

If so, head on over to my photography blog,

Ohilda Bombardier Photography,

The prize is uber cool! Yup, I said, UBER cool!

Dreams do come true!

GO SEE FOR YOURSELF!!!

Sweetness - Sunday Snapshot

These were pictures I took of the Triple-Trouble-Trio back in 2008.

I love seeing the look of wonder and curiosity on their faces.

I love their soft, rounded, baby cheeks.

I love the shape of their full, rosebud lips.

But most of all, I love their beautiful, expressive eyes. It's almost as if you can look into their souls, if you stare into them long enough.

Sometimes those little eyes are filled with sadness, sometimes with surprise, but most of the time, they are filled with joy and love.

No doubt enough love to fill this Mama's heart to the brim!

Click on the link above to share your own Sunday Snapshot!

I ♥ Faces - Pouting & Pets

This week that great site I HEART FACES is having some of the cutest themes - Kids Pouting and a one-week special category of Pets.

So, once again, I thought I'd jump in the fun and enter a couple of my favorite pictures.

For the Kids Category, I love this picture of Anna Grace taken about a month after coming home, being tortured kissed by her Mama and her Shu-Shu.




For the Pets Category, I chose one of my favs of Kiefer, our doxie, all set to go trick-or-treating! Can't you just see the joy in his eyes? heh!

I Heart Faces Contest

A few of my bloggy friends have entered the I Heart Faces contests and I'm in awe at the amazing pictures that are at this site. Please click on the button above to check them out!

This week's theme is B & W pictures. I've always loved this picture of my sweet AJ playing with Woody from Toy Story. So, I thought this week I'd enter and give my amateur-ish photography skills a try.

My Girl

I know you've heard me talk about my kids, especially the little ones. But, I thought I'd write today about my big girl, Amanda. This morning as I was driving and thinking about Amanda, it suddenly hit me that I can't believe she's gonna be fifteen this year. That's just crazy! Where has time gone? Where did my precocious little girl who loved books and reading (well, she still does) and sitting on her Mommy's lap go?

Being Cuban, our girls usually celebrate their fifteenth birthday with a huge hoopla, comparable to a Bar Mitzvah or a wedding. It's the acknowledgement that our daughter is transforming from being a little girl into a young lady. ::sniff::

This celebration is called Quinces. The "Quinceañera", in this case Amanda, traditionally wears a ball gown (similar to what Cinderella wore when she danced with the prince) and chooses special friends to dance a choreographed dance alongside her. These "dancers" are called her Court of Honor. The Court of Honor also wears gowns and tuxedos. The choreographed dances always begins with the Quinceañera dancing a waltz with her father, proceeded by traditional Cuban dances. This takes months of weekly rehearsals.

The Quinces celebration is a very special part of our heritage and a tradition that I have thought about over and over throughout the years from the time Amanda was born. I can't believe the time has finally arrived. Of course, it arrived when the economy is at it's worst and I have procrastinated with now only 6 months left to plan everything, including finding a venue, gowns, photographer, music, food, invitations, and so on. But, God is always good and I know when the day arrives it will be perfect, as is my girl.

Below are some pictures I took this past weekend. I begged asked Amanda to be my guinea pig so I could practice my photography. She grudgingly whole-heartily agreed! Actually, we had lots of fun being silly and spending one-on-one daughter and Mom time, that I have missed so much!

Amanda, I love you as much as the whole wide world...and back again!

If At First You Don't Succeed....

I've been trying to play around with some software that I received for Christmas 2 years ago, but have been so frustrated learning about layers and masks and vectors and rasters that I just plain gave up. Today, I decided I'm not a quitter. If at first you don't succeed....well. you know.

Finally, after hours of trying to strip down a picture and making manual changes, this is my first finished product. Of course, I gave myself some help by using as the subject my gorgeous nephew, Seth. I figured with a face like that there's no way I could make him look bad.

What do you think of my creative abilities? It's ok. Be honest. Constructive criticism is good. By the way, any pros (which means just about anyone who knows even minimally above what I do about digital editing and that's not a whole lot) out there are more than welcome to share tips.