P.I.F. Christine...Family Portraits

So, awhile back I posted my own family portraits taken through the Pay-It-Forward project. (Roadside Families) We had to reschedule once or twice due to weather and life...but this weekend I was able to pay-it-forward with Christine and her family!

A quick self-portrait...
(And yes, my legs are that long and skinny. At least in my dreams ;-)



And the real subjects of this post...
(Christine + Niki + Mimi + Matt + Tate)



Matt + Tate, Christine + Niki...







Matt + Niki + Christine + Tate + Mimi...



So this is Christie...



her hubby Matt...



her son Tate...



her daughter Niki...



her lovely grandma Mimi...



Tate & Niki were both very fond of making goofy faces for the camera. I just can't figure out where they get their silliness from... ;-)



The whole gang...
(wearing their favorite t-shirts)



Cute little Niki...



Niki is quite the little dancer...



I think Tate could be a dancer as well. These shots make me think of the movie Billy Elliot every time I look at them...





Christie is quite silly and ornery... :-)





I'm sure that's why Matt loves her so... ;-)



Christie also wanted to continue the altf tradition of bringing a personal item to the session. So we did some shots to showcase these personal items.

Matt channeling Clapton... ;-)





Mimi with...???
Any guesses?



Apparently it is a hood opener. Ahhh....
???? ;-)
Whatever. She sure is cute with it...



Little Princess Niki strutted her stuff all over the place...



Reminded us of another film, Enchanted, where the princess falls through the well and lands herself in New York City. I was intrigued by the contrast between the princess and the city ruins...





Tate playing with Lego Star Wars figures...



...while being sheltered from imaginary rain by his sister. ;-)



Tate's official personal item, his soccer ball...





Christie in her stealthy, hunter/photographer pose... :-P







Christie with Mimi...



And the whole gang again...





:-)

The Great Pumpkin Smash

Mmmm...pumpkins!



Since our schedule just didn't work out for Boo at the Zoo this year, we decided to enjoy this amazing weather yesterday and headed to the zoo for the Great Pumpkin Smash. This was our first pumpkin smash - and it was really cool! We started at the sea lions...the first scheduled pumpkin event of the day. Although we ALWAYS do the sea lion show with every visit because they are Maddox's favorite!

During the regularly scheduled sea lion show...
(I like how what you see of one is cut off on the other - interesting, no? ;-)





Then after the show - they tossed in a couple of frozen pumkins filled with fish...



Unfortunately, we didn't get to watch for long because we wanted to make it to the hippos pumpkin feast. So after a LONG wait on the tram (grrr...) we finally made it to Africa and started briskly walking towards the hippos. I had to stop and take a couple of pics along the way.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this image...
LOVE!



Foggy foliage...



We made it to the hippos just in time! Unfortunately a lot of people made it before us and it was quite crowded. So this is the best shot I got of the pumpkin going in...but man...I am still amazed at how hunormous these creatures are - look at the size of that mouth!



Apparently hippos can apply 1000 pounds of pressure per square inch. Wow! And it was so cool because when they chomped down on their pumpkins you could hear a loud pop. Then they gobbled up all the bits and begged for more.



This is the first time I had ever seen the hippos out of the water - I guess they normally only come out of the water at night. So it was really cool to see all of them...





Next it was the rhino's turn...



Another incredibly powerful animal, the rhino pressed down on the pumpkin with his nose and crushed it...









Like the hippos, the rhino gobbled up all of this pumpkin and was begging for more...



That was the last official pumpkin feeding we saw yesterday. The rest are just animal photos as we walked around Africa. The adorable and entertaining meerkats...





They were still working on their pumpkins that had been fed to them earlier in the morning. They crawled inside their pumpkins to eat...yum! If you look close, you can see the pumpkin in the meerkat's nails...







Another scenic shot - this one from the bridge as you head over the river in Africa...



Evey said "meooooow" to the leopard... :-)





Goodnight Gorilla is one of Evey's favorite books. On the last page when I say "Goodnight Gorilla" we pretend to sleep and snore. So I said "Goodnight Gorilla" to this giant sleeper - and Evey immediately started pretend sleeping and snoring in her stroller. ;-)



I would have loved to stay for the elephants painting and pumpkin feeding...but Maddox was apparently worn out from Halloween. He actually said that he was worn out and ready to go. He has NEVER voluntarily left the zoo before. So we just made a brief stop at the elephants as we headed out to the car.



Other than being swarmed by bees on multiple occasions (not sure what the deal was there)...we had a fabulous day at the zoo and really enjoyed what we saw of the Great Pumpkin Smash!

Trick or Treat

Miss Evey's first official trick or treating expedition!
Here she is dressed as a cute little bat...
(The bat costume had two little pointy teeth on the hood that are obscured by her curls. However, she normally fights hoods off and I didn't want to push my luck. ;-)



Maddox tricked me. At one point he was going to be a vampire so I ordered Evey's bat costume online. I thought a vampire and a bat would be a cute pair. But then he changed his mind...again! (Darth Vader - Skeleton - Vampire - Skeleton)
I just can't believe he wanted to be a skeleton. He was a skeleton last year! So for the second year in a row...Maddox the skeleton.



Trick or Treating skeleton...



Trick or Treating bat...



After a few houses, Evey and I returned to the house to give out candy. Her bat costume was as heavy as a winter coat - so I changed her into this beautiful outfit she got for her birthday from my friend, Becca. I thought it was still sort of costumey...but MUCH cooler given the unseasonably warm weather. Evey enjoyed keeping a watchful eye over the bowl of candy...



Happy Halloween! :-)