apple hill with my everly mae

with school starting earlier and earlier, I find myself back in the classroom right around august first.  which means, by the first weekend in october, I am beyond ready for a long weekend.  everly and I took advantage of our friday off by heading up the hill to apple hill.  she hadn't been since she was two and we had taken our family portraits with sarah!  the reason - this place is INSANE on the weekends, and I am not about any of that.  we started our day early and beat most of the crowds.  yes, there were people everywhere, but we also found parking and never had any traffic, it was a win for sure.

we started off our day by immediately getting apple donuts at high hill ranch.

and the second was face paint.  she always gets so excited when I let her get her face painted because I only let her once at disneyland, because disneyland prices are insane!  however, it seems to make her really LOVE me when I say yes anywhere else ;)  her 'face painting' face is always the same -  she's always the best customer

and this was the weekend when this tooth just wouldn't come out, so, this was the smile she was rocking for about two weeks.  it came out exactly one week after this photo!

and of course a giant suspended apple makes for the perfect photo opportunity

we also visited abel's apple acres and ended our time at the larsen apple barn where we finally picked up a giant box of yummy apples to get us through fall!

and even though I had the best intentions of getting some pumpkins while at an apple hill location, we ended up stocking up with an entire cart of pumpkins at the save mart just a few minutes south of apple hill.  their prices were insanely good, and they had all the good ones!

here's our mini-film of our day:

make sure to listen to the little bits of everly talking, she is most likely going to follow in my footsteps with her love of videography.  I always wish I could add more audio in our films, but there are always SO many crazy conversations happening around us in the real world, laying a nice song over the audio just makes sense...

 

Apple hill from Lyndsay Lewis on Vimeo.

shot on our gopro hero7 black 
edited on my ipad, because I was lazy and wanted to lay on my sofa while doing it
music: Coraline Soundtrack - Exploration [it is one of our favorites, and it just feels like fall magic to me]

and now, we are done with kindergarten, and it took me almost a month to blog about it

to be honest, I think 'preschool graduation' was a bit harder for me.  not that I was quite the emotional wreck for that either.  I think I got most of my 'devastated she's getting too old' out of my system in her first 4 months of life.  when I think of my postpartum issues, that was one of them.  but once I got through that, I have been okay staying in the mindset of enjoying the heck out of each moment and stage, because I cannot stop time, and I'm damn lucky to have her.

everly also got to do kindergarten twice essentially.  she has a november birthday, which prohibited her from starting kindergarten until she was officially 5.  and, looking back on the past two years, I'm not at all mad about it.  she had a pretty intense kindergarten experience, meaning SO much learning.  if she didn't get to have transitional kindergarten, I think this year would have had a very different outcome.  there is NO WAY that my kid would have been able to manage this year being 4 for four months of it.  so, sometimes state decisions work out in your favor, and we can say that we ended kindergarten meeting and exceeding standards, which really means reading, writing, and doing some pretty high-level math.  and no, we don't need to debate if this is right or wrong, it just is the way it is right now in education.  I'm sure in the next decade we will be back to being happy they can use a glue stick by kindergarten graduation [or maybe not, you know, China and all].

^outfit change for the party^

our present for her hard work this year, Samantha!  she even got a graduation cap and gown for the special occasion!

her favorite cake - lemon from nothing bundt cakes, because, you know, she's gertie, my 80 year old

and here' a little first day of kindergarten, last day of kindergarten comparison...

I think it is funny she ENDS kindergarten with all her teeth, feels like it should be the other way around.  and yes, that isn't our front door.  we take the 'door photo' by my mom's front door since she lives right by the school, and I literally had to leave my class to go take everly to her first day of school, so we had to do with what we had [don't worry, I had someone cover my classes].  and even more dramatic, had to get a substitute teacher for the last day of school, but hey, there are some mom moments I'm not going to miss!

here's a little moment remember this milestone, probably one we won't have again for a while [who knows, sometimes 5th and 8th get a celebration, sometimes they don't - another educational pendulum].

Kindergarten Graduation from Lyndsay Lewis on Vimeo.

music: the likes of us - all together now
all photos and video shot on our sony a6500
photos edited with a color story

and finally, here's preschool graduation and here

just dance!

everly has loved dance since we officially started a year and a half ago.  this kid loves music, thanks to her daddy who plays music whenever there's a chance to do so.  she is currently rocking out to a lot of 80's music, apparently yacht rock is her thing.  and yes, yacht rock is a thing.  and I'm so cool, I heard about it from my principal. anyways...


this weekend we celebrated with family and friends another summer recital.  I'm so proud of her hard work and dedication, not to mention taking something so seriously at age 6.  she is my child.  that cannot be debated.  however, her grace and dance ability, well, that must come from some ballet angel somewhere, because this former softball-playing mom did not give her these moves.  I barely could get the bun/lipstick perfected by show.  but man, persistence pays off.
since everly is too young to manage costume changes on her own, I watch from the sidelines.  thankfully, they sell the dvd of the entire performance so I can get the full idea of the performance.  recital days are always a bit hectic for me, but I think we are getting better with more shows under our belts.  however, I am so thankful for the few shots that the mr. was able to snap in the audience during the show.  the stage lighting is so harsh, but thankfully, the dramatic black and white filter using a color story did the trick!  for those curious, I used 'black lodge' in the b&w pack!

I love this post show smile.  she nailed her dances and felt quite proud, as she should.  she worked hard to memorize her choreography.  she let me know she only peeked twice at her dance teacher in one of her numbers ;)

after recital we took advantage of being done with everything by 11:30 in the morning and had everyone come over for lunch.  we had so many friends and family drive quite the distance to see the recital and getting to enjoy their company afterwards made the day extra special.  

and any time everly can get a little cooper time, she is an extra-happy camper.  

 ^this one is everly's favorite, she loves it because of how cooper is looking at her!^

what a happy day indeed.  two months until the nutcracker season begins!

swimming our way through summer break [mini-film]

I'm officially in stay-at-home summer mom mode, and it feels good.  with some exciting trips on the horizon this summer, I finally decided it was time to add another camera to our little family of tech.  a gopro hero7 black!

I remember as a kid the disposable underwater cameras we would get for our trips to hawaii.  there is just something extra magical about taking photos where you are pretty sure you aren't supposed to be taking photos.  being the photo/video junkies that we are around here, I couldn't wait to get ahold of a camera that would let us bring that magic to reality.



I'm still learning my way around this little camera, but for now, I'm pretty much in love.

here's a little peek into our first time in the water...for the record, I was too lazy to put the video clips on my computer, so I edited the entire thing on my phone.  that still amazes me what these little devices can do.

happy summer!

gopro details here music: Portugal the Man, Live in the Moment

photo spot hunting - sacramento [DOCO]

last week we made a trip downtown to take some special photos for mother's day presents.  our friends Lisa & Geoff of The Goodness had just finished their art installation at the Downtown Commons area by the Golden One Center [DOCO] and I figured it was a good excuse to head down on a school night!

let's just say we were not let down with the ample photo walls that little area presented.  and, because it was a photoshoot with a purpose, I felt like everly was really on board.  sometimes, she isn't always thrilled that I have a camera with me most of the times of her life.

^the living walls are on the sides of the Golden One Center itself^

^popsicle display is across from the macy's entrance^

^and this fun mural was right at the top of the escalated from the parking garage^

I like this last one, even though slightly out of focus, it is really channeling her inner judgmental ballet teacher that I think she is rocking 24/7.