Mainau

For Memorial Day weekend, I talked the family into driving to the border of Germany and Switzerland to visit the island of Mainau.  It is on the Bodensee Lake which lays across both borders.

On the way down, we took a detour into the black forest, first because it is a beautiful drive, and second, because my cuckoo clock needed repaired.  Here is a picture of McKenna and I at our hotel.  The lake is behind us, just over the far hill.

 The girls are playing on the . . . I have no idea what it is. . . is it a play-set?  A lame attempt at an Alice and Wonderland experience?  Whatever it was, it was in our backyard.

So Mainau is an island on a small lake.  The drive to the island is so amazing, so beautiful.  We basically couldn't have scheduled a day with better weather.  Since it was also a German holiday, the site was busy, but no so much that we felt crowded or had to wait in lines.

Mainau is privately owned by a family.  The entrance price was a little steep, but it was worth it.  The island is in pristine shape, and well cared for.  You can feel how important it is to them.  They have thought of everything so that all ages are entertained, from infants to the elderly.

We started on the playground so the girls could burn off some energy.

Next up, the petting zoo.  McKenna was in her zone, Bailey . . . not so much.

The following are just random shots from the day as we walked all over the island.

Birdhouse lane . . .

The dahlia's were on fire that weekend.  They get their own piece of the blooming calendar apart from all other summer varieties.  There is a reason for it . . . no other flower can compete with these divas.  They are just a burst of beauty!  Layers and layers of petals with deep rich color.  I. love. dahlia's!

McKenna hangin' with the lemon, lime AND orange trees.

Our next stop was the butterfly house, or as they say in Germany, the schmetterling haus.  We definitely like saying "schmetterling haus" way better, it is a word that tickles your tongue.  McKenna made friends with this big bad boy.  Never have we seen a butterfly so big.  But, he was also old, his wings were tattered and torn and he had no interest in spending energy flying.  He was content to ride on the hands of giddy little children and get passed from one to the next.

Mark even found a schmetterling buddy:

Memorial Day was also a special day for Mark, it was his birthday!!!  Instead of cake, we bought ice cream to celebrate.  Plus, we had a lovely lunch at the cafe on the island.

To round out a perfect day, McKenna finally got her pony ride!

Tchuss!

I must say, the girls were not happy to learn we were going on a trip that weekend.  I failed to mention this to them until the night before.  Bailey, with hands on her hips says to me, "I am SO sick of traveling!"  What?! the?!  But, when all was said and done (especially because she got 6-7 hours of hang time with her beloved iPod) she was glad we went . . . at least that is what she told me.  Bailey, you better get ready, we are not finished yet!

Re- cap

This weekend we are busy bees, getting ready for school to start. We are cleaning, organizing rooms and trying on new school clothes to make sure everything is ready to go.

But, I haven't been able to have closure on our summer. I think it is because there were some shots of the girls that I love so much, but I wasn't able to share on previous posts. So I thought I would share and then maybe I can get to task; back to fall, back to schedules, back to responsibility, back to life . . .

Here are my favorites of Bailey:



And then there is McKenna:







And I can't leave out Mark, especially when he is laughing. It's a rare thing to see after work and dissertation (it has now become a curse word) .

And finally, the girls challenged me to put one up of me. It is not my favorite, it is just one for fun. Fun here is described as a shoot with a fan, Paris Hilton sunglasses and a boa. It is hard for me to post, but here it is, for the girls!

Photo tag with the fourth

My friend Holly had a post about a photo tag she saw on a friends blog. You post the fourth picture in the fourth folder. What a fun idea. So I went to look at which picture that would be, and luck of the draw it is one of my all time favorites. My sweetie and my wee one back in 2005. This was at my mother's house and they were playing in the kiddie pool. Now there can be no doubt that she is a Frandsen, just look at their chops!

Now your turn, tag!

Christine's Keepsakes

I am a scrapbooker and a photographer. I love the process of creating something that is pleasing to the eye that expresses my thoughts, feelings, memories and showcases the pictures that I have taken. But more important than the creative outlet that it provides me, is the end result; my family's memories at my children's fingertips. After all, isn't that the reason any of us that are scrapbookers started in the first place? I have often thought about how behind I am, and how I wish I had more time to spend completing my books. Did I miss any important shots? Have I journaled important events before they are forgotten? Or, heaven forbid, something happens to any of us before the memories and photos are completed?

Christine Post was also a scrapbooker and photographer. She came into both crafts a little later in life, after weddings, kids, birthdays and holidays. She has thousands of pictures on her hard drive just waiting to be seen and appreciated. She had lots of catching up to do. Just this year she survived her husband's second 4 month deployment to Iraq in which she found it even more difficult to "catch up" on her scrapbooks and photos.

On December 11th, Christine passed away from a heart attack. She was only 35 years old and leaves behind a loving husband and 4 young children; Abby 9, Chris 7 and Madeline and Payton both 3. She also leaves behind thousands (I'm not exaggerating!) of photos to comb through and a ton of memories to scrapbook.

Her good friend Lisa has asked me to participate in an important project, Christine's Keepsakes. Our goal is to get Christine caught up on her albums so that her kids can have memories of her and their family at their fingertips. This is an important project, and we really need help. We need help in two areas: willing and able scrapbookers (beginner or advanced) to donate time to create Christine's layouts, and we need supply. We are first using Christine's own scrapbooking stash, but we need the basics: cardstock, adhesive, both wet (glue and glue sticks) and dry (photo mounting and glue dots) AND we need to print her massive amount of digital images, which is going to take ink and paper or online photo printing credits. Later, we will need more albums, and of course page protectors.

We are hoping to have a local kickoff for Christine's Keepsakes on Saturday, January 17th at the Ramstein Scrapbooking Crop. We will set aside a table with Christine's photo's and supplies. You can drop in and do a layout or bring your supplies, do your own scrapbooking and maybe do a layout for Christine while you are at it. It will be held at the Ramstein Elementary school from 9am until midnight. If you are interested in helping out, shoot me an email or add comment here and I can give you more details.

We would love to see a community come together to complete this important project for Christine and her kids. This community does not need to be just local, it can take in anyone who is interested in helping, whether you knew Christine or not. If you did know her, you know the way she touched others' lives. The idea for this project has blossomed from offers to make layouts or donate supplies by some of those touched by her. This is our way to give back to her and her family. If you would like to participate, whether completing layouts or contributing to the project in some other way, just contact myself at lesliefrandsen1@hotmail.com or leave a comment on my blog, or contact Lisa Terry at scrap4joy@mail2world.com. We'd love to have you involved if you feel you have something to give.

If you live stateside and want to complete layouts we can email you digital photos to work with. ANYONE can participate in anyway they feel they can! That is the beauty of technology!

This is important and if we work together we will be able to save Christine's legacy for her children to cherish for the rest of their lives. Her children were so young and having these books will be precious to them later in life. Let's pull together and complete Christine's Keepsakes!

Conversations and eye candy!

We spend a lot of time in our car this time of year. A. LOT. Whether we are running errands, attending meetings or events or sneaking in a Christmas Market here or there (I'm trying to get around the "one" market this year idea, tomorrow is Metz and my mirror and I can hardly wait to be reunited, IT. NEEDS. ME.). Here is a couple of conversations you might here in the good green Blaze of Glory:

McKenna to her friend McKenna (not imaginary, actual friend named McKenna=):

My McKenna: "I used to be a baby in my mommy's belly"
Lisa's McKenna "Really? Me too"
My McKenna "wanna know how that happened?"
Lisa's McKenna "uhuh"
My McKenna "well, my mom ate a lot of food and the food turned sparkly in her belly which magically turned into sparkly me!"
Lisa's McKenna "wow!"

As we listen to our collection of Christmas CD's in the car one has become our favorite:

Bailey: "mom, will you please put in Luther Vandalism?"
Me: "what?!"
Bailey: "you know, that guy that we listened to last time"
Me: "oh, you mean Luther Vandross?"

And by the way, here are a couple of pictures I took after we had decorated our tree.



Love the glowing look. Wanna capture your glowing tree as well? Here are my tips:

Turn out all overhead lighting. Place your camera on a stable surface to prevent camera shake which leads to blurred pictures (if you don't have a tripod, use the back of a chair or a table). Enter the following settings on your camera:

1. ISO up to 800
2. White balance on tungsten or the light bulb icon
3. flash off
4. You need the lowest aperture setting so either use the setting with the picture of a person's head or go to your Av mode and dial down to a low number like 4.0 or lower.
5. Hold down your shutter button half way on the part of the picture you want in focus, re-compose the shot and finish pushing the button down all the way to take the shot. In the new title picture on my blog I focused on the corner of the red present then recomposed the shot so that the present was now in the corner. Don't focus on a light bulb. If you do you won't get a glow you'll get a bulb in complete focus to the point of seeing the wire inside.

If this is too complicated do this, flash off, portrait setting, camera on a stable surface. Shoot away! If it looks yellow you need to adjust your white balance as above.

Now, if you choose to try this out, let me know and post your results. This will be fun to see! Happy Shooting!

Photography Challenge

Last night we were invited to a friend's birthday party. We have the same interests when it comes to photography and so when I got this particular invite I couldn't wait. The invite went out one week ago stating the details of the party but the kicker was that as a family we were to go on a photography scavenger hunt. The list of photography challenges were emailed out the morning of the party and you had all day to complete your list. At 5:00 we met, ate BBQ, then popped in the memory cards and enjoyed the creative process. What a fun party idea! Thanks Scott's!! Go here if you want to see other results.

Unfortunately Mark was out of town but the girls and I had a blast checking off our list in between getting our Saturday chores completed. I really wanted to go abstract as much as possible instead of hitting the subject head on, you decide if I did it or not. Here is what we came up with:

Angel:
This was taken in the forest behind our village with the camera directed straight up at the sun.


Animal:

Action:

Water:

Orange:

Letter R:
You know me, it's gotta be "R"ed!

Reflection:


Flower:


Statue:
Yep, it's the infamous German gnome in my village. He is such a shady character . . .


Favorite German candy:
Fresh (self) cut flowers are my favorite German treat!

Self portrait:

Happy:
Come on, you know he makes you happy too . . . and afterall it IS time for a love revolution!

Funny sign:
Because really, I'm just not so sure he has a chance.