Your Sunday Best - My Beauty!

It is so hard to pick a "best" when I am looking at photos of my children. I grabbed a photo of my daughter that was so perfect in raw form, I didn't play with it at all except to add my sig on the bottom. I know as her mom I am completely biased but I really love this photo.

Shadow Shot Sunday - Within the Lines

I took a bunch of photos of the kids while waiting for my chance at snapping a Morgan Freeman shot. 

You can read about my Morgan Freeman experience and see photos here.

Limitless Starring Bradley Cooper - An Amateur Review

Last night I finally sat down long enough to watch a screener of Limitless starring Bradley Cooper from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment which will be out on DVD and Blu-ray on July 19th.

What I Can Tell You: First, lets start with, I am a huge Bradley Cooper fan. I mean, how can you not be, the body, the eyes, the hair, the quirky sideways smile, love it!

The movie starts off with Bradley standing on a roof about to take his life and someone banging at his door. How did  he get there? The movie takes a huge "mother may I" step backward and we find out. Bradley, or Eddie in this movie is a divorced "after two seconds" sad sack writer who can't even get people to believe he has a book contract because he is so pathetic.

How do you make sexy Bradley Cooper look like he is pathetic? Well, give him crazy, lackluster, long hair and don't let him smile because it will crinkle and brighten his sexy blue eyes. Eddie is a slob who can't pay his rent, or come up with a sentence for his book until he runs into his ex-junkie-brother-in-law. His brother-in-law gives him a designer pill and tells him that all will be clear once he takes it. Like Alice in Wonderland he takes the pill and suddenly, Eddie has the gift of gab!  The drug kicks in as he is being screamed at by his landlords wife/girlfriend (I don't remember, she was unimportant) and suddenly he is in her apartment, helping her write and having sex with her. He can recall things he doesn't even remember, everything he ever read, things that he only saw but didn't even realize it had imprinted on his brain. He learns to play the piano in 3 days. He can speak any language. He suddenly knows everything about everything.

He heads back to his brother-in-laws for more drugs. The BIL tells him he knew he would be back and that he needs to get his cleaning and some lunch for him and he will give him the drug. When he gets back his BIL is sitting on the couch after being shot in the head and the apartment is trashed. He calls 911, searches for the drugs and has a lot of explaining to do.

The drugs change Eddie's life. He is back with his ex girlfriend, he is successful, has tons of cash and everyone is interested in him. Sounds great but his new fans are good and bad people. Eddie's stalkers want the drug and want him dead.

Great movie for fans of dramatic thrillers or Bradley Cooper fans. Oh BTW...the great Robert DeNiro is in here too.

Camera Critters - Handsome and The Duck

Excited for his chance to touch the duck! The kids were so happy that they got to touch them.

Color Carnival #99

Hello everyone,
What a crazy Saturday. Woke up feeling very sick, and dizzy. Could barely walk because I was so off kilter. Would have miserably failed a sobriety test even though I am not a drinker.  Had to lie down because the dizziness was making me so nauseous. The kids were excited about a birthday party so I knew I had to get better. Lied around all morning hoping to take them.   Eventually my husband drove because he saw I was in no shape to take them.  It was fun and I feel so much better just a bit cloudy. Praying this will all just pass and that I haven't caught some nasty lake virus from all our days at the lake this week.

Thank you to the fabulous folks who are continuing to grace Color Carnival with their photos. I am just a host, you guys keep it running.

Thank you to everyone who contributed and voted.

Welcome to another colorful week here at Color Carnival!

We will run till Thursday at midnight. Look for the voting button after that and please come back to vote. Saturday a new post will go up with the prior week's winner.

Hope everyone has a great Weekend!

Alphabe-Thursday - M = Morgan Freeman and my Mission

Hollywood is at the lake!

The Kids are home from school!

What's a Mom Blogger to do?

Well, you promise them ice cream and head to the lake.

I pull into the parking lot, and quickly scope the area for an accomplice. I notice a 20 something year old with big earrings, a walkie talkie and a headset (my guy!) and quickly roll down the window. Umm...do you have any Grey Poupon? Nah, I didn't say that. I list my credentials (mommy blogger, talking about movie, blah, blah) and ask if he knows when anyone will be around).

He walks over telling me he couldn't hear me and after swallowing hard, I repeat my spiel. He says, "Yeah? Cool! If you hang around a little bit, we are coming back from lunch, you should be able to catch Morgan getting back to set."

After thanking him and parking, I turn to the kids in the back. "Guys, I know you don't understand this and this is no big deal to you, but this is a really big deal for your town! A movie is being filmed here and I really need to get a photo for my blogs! We won't stay long, I promise."

They huff and puff but reluctantly get out of the car.

Walking with a super big camera and a kid on each hand I walk over and try to look like I belong. It's hard to look inconspicuous when there are three of you.

After 18 minutes the kids are complaining. It is like 105 in the sun and we are hot, and bored. I get it, I'm bored too. I can't expect them to understand, nor should I expect this of them. Like any good mom, I tell them it's time for ice cream and we head back to the car. It's a 2 second walk. I start my drive out of the parking lot and BAM (no not an accident), Morgan friggin Freeman, right there, pulling in. Ahhhggghhh is what I shout in the car as a colorful round of expletives run through my head.

I stop the car and like the paparazzi, grab my shot through the window, over the top of a car.....wait for it....wait for it....

BAM!

That's him....Morgan Freeman....

well, the back of his head anyway. I know, it's not much, (see title of post)

I also got the side of Kenan Thompson, who looks fabulous, by the way.

Other than that..I got to watch the food table for most of my 40 minutes (20 mins, two visits)

,

active in the morning

not so much in the afternoon

Hopefully, I will be able to accomplish this mission before Hollywood leaves Greenwood Lake, but if not, at least I have these photos and Summer At Dog Daves will eventually be out and I will be able to say, I was standing right there.

My Kids Loved Fierce Fun Toys

We found a winner to share with you!! Just check out this companies trophy shelf. You just don't see this everyday.

If you have not heard of Fierce Fun Toys, LLC yet, you are missing out but I am so happy to introduce you to them.

What I Can Tell You:

My kids loved these. My 21 year old niece who was over and opened the book then proceeded to read the books to the kids right away loved them and anyone who has come over in the past week and a half loves them. 

Beside being cute, the books are a wonderful way to talk about manners and are full of big words to expand a child's vocabulary. They also serve as a reminder that everyone hiccups, sneezes and yes, farts. No reason to be ashamed or embarrassed. I also love the fact that the animals make friends in of the books which is a great way for children to see that despite differences anyone can be a good friend.

Grr...so annoyed that this is working. It is our first video together and he does talk about the stuffed animals. Why is my video coming out so choppy? Why is a 2 minute video only showing up as 30+ seconds? Grrr

Going to ask The Teach to check this out for me tonight! Making me crazy. Hopefully tomorrow, the video will be up and looking normal.

Budding Artist Tuesday - July 11, 2011

o you have an artist in your house? One who is constantly drawing, creating and inspired by all things art? If so, check out this new meme for the summer called

"Budding Artists" for kids age 3-18. 

I love blogging and I especially love when my kids are involved.

This drawing is by Goddess. I love the little hair and bow but I love how much personality her character her the most.

Orange Tuesday - Balloon Face

These balloon noise makers are going to be the death of me. I got them for the kids when they were sick but, man, oh man....they need to go!

Mellow Yellow Monday - The Park

Last week I took the kids to the park. It was super hot as you can see by looking at Handsome's face. When I asked if they were ready to go, they so were!

As you can see it really is a beautiful park but there is no shade. It was at least 90 and it was only 11:00 a.m.

Keeping Blue Monday Going For Sally

We headed to the most fun birthday party ever this weekend. There was everything a child could want. Snow cones, cotton candy, slip and slides, bounce houses, music, sprinklers, swings, slides, pizza, cake and all the juice they could ever want. I heard at least three say it was the best party ever and two, my kid included, said, "this is the best day ever."

Our hosts were awesome and I had to take pictures of all the colorful kids swirling around. It is what I do!

The snow cone machine was amazing. I would kill for one of these.

And, the slip and slide was so fun. I loved watching the kids slide down, knocking each other over, or , getting water in the eye. Does this say something about me that I shouldn't be sharing? Perhaps! Oh well, as Popeye used to say, I am what I am.

Quotography - Cotton Candye

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite memes. This is Eliza (not her real name), a little girl I babysit for. She is truly one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever seen. This weekend I ran into her at a birthday party and couldn't help stealing some photos of her when she wasn't expecting it. Unfortunately, she always caught me.

Look at that beautiful 2 year old face.

Blue Bunny Cools Off Goddess and Handsome In The Most Delicious Way

Friday I got home from the beach and realized there was a big box in front of the garage door. I wondered why UPS put it there when he usually places by my front door. The kids ran up in their quest to "win" (be the first to the door, can someone please tell me what this is about?) I grabbed the box and headed inside. It was big, there were things moving around inside, sounded like glass...umm...what the heck??

When I read the cover it said something about dry ice. Ahhh..now I get it. Earlier in the week we got a napkin in a blue envelope from Blue Bunny telling us to keep it because the best was yet to come. Well, when I opened the box, I realized it had arrived.

We were so surprised because we thought for sure we would receive coupons in the mail for us to get Blue Bunny ice cream through a Mom Select campaign but this was way better.

Handsome unfortunately for him but fortunately for us, isn't into any ice cream unless it is vanilla and completely plain.  There aren't many sweets he does like. However, this is not the case with the rest of the house. We make up for his lack of a sweet tooth and then some.

You can tell from these pictures, who loves the ice cream right?

We received boxes of:
Champ Mini Swirls Vanilla
Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches Variety Pack
and our hands down favorite, Mini Swirls Birthday Party Ice Cream Cones.

These treats are just the right size for little hands but also for adults who want a treat but don't want to over do it.