Him and Hymn

One of the best things about Lizzie taking piano is that Rob seems to have a renewed interest in it, too. This is what I captured this Sunday morning when I finally figured out how to work the video function of my new camera. As you can see, I have NOT figured out how to use the focus function while videoing, but the music is still good. Also, we don't often see Rob-Bob on the blog, so it's not like anyone really knows what he looks like anyway... ;)
This is the hymn, "Christ, Be Our Light."

Dance!

Through no fault of my own, Hannah and Lizzie do seem to be turning into decent dancers. This was evidenced at the observation day at their dance studio yesterday. I was quite surprised impressed by their ability since at  home they still walk into walls and fall off chairs. Maybe I should play soothing classical ballet music all day? Anyway, I'm still having a ball playing with my new camera, so you get to see some of what they did yesterday. The girls' dance studio doesn't allow parents to watch the weekly lessons because they say it distracts the dancers, but once each semester parents can observe a class. Here are Hannah and Lizzie doing something balletic:

In this exercise they had to jump up and down for about two  minutes. Lizzie never missed a beat:

Lizzie working on her hand position:

Hannah, doing a stretch:

And now for some artsy photos. This is Hannah doing a dance step ... their teacher Miss Kelsey (a beautiful dancer!) is reflected in the mirror:

Dancing feet (and a hole in the tights .... I'm saving the good tights for Nutcracker!):

Lizzie was actually moving across the floor in this position ... beautiful, isn't it?

Way Back Wednesday

(This is my second post in two days, so make sure to look at the post directly below this one, if you're interested in present-day Rasmussen life...)

This week we take you back to 1969 just before Aunt Anonymous and Beanie shipped out (ha, ha!) I'm thinking that this might be another Easter photo since Beanie looks a little overdressed in her gloves and pocketbook for just a simple Sunday. I'm also pretty sure that my mom was sort of obsessed with sailor suits for a little while. I remember that I had a sailor shirt with a big bow on the front, but not the whole dress. I know that T.A. (not wearing it here) had a blue sailor suit that he wore when he was about this age.This picture was taken in our backyard under the sugar maple, so you can see our neighbors' homes.  We used to pay with the kids who lived in the white house to the right (I think that was the Milanos) but not the kids in the white house directly behind, because they were hippies. And we only played with the kids in the house just to the left of T.A.s head (not pictured) because they were jocks. We did play with the kids on owr own street even though. Probably some of them were jocks. I was the lone hippie on our block.

Oh and is it just me or (for those who know him) does Aunt Anonymous look a lot like Tommy in this picture?

Talented Kids

We had a talent show in Brownies today. We're working on a long-term project called It's Your Story: Tell It, which is a leadership and self-esteem building exercise. I'm trying to get the girls to understand that everyone is really good at something (and conversely that most people are usually challenged in an area, too) and that we can a find success somewhere.
Hannah decided to dance in her new pointe shoes, doing a small rendition of the Chinese Dance that she's doing for Nutcracker. I'm still impressed that she can dance in these shoes since she's never had any lessons in them. The other Brownies were very interested in the toe pads! Oh, and the costume she's wearing is from her cousin Shelby's dancing days!

And Lizzie -- who could not figure out a way to get a piano to the meeting -- did her old stand-by, animal impersonations. She had the brownies all laughing at her silly cat and dog, but everyone really seemed to like this one the best ... it's not everyone who can accurately imitate a snake!

We had a great time with the show, with singers and dancers and musicians as well as a couple of martial artists and gymnasts. A couple of the girls did some flexibility shows and I even had one who could spin for five minutes without getting dizzy. (I got dizzy watching her and we stopped her after one minute!)
It was a fun exercise and Lizzie exclaimed that even SHE didn't know that all her fellow brownies were so talented!!

Way Back Wednesday

This is me and Ging Ging. I think I'm somewhere shy of my 2nd birthday in this photo, which looks like it was taken sometime in the summer. Other than that I don't have a clue about anything. Maybe Aunt Brenda knows who the guy is who is teasing me with the doll? Cousin Lee maybe? What's most interesting to me about this photo (other then my chubby legs -- which haven't changed much in the past 50 years...) is the pocketbook in the lower right of the photo. It must have been my  mother's because I have a very clear picture of it in my head. It was a sort of large bag covered in vinyl with little gold things embroidered under the plastic.

Anyway, this is the Ging Ging that I often speak of ... and this is pretty much how much she looked in my entire memory of her (she died when I was a senior in college) always with the curled bob (a wig in later years and maybe even here) with the Cat's Eye glasses.

My New Camera

I love my new camera! It's a Canon Rebel T2i and it's a HUGE upgrade from the digital Rebel I got when the girls were babies. And I love it. Did I mention that? Today was a beautiful day with bright sunshine and the temperature topping out around 60 degrees. The girls had the day off, Rob took the day off and we all went out to lunch in Lancaster and took a trip to the "buggy park" where I got to test drive the camera (I've taken other pictures for Halloween, but that was all done with the camera set on fully automatic.) So here are some of the shots:

First, of course, we have an action shot of Hannah and Lizzie playing on the tire swing:

This is the afternoon sun filtering through some of the last leaves of autumn. I can't believe any trees have leaves on them after the snow storm we had Halloween weekend. Lucky for me and my new camera, some of the trees hung on to their leaves:

This was carved into a tree near the park. I was able to get really close and then fixed it up in photoshop a bit:

Action shots! This is Hannah leaping from the swing at the park:

And not to be outdone, here is Lizzie doing the same thing:

And this is sort of a REVERSE action shot. Rob was driving his usual Mario Andretti-esque speed down the road and I spotted this guy working his fields the old fashioned way. He opened his window and I shot a few pictures ... and they actually came out pretty clearly:

More artsy photos ... this time it's Lizzie spinning around in the tire swing. I know you probably won't care, but I was able to microfocus on her knee and then have the rest of the picture show movement:

And of course we can't forget black and white shots. I love this one:

But of course my FAVORITE pictures to take are of these two:

And this one:

And that's why I love my new camera!

Way Back Wednesday

Introducing a NEW and EXCITING feature... well, it's new at any rate.
Shortly after my Mom passed away I was looking for some pictures to put in the slide show and collage of her life and I found a huge bin of old photos down in my basement. I don't really remember how I came to have them, but there were some really cool photos there.

So every Wednesday I'm going to post a picture and, if I remember anything about it, write something about it.

Without further ado...here's the first Way Back Wednesday photo...

I'm pretty sure this picture was taken on Easter in 1969 (or maybe 68 since there is no grass to speak of in the photo) at our house in Somers, N.Y. I especially love that my brother is wearing short pants and a cap. Ha ha ha ha ha. However if the picture was in color you'd all be laughing at the coat I'm wearing. It was a kind of fake lambswool and the top part was white, but the bottom part was LIME GREEN. Oh yeah, I was stylin' that year at Easter Mass! 

Pictured, left to right are T.A., cousin Ann Elizabeth, Terry, Tally, me and my lime green coat, cousin Mary Kay and Tina. I'm pretty sure the car belonged to my Aunt Mary and Uncle Al because I don't ever remember having a family car that wasn't a station wagon. Oh, and if you look at the house in the back there, that's pretty much what our house looked like, too.  Now the backyard is lined by trees and you can't really even see the next door neighbor's house. But I guess that can happen in (gulp!) 43 years.