25/365: Riding Home Sunshine

With nice weather we enjoy walking to/from school, but nothing beats riding his bike home!

Riding Home Sunshine:

23/365: Paper Airplane Sunshine

For a 5 year old, nothing beats an afternoon making paper airplanes with your cousin.

Paper Airplane Sunshine:

Oh and the girls enjoyed a few moments of a cartoon together:

Oh and I suppose I should mention that Mr. McGee decided to give himself a haircut this morning by himself.  So thankful he didn't cut his ear off!

22/365: Sunday Afternoon Sunshine

Sunday afternoons during football season are one of my favorites!  This year our beloved 49ers were in the NFC championship game and although they had a heartbreaking loss, our afternoon was filled with sunshine!

Sunday Afternoon Sunshine:

Grammy & Em:

16/365: Skating Sunshine

Today I enjoyed introducing McGee to ice skating for the first time.  His attitude was great - he just kept popping right back up when he fell and he asked if we could come back every day to practice. :)

Skating Sunshine (taken with a borrowed P&S):

15/365: Colorful Sunshine

During all of his months in preschool last year I had to BEG McGee to do some of the fun art projects they did in his class.  Seriously, I would see other parents going home with all of these neat creations their kids made and my son was always the one to opt out of doing any of the art projects in class.  He said he just didn't like it.

Fast forward a year and now McGee is constantly asking for "arts and crafts" or an "art project to work on".  He now enjoys coloring and creating things for others as gifts and has said his favorite thing about his new kindergarten class is "all of the fun arts and crafts we do!"  Let's just say I'm pleased to see the joy in his eyes now when he creates something and our walls and windows are decorated with many of them.

Colorful Sunshine:

14/365: Handsome Win Sunshine

Isn't he so handsome???  My little boy is growing up and looking so much less baby and much more handsome big boy.  Which b/w conversion do you prefer between these two?

How 'bout them 49ers???!!!  Ten years after our last playoff appearance we arrived...and BIG!  What an exciting game we enjoyed with both sets of our parents and our friends the Wards.  It was definitely a Handsome Win Sunshine kind of day:

And on a side note, McGee had his first official "sleepover" last night as we had his friend Jared sleep over.  The boys did great and I'd say it was a big success!

13/365: Creating Sunshine

I love open-ended toys for kids.  No batteries, no electronic devices, just some blocks, cars and as much imagination as the kids can come up with.  The block "town" was created by Miss Em, complete with a "nail salon" (her words).  On the other side of the table, brother was creating a "video" of Cars 2 with everyone on the "stage".

Creating Sunshine:

11/365: Boy, Dog, Girl Sunshine

This is what McGee's room looked like when he left for school this morning - cars, trucks and dinosaurs scattered all over the floor.  An all boy room for sure.  A little while later I found our dog Callie trying to make her way out of his messy room.  Then a short while after that Miss Em was practicing her "plie" in the middle of McGee's mess.  It may not be an actual automatic time lapse sequence, but I found the sequence interesting and fun nonetheless.

Boy, Dog, Girl Sunshine (you can click on the image to see it larger):

10/365: Pizza Parlor Sunshine

I grew up going to pizza parlors - for baseball parties, soccer parties and whenever our family wanted to enjoy pizza.  My kids are mostly used to eating Papa Murphy's take -n-bake or homemade pizza.  A couple of times though we've gone out to a local pizza parlor with my brother and sister-in-law and the 5 kids have a blast pretending they're playing the video games after they've used up the 50 cents we give each of them to start the night.  We parents love the opportunity to talk somewhat uninterrupted while they're off playing (within eyesight at all times of course).

Pizza Parlor Sunshine:

8/365 - Part 2: Hallway Stadium Sunshine

Nothing like a little pre-bed football in the hallway to start the week...

8/365: Sunday Morning Sunshine

Sleeping in.  Braided hair.  Taking Baby Monkey to church.  Laughs and giggles.

Sunday Morning Sunshine:

6/365: Doodling at Panera Sunshine

We took the kids out to Panera for breakfast and Daddy and McGee enjoyed some doodling time while we girls finished eating.

5/365:Strike A Pose Sunshine

My 4-year old niece Addie is always ready to strike a pose whenever I have the camera out.  It makes me laugh looking at this image of her because as the boys are running around crazy up and down the hallways, she was running around with them, saw my camera out and immediately stopped and struck her typical photo pose - I just adore the tilt of her head and smile!  Boys and girls are so different!

4/365: "Bomb" Timer Sunshine

Enjoying our last week with Daddy and McGee off on Winter Break we had a picnic lunch at the park today.  Miss Em was having a hard time eating her sandwich so Daddy whipped out his cell phone and started the "timer" which has been our new program for getting them to finish their food.  McGee was all done eating but didn't go play because he was too excited wanting to see Daddy's "Bomb" go off - the graphic on the cell phone of a bomb that blows up when the time is up.  You can see Miss Em wasn't as thrilled with the scenario, but she did finish her sandwich!

"Bomb" Timer Sunshine:

1/365: New Beginnings Sunshine - 2012

I failed.  I failed at my daily posting of all 365 Rays of Sunshine for 2011.

Fortunately I am given another chance for a new beginning here in 2012.  With my computer virus stricken and unusable for at least another few days, I will do my best to shoot in JPEG and post straight out of the camera (SOOC) shots these first few days of 2012.  Today we enjoyed a fun and relaxed family day - I love this shot of my son laughing with me - hoping 2012 will be a year filled with lots of laughter for our family!

1/365: New Beginnings Sunshine

134/365: Moments of Joy Captured Sunshine

This was a day full of fun, starting with a senior girl photo session, then to my cousin's birthday party at the park and finally ending with seeing my sister and niece.

 Moments of Joy Captured Sunshine:

This was the sight as I returned to my parents from the photo session, my two kiddos fresh out of the bath and wrapped in towels looking out the front windows at me:

My amazing parents caught in a moment of laughter:

The sight of my children swinging at the park I grew up at, complete with the Lion drinking fountain that was there when I was a child:

128/365: Mother's Day Sunshine

Mother's Day Sunshine:

 My wonderful kids and I

My amazing mother and I

127/365: Mother's Day Flower Sunshine

McGee made this beautiful flower for me to wear to the Spring Sing.

Mother's Day Flower Sunshine:

126/365: Spring Sing Sunshine

McGee's Spring Sing Preschool Performance, Spring Sing Sunshine:

122/365: Helping Make Potato Chip Sunshine

Helping Make Potato Chips Sunshine: