It’s the end of the school year for Reilly, and the Spartans finished with a bang at their annual carnival. The staff and volunteers did a fantastic job (as usual!) setting up booths with food and games. Reilly and Teagan had a great time with their friends eating yummies, getting faces painted, and receiving balloon “swords”.

I discovered the competitive nature of Reilly and her distaste for losing when I noticed some tears running down her cheeks after the bean bag toss.

“Reilly, what’s wrong? Did you fall? Are you hurt? Was some BOY mean to you?”

“No…It’s just that…sniff…I didn’t even get ONE beanbag in the hole!!” sniff, sniff…

Couldn’t help it, I chuckled a little. She wouldn’t look at me after that…(photo below) but it was kinda funny…

One face paint booth later and all was forgotten.

Thank you Mrs. Anderson for doing such a wonderful job with Reilly and her classmates, we will miss you next year. Go Spartans!!

The girls trying their luck at the bean bag toss.

Reilly lost miserably, and was not amused.

Hmmmm….

Teagan! That is not your pool!!!

Hey Reilly, nice…eh…balloon…

The first time my friend Rich and I saw Muse play live, we were both…overwhelmed. It was June of 2004, and they played at Empire, a small club downtown Sacramento. I remember several times throughout the show Rich and I exchanged glances of amazement. We both knew immediately we were seeing something special.

I’ve seen them several times since then(Stef went too!), and they have never failed to impress…no, more than that, they just blow me away!

Well finally the rest of the world can experience what I believe to be the finest live act of the decade…perhaps the finest in my lifetime. “Haarp” is the first official live DVD released in the States and it was definately worth the wait. Recorded playing to a massive crowd at Wembley Stadium, the trio was on their game. I have not seen a better live show than this. Seriously, even the 3D U2 show doesn’t touch it.

If you enjoy rock music whatsoever, you really owe it to yourself to run out and buy the DVD(it even comes with the recording on CD!). I don’t work for the label and this is not a paid placement. It just astounds me that so (relatively) few people I know and run into have not heard of one of the best bands in the history of rock and roll. I just had to share. Hope you enjoy!

Photos © A&E Records Ltd.

Here is a little Bellamy Butta…

For those of you in the area, Roseville held a special celebration Friday night for the recent renovation of old town. We went along with the McClures to check it out. Lots of work has been done over the last several months and it is really coming together. There were several food and beverage vendors, live music, and the highlight for the girls…a face painting booth.

Always nice to see the community get together like this and we are glad to support it. We finished off the evening at a soft opening of the new restaraunt ‘Basic’ on Pacific street. It’s a way cool urban ultra lounge that serves fantastic wood fired pizzas and great salads. The place was jammed packed with plenty of city planners, architects, designers, and passers by just checking out the scene. Looking forward to more events like this in the future!

Teagan checking out the band

The girls getting their groove on…

mmm….pizzas…..

Friday was our good friend Jourdan’s birthday so we stole away to a nice little gathering for dinner. The littlest McClure came along and just hung out in his high chair soaking it all in. Topped it off with a pie & candle and some very full bellies.

Dude, it has been great knowing you these years. Thanks for continually pulling on my creative strings and I’ll continue to pull on yours. And someday…someday…we will work on a project together.

Jourdan is a filmmaker (a fine one at that), and ONE of these days, we’ll make that zombie film.

Happy birthday!

We were asked to do some product photography for the Silver Spoon in Granite Bay and had a very short deadline. No time to consult our model list…Reilly got the job.

In fine fashion she lit it up for us and performed wonderfully. Dress a young girl in a fancy dress and a bouquet and sparks fly…unless that girl is Teagan.

As you can see, Miss T was less than photogenic here. Once she saw the ladybugs and moths, that was pretty much it for her.

Oh well, it gave us an opportunity to focus on the star for the evening.

Thanks to Marie Ortman for the help, very much appreciated!

It’s hard to believe that our “little” miss Teagan is 3 years old today. Our life has been fuller, more fun, and definitely unpredictable since our comedian was born, and we wouldn’t change a bit of it! Teagan is so full of life and lives for the pure enjoyment of the moment; we could all take a lesson or two from her. She celebrated on Sunday with a Princess Party in our backyard, and today we will go out for special birthday cupcakes. Happy Birthday Teagan! We love you!

Easy to lose.

Even easier to waste.

And impossible to get back…

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Life moves pretty fast.

If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

– Ferris Bueller

Back in high school, I had a habit of wearing various articles of clothing (or accessories) that I thought were cool…even if that wasn’t necessarily the case.

My mom: “James, you are NOT wearing a hairclip to school!” (give me a break, it was the 80’s)

So…I guess in Teagan’s exploration of fashion and self expression, what goes around comes around…

It was another lovely evening to throw something on the BBQ. While dinner was burning cooking, Miss T and I decided to escape for a few and play out front.

Soon I heard a familiar voice. “Honey! How’s the meat coming?”

I won’t bother showing the next photo of dinner…

…Teagan and I had a great time however.

This photo was made in San Diego during our mini vacation in February. You may have seen it on the cover of our newsletter last month. We really liked it and decided to enter it in print competition this month at the Professional Photographers of Sacramento Valley (PPSV) meeting. Well, the judges liked it as well and the print won best in show for the night. Thought we would share it here a little larger than shown on the newsletter. It is titled “The long walk home”.

Look close and you can see a little surfer dude in the lower left corner.

No, it is not Reilly or Teagan…