• babies,  children & families

    the burk family

    A brand new to bsquared family who’s session we had to reschedule maybe 3 or 4 times (I lost count) due to rain, severe heat, sicknesses x2 or 3. But we finally got it in and meeting little miss D was well worth the wait. Such a great, happy family! They chose a session at home (which is always so fun for me- I love seeing where my clients live and love) and we finally got a decent evening where everyone was healthy. My favorite thing? She whistles. Like really, truly whistles. The cutest thing ever from such a little girl!

    So tell me how you really feel about photos…The other baby.They don’t really like to be too close together, so this was a perfect compromise.The picture on the right is her whistling. 

  • beach,  children & families,  travel

    the rich family

    If you are a blog stalker (which, of course, I hope that you are!) you’ll remember this family from their daughters bat mitzvah, an awards night and sarah’s recent session celebrating her brace free smile. We had this session scheduled for over a year out at their summer/weekend home in Westhampton Beach. But illness, travel plans and weather had other ideas and pushed our session back a whole year plus. I was so happy to get it done so they’ll have some great family photos that are updated and ready to hang in their gorgeous home out that way.

    A windy and way humid evening on the beach, but the light was gorgeous.

    Sooooo cute!Standing out in the marsh for this one! (me, not the family!)Beautiful ladies. Hope you like them all, T and family!! Enjoy the rest of your summer out there!And if you’re my friend on Facebook, you’ll remember me cursing the whole way home when they closed the LIE (the whole freaking road) from exits 62-63 on the way home and I sat in traffic for an hour and 4o minutes. That part wasn’t fun. But dinner with my friend Kim (who also summers out in Westhampton) before hitting the road was great!

  • baseball,  personal,  travel

    the royals at rehoboth

    So two weeks ago the Royals travelled down to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware for a baseball tournament. Of course, it was like the hottest week EVER with temps in the upper 90’s to low 100’s, ever so lovely for both watching and playing baseball. It was so freaking hot, that I literally had sweat dripping off me while standing still in the shade. Because of that, I was really sadly lax on the picture taking portion of the 4 days we were there. The camera was burning hot within minutes of being out in the sun (even at the 8am game) and I was just so hot and cranky that I didn’t even want to take pictures. So I apologize to all the families for the serious lack of pictures. We’ll just have to live off the memories for a while and the few pictures I did take.

    I decided that I should bring something fun for the boys and families. When we went to Cooperstown last year, I bought all the boys drawstring backpacks w the Royals logo and their #s. This year it was cookies (and they were soooooo good) from my new friend Colleen, owner of Dover Girls Desserts. (you should like her fb page if you haven’t yet!) We came up with jerseys for all the kids and the coaches w their names and #s, along with some other baseball “accessory” cookies. Underneath the iced cookies were delicious oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip cookies. Between the ridiculous heat and the car ride, a few of them got a little squished on the way down but they still tasted awesome. I didn’t want to unwrap them before putting them in the car so the pictures aren’t that great. (sorry Colleen!) But she did take some pictures before handing them over, so you can see those on her page.

    After driving down in two cars (too much stuff for one car w all of us in it) and me taking part of the Luvin family with me, we checked into the hotel and headed over to TGI Fridays for dinner with most of the team. The kids table was a huge, gigantic, loud, sweaty, burpy, happy mess. Fran, Ro, Jill and Diane. And Patrick for the photo bomb. The hotel (which was really nice w big rooms. Just not enough rollaway beds. Glad I brought my friend’s blowup mattress for Timmy). Posting the “fun” pictures before the baseball pictures, so the trip is kinda out of order on the blog. This is also the hotel that Timmy got lost in for a while. Well, he knew where he was but I didn’t and freaked out. Like that heart in the pit of your stomach, I’m going to be on the 10 o’clock news, he’s gone forever freak out. He left with his brothers and some of the other kids but didn’t tell me he was going or where he was going. Doreen found him hanging with the boys (thanks Doreen and thanks for keeping me from completely losing my shit) and he was in biiiiig trouble after that. Went down to the boardwalk which was a lot of fun. Not even a little breeze off the ocean though, and it was in the upper 80s at night. I don’t think I’ve ever sweated so much in my life. Not even in Florida. Timmy reading up on the history of Rehoboth, Tony & Doreen being happy. Kevin dancing in the spice shop (this might be my favorite picture of the trip). And the boys pretending to be interested in spices so they could stay in the air conditioned store. From the left: Patty, Mike, Diane, Todd (without the effing pretzel nuggets), Ro, John, Doreen, Tony, Charlie, Jill, Rob, Laura, Bob, me, John. Photocredit to Jack. And I love these people!!I wish I was big…Kevin, Tony & John. Playland. Kinda gross and kinda fun and really effing hot. I played some skee ball with Jack, Timmy did some rides and bumper cars with Patrick too. Most of the team and the siblings. We travel with a biiiiig group. And the best part is how well they all get along, including (and maybe especially) all the siblings! The first game was at 8am. Ew. Jack pitching.Coach Healy coaching. And getting in the way of my pictures as always.Johnny.Aymar.James.Glenn, Patrick, Mike L. James, Jack C and Johnny.Patrick.Patrick and John.Anthony. Mike.Jack C.Patrick (he is also Patrick B, but this one doesn’t belong to me)Patrick (mine).Patrick. Aymar.Patrick.Mike (Johnny too)Jack C.
    Glenn.Jack C.Jack. And although they didn’t win any games, we had a great (but sweaty) time! I guess it’s kinda like being on the Mets- it builds character. These kids should have enough character saved up to last thru high school.Still smiling. Mostly.

    front row: Patrick, Glenn, Patrick, Mike L, Aymar

    back row: Coach John, Coach Rob, Mike, Coach Kevin, Johnny, James, Zach, Nick, Jack, Coach John H., Anthony & Jack C.

    And then we got home and Patrick had to go to the hospital. But you know that part already.

    Lots more client sessions on the blog this week and then I’m off on vacation until 8/22. I’ll be checking emails occasionally and possibly posting some personal posts/pictures but won’t be editing, ordering or any other bsquared business until after 8/22. See you here tomorrow!

  • personal,  pets

    rip spudnick

    Timmy’s goldfish, Spudnick (named completely by him) took a turn for the worse a few weeks ago and stopped eating. I knew it was getting close to the end of his long (for a goldfish, 3 years!) life so I warned Timmy ahead of time that it was probably coming soon. Spudnick was the toughest fish I ever met, surviving for an undetermined amount of time in a bowl with no water. We came upstairs one night to find that his bowl must’ve had a crack in it and the entire bowl’s worth of water was now all over the carpeted floor of Timmy’s room and Spudnick gasping for breath, but somehow still alive, at the bottom of the bowl. It was a few weeks after that episode for his room to stop stinking like mildew (big thanks to the great people at GiGi carpet cleaning who came right away to clean stuff up, and the air filter from Target was a big help too) but he lasted for a few months after the near suffocating episode and seemed fine in between. Like I said, one tough fishie.

    We miss him (yes, even me) especially at night before bed when he would see us come into Timmy’s room and gulp at the top of the waterline waiting for his dinner. You would hear little “ploop ploop” sounds from him until Timmy (and more often than not, I) fell asleep. You were a great pet, Spudnick. Hope you’re enjoying that big fish tank in the sky!

     

    Timmy insisted on a real burial in the backyard, no burial “at sea” (read: down the toilet) would do for his favorite fish. There was a funeral and everything. And of course a Tiffany box. No skimping on Spudnick. (the red pebble was from his bowl; Timmy insisted that it accompany him to the great beyond.)
    The mourners. (mostly wearing orange in honor of Spudnick.)Such a good brother.Making the headstone.(it says rip Spudnick 2010-2013)And as far as we can tell, no raccoons or anything have tried to exhume the fish. Timmy’s doing just fine and is looking forward to a new fish after we get back from vacation. One last shout out to “Mrs. Ow W” (aka Beth Wollweber) for always taking care of Spudnick whenever we were on vacation and for coming by with a rose for his gravesite after the funeral.

    Patrick UPDATE: sorry, I forgot to update here on the blog-only updated on Facebook. Patrick was released from the hospital within the same day as the double ER visit after being admitted to a room for observation and more fluids. He had one bag of IV antibiotics and 4 huge bags of fluid over the course of the 18 hours we were there between the ER and the room. They decided it was not appendicitis since his symptoms improved instead of getting worse, but that it was a bacterial gastro infection made much worse by the heat & dehydration from the 90+ degree baseball tournament for 3 days. Thanks to all of you who have asked after him. He is totally fine and back to eating like crazy, sleeping long teenaged hours and playing baseball. I’m slowly catching up on editing galleries and doing the rest of my work as much as I can before vacation from 8/2-22. Pressure!!!

  • beach,  children & families

    the bodk family

    My first time photographing this great family, who was referred to me by mom’s sister who I photographed a few times in the past year. Loved the kids, both big and small. They were so much fun to photograph and spend an evening with.