Pam's Week 7 & 8: Playing Catch Up.....

The past few weeks have been a reminder to me that I am not Super Woman.  I think I'm pretty fabulous and I try hard but I really and truly can't do it all, at least for an extended period of time.   You see, Danica celebrated her 6th birthday this past Thursday and we held her birthday party yesterday.  I don't know how many of you remember the Olympiad we had for her 5th birthday, complete with our own Olympic Stadium in our front yard and a full International Buffet for dinner, but we decided to scale back this year.  Instead of making copious amounts of food and planning activities and fun for 35-40 people, we decided we would just have a smaller house party with 12 little kids and then invite our friends, my parents, and the older kids over for pizza and cake and just a playdate afterwards.  In case you haven't yet noticed, my husband and I are make work projects.  We don't actually do "scaled back" very well.  My husband made his own Olaf costume and decorated our entire basement to welcome the children to Arrendale.  He also dipped cookies and marshmallows and planned all the events.  I made each child a fleece scarf and made ribbon barrettes in Anna or Elsa colours for the girls.  Needless to say, even though I was trying to take the pictures in between bouts of frostbite from the bitter cold that seems to be everlasting, my life has been consumed with this Frozen party and the blogging just had to take a backseat.

But now I'm back, (from Outer Space....).  Sorry, I digress into song on a whim.  My apologies....

CONTRAST:

The first photos I took, and the only ones I actually took the week of the assignment, were taken on the last day of Bon Soo.  It was bitter cold, which seems to be par for the course this winter, but I liked the contrast of the old St. Mary's Paper Administration Building (now some part of the Mill Market complex, I believe) with the industrial power station apparatus.

I don't think this is a true contrast but more a symbol of irony - a campfire made of snow...

Today, however, Sharon and I headed to Whitefish Point with my kids to check out the ice caves.  She always has the most incredible pictures of the area and I've never been.  While there, I found a few contrasts that appealed to me....

On our way to Whitefish Point, we stopped at Iroquois Point Lighthouse and wandered on their shoreline to check out some of their little caves.  We met the lighthouse keeper and chatted with him for a bit during our wanders.  This was looking inside a little cave the kids discovered.  We were amazed to see stalactites and stalagmites!

Also at Iroquois Point, I was intrigued by this piece of driftwood and the drifting snow around it.

Our wanders at Whitefish Point were loads of fun.  I'm sure Sharon and I will have aches and pains tomorrow where we didn't even know we had muscles, but it will be worth it.  It was a gorgeous day, temperature wise, if only the sky was clearer and the sun brighter, it would have been perfect.  A lot of the areas that appeared to be hard-packed, though, had us sinking up to mid-thigh which made the walking difficult; the giggling probably didn't help.  Then the actually hard-packed areas were icy so we were trying to not slip as we watched the kids running all around as if it was dry pavement.  We decided this must be how a lot of elderly people with balance issues must feel on a daily basis.

This teepee on the beach spoke to me again and again.  I liked the contrast of it with the lighthouse.

I also liked the contrast of the man-made pyramid with the similar ice shapes created by Mother Nature.

And then there was the frequent contrast of Sharon or I on our butts as the kids ran merrily along...

FRAME WITHIN A FRAME:

I didn't even attempt to take this photo last week, figuring I would rely on one taken while Robert and I were on vacation last month.  Clearly I didn't take the picture though as I am actually standing in the frame...

At Danica's birthday party yesterday, however, Robert had some photo props that made for great frames.

Then today at the ice caves, we found the perfect frame in a frame.... The kids are framed by the ice cave and Sharon is hanging out on the outside of it.

Then I sent the kids to separate caves where they were each framed in by the ice.

And now I'm caught up....Here's hoping the weather cooperates with my quest to keep on top of the pictures from now on (aka I hate the cold and am unlikely to venture outside for photos if frostbitten fingers are likely).  Happy March!