For the last month or so I’ve been working a lot. Actually, to be specific, I’ve been shooting a lot. When I say “work” I feel like that includes emails and editing and blogging and FB and so many other aspects of this business and a lot of what I just listed hasn’t actually been happening like it should. Because I’ve been shooting so much. Which is GOOD it just means I’m working my tush off right now to catch up! I’ve been making time for family here and there too of course but there have been an awful lot of Daddy days. So last week when Chris was back to teaching the kids and I had some good+quality time together. It was awesome!

One day we went to the Missouri Botanical Garden and we had the BEST time! The children’s garden there is so amazing!

That shot is totally soft (I was yelling and begging them to stand together for just ONE SECOND and  I think I was jiggling my camera way too much!) but I love it so I’m keeping it! Sometimes the MOM in me overrides the photographer!

The Garden has this amazing Lantern Festival there right now and they had some tents up with people selling artwork so we stopped to look around. When a man offered to cut the kid’s silhouettes right then I totally jumped at the chance! I’ve always wanted to have someone do that! Each kid had to sit still on a chair for about ten minutes though and that part was PAINFUL!

To keep PJ and Gray occupied I made funny faces at them and let them take my photo (those were immediately deleted!) and then I took photos of them being silly!

The silhouettes didn’t turn out all that great but I’m glad I have them!

After they sat through 30 minutes of kid-hell we headed straight to the children’s garden! Sweet relief for them! HA!

I was sitting on a bench in the shade while the kids climbed and explored when all of a sudden the girls ran out as a butterfly and a “catcher”! HA! I was laughing so hard! I think that would be the funniest Halloween costume!

Their FAVORITE part is the general store! We played here for a long long time and when we go back tomorrow with friends I know this will be one of the first places they’ll want to play! I’m so glad they love not only playing together but playing pretend. I’m going to be really sad when they get too old for this kind of play and I’m going to work hard to push that day off as long as I can… it’s why we limit TV time, do virtually no computer time and have no video games. I want them to PLAY everyday!

For the first time ever I gave up and let Gray run around with my camera. Actually there were a few moms who made comments about how little he was with such a big camera! HA! He truly had a blast and I just set the settings to something that would work in a certain situation knowing that in others it wouldn’t turn out (if I set it for shade then when he shot in the sun they came out too bright for example) and off he went. It was so cool to get the camera home and see what he thought was important enough to capture! And the little dude isn’t half bad!

This last shot is just for my sister. We both have mud kitchens in our back yards and LOVE them. She’s taught me a lot about outdoor play and I knew she’d love this quote!

It’s about 10pm and I’m heading to bed early because I just signed up for another boot camp and it starts at 5am tomorrow! UGH! Here’s to a great start to your week!