pictures {school}

UPDATE:

Look! No blob! I guess it pays to know people who have Photoshop skills that are far superior to to mine (which are admittedly sorely lacking). Thanks Dan and Carly!!

This year I made the harrowing decision not to purchase any of the pictures of my kids taken at school. It was a choice made at the last minute as I was filling out their school forms (side rant: it is so incredibly ridiculous to me that in the age of technology I still have to fill out the exact same registration papers for each of my kids. every. stinkin'. year. Someone please explain to my why this is not a process that can be done online where parents are required only to view the information every year and enter in any changes). As I was trying to decide which pose/background color/overpriced package I wanted to purchase to wind up with mediocre pictures of my kids that would be left forgotten in some random box in our house, I was struck with sudden inspiration. I decided that starting this year, we would have a new school picture tradition. One that would be significantly more inexpensive and result in much better photos of my kids. I decided that this year, I would be my kids' school photographer. So far, I have only taken pictures of my girls, but photos of the boys are soon to come.

Every year, I let the kids choose one "accessory" for school. Maya's choice this year was a feather for her hair. Her favorite color this year is orange. Hence the orange feather. It actually suits her eclectic style quite well.

Brenna wanted a blue streak in her hair. The dye I picked up is supposed to last 6-8 weeks. Perhaps their test subjects never washed their hair? It actually washes out in about a week.

My dear sweet friend Erin asked me if I would take some pictures of her family as well. I'm always up for a new challenge so I agreed.

Emma is one of Brenna's very best friends. They have literally known each other since birth and are only three months apart in age. She wasn't entirely thrilled to be photographed, but I still got some good shots of her. Of course, she's such a beauty that it would be hard to take a bad picture of her.

This sweet boy did not make my job easy. He was much more interested in playing than posing, but I did get a few good shots of him. And then he was off to fly down our driveway on a skateboard.

Halle is the poser of the family, but it still took a bit of coercing to get her to cooperate. Once she got started though she was a perfect subject.

I picked up this cool chair at a thrift store for $8. Score!

Family pictures are definitely out of my comfort zone. I was thankful to have good friends to practice on.

A little behind-the-scenes shot...

...and a little, well, behind shot.

Erin also wanted a few shots of her and her husband together as they haven't had them done since their wedding. Twelve years ago. Now if I just knew how to get rid of that green spot on Mike's shirt, we'd be good to go. It's not as noticeable in the black and white version, but I really like the colors in this one. I won't tell you what we were talking about to actually get a smile on Mike's face.

I couldn't resist getting a picture of my chubby little guy on the new chair. Don't worry, he does have a diaper on.