Happy 13th Birthday to my oldest son

My son is not an easy child to buy presents for.  His main interest is the computer, which leaves my with very little options.  Birthday and Christmas typically make me want to pull my hair out.  So what was I going to do that was special for my "turning 13" kid?  My best idea was to paint the rock at the school where he takes 2 classes a week (home schooled for the rest).  So I reserved the rock and took two of my other kids to help me paint it.

Looks great right?  The next morning I drive my son to school only to find that someone has painted over our masterpiece.  I charge in the school ready to rip someone apart for messing up my one surprise and someone is there apologizing profusely to me (couldn't at least let me yell a little!!!)

I had one more surprise and in store and fortunately this one went off without any problems.  I had arranged to have a computer cake made and it was AWESOME!!!  Huge thanks to https://www.facebook.com/absolutesweetnesscakes.

 Next came the attempt to get ONE good picture of all my kids.  Thank you Kayla, Hannah, Jonah and James for smiling.  The birthday boy looks miserable!

 My daughters fiance decided he would photo bomb the pictures that were going so beautifully!  You can't tell, but Noah is finally smiling.

 

And here is one of me and my big kid.  I think we look alike!!!

Nothing loves you more than a dog....

I recently volunteered for a local rescue organization to help some wonderful animals get adopted.  How could anyone resist these faces.  

 

Providence Day Enrichment

Recently I was contracted by Providence Day Extended Day program to photograph some of their enrichment activities.  I wish there had been a program like this around when I was a kid.  They offer tons of enrichment activities that the kids can sign up for.  Everything from dance, horseback, sports, cooking, art, etc.  If a child has an interest in it, there is a class there for them.  On this day I got to walk around and photograph some candid shots of various enrichment classes.

This is the backyard science guy.  The kids LOVE him.  He brought multiple animals for them to see.  I left before he brought out the snake

This is Jeff Gordon's daughter.  She was fascinated by this large fish.

This was a blue tongued something or other.  It really had a very blue tongue.  But it was camera shy and every time I tried to get a shot of his tongue he would suck it back in.

This is the TK class.  This little guy was working on a calendar with one of his teachers.

Drama class.

Cooking class.  Today they were making white chocolate snowflakes.  Yum!

Tea Time

Saturday I had the pleasure of photographing Providence Day's first ever Mother/Daughter tea.  These little girls were adorable and so grown up acting.  What fun we had.

My new grandkitty

 Isn't he beautiful?