sweet and sassy

i know that i have said this one before, but being a grandma or "amma" as i am called by my grand-daughter is about the best thing in the world.

today we went out to document another year . . . four years old! i cannot believe how the time just flies.

i wanted to take evalyn to this "old-time" park . . . the one that i remember as a small kid. a park that had concrete barrels, and concrete blocks with the alphabet craved out of them. i notice last year when i was driving around that this particular park still had them . . . i made a mental note thinking that this would be a great place for a photo shoot with kids . . . 

well, over the summer they must have replaced all the old playground equipment with NEW! much to my surprise . . .  needless to say i was probably the one that was disappointed, not evalyn.

we had a blast  . . . playing . . . going out for lunch . . . spending time with each other.

"amma" loves you so very much and thank you for making it a very

happy tuesday!

senior session :: janna

janna . . . is a very quiet and  beautiful  senior that i worked with last tuesday night . . .

you know living in michigan that weather can be so very unpredictable . . . one minute the sun can be shinning and the next it could be rainy or snowing.

tuesday  . . . was one of those nights . . .  the weather man had predicted rain for the entire day . . . so i was prepared that our shoot might have to get rescheduled . . . lucky for us the sun came out in the beginning of our shoot and then later,  it was a little cloudy . . . but by the time i was trying to download all the photos from the night  . . . mighty winds were howling . . . and the lights began to flicker . . . then lost power for two days.

janna goes to forest hills  high school . . . her good friends are katelyn and bethany . . . even though two go to the same school the three of them are like the three musketeers . . . although janna did inform me that it's not always easy when one friend goes to a different school. i think that meant that she just wished that they all were at the same school . . .  and they do find time to "hang together."

when i asked janna what type of classes she was taking, her response was . . .  "hard ones."

"oh, okay AP classes"

"yep"

"how do you like those?"

"HUM . . . they are okay."

"well,  are there any classes that you are taking for fun?"

"yep, drawing and painting."

(now those are the classes that i took my last year of high school . . . the fun ones . . . the ones that i had a passion for . . .)

we had such a fun night . . . at one of the spots where i like to shoot . . . there was a  train that  went by . . . now how often do you have the train go through your senior session? exciting!

at another point in the evening . . . i gave her instructions that i wanted her to go sit in the road . . . "really?"

"yep"

thanks for a really wonderful night, janna . . . and good luck your last year . . .

senior session :: kevin

i met kevin last week wednesday . . . he got out of the car and immediately i thought oh dear, i forgot my step-stool . . . kevin stood at around 6'4" . . . and yes, red hair! loved that . . .

 his mother told him,  "you ride with barbara . . . i'm sure she would like to get to know you a little better."

  so, forced to ride in the car with this old lady photographer who was not even playing "his" type of music . . . even though i was playing phoenix which i think is pretty hip for an old lady like me.

kevin is a beatles fan . . . now that's a group that i love . . . after all, i grew-up listening to them . . . well we had something in common. . . 

 . . . we talked about music . . . he's learning to play the guitar by listening to the beatles music . . .  did i tell you that he also plays the flute in the band at school . . .  kevin also loves drama. 

he attends east grand rapids high school were he takes some pretty intense classes. 

it always seems like a long session for guys . . . sort of like guys and shopping . . . they put up with it.

i enjoyed kevin . . . after a while we had this standing joke . . .

 just give me " one of those fake smiles you have." 

 . . . he told me early on in our session that he smiles on the inside . . .

but when i said this statement to him,  i always got this great smile . . . he was a good sport for the night. 

i enjoyed getting to know you . . . oh and by the way, i would love to sit through one of your drama performances . . . i enjoy high school play productions.

kevin was getting just a little silly towards the end . . . i love it when seniors feel comfortable in their sessions . . . 

thanks again for a great evening. 

new chapter to write . . .

 just wanted to say congratulations to this family . . .  their oldest daughter got engaged. (the one in the deep purple shirt.)

congratulations!

this new chapter will be an exciting one . . . 

super mom to the rescue . . .

mothers of twins . . . whoa . . . i cannot even imagine what it would be like to have two babies at one time . . .

there was a time in my life when the thought of having twins would be so fun . . . there are twins on my grandmothers side . . . so naturally i always thought that there might be some sort of "passing of the genes" that just might allow this happen . . .

 . . . but after spending the day at townsend park with amy and jamin . . . my first thought was . . . i'm glad that my dream of having twins never came true and second, i remember why you have children early in your married life, because i certainly was so tried after this shoot that i practically went straight to bed after i got home. 

busy, busy, and more busy are the words that come rolling off my tongue . . . amy and jamin were so busy occupying their two little guys, i'm convinced that after the shoot they did not have to do their daily workout.

they ran circles to get their busy little guys in a pose . . . then ran and chased after them . . . comforted them . . . chased them some more . . . made sure that they were not crawling over to the creek . . .

. . . made sure that they were not making their way up the slide . . . 

busy feeding . . . busy giving drinks . . . busy comforting . . . ethan loved being here but kept bumping his head . . . 

 . . .  do you see what i mean . . . so busy . . .  i'm glad that they ARE the parents! 

in keeping with the very busy evening, i'm posting more of those very busy events . . .

amy trying to keep ethan in one place . . . 

we did have success . . . 

although mom (amy) was not too sure about this look that camden was giving  . . . i got a real "charge" out of it . . .

jamin trying to hold the boys on the bridge but . . . of course they wanted to get down and get into the water!

then a quick game of paddy-cake . . .

. . .  i did get this one . . .

then we thought maybe a little change of scenery  . . . gave them each a couple of sticks to check out and little ethan in just a few seconds, (by the time my camera had done three consecutive shoots) he managed to turn all away around . . . 

i then proceeded to get up and get him . . . his bother had to check out what was happening . . .

then we moved to another fun spot . . . the boys were then a little pre-occupied with a couple of teen-age boys skateboarding and not looking at the photographer (what was i thinking???) . . . and yep . . . you guessed it . . .  i kindly asked the teen-agers  if they would stand behind me and see if the little boys would look at them . . . so that's just what we did  . . . 

this is what i got . . . 

thanks again amy and jamin for a night of entertainment . . . your household is a very busy one . . .

enjoy the rest . . .