back to school.

recently, i found a photo on pinterest that had a child holding 

a printed sign with her grade and teacher's name on it for a first day of school photo.

super cute idea.

a lot of people are doing them now.

 my friend did one for her first grader, kindergartener,

and even one for her 2 yr old that says

"first day of being an only child...finally!"

 haha.

so great.

well, not to be left out, we did our own.

my oldest left for her first day of kindergarten today.

instead of typing and printing a sign

(since i don't have a printer),

we used a chalkboard i had picked up in st. joe,

a chalkboard marker and my daughter's writing skills.

she loves to write and copy letters,

so i let her do this all by herself.

i love the idea of having them write their own

and being able to see how they've grown each year,

both in height and writing skills.

we will definitely continue this tradition.

july & august photos.

at the end of july,

we celebrated my husband's grandmother's 90th

birthday.

we even created her own birthday card.

[when doing this, make sure your driveway isn't cracked. :)]

now, i absolutely do not do photos in the

summer...if i don't have to.

i'm a miserable grump in the heat,

this summer being no exception.

we're on summer #3 of no a/c in our

vehicle, so if i'm forced to go anywhere

during the day, i'm soaked before i even get there.

40 degrees is sounding pretty awesome right now.

i'm sure i'll complain about it soon enough. :)

however, this week i was forced to take some outdoor photos.

i felt really bad for turning someone

down for photos and then doing

this shoot.

sorry!

this is my friend stacie. 

we grew up 2 blocks away from each other,

were in the same 4th grade class [i still have one of her crayons], and then went on to middle school together,

as well.

[4th grade--i'm at the end of the 2nd row, burgandy top,

stacie's behind me in the pink top]

her mom was always my favorite because she

was really tall like my mom.

when your mom is 6ft and all you hear is

"wow, your mom is really tall",

it's nice to have someone around who can relate. :)

she and i didn't get to go to high school

together, but we kept in touch.

thanks to facebook, i've been able to pass

on camera/lens info, help her decide which ones to purchase and even talked her into getting lightroom...just last month. :)

when stacie contacted me, saying she'd be in town and if i could survive the heat to do her photos...well, i'll be honest...

i was hesitant.

it's really hot out!!!

ha.

and then i said yes.

thankfully, it was 80 degrees in the morning.

that day topped out at 112.

whew.

here are a few shots from our morning.

i was so happy to see her mom, too!

thanks for asking me to play out in the heat, stac! :)