Lets go to Chuckie Cheese!

For Claire's birthday party, we had a Chuckie Cheese party. It was definitely worth it! The girls LOVED it! I started out trying to take 'good' pictures, but quickly realized that I was going to fret over pictures, rather then enjoy the party. So I threw the camera on auto, and just enjoyed the day. So outside of the 365 day picture, these are just any old snapshots anyone could take ;)

347 of 365: roller coaster!


wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!


Karen's probably going to kill me, but Olivia just loved this basketball game, and I think her favorite part was that Grandma was playing with her.






I was out of piping icing, so I cheated on Claires cake, and just make a giant 2 out of sprinkles


Chuckie Cheese himself comes and crowns the birthday kids, and they get a medal too (Claire took hers off)






Haley and Karen wanted their pictures with Chuckie too. Karen, I think this should be your new facebook picture!

Alicia's baby shower! | Columbus Maternity Photographer; Purple Platypus Pictures

I had the privilidge of attending Alicia's baby shower. Her family is just awesome and inviting, and I had a great time! It was so colorful and happy. The best game by far that they played was the 'Guess the baby food by its smell' game... who knew banana's smelled so bad to people! And practically no one got peaches correct! Thank you Alicia for inviting me in!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!

Finally!! Olivia's birthday party!! (For the record, I had planned to spend today just editting photos for me... no one else... just me....... and I fell asleep on the couch. >.< But I'm hoping that this weekend will be a lovely weekend with me bonding with my photos... so there might be a blog explosion) But back to Olivia's party!! So far every year, my sister-in-law and I combine Olivia and my nephew Niko's birthday parties. Their birthdays are only 2 days apart, so really it just makes sense to. We like to rent a local shelter, so that we can just bbq outside, and let the kids run. They love the running.

So I made their invite on the fly. Like literally unintentionally waited until the last minute, and then realized that I had 2 hours to make the thing and get it ordered, or we were going to have to just buy something. But I like what I came up with.

The day before the party, I made their cake. I'm not going to lie... I love making their cakes. Something about baking, I just really like it. Must have some of my grandma in me or something (though I don't remember her as the birthday cake baker type... more just a general wonderful baker)

157 of 365: Let there be Cake

The actual day of the party, like always I didn't really take all that many images. I don't really know how to describe why I don't like to photograph my own events. Maybe it's because I get sad that I'm not in any of the images. Maybe it's because I'd rather just enjoy the moment, then have to worry about capturing it. Maybe it's because I'd just like a day off from it. But in any case, I don't have a ton of images from the party.

Birthday Girl


Birthday Boy


A bunch of Claire (the balloons were a giant hit with all the kids)




158 of 365: Loving my Aunt


Better shots of the cake




Grandpa swinging with Jacob

Tim took my camera while I was with Olivia for blowing out the candle. He did a very good job! I think it was one of the first times Tim used the camera out of auto mode and actually got successful images. I even think he made me look good :)

Waiting while Aunt Wendy lights the candles


Blowing out the candles


Contimplating how many pieces she wanted (turns out, two pieces)


Diving in

And when the party was just about done, Wendy's nurse came with her four kids. All of her kids are adorable, but her youngest has these eyes that are just unbelievable. I just had to capture them. So watery and pretty.

Wow, what a picture overload! I guess it's just me trying to make up for lost time. Sorry about that!!

the best of the rest

Alright now, I've tried to upload these pictures now for a full day, and of course my computer is acting a little crazy... perhaps the holidays are getting to it as well?

But anyways, the rest of the photos from Claires party.

Before I got the speedlight out, Tim took some pictures... and I made my appearance. Claire looks so confused by the cake!


The most common way Claire ate her cake: no hands. She actually never really even got into the cake - more just ate the icing.


Some pictures of Olivia, since she is quite lacking in the blog. She also ate her cake icing first - but she finished her whole piece. Oh and its my mom trying desperately to lean out of the picture. Lesson to everyone who hates being photographed: You thinking you look bad in pictures is all in your head. You don't. You look bad when you try desperately to get out of the shot. Everyone is most critical of themselves in a photo. You look fine. Trust me.

And one last extreme close-up of Claire. She's so cute!

Little M turned one!

Miss Maisley is my husbands cousins daughter (...a friends sisters aunts cousin who knows a guy...) She's almost two months older than my youngest daughter, and quite a cutie! I just went to the party to have fun, but managed to take a couple pictures of Maisley with her cake. She was quite dainty - that last picture is about as messy as she got. Wish my girls were that neat!!

It's time for a Puppy Party!

Haley turned 8 years old, and of course I was there with my camera. My sister gets some of the best parties I've been to for kids. This year was a puppy party, with live puppies and everything.

All the girls got ears, a bandana, and their faces painted. I even got in on the action.





The girls had a ton of activities.

First they frosted their own dog bone


Then they searched for bones in the yard


They set up a big obstacle course for the kids to run around in. My favorite set of shots were taken within a couple seconds of each other. Hanna jumped the bridge, followed by Haley... who was then trailed by Olivia. Olivia didn't play any of the games, really, but she followed all the big girls throughout the course. It was so funny! So I combined the images together.




There was an awesome pinata there too. I asked Karen about blindfolds... apparently thats a baaaaaaaad idea




Olivia loved the headless puppy.


Every girl wanted a picture with the puppy. I'll post the birthday girl.


And my favorite shot was of Haley and Jasmine helping each other read a card. So sweet!