Picture Day 2015

This years pictures come to you from Williamsburg. I've always wanted this location, well, because it's soooo picturesque, but really mainly because of the fences. I don't even know what they're called specifically, but they are my favourite kind of fence of all time. Watch for them in the pictures. They are "colonial" I guess, and don't need any tools to be built at all. They are stacked, and they zig zag, and they are really cool looking!

We just kind of wandered around downtown and stopped every time we saw something we liked the look of for our background...

 The food pictures were taken in a restaurant actually. I asked at the bar if we could use tables in the back where no one was, and they said yes:-)

Brian was slightly put off by the prep-work this year. He thought it "wasn't natural" to be picnicking in random places.

I packed a bag with our "supplies" - a carafe of hot chocolate, cookies that I made, a tray to hold them, and a can of Reddi Whip - it really wasn't heavy, nor difficult to tote around.

 But Brian was super embarrassed that I would ask, for example, to use this restaurant.

But look at that backdrop!! It couldn't be more perfect! And notice my decorated can of Reddi Whip? I was on a mission to beautify-all-the-things. Ugly whipped cream would ruin the whole look.

 I also brought a Sharpie along. I thought maybe we could write something on the cups, like Bolger's, 2015, or whatever, and it could be cool. The photographer Joel was in on all this, but I kept Brian slightly in the dark as to the breadth of my plans - only because it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission right?! I knew he, lacking the Pinterest experience that I have, would not capture the vision for this idea and would poo-poo it.

So while we ate, I brought up the Sharpie idea. "I don't think we need to do that" "That's silly" "It'll be too much" "Lets just get finished" Among other sarcastic comments. Le sigh.

So I grabbed the Sharpie, uncapped it, and wrote a very sarcastic #lovehim on my cup - "love" being a euphemism for anything BUT. I revealed to him my sarcastic retort to all his objections, and he grabs the sharpie from me, and writes his own...

 Haha!! Leave it to Brian to one-up my funny with something even more funny. #lovehim. And not just as a euphemism. Most of the time I really mean it;-) But the stinker really does give me a run for my money on picture day. Modelling would NOT be a career he could excel at. No vision. No patience. lol.

So then the hashtag trend had started and I wrote on the kids cups. Kenna and Grey's came easy. And then for Brooks. Hmmmm. What do we call him? He doesn't have a nickname...he doesn't have anything cutesy or funny that translates into a hashtag. Oooops. That just seemed very "forgotten middle child" of me, hence his hashtag

 The river runs under this house!

 Here are the fences!

 You can't tell in this location - but General Washington and Lafayette were giving very loud speeches right to the left of us - rallying the troops and giving reports of battle. There were hoards of people gathered 'round, and it was yet another embarrassing moment for Brian:-)

This is the blanket we are sitting on - it was made by my Great-Great-Great Grandmother Magdalena Phofl Snider. Darla-Rebecca-Clarene-Ruby-Louisa-Magdalena, it would be 4 Greats for Kenna.

While these pics were being taken - we weren't listening close enough to the goings on of General Washington et al. - They let of a few canon rounds and I about jumped to the moon. It's quite the thing when you are not expecting it, and after all the laughter and adrenaline rush died down a bit, Grey says "Was that a bomb?!?"

Love them all!