My Summer Project – 70 Days of Summer – Taking photos of my kids every day

The kids got out of school just before Memorial Day and we took a little trip to the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina. We went on nature walks and also on a really fun boat ride. As a professional photographer I am taking photos so frequently that often when I’m with my kids I am considering that a vacation from my camera. I took barely any photos of them during this gorgeous vacation! Sadly, I’ve noticed the fun photos of my kids in every day life diminishing slowly over time. Now that both of them are in school, we have daily mundane tasks like homework, reading, sports, etc. So, I knew it would be a challenge but I decided to force myself to take one photo every single day of my own kids throughout the summer. I’m not going to lie, this was became really difficult towards the end of summer. It was truly time consuming to cull through photos of my own kids on top of my regular work on top of the kids being off school. Towards the very end of summer I took weekends off. My 9 year old son loved the photos but was definitely embarrassed with me when I would shoot in ridiculous places… like Target (or Menchies, Barnes and Noble, Mitchells, etc). Never-the-less, we made it through and I truly am SO glad I did this. And now I plan on throwing out the excuses of not taking my camera with me and keeping it ready more often. Here are a TON of summer photos.

Ryder started baseball in May! It was a big part of our summer.

We took a lovely vacation to the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina. Sadly, I took barely any photos of the kids. The coolest shot I got was with my iPhone. Fail!If it has wheels and Quinn can ride it, she wants it and will master it. We got this play set two years ago. The kids were 7 and 5 at the time and we thought there was a chance they wouldn’t get a ton of use out of it. We were wrong. They are out there ALL THE TIME! It’s an awesome set from Playground World. We highly recommend! This summer I offered Summer Mini Sessions at the studio in the outdoor space. We had an adorable Lemonade Stand. Quinn was my tester. The SLIME! It was a summer of slime making, let me tell you. We became professional slime-makers by the end of summer. Our summer got a little hectic but I did try to keep the kids on task with practicing piano. They were great sports about coming to the studio. It’s nice that they are at an age where they can hang in my office while I’m in a session or getting some other work done. Ryder decided he wanted to pretend to be asleep for this photo. Basketball hoop? Um no. Ninja Course. This kid is a monkey.Water balloon fights on the regular.Pancakes on the regular. Oh yeah! I painted their rooms! Here they are picking out colors at Sherwin Williams.This was unplanned and oh so adorable. She LOVES her dog!We started out playing Jenga but decided building a crazy tower would be more fun.It’s been a while since they have been on a seesaw!Ryder’s finished room!Quinn’s finished room!Went to see Cars 3 at the drive in. I taught a camera class this summer! It was SUCH as blast! Quinn was my regular model and here is one of my favorite little clients, Bennett!Along with Drama camp, detective camp, soccer camp, Quinn did a super fun Puppet camp! Ryder did Baseball Camp at the Crusher’s Stadium.The pool is always our go to when it’s a nice day!Crocker Park is a great option when we need something to do.Elephant and Piggie books will never, ever, ever get old! During one of her modeling debuts for my camera class.I love the studio. I pour my heart and soul into it daily. This girl loves the studio ALMOST as much as I do. She wants to be there all the time. Monkeys. Sometimes it’s ok to play in the rain.Hoops.Zoey. No idea why she looks freaked out in this photo. But she’s outside and still.. and that doesn’t happen.Fourth of July Festivities!!! We got to the Elyria Country Club every year for their fun activities, dinner and fireworks.Splash Pad at Crocker.Tie-dye. I never thought they would wear these but they love them!I finally let her flip a pancake. She wasn’t a fan of the blueberry pancakes. This Monopoly game went on for 3 weeks. I kid you not.We don’t take advantage of the awesome trails in Cleveland often enough. This summer we decided we would do that more. And then we only went to one. HA! Mitchell’s Ice Cream is big part of our life. :)

This was the day that changed Quinn’s perspective on lightning. Ryder had a baseball game and it started storming pretty hard right as the game was about to start. It was loud and lightening was close.

She is a sugar kid.

Target is one of my favorite places on earth. And more baseball. More baseball!

Ryder’s wake up call.

More ice cream. Ryder was super embarrassed of me taking photos in Menchies this day!

Quinn picked out some make up and enjoyed looking like a teenager for a few days. Back to the playground!More modeling for my students. Round 2!Finger Lights.More pool.ZOEY TURNS TWO!!!Zip City is always a blast.Playground and losing teeth. No correlation.Um yeah.. she got her hair dyed purple. It was temporary. Movie nights in the comfy room!Bike riding.Another tooth gone! Two days in a row!He was on a haircut strike. It was KILLING me. At the time of this post it is back to looking shaggeriffic and killing me again.