Frozen Bubbles and Frozen Fingers | Alexandria, VA Child Photographer

With the temps down at 11 degrees early this morning, I made an attempt at freezing bubbles. Seemed like a cool frigid weather activity to do with the kiddos, but they had absolutely no interest in joining me outside, and it wound up being harder than it sounds. I had trouble getting the bubbles to freeze due to the wind, and my fingers just about froze off. But I did manage to get some spectacular color swirls before the bubbles popped, and a cool reflection of me as an added bonus.

Mega Mud After-Party | Alexandria, VA Child Photographer

After a three day deluge, all my son wanted to do was play outside. And not just go out and jump in puddles. No, he wanted a full-on-mega-mud-after-party. He probably would have rolled in the mud if I had been more approving of the mud slathered in the hair. I've had parents comment that they can't believe that I let him do such things. But he's in such sensory, tactile heaven, how could I deny him such simple pleasures? Besides, everything's washable, including him!

Weeds and Windows | Alexandria, VA Child Photographer

Beautifully manicured gardens can definitely make for lovely settings for photo sessions. But really, a great portrait can take place just about anywhere, with a little creativity and some good lighting.

Sometimes a random patch of tall weeds under a tree will do just fine:

Lying on a bed by a big window works well too:

And who needs to drive miles and miles away, when you can just be out on the sidewalk, in front of your next-door neighbor's over-grown shrubbery:

Bouncing with Besties | Alexandria, VA Child Photographer

Spontaneous playdates with best friends are the best, especially if they involve running around beautiful gardens that were designed with curious and playful children in mind. My little girl and her friend are only 2 days apart in age and are just too cute together. The sounds of their girlie giggles and squeals of delight totally warms my heart. We don't see them that often, so we definitely appreciate the times we do spend together. I wish I could bottle up and savor such childish delight and joy forever. So glad I brought my camera! =)

Showing off their talents in jumping while holding hands AND sticking their tongues out.

And off they go...

They were pretending this was a library and were bringing out books to me.

"Running Circles Around Grandma" | Alexandria, VA Family Photographer

My kids were thrilled to have my parents come visit last week. They especially enjoy playing with my mom, whose high energy never ceases to amaze me. She keeps up them very well and stays relatively calm in the midst of their chaos. While she was here, I thought it'd be fun to take an "environmental portrait" of her, to capture her in the context of being a very involved and loving grandmother.

I title this, "Running Circles Around Grandma"

Start of Summer = Strawberries! | Alexandria, VA Child Photographer

For the past couple years, we've kicked off the summer with not only trips to the pool, but also trips to a local farm to pick strawberries. One of the closest ones to our home is Shlagel Farms in Waldorf, MD. It's a lovely little farm that is celebrating their 100th year of farming. They have very easily accessible pick-your-own strawberry fields, a greenhouse full of blooming flowers, a chicken coop, a few goats, and a small playground and sandpit for children to enjoy. Pure simple fun.

Saturday was definitely not an optimal day to go strawberry picking. There had been heavy thunderstorms the night before which created big mud puddles throughout the fields. And traffic was expected to be horrendous across the bridge due to closure on the Beltway for roadwork. But the strawberry season is short and we definitely did not want to miss our window of opportunity, especially on a day with gorgeous weather.

So we loaded the kids into the car with appropriate footwear and lots of snacks for the car ride and headed to the farm. We had a fantastic time and came home with 13.5 POUNDS of berries!!! We have given some away to neighbors and friends, made strawberry shortcake, pureed and frozen some into popsicles, made smoothies, and have been snacking on them nonstop. And we still have a ton left! I think we'll have to freeze the rest before I turn into a strawberry myself!

     

     

Starting off the New Year with New Wheels

My son had been eyeing a lime green bike on display at REI for almost a whole year, but was adamantly against helmets. We tried all sorts of persuasion, as we knew that he would enjoy having his very first bike. But safety first: no helmet, no bike.

But then on a recent visit to the store, my daughter climbed right on a cute purple bike on display and insisted that we buy it for her, complete with a pink princess helmet. Not to be outdone by his little sister, my son was quietly willing to consider helmets. We hadn't planned on buying bikes on a random day in the middle of the winter, but we jumped at the opening, before either of them changed their minds.

Sure enough, my daughter rode her bike only a couple times before deciding she wasn't interested anymore. But buying it was totally worth it. As we had expected, my son LOVES his new bike, is fearless, and wants to ride everywhere. And this winter weather has been so mild that we've had many opportunities to go out for a spin. His huge, beaming smile and hearty laugh totally warms my heart. I absolutely love these childhood milestones, full of pure joy and excitement about newfound independence. Thank goodness for having my camera on hand so that I can remember these moments and emotions forever!

Surprisingly Successful Session with MY OWN Kids! | Alexandria, VA Child Holiday Photographer

For years, I've subjected my poor kids to countless desperate attempts over multiple weekends to get the perfect shot for our holiday cards (SO much harder to take photos of my own kids than other people's kids!) This year, on a random October afternoon when there was a break in some rain clouds, I wrangled my kids into some nicer-than-normal clothes and took them down to a favorite cobblestone alley in Old Town Alexandria for a super quick session. To my surprise, with some candy help, not only did I quickly get THE shot for our holiday card, but I also got a several great runner-ups! I've never felt so accomplished (or relieved!) after a session. I've been waiting forever to share some of my favorites!

Happy holiday wishes from my family to yours!
And a big thank you to my clients for making 2011 such a wonderful year.
Nancy =)


The first one is our official holiday photo.
The last one is our favorite, but didn't think it was quite holiday card appropriate.

        

Walking through Winkler | Alexandria, VA Child Photographer

I recently took my little muse to scope out another local park that I had heard might be a good spot for photos. Winkler Botanical Preserve in Alexandria, VA is a beautiful, tranquil woodsy getaway right off a major highway (I-395), well-hidden from the hustle and bustle of a very busy residential area.  You'd really never know that this nature sanctuary existed unless someone told you about it. And it doesn't even have its own website. The link above is just to the Friends of Winkler group that recently won a major battle against Virginia Dept of Transportation that had wanted to destroy nearly 1/3 of the Preserve to put in an exit ramp and a roadway - way to go Friends!

The 44 1/2 acre property is devoted to preserving local area plants and trees and providing free environmental education to Alexandria City Public Schools.  And sure enough, when we were there, we came across a couple elementary school groups learning about levers, leaves, and lily pads. A trail map does not exist, but the hiking trails are well-maintained, straightforward, and great for easy strolling -- totally doable for little people. There is a lovely man-made waterfall, mountain lodge, fun wooden benches, a little stream, cute bridges, and stone outcroppings. At this time of year, there aren't really any flowers, but there is abundant shade, which is great for photos. I had heard that deer and fox live in the Preserve, but to the disappointment of my little one, we didn't see any critters -- I'm sure they were hiding with all the kids around.

The Winkler Preserve is truly an urban treasure and definitely worth visiting again.  Here are a few photos from our quick visit.

  Here's another view of the super cute wooden bridge. I let out an audible gasp of excitement when we came around the corner and saw it.

Lovely stone bridge. Would be sweet to have a family walk over it.

 

There were several cute little wooden benches along the trail. Couldn't convince her to sit on one by herself, but she was somewhat agreeable to at least standing on one briefly.

 

Fun little stream to explore.

 

Happy girl = Successful visit!  

We will definitely come back again, even just to play. 

For the Love of Mud | Alexandria, VA Child Photographer

If you were to ask me to describe my son in terms of animal characteristics, I would say that he's part monkey, part fish, and most definitely part piggy, as he LOVES LOVES LOVES to play with dirt and mud.

I generally try to avoid mud play for obvious reasons, but every once in a while, I let him have some fun, especially if he's been miserably holed up indoors after several scorching summer days in a row.  So after a recent thunderstorm that brought some mild relief from the heat, I let the kids put on their rain boots to venture out into a nearby dirt parking lot to explore the big puddles.

It wasn't long before my son started collecting mud with his bare hands into some random cup that he had found and was proudly making "mud ice cream". My daughter is usually the clean one who avoids things like finger paints because it gets her hands too dirty.  But during this one afternoon, I think the thrill of being outdoors and getting to wear her purple butterfly boots got her to temporarily forget about her distaste of mud and she happily followed her big brother around, somewhat fascinated and intrigued by his mud concoctions.

And of course, my little piggy was as happy as could be, covered from head to toe in mud and grinning from ear to ear. And THAT, made the mama in me very happy.

Scoping out Green Spring Gardens | Alexandria, VA Child Photographer

While my son was at his first day of summer camp, I went to check out Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA.  I had heard that it was a great spot for photos, so I had to see it for myself, and of course take along my favorite little model. The weather was quite pleasant with some cloud cover, which would have been perfect if I was doing a real shoot, but I had been hoping for some glaring sun so that I could assess how much shade would be available on a hot and steamy summer day. The grounds were vast and there were several areas of tall trees, so I am confident that I could find some good spots to use on a sunny day.

We had a great time exploring - around every corner were lovely flowers to smell and cute benches to climb onto. Some of the bigger flowering plants were perfect for hiding and playing peek-a-boo. And there was lots of open green space to run around on and pretty stone and brick paths to skip down. There were a bunch of other areas that I wanted to check out, like the historic house, gazebos, children's garden, and ponds, but we were running out of time and energy. So we'll just have to go back sometime soon. But most definitely, the highlight of our morning was seeing a deer as we were leaving the gardens!