little sis has a new house | Ottawa Valley Child Photographer

And a big yard for peeking through the grass.  :)

Or running around... that works too.  Either way, their new home is lovely and the property is equally beautiful!!   (Not nearly as beautiful as my niece though!)

saturday night after sunset | Children Lifestyle Photos

It's been rainy all weekend which is a very welcomed thing for the dried out flower beds and gardens, even better for my avid fishermen.  We had won an awesome Fishing-themed gift basket at the kids' school fun event on Thursday and the boys have been begging to go down to the river ever since and test out some of the new gear.  It cleared up late in the day and made for a perfect evening with my boys at the water's edge.

These images also go to show that if you want great photos of your kiddies, get them involved with something they love to do. I'm all about letting life happen and capturing genuine moments; plus, I figured out long ago that my boys are much more cooperative when I have the camera out when I just let them do their own thing.  They were overly cooperative last night ... and I did happen to hear 'take my picture mom' a few times too.  Sometimes waiting around to catch fish isn't so bad!!  :)

Little Dude can't get there fast enough!

Loading up the lines.

Who's going to catch the big one??

Wilderness Chic (and one of the prize items).  Now I need to find at least two more of these stylish chapeaus because he was the only one who wasn't batting away the mosquitoes all night.  I wonder if they make them in pink?

My sweetie is in his happy place.  :)

R had caught a big sucker fish before his dad got this one, but we were able to reel this guy in pretty close to the shore and then let him back into the Madawaska.

Some of us get bored of fishing really quickly.

But everyone had a really fun night and a great sleep after all of that fresh air!!!  

green thumb

One of my fellas has joined the Garden Club at their school and came home last week with a tiny pot of pea seeds.  He was very excited to wake up this morning and see the shoots stretching over the top of the container.  Normally he isn't so compliant when I have my camera out, but tonight he proudly showed off his beautiful little green plants.

Now, if I can just teach him how to weed my flower beds, I'd be all set.

tough guys

Another unusually warm April afternoon causes my children to abandon the majority of their clothing and soak up some sun.

It was back to rubber boots and warm coats today, the craziness remains.

sweet little nieces

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Weekend!  On the heels of my big boys' birthday is usually Easter, and it always works out well for us to have both sides of our families here to celebrate another year with twins and stash a few of those foil-covered eggs around the house for the boys and their cousins to find on Easter morning.  Usually our yard is full of mud at this time of year, but Saturday and Sunday we soaked up a ton of sun, the kids (and my brother & brother-in-law) burned off the extra calories while making good use of our trampoline, and there may or not have been a camera-toting auntie who couldn't resist these adorable little girlies.

This is what photographers would call a technically imperfect photo, but I love it.  My sister's youngest is as rough and tumble as her older brother and her three boy cousins, yet this shows her soft girly side (and a glimmer of her mischievous personality lurking behind those stunning big dark eyes!).

And this pint-sized bundle of cuteness is my sister-in-law's youngest (but only for another three months!!).

celebrate!

It's hard to believe but my first born(s) turned eight years old yesterday.  The twins were thrilled to have eight of their friends over to play and eat cake!  Their dad & I set up a fun treasure hunt for them through the meadow and it was really tricky since the clues were written on the same colour paper as the brownish leaves and grass.  They took a little break from the cleverly-hidden Clue #3 to do a group shot.  There's actually 11 kids in this photo - the eight friends, plus our three dudes.  And yes, we did survive a house overflowing with little boys.  No one was hurt, nothing got broke, my boys were spoiled rotten with all kinds of cool new stuff from their friends (thank you again!!).  All in all, a very successful party.  Let's all do the birthday jump!

almost eight

Ain't it great?

sit sideways

He sits sideways all of the time, always at a good arms length from the table.  Many crumbs (or pieces of mandarin orange peels in this case), and no one has to question where the little squirt sits at our dinner table.