Project 365: Happy moments, happy memories

Help! I need more models!

I’ve really been enjoying taking pictures of people rather than stuff lately. The daisies in the garden are gorgeous, the sunsets are spectacular, but what I really want to take are portraits. Thank goodness the boys are reasonably indulgent to mom’s camera habit. (Okay, actually, they’re just easy to bribe.) It wasn’t until I started putting this post together, though, that I realized that every single picture this week save one was of the boys — and the last one was of the cat.

Really, I need more models!!

My friend Yvonne gave us this kiddie-sized wicker sofa, and it fits in perfectly on the porch. When I brought Lucas out to take his picture on it, I was just planning on a straight-up portrait of him sitting on it, but he had other ideas. I just laughed and snapped as he created the various poses for me, all without any direction at all. Clearly, I am grooming him to be either a Calvin Klein model or a circus clown.

Not to be outdone, the next day I had all three of them in on the action. I figured if I was going to offer porch portraits, I’d better make darn sure I could do it properly.

I had it in my head to do an entire week of porch portraits, but the porch version of this idea wasn’t coming together, so we moved it onto the lawn. It’s far from my original conception, and yet ended up being one of my favourite pictures of the boys, ever.

I’d remembered taking pictures on the little bridge beside the boys’ school on the first day of school in September, so I snapped one to memorialize the last day of school in June. They’ve both grown up so much in the last year, haven’t they? I love how these work together!

(It’s been at least two weeks since I used the vintage frames — that’s enough of a gap, right? 😉 )

We now interrupt this boyfest for a catnap…..

While all of Ottawa headed downtown to meet Will and Kate for Canada Day, we headed in the opposite direction. Much as I would have liked the crowds and excitement, I know the boys would have been bored and tired and probably not very happy. So we went to Calypso and had the best day at the waterpark ever — can you believe Lucas went on the big waterslides with me? He’s fearless! I didn’t bring my camera (!) and couldn’t really see the screen on my iPhone when I snapped this one of Simon, but it’s a happy picture of a fun family day, and the Instagram processing emphasizes that for me.

Speaking of family fun, it’s the little moments that make good memories, don’t you think? We wandered about Manotick one sunny morning to celebrate the start of summer, checking out Watson’s Mill and the toy store and stopping for lunch, and then on the way home we stopped for home-made ice cream at the HodgePodge Shoppe.

When I started writing this post, I wasn’t quite sure what the weekly theme would be, and then I realized it was as simple as this: happy. These pictures all make me happy. What a great way to start the summer!

Edited to add: Oops, I almost forgot — Thursday was the end of June, so here’s the monthly mosaic, too!