It's that time of year again. Time for my kiddos birthday month. They were both born in July, their dates are exactly 2 weeks apart. So the month of July some what takes over our summer. We celebrate and celebrate and celebrate.
When I was a kid I remember my mom throwing big birthday parties for me. We would invite everyone (or at least all the girls) in the class. She didn't want anyone to feel left out. And I always remember getting a pinata. My dad would take me to the west side of Kansas City, where he grew up, to pick one out. That was one of my favorite parts and I have continued to pass the tradition on to my kids. Every year we go to El Padrino's and pick out one for each of them.
See the one my son picked out above? I love when they choose this type, because they are all basically the same thing, just a different character, so the height is the same. This allows me to get comparison pictures of their growth next to the pinatas. Sometimes the pinata was bigger than they were!
One year we got the pinata from Walmart (pictured below). It was cute, but when the kids when to wack it open, it only took a few tries. The pinatas from El Padrinos let them all have a several turns before they can bust it open. Which makes the fun last a tad longer.
As I said before, we celebrate and celebrate during the month of July. We start with birthday portraits (one for each kid separately), then each kid has a birthday party with friends (two parties), then we have a joint party with the family, and on their actual birthday, they call it their special treat. They get a day with just mom and dad (their sibling goes to Grandma's house) to go and do fun things around KC. Often they pick Chuck E Cheese, but we've also done spray parks, bounce house parks, shopping,Main Event, Dave and Buster's, Summit Waves and more! So that is 7 celebrations in one month (plus 4th of July). Whew! It is fun, but consuming. They kids look forward to their birthday all year!
This year I went shopping and came home with 3 or 4 outfits for Isabel for her birthday pictures while she was at Grandma's house. She hated everything I brought. :( So we returned them and went shopping together. I should have known it would be better for her to go with me to pick out the clothes. She's so independent these days with her own style. She picked out a Jo Jo Siwa dress, a pretty green dress and a Jo Jo Siwa Jacket. We usually just do one outfit and one photo session. This year we got a little carried away with ourselves. We started with the Jo Jo dress in the studio, we wanted our yearly picture of her and the pinata. But I kind of forgot about this so we didn't have much time before the sun would go down as we were head for a session in downtown Lee's Summit during the golden hour. We rushed down to the studio, unfortunately it was a mess and nothing was set up. I threw up a coordinating backdrop and quickly realized it was not wide enough for the pinata. So we went ahead and shot a couple images, then decided to revisit the pinata shot another time. We wanted to head out for the shoot we planned that evening before the sun went down. Then next day she had on her new jacket with a cute outfit underneath. I took the opportunity to go ahead and get a shot of her with the pinata, we headed down to the studio. A few days later we went over to Unity Village and got some beautiful, classic shots of her in her green dress (pictures for Mom). Here are some of my favorite images we got this year for her birthday portraits.
This year birthday parties are looking a little different since we are in a pandemic. Who would have thought we'd all be walking around with mask on and not hugging each other??? But thankfully life goes on and my sweet girl will be one year older than she was last year, one year farther from my sweet little baby she once was, one year closer to leaving the nest. It is bitter sweet. We love and adore her sweet, adventurous spirit and are excited to spend the day with her and shower her with love.
See Isabel's 10 year pictures HERE!
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