An Impromptu, Quickie Photo Shoot!

Tomorrow we are going down to Tuscaloosa to have a joint birthday celebration for my mother and I. (Mom's birthday was actually back on the 12th and mine's not until the 31st, but we have had a hard time finding a time to meet, so we're just gonna have a big ole joint party!) I've collected Mom a couple of birthday presents, but decided yesterday that I wanted to give her a framed picture of the girls as one of her gifts. She's complained to me several times lately that she doesn't have any good, current ones of the girls together; she has some snapshots, but I'd really like her to have more of a portrait shot.

Well . . . no time for a big portrait shoot! But I did decide that I could do a quickie backyard photo session. And boy was it a quick one!! I picked up the girls from school and got home by about 3:20, then had to leave the house again by 4:15 to get McKenna back to the school to leave for a football scrimmage down in Sylacauca and to then meet Gary with Delaney for her to get to softball practice. So, we had like a 10 minute window to take a few pics--and still have time to cool off, change clothes, have something cold to drink, get our stuff together, etc. (Does that sound at all like any of your days?? LOL Sounds like mine MOST of the time!)

The girls were great--after complaining at first how hot it was and about how they had no time to fix their hair. But I really like how casual these look. I'm no professional photographer, but I still love to take pics. And even though they're not perfect, I love them anyway!

I messed around some with enhancing them afterwards, and changed a few to sepia. The ones I love here are the ones that just show Sydney's personality, and just the enjoyment on the faces of the other girls. (My dad, who was a photographer and college photography professor, took tons of Sunday afternoon photo shoots of my brother and I and we quickly learned how to make a posed shot look un-posed--so I guess that's why I love the natural, unstaged photos the best.)

I know which one (or maybe 2) I'm gonna give to Mom, but I'm not saying it here because she might get on here and read this! LOL (She's been known to do so!)

Gotta big day ahead of me here. Need to get enlargements done of the photo/s that I'm gonna give to Mom. Then tonight we are having a last minute Cheetah-licious party to help celebrate my niece Lori's birthday (we missed it when we were on vacation). Any of you with pre-teen girls in the house must know that "The Cheetah Girls 2" is premiering on The Disney Channe!!Delaney also invited her friend, Scotti, to come over so it should be fun. I'm gonna attempt to make cheetah cupcakes (which will even turn out really creative, or very messy! We'll see!)

Hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!! Do some celebrating--I know I will!