It has become tradition each year in the fall for the kids and I to go to Twin Oaks Park for amateur photos (I am so amateur, too – I really wish I knew how to take better pictures).  Afterwards they play on the playground and we go out to dinner.  You can see last year’s pictures here.

The weather yesterday was beautiful and, despite the fact that it was Landon’s first official day of potty training, we headed off to the park for pictures.

I did not get the shots I hoped to, though, so if another nice day opens up I may go out and try again…if they’ll let me.  This is all I could come up with.  For all you photographers out there, I’m all ears to advice.  Particularly, how do you take a good shot on a sunny day?  If I face them toward the sun they squint.  If I turn their backs to the sun, their faces are too dark.  So I had the sun beside them for the pictures which means that half of their faces are shadows.

That frustrates me.

Still though – they’re pretty dang cute.

Sloan, a child after my own heart, has lately grown quite a love for writing.  He has taken off in the reading and writing department and is rarely far from his spiral notebook.  Yesterday I encouraged him to try writing a story and he wanted me to take a picture of him working on it.  He was so proud of his story about Max and Nick going hiking in the woods with their “fery frins” (furry friends).  The acorn may not have fallen far from the tree in this child…

I wouldn’t let Tia play on the playground in her Strasburg dress (mean mommy) so I made her change into play clothes.  She then spent the next thirty minutes crossing back and forth on the monkey bars.  So much so that her little hands are blistered and red.  Another acorn, she is…

Landon is an acorn, himself, but for those of you who have seen his obsession and freakish skill with a basketball (and baseball, and tennis ball and football) you know that the tree he landed close to stands a little taller than me.