life at the beach (part 4 of 4)

I wrapped up the morning at the beach with two of the most handsome little men! I love chatting about baseball cards and soccer with these guys. I love this first photo! What an awesome look from a little brother!

life at the beach (part 3 of 4)

My morning at the beach continued with three great kids (and pretty cute ones at that!)...


Tried a different editing technique on the one below. Let me know what you think!

life at the beach (part 2 of 4)

My photo sessions at the beach continued with two wonderful sisters (with names I'm rather fond of!)....

life at the beach (part 1 of 4)...

This past Tuesday, I had the pleasure of meeting four families at Lake Michigan for a few photo shoots. The photos below are of a future big sister. She was an absolute sweetie who loved her mom and was a little uncertain about the lady with the camera (me). What a beautiful girl!

the price of laundry...

Yesterday, Sarah and I completely cleaned her room and "baby-proofed" it to make way for Julia to hang out with her while I was in the next room folding laundry (as I do everyday after making a four-course breakfast and polishing the silver).

Sarah had come in my room to sing along and hop around to one of her favorite songs (yes, I boogie while I chore)..."I got soul, but I'm not a shoulder..." she sang at the top of her lungs!!! (I realize that's only funny if you know the song..."All These Things that I Have Done" by the Killers..."shoulder" is actually "soldier").

So, after the song is done, she goes back to her room and I hear her say (loudly) "oh no". I run in there, my heart racing...and find this....

The sweeter side of this story is the way Sarah dealt with the issue (Sarah is not a fan of a mess and will ask to go to her aunt and uncle's house if our house gets too messy). So, Sarah goes over to Julia, puts her hand on Julia's head and very calmly and with much emotion says, "Julia, I am very mad that you have made this mess in my room...But, I love you anyway."

(btw...I don't own silver and unless you count filling a cereal bowl four times...the other part wasn't true either)

allow me to reintroduce...

...the Bellflower Design website. With only a few gray hairs sprouting as a result, I was able to launch the new and improved website featuring both photography and graphic design. Go check it out: www.bellflowerdesign.com

In the weeks ahead, I will be adding a fantastic, and much needed feature...the ability for clients to view and purchase their photos via a password-protected gallery.

part two of a day in the park...

I just can't tell you how happy the first photo below makes me! I let out a yelp when I first saw this picture on the computer. This little man doesn't hand the camera many smiles, so I was geeked that I captured this! I love this guy...

You wouldn't know it from this pretty smile, but this little lady wasn't giving away smiles this morning. I think she may have been foreshadowing a break in her arm that would happen later on in the day! I hope you feel better!

This is the next top model. He would strike a huge smile whenever the camera turned his way. What troopers all these kids were on a warm summer morning!

I love this shot...

a day in the park...

Over the weekend, I had two more photo shoots with a couple of great families. This first family reminds me of my own with two older brothers and a little baby girl. This sweet girl had me laughing the entire shoot (which isn't good for steady camera shots). I couldn't decide which pic to post of her, so I just posted a few! (I'll be getting the pictures of the other family up soon!)

first day of school...

Well, The big day finally arrived and Lauren was ready to roll. She hopped outta bed, got dressed, and ate her cocoa puff bar before bounding out the door with 20 minutes to spare.

The day began with me taking her to the middle school for "opening ceremonies", and while it wasn't Beijing...it was nice to get to see everyone and sing and pray together for all these kiddos.

Lauren sat with her class during this bit and I peeked at her from time to time. I noticed her yawning quite a bit and thought she must take after her Dad, who used to yawn when he was nervous or before a big game. After it was over, I drove her to the elementary school. In the car she said she was bored and "sqwooshed" in the ceremony. Which best explains the yawning, I guess.

The picture above is of her walking into the school. She said she wished she was going to kindergarten instead, which made me feel nervous for her. We finally made it to her classroom, where she was happy to see her teacher (below), Miss DeWeerd. What a great kid...

Oh...I love the shoes.

timing is everything...

An afternoon visit to Meijer Gardens prooved profitable for us today. Thanks to the kids, who cannot leave without saying goodbye to the turtles in the basement...we headed downstairs and past the dahlia (type o' flower) show. After greeting all the turtles for awhile, Lauren got curious about all the huge flowers so we meandered into a room to check them out.

Well, it happened to be about closing time and a lady grabbed Jeff and told him to start choosing the ones we wanted because at the stroke of 5pm, whoever is there can grab as many as they can and take 'em home.

Well, I've learned you don't turn down free...so I started taking cues from the grabby paws around me and guarded some big ones. Meanwhile, Lauren got into the spirit of things and stuck very close to a dahlia the size, shape, and color of a golf ball...she didn't want anyone else to have her golf ball flower. If dahlia's have feelings...that one was feeling pretty good. Sarah got into the spirit of it and put her arms around three purple ones.

Finally, the guy said "Go!" and, while I expected elbows to fly and ladies to push each other to the ground over these flowers, it was a rather calm plucking of beautiful freebies...but they were gone by 5:03. I felt a little bad about my haul (not to mention what else the girls grabbed)...but when it comes to free stuff and being Dutch...you really have very little choice. Well, after that very lengthy tale...enjoy the rest of the photos.

see you in four years...

The Olympics comes to a close tonight. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm downright relieved. Sure, it's been fun and all, but I need to sleep!!! Yesterday, while watching the marathon, I really understood how exhausted the runners were in the final stretch to the Bird's Nest. I do believe for every mile they ran, I've lost the same in hours of sleep over the last two weeks. Yes, I do want a medal if anyone is wondering.

Oh, but it was worth it. It's good to feel your heart race when you see the red, white and blue racing for the gold whether in the pool or on the ground. It's fun to hash out the controversies of underage gymnasts, judges who couldn't get it straight even in a cat show competition, lip syncing and faked fireworks. I loved every minute of it...with the exception of the minutes spent covering boxing, basketball, and baseball (and dirt bike racing???). They didn't seem to cover quite a few things I remember and for some reason track n' field didn't quite have the pop it has in years past. But all in all, we had a good time watching it all. Ok, I'm done on my soapbox, which regretfully is not a medal stand for the sleep deprived.

last saturday before school starts...

Well, Lauren starts school on Monday, so we packed in the fun this Saturday. We are 100% mobile on bikes with Lauren flying solo (no training wheels) and Sarah and Julia in the bike trailer.

We headed to the neighborhood carnival and the kids had a blast...even in the sweltering heat! The inflatable bouncy things (do those have a better name?) were the best part.

Wheeeeeeee!!!!!!
And snowcones were a very close second...

We spent the rest of our day, hanging out with friends (bunches of 'em) at a park and having a barbeque potluck...where we learned you can fit 20 kids in a garage when dinner rolls around the same time a storm does. Thanks for a fun evening guys!

a shoot close to home...

This evening I was happy to get my beautiful nieces, Kate and Rachel, in front of the camera. How fantastic do they look...in sweaters...in 85 degree heat? Love you guys!

bellflower info...

Since I'm not updating the website (http://www.bellflowerdesign.com/) with photography in any hurry (I'll get to it in the next week...I hope!)... I thought I'd mention some pricing information here on the blog.

Some of you know that through the end of August I am offering $25 session fees (local and $45 for lakeshore). I'm going to extend that in a way to say that if you book a session next week (which is the end of August...yikes!), for anytime in the month of September, I will honor the August rates. After that, rates are $45 local and $70 lakeshore.

If you would like to see a sheet of print prices and overall "investment" information...I'm happy to email that to you. Just drop me a request at ctimmer@bellflowerdesign.com.

So....now there's all the technical mumbo jumbo of the biz. Whew! (sorry mom and dad...no pictures on this post!)

a day at the beach...

Another photo shoot this week brought me to the beach and looking down the lens at three gorgeous kids! I just love the shot of them together just letting personality shine through! What great kiddos.

my first grader...

In just eight days, my baby girl starts first grade. She is mixed with nervousness and excitement. She has asked "Why can't God just make it so that we know things and we don't have to learn them?" Wouldn't that be nice? Although, I'm afraid that would mean she'd grow up faster than she already has.

the joy of girls...

Someday I'll jump through puddles, take a stroll or run a race,
Someday I'll walk across the street, or maybe walk in space,
Someday I'll scale a mountain, or join a ballet corps,
Someday I'll walk a tightrope, or explore the ocean floor,
Someday these feet will do some things that only heaven knows,
But for today they're happy just to wiggle all their toes.

this is fun...

I had another shoot and was lucky to be paired with some amazingly cute kids once again (ahem! one is more handsome than cute)! What a great gig this is!