Family Photos in our Park - May 2017

My friend Lindsay was nice enough to take some family photos of our crew at the park this past Saturday and I have to say it is a lot easier to do this kind of thing when infants are no longer involved in the process. Everyone said "cheese" enthusiastically and was happy to perform for photos. I think we got some real winners, although we're going to retry the whole family photo thing when we're in Seattle this summer.

Cute pictures ... but Patrick probably would have smiled a bit more if we had brought better bribes. Apparently this kid hates marshmallows. How? Why?

I later asked Eleanor what she was trying to do with her bracelet in this shot and she matter of factly told me it was supposed to be her knee bracelet.

We stood up and were supposed to each hold approximately 1.5 children but 3 children requested that they be held by Mommy. This is why we are not having any more children.

I LOVE Bradley and Daddy cuddle montages.

And we brought along our cute chairs that we usually have sitting on the front step of our house. Bradley was very nice about being the only child not to get a special seat.

Fun fact: Patrick and Bradley looked lovely in every photo leading up to this while Eleanor had serious pout face. Nathan started tickling her for smiles just as the boys tired of the whole smiling thing.

We were going to have Patrick sit on the ground in front of Bradley but he firmly said "in Bayee lap" and plopped down. Bradley was somewhat thrilled to be selected for Patrick cuddles. (He calls Eleanor "Elno" and I need to get a video of him saying sibling names because it is so sweet).

Lindsay assured us that putting photos in black and white can fix a lot of things. If only it made children smile ...

She then took some solo shots of me. I never saw Nathan coming.

He's lucky he's cute.

And now for my favorite pics of the day. Three kids in a row smiling at hilarious Daddy antics.

This is probably my new favorite picture of the kids.

But they're all pretty sweet.

Eleanor was pleased when we told her it was time for solo Eleanor pictures.

Not sure what we did to displease her here. But she still manages to be cute, even with a pout face.

Patrick was a little doll for solo pictures.

And then we went and climbed trees where we got my favorite solo kid pics of the day.

Here is my favorite Bradley picture of the day.

Favorite Patrick picture

Another attempt at a group shot. Oh well. We tried.

And favorite Eleanor picture of the day.

We also ended up ordering Bradley's end of year school pictures because they were too good and the jerks who organize these things thought to put him in a graduation rope and cap. The pictures were ridiculously smiley and cute so I asked Bradley how they made him smile so big and he said "they asked me what I thought was funny and then they hit themselves over the head a bunch." How dare they understand 5 year old boys so well. Eleanor had end of year school pictures too that were similarly adorable but these photos are really quite expensive so I think we'll wait for her graduation pictures next year.

I feel like maybe I take a lot of pictures of the kids but I love it so much. So many fun memories to capture!