Can I just get 1 picture?!

Drew's first day of school was a couple of weeks ago, but Cam's was this week-so.....technically I'm not really late in getting this post up ;)

Drew's first day of school was just one week after Eli was born...and the school he goes to decided to do their back to school night on the first day of school. I left Eli at home with TJ, while my sister and I, Cam and Drew headed off for school and back to school morning.

I only had a few seconds to snap a picture of Drew before the flag ceremony, because we were running late, of course, and this is the face I get:

Really?

After some prodding, begging, kicking, screaming and yelling ;) I finally got a picture I was happy with:

What a handsome boy!!

Here he is waiting in line with the other kids in his class. He made me stand next to him, insisted on holding my hand and that I stay with him until the very last second. When that last second came, I gave him a hug and was about to go in for a kiss and he swooped and ran. Well, now I know what to do to get him to move quickly...

Fast forward a couple of weeks, Drew's well into his school routine and Cam's ready to start his second year of pre-school! He gets to go three days a week now (yay for mom!!!!) and is SOOO excited. His first day of school, was actually an orientation. He was less than thrilled that his first day would be so short. I snapped a picture of him and Drew right before Drew took off for school.

Then I took him over for his own, first day of school photo shoot. Even though it was completely overcast outside, it was too bright for this little boy to open his eyes. I told him to close them until I counted to three then to hurry and open them, and I got quite the forced smile. However, the tight-lipped-emphasized-chumple (chin dimple) is pretty standard Cam smile these days. The smile in the photo above is as about as good as it gets ;)

I tried to get some more natural looking shots, but just got a bunch of squinchy eye shots!

The next day-his ACTUAL first day of school- I took this picture, in hopes of getting one with his eyes open, with a natural-ish looking smile. I think I got a pretty good one....don't ya think?

I did all the "right" things to get a good shot of my two school boys. I took pictures in the shade to avoid bright spots, I took pictures out in the open on an overcast day for great skintones. These pictures were going to be works of art!! At the end of the day, I got pictures that tell a story about my kids and I'll remember them for that, not for how perfect the smiles were, or how well I set up the shot. Squinchy eyes and all, I'm happy with what I got!

Not to be outdone by his two older brothers, this little guy let's me take all kinds of pictures ;) He's definitely a keeper!