PERSONAL: Some 'wild' birthday fun!

Ben would like to warn Gramma Clare that there are going to be pictures of things she doesn't like in here, like slithery snakes. One of them is a really pretty colour, but you might want to scroll through quickly. ;)

For Ben's 8th birthday, Party Safari came to the house. I was sooo lucky to have won a monthly giveaway that was put on by Take The Party Outside and Party Safari earlier last year. I was able to keep it a secret from Ben up until probably a couple of months before his birthday.

Jennifer was awesome with the animals and the kids. I think they learned a lot about the animals as well as had fun too.

Here are some photos from the party. (You'll see that my studio space got taken over that afternoon. I should have tidied it up a bit more since I was taking pictures!)

Ben's decided that he doesn't really care for cake anymore, so instead we had fruit and ice cream. (except everyone was so busy, we ran out of time for the ice cream) These were from Fruity DeLites in Alliston.

These next photos include most of the animals we saw during the party.

Time for a break to stretch our legs and arms.

Isn't this one a pretty colour?

This turtle was pretty darn quick!

This one was anxious to come out and see who was making all of the noise.

The pinata this year was a pirate ship. That thing must have been made out of super duper strong cardboard because each kid had 3 hits with the blindfold on (with a baseball bat!). It sounded like the bat was hitting rock! Then I let Ben take some wacks at it without the blindfold and he finally cracked a small corner (you can see it in the photo below). Finally Paul really wacked it good and the candies fell to the floor.

Thanks to everyone for being a part of a super fun birthday for Ben, especially to Jennifer and her very special animal family. He had such a blast. I'll include a few more different photos in my newsletter.

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK #27 - Everybody say it now......"Awwwwww"

The Photo of the Week from last week is from Ben's birthday party. My studio was taken over by Party Safari and we got to see awesome creatures like this one.



Isn't it sooooo cute! Timbit is a Pygmy African Hedgehog. I can't remember if Timbit is a girl or a boy. At first, all you can see are the spikey parts. Then, as it got more comfortable, the eyes would peek out and then the entire face. And then eventually.....those little feet would poke out. Hedgehog yoga??

Thanks Jennifer for awesome party entertainment.

Stay tuned for a blog post about the party featuring more of the animals. :)

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK #26 - "This is mine, right?"

Christmas day falls in the week for last week's Photo of the Week. :)

What a fun day for the entire family.



And yes, that present was for Maggie. I wonder how she knew.... ;) heehee

Thanks for looking! :)

-- Lisa P.

CLIENT SHOOTS: Addison's 1 Year Session

Wow!  It's so hard to believe that little Addison is going to be turning 1 in a few short days.  It has been amazing watching her grown this past year.  She is such an expressive little girl.

My final session of 2011 was with her and her family.  It was awesome to have multiple generations in these photos.

Here is Addison with some of her favourite people (and animal), doing some of her favourite things.  :)

Thank you Kirsten and Bannon for inviting me into your lives this past year to witness and capture some of Addison's amazing life so far!  I hope you like this little sneak peak.

Thanks for looking!  :)

-- Lisa P.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK #25 - Fishing with Santa

I figured I'd better post the photo of the week from last week now, before I forget. I can just see myself forgetting to do it on the weekend with all of the Christmas activities we have planned.

I think this might be the last year Ben wants to go Fishing with Santa at Vaughan Mills. He almost decided not to go this time because he said there were only little kids there last year when we went. But he did want to go, so off we went. And he wasn't the biggest kid in the line when we were there, so I think that made him happy as well.

He's at that age where he almost asks questions, but isn't really interested in knowing the true answers yet. hehe ;)



Santa said he was a fishing pro since he had the line in and the fish on pretty much before Santa had a chance to explain to him how to catch the fish. Caught in 4.5 seconds was what Santa said. A new record! LOL

I'm glad he still has fun doing that sort of thing. :)

Thanks for looking and I wish you and your families a very merry and happy Christmas.

-- Lisa P.

PERSONAL: Doug's Cookie Exchange 2011

Speaking of Doug's cookie exchange.......

I think it just keeps getting better every year! :) By the time the taste testing started so we could pick the yummiest treat, I was so full from all of the food and wine Doug had out for us! But I did manage to taste all of the goodies so that I could vote. ;)

Thank you Connor, Doug and Carlo for helping take some of the pictures for me so I'm actually in a few of them. :)

Here is the amazing group of bakers for this year's exchange.

The finalists in the yummiest treat competition (minus one late addition).

The winner of the yummiest treat. It was this chocolate/peanut butter/crispy ball of goodness!

Look at all of the fabulous looking packaging!

Winner of the best packaging. (She made rum balls and packaged them in glass mugs)

And the most festively dressed.

It was a great time. Thanks Doug for the invitation again this year. And thanks Carlo & Mary for the ride home! :)

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

MISCELLANEOUS: Photo Memories of Past Christmases

I meant to post this a while ago. When I was at Doug's cookie exchange, I saw one of the photos I took of him and his two kids last year hanging on the wall. It's one of my favourites, plus he ordered it in a metal print, which I absolutely LOVE. It was nice to see it hanging on the wall, BUT.....what was even more awesome was what I saw on the shelf below it....



Yes, those are Christmas photos of his kids, when they were obviously younger, that he puts out at Christmas time. That just made me all warm and fuzzy inside. LOVE it!! :)

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK #24 - Christmas Fun at Splashy's!

This was the first year we were able to make it to the Splashy's Swim 'n Fitness Christmas Party (this is where Ben takes his swimming lessons). It was a great time with fun for the kids and yummy food. Ben had a fun time.

Thanks Piret!! :)



Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

CLIENT SHOOTS: Fancy Dresses

I was so busy working on their photo book project earlier this month that I forgot to blog about their last session of the year!

The Browns came over in November to have some more formal photos taken for their Christmas cards. It was so nice having little girls in fancy dresses over. Mom, Dad and their brother looked great too, but, having an almost 8 year old boy means not many little girls in fancy dresses running around the house. I always like to see little girls in fancy dresses. :)

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.