Last March, our kids’ elementary school had its annual auction.  In the past, I have taken photos of each of the 500+ students.  We line the halls with 8 x 10 images of each child and the prints are available for parents to purchase with all proceeds going to the school.  It’s a BIG task – it takes a lot of time, but it’s also very rewarding interacting with each child and seeing each parent’s reaction to his or her child’s photo.  This last year, I didn’t take on this task, so I felt the least I could do was donate a family session (and a good friend twisted my arm to donate one of my sessions!).  I was thrilled to find out the Helman’s won my package because their family is adorable.

This session was so fun for me because I love “lifestyle photography” or capturing families doing what they do on an every day basis.  I always encourage parent’s with little kids to have some sort of encouragement, reward…bribery to keep the kids motivated and to make the session fun.  We ended our session with a trip to Molly Moons.  Usually when my sessions are officially “over” the real, natural smiles come out.  Luckily – we had some great candid photos when we were doing our session, but I loved being a part of the ice cream fun!