Today is the first day of school for my now first-grader, Emma, as well as for my husband. Crazy to me that summer is over for us. I am ready for routines and schedules and normal bedtimes, though. This also means it's time for me to start work on my third annual summer photo book.
I first made a photo book for my girls two years ago. I was about to have baby #3, and I wanted my girls to be able to look back and see all the fun stuff we did before their baby brother arrived. I knew there was no way I'd scrapbook everything we did that summer, so I made a photo book for them, about them.
I used Shutterfly, because that's what I'm familiar with, but I know there are plenty of other options out there. When creating the photo book, I put the pictures in chronolgical order, from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I tried to include a pretty even number of pictures of each girl. I made sure to include photos of them with their friends, with us and with family members. I kept the journaling minimal, often just the names/date.vRight now, they just want to see the pictures. As they get older, I might start to include more details and journaling. The end product gives a pretty complete picture of their summer, and takes all pressure of scrpabooking those moments off my shoulders.
Here are some pages from the Summer 2010 album.
If you'd like to see the rest of the album, you can find it here.
And from the Summer 2011 album.
Here is the link to the rest of the album.
My girls love looking through these. They point out everything they did, relive each event and outing, shout when they see their friends and are just super excited about them. I definitely plan on making these each year. It's an easy way to get all your summer adventures captured in an album, without the pressure to get each event and story and outing scrapbooked on their own. So if you're feeling overwhelmed with all your summer adventure pictures, try a photo book!
Happ End-of-Summer!
