Welcome back! I'm so excited that you are all enjoying all my chatter about birthdays, and finding useful ideas! For those who have asked, I have sent invitations to Pinterest your way. Be warned: it is addictive, but also very very useful (well, that's what I tell myself anyway).
Let's talk about photos today shall we? After all we're scrapbookers right? We need photos, lots of photos! And what better things to take photos of than your family traditions on birthdays? We've started two main traditions with Kieran so far: birthday pancakes and his birthday crown.
When he turned one, I wanted to celebrate his birthday from the moment he woke up. Since he was already a big breakfast eater by that time (the boy loves his oatmeal!) I figured a special breakfast treat would start the day right. I even persuaded my husband to move our small dining table out of the kitchen and into a corner of the living room so that I would have better lighting and backdrop to get the photos of him.
(The fact that his PJs match his birthday crown was almost completely coincidental)
And of course a shot of him digging in.
This year I decided to use sparklers on his pancakes. Um, PSA: don't put sparklers on a toddler's pancakes and expect him just to sit there!
Luckily his dad was there to prevent any major mishaps. Then we could all breathe easily and enjoy the show.
You might notice that this year he wasn't as willing to wear his crown. Sigh. I first saw the idea about birthday crowns on Amanda Soule's blog. I later bought her book, The Creative Family, in which she talks about the tradition and includes instructions on making them. It's pretty simple, I used craft felt from my stash and added felt scrapbooking embellishments.
Both last year and this, Kieran's party was on a different day to his actual birthday so we essentially had two celebrations. Lucky kid. I made sure to capture both days, including opening presents, the birthday cake, activities we did and shots of his guests.
Other things I made sure to capture at the parties are the decor and food, as well as little details that probably no one else but me noticed.
Of course we need photos of the cake and blowing out the candles!
Not forgetting the quintessential photo of baby getting his first taste of frosting.
Think about the unique traditions that your family has. What are the things that you always do for birthday celebrations? Do you capture it in a photo? Amy sent along this photo of her daughter with her grandparents at their traditional "Grandparents Party"
Amy explains
"The year I turned 12, my mom snapped a photo of my and my grandparents sitting together on the couch. Later that year, my grandpa died, and my grandma began to have dementia. I love that photo because they were both still healthy and really THERE with me. Plus it is the only one of me and them together. When I started having kids, I made the tradition that for every birthday, we have the "Grandparents Party," which is just dinner on the Sunday closest to the birthday. I always make sure to snap a photo of the birthday boy or girl with her grandparents. As the years have passed, first my dad stopped being able to come to the parties (Alzheimer's), and then last year we lost Kendell's dad to cancer. Now it's just the Grandmas Party! I cannot express how grateful I am to have an entire series of photos of each child with his/her grandparents throughout the years! The photos aren't always technically perfect—but I still cherish them. This one is the last Grandparents Party photo we took before it changed to just grandmas"
What a wonderful, meaningful tradition! I just might adopt it myself, as Kieran only has his grandmothers left and I want to make sure I take lots of photos of him with them.
I'll finish off with some tips for making sure that you capture the photos you will want to look back on later.
1. To really capture the decor and details try to have the party set-up ready wwell before the guests arrive, so that you can have time to take as many photos as you want before it becomes total havoc. I'm telling you this from experience, as for both Kieran's parties I was shooing people away from the tables screaming that I needed to take photos first!
2. If you're the main family photo taker (and which of us isn't?) make sure to hand the camera off to your spouse or a friend to ensure that there are photos of you too! You can also ask a photo savvy adult guest to walk with their camera to have an additional perspective. My default is my dear friend Lucy.
3. Take lots and lots of photos. But I don't have to tell you that right? You're a scrapbooker, that's par for the course.
4. Make a list of the things you want to capture and refer to it so you don't miss anything. Yeah, I should have done that. Maybe next year!
Tomorrow is give.away.day. Yay! On Friday I'll share a bunch of examples of birthday layouts from myself and the team.
