I’m a sucker for good surprises, particularly of the birthday variety.  Love to plan them, love to be the intended surpisee, just love them. So when Jacque called me to see about having some photos taken of her children, for their father, for his birthday, it was a resounding YES!

When I arrived to my play date, Jakobi was all about showing me the photos from their recent petting zoo visit – horsies! horsies! do YOU like horsies!?

 Once the slideshow portion of the afternoon was over, we moved on to book club.  We read, we chatted.  The only thing missing were the brownies 😉

 Jakobi just became a big brother!  Miss Juniper was an absolute peach and snoozed away the whole time.

I’m completely enamored with this photo.  I couldn’t really tell you why, but between the artwork, the lilt, and the pinky finger it just melts my heart every time.

 Juniper!

We’d hoped to get a few of the two of them together, but Jakobi’s version of being gentle and loving on her looked eerily similar to smothering her and poking her in the eye. 😉

And so we took our playdate outside to the backyard where I got a complete tour of the swing set.

This is their sweet family dog. Such a love. My brain however, spat the name out and won’t let me recall it.  Still deserves some blog lovin’ though!

Jacque is an excellent mother.  She reminds me of the perfect 1st grade teacher – just sweet and calming, full of patience and love.  She makes it look easy.

We played some baseball.  We talked about the red sox (they were worth talking about then) and we counted one, two. one, two.

a toe-headed, striped-button-down wearing, blue-eyed, little boy in crocs playing in the dirt.  what could be better?

patty cake patty cake, baker’s man, make me a carrot, as fast as you can!

Once the dirt was introduced I was quickly replaced.  Mom snuck in there though and played trucks with him in the dirt.  This may be on of my favorite ‘boy’ shots ever.

Thank you Jakobi for such a wonderful playdate! I enjoyed meeting your mum, and Juni & gran (who was there helping out) – and I’m so thrilled your dad loved his surprise! .. Sorry about the Red Sox, Tim.  Maybe next year! 🙂

 Hi Melissa! I just wanted to let you know that we celebrated Tim’s birthday a little early and he’s seen the pictures. He said it was the best birthday present he’s ever been given! ALL of the pictures are amazing and beautiful…we’re going to have a REALLY hard time choosing which ones we want to purchase. I’ve sent the link to our family members, so they will be ordering pictures, too. I just wanted to let you know how amazing you are and how thankful I am to have worked with you. I’m sure we’ll be in touch soon with questions about ordering. ~ Jacque

I hope to see you all again, real soon!

much love <3