A Date with the Brickner Girls, Donuts and Feather… Oh my!

Oh my, what happens when I come home and I get together with one of my best mom gal pals, you just never know!  Ashley is a fellow blogger and has one of the best lifestyle blogs out there!  If you aren’t following her and Wavelry and Avalon (and you also have girls) you absolutely need to be! She has the best fashion advice for moms and daughters and her party style is on point.   Anyway, she and I bonded over having incredibly amazing but super strong willed kids and so when we are together we can’t soak up enough of each other and our shared experiences!  We lift one another up, we laugh and we can actually help one another breathe.  It’s just the best.  The other part about our “get together’s” and our visits  is that there is almost always some kind of crazy shenanigan photo session that just happens.  We don’t always intentionally plan it but it’s something we always just roll with!  This visit:  we sort of planned it but it was more than anticipated and it was phenomenal and also oh my gosh, did this just happen kind of funny!  We decided since it was cold in Virginia Beach, it was time to re-create the mommy and me Donut Date we did from Valentines a while back but with an added in pillow fight for fun!  What we didn’t anticipate is how many feathers were going to be in those darn pillows!  Ya’ll… I’m still finding feathers!  They traveled all the way home with me to Florida and I love it because it brings Ashley and the girls to my everyday!

I hope you can take a bit of a break today and grab yourself your favorite beverage and a snack because this is going to be a long one!  There were just too many favorites for me to narrow it down and in order to tell the story like I needed, I had to keep them all in!

So cheers:  let’s clink, my coke to your coffee or soda!  And away we go!

I arrived a bit early which was perfect!  The girls were still at school and Ashely and I had some time to catch up.  We chatted while she got ready and it was heaven.  I miss her so much and I can’t wait until she brings these girls (and Joe too) to Disney!  Oh man, here we come Princesses, here we come!!  We decided we would ease the girls into the session by just spending some time with mom on the sofa with the donuts of course, and if you know Waverly,, they had to be Duck Donuts!

This next one is one of my favorites!

These twirl dresses Ashely bought were amazing!  We stepped in the kitchen to refill our drinks and of course, scout out some new Donuts!  I caught Waverly twirling and just had to snap a quick picture!

One of my most favorite parts about lifestyle photography/documentary photography is just sitting back and letting the action happen!  Childhood is truly a magical time and I want to capture it as it is!  I dont’ like to give much direction and I love to sit back and watch the magic unfold.  I truly believe each child has their own magic and oh man, the Brickner girls, they have so much magic I think Tinkerbell should be jealous!  Waverly decided it was time for a dance party so we set one up for her!  She was the DJ and I just sat back!  These images to me, are the perfect images of the afternoon after school time.  The time of witching hour or right before, when you put on some music and let your kiddos go wild.  It’s what we do at my house and I know it’s what Ashley does.  We laughed together and I know years from now, we will both look at these images, think of one another and get a good laugh!

Are ya’ll ready?!  Because here is where the fun begins!  PILLOW FIGHT!!!!

I can’t help but laugh even now as I’m looking at the images!  There were so many feathers ya’ll.  I can’t even possibly describe how many.  It was ridiculous.  Joe (Ashley’s husband) walked in the door and his eyes were huge!  I stayed and helped clean up because there was no way I could leave there house like that, it was incredible.  Joe was such a great sport though!  We chatted and caught up while we cleaned and I will tell you, those feathers were so beautiful and so soft.  I think next time I might just buy some pretty feathers and put them in a pillow case rather than using actual feather pillows.

This is why I love the Brickner’s though!  They will do just about anything when it comes to capturing memories for their girls!  They totally embrace childhood and their girls adore it.  They have FUN and they don’t worry about the mess.  They care about the experience and I know I keep saying it, but the magic.  Ashley and Joe are the kind of parents that allow their children to be wild and free.  To have the experience rather than worry about the little things.  What’s even better, they capture it for them so they can remember it for years to come.  We only get one life, we only get one chance with our children, so we should embrace it with everything we have.  Ashley and Joe do this and they do it so incredibly well with love and fun and adventure!

I can see years from now Waverly and Avalon sitting with their parents older, looking through albums laughing at these images saying “mom, I can’t believe you let me do that!”  I can see years from now, Waverly and Avalon, doing the same activities and passing down crazy traditions with their children because their parents allowed them the opportunities to be free and playful!

This is why I love lifestyle sessions!  One day it’s just a mommy and me donut date and pillow fight,  but another day far down the road it becomes so much more!