July 5-on-5:::Southern Michigan Documentary Photographer

Last month, after many months of planning and money saving. My sister and I took our daughters to the American Girl Store in Columbus, Ohio.  Both of our girls had been saving money for this very special day.  Neither of them had ever been to an American Girl doll store.  In fact, it was only the second time my daughter had ever been to a mall.  As country girls, we just don't have much use for the mall scene, but I have to admit this mall was like nothing I have ever seen.  It was beautifully laid out.  It was like driving through a ritzy subdivision only with fancy stores instead of houses.  I even caught a glimpse of a Tiffany's!  I couldn't imagine setting a foot in such a fancy store.

Lauren, had saved her money so that she could get her doll's ears pierced. She was hoping to have enough left over to be able to buy something else too. 

Sticker shock set in pretty quickly and she was a little overwhelmed and frustrated. Trying to choose what to buy was difficult with her limited funds.

In the end though, after much deliberation, she made her purchases with her hard earned money.  She now has a day to place into her memory bank.  A time when she learned about money and brand names and how she could probably buy something similar from another doll company for less.  But, she also learned that special trips like this are a treasure and something to be thankful for.

Next up in the blog circle is the lovely Erin. Erin is a Lancaster County Family Photographer. Head over to her blog to see the story she tells this month with her five photos.

The In Between

The tween years can be good, crazy, emotional, hard, and Oh so very precious. Way too often these are the years that aren't documented.  Our children are out of the cute baby, toddler, preschool, young elementary school stage and some how in the whirl wind of this thing called life, we forget to capture who are tweens are and who they are becoming.

It is so important to take the time to photograph these days of in between.  We don't really want to forget who our children were and the story of each stage of their lives.

I take photos of my daughter daily so that I can remember who she was at 11.  Sometimes they are just everyday photos of her riding her bike or playing with her dolls.  Other days it is a more like the photos below.

I love this set of photos, because she was pretty disgusted.  Her dress was too short and it was frustrating her immensely.  She was immediately launched into a MOOD. And that is so common these days. These are days of frustration and extreme emotions, but I don't want to forget them.  I want to remember that we made it through, we persevered and we learned.