Picture Perfect and Preschool Program

Lately as we've been looking through pictures we've noticed a dearth of pictures that have children looking at the camera and smiling at the same time. I'm not even talking about all three of them at the same time. I mean I'm taking a picture of one single solitary child who smiles while looking at something else, looks at the camera scowling, or worst of all looks away while looking moody. In a few short weeks we will be driving up to Nauvoo for a Burnett family reunion. We decided we needed to practice our picture skills. We drove over to CTC and forced the kids to go through a photo practice. We have high hopes of having at least one picture while in Nauvoo that turns out.

Miles will only have a good picture taken if he doesn't realizeyou'retaking a picture.

Ian can be posed anywhere. He's at the age of easily distracted, but eager to please.

The secret with Liam is to shoot fast because if he's smiling and looking at the camera...he's about to run.

We found group poses work best when each child is physically restraining another.

A few days before the end of school, Ian's preschool group put on a little performance. I was excited as this is a first for me. I came prepared with a new Cars coloring book for Miles which...sort of worked.

All six of the preschool classes marched up waving enthusiastically to their parents. Ian was grinning and waving, but quickly changed to a frown when he didn't see me. (I was there waving frantically; he's just not very observant). His class was the first to perform. Wearing little self-made weather hats they sang a song about the changing weather. Ian cried through this. When he sat down I finally got his attention. He was forced to mop his face dry with his shirt, but morphed into Mr. Sunshine in a bipolar second. After that he kept waving and smiling from the bench.

After his performance I took him home so we could celebrate. I got a picture with him and his fantastic teacher Mrs. Wright.(Note the smile, but no eye contact with the camera from scenario one.) She was a wonderful teacher who eased him gently into the world of school and taught a lot of fun facts that I heard all about after school each day. Ian did really well in preschool and I'm so proud of him!