FFF- pumpkin style

Well folks, we were LONG overdue. It's been months that I've talked about FFF (Forced Family Fun -if you're new here). We used to have them at least a couple times a month but as the boys grew older, they became less frequent. Well, I've decided that FFF must coincide with younger ages, because now that Landry's in the mix again, we seem to see a lot more of these outings.

 
Every year, our annual pumpkin patch visit is always looked forward to. It's my opportunity to wave my fall freak flag with the best of them. The past two years, my cousin's daughter's birthday party has been at the patch and I think that's what made it so fun. We could inconspicuously take photos of the boys as they played and since we were there for a couple of hours for the party, time seemed to fly by.

 
 Well this year, there wasn't a party at the pumpkin patch so we went on our own (with Grandma and Granddad in tow) now that we're outnumbered by our own children. We're calling on back-up more frequently these days until we get our zone defense fine tuned.

Sometimes, I'm still in awe that we have THREE children. Good thing we bought the swagger wagon!
 
 
We went during the evening thinking that would be the best lighting. It was good lighting but apparently everyone else got the same memo and the place looked more like the state fair than a pumpkin patch, it was crazy busy...mistake #1.
   
It made it really hard to get any pictures of the kids without 1,000 people in the background but we managed ok.

Mistake #2, I spent the last hour before we went frantically trying to make a tutu for Landry and a coordinating bow to match her shirt. And so I'm learning how high maintenance girls are compared to boys already. It ended up itching everyone like crazy and the tutu was shed within 20 minutes of being at the patch. And that stupid bow kept getting in her eyes and making her ears poke out. She does NOT have big ears contrary to what the bow illustrates.

I knew we were heading to trouble when we woke up Campbell from his almost 3 hour nap and he was a complete and total grump. Saturday naps are a blessing and a curse. They are glorious in that we get a little down time but when it comes time to wake up Campbell, we never know if we're going to be waking up the beast. This day, it was definitely his beast side. So all things considered, he was cooperative but only if we just let him be a total goofball which meant it was near impossible to get him to look at the camera.

And to add to the craziness, Landry was rooting on me every time we tried to take a picture even though I had just fed her. So the only way we could get a decent shot of the girl was when she was knocked out cold.

I've come to discover now as a family of 5 that pictures will not be perfect...they won't even be close, but those imperfections are what make us who we are. I will probably not have a photo of all three of my children looking at the camera at the exact same time for years.

 Ok, well maybe I'll just make sure to take a lot of individual pictures in the meantime.

I think that's why I love candid photography so much, it's my absolute favorite because it's so true, so genuine. My children don't always cooperate but that's ok, because no kid does. But my kids sure do know how to entertain themselves and how to have a good time. 

 And those moments truly capture who they are, not some forced family photo but just being themselves.

So while I may not have the photo that goes on the mantle this year, I can definitely say that we picked some pumpkins and made some memories.

My best friend Angi says that I always put the "perfect" pictures on my blog.  As I once heard, Van Gogh didn't paint toilets and dumpsters, so I choose to capture the best of our family because those are the memories that I cherish the most. But to show you the dozens of photos that don't make the cut because of their lack of beauty, here are a few I'll share with you because we're far from perfect.

Exhibit A: I DO have the most beautiful baby girl in the whole world, you can't convince me otherwise BUT Landry might have had an off day on a few of these pictures. Between the stupid head bow that kept Landry thinking Who turned out the lights? and poking her ears out, and her bitter beer face, we had a few that we'll probably keep out of the scrapbook...

 
And here is a smorgasbord of the best of the worst...crying faces, forced grins, head bow wardrobe malfunctions and all. 


 That's us.

Not perfect.

Just perfect for each other.