Another year has passed, and my nephew Mason is 6 now! His party theme this year? Indiana Jones! My sister (with a little help from some of our family and friends) did an amazing job as usual. I knew as soon as I saw the custom handmade invitations that she made, that the party was going to be another awesome one......and when I walked in and saw the decorations and stuff up on the day of the party, my jaw dropped. It looked SO cool! Anyway, my sister (www.eitak.com) is going to do a blog post (in detail) about it soon, so i'll just post some pics. Sorry, these are all SOOC - UNedited. I'll start with the unbelievable invites she made (each one was perfectly packaged up in that brown paper and string, but obviously I didn't want the address out there for the world to see). It was a whole booklet, but i'll just post a few of the pages (again, personal info on some pages).....

Since I know people will be asking........

*INVITATIONS and paper goods* - www.Eitak.com

*CUPCAKES/CAKE tower* - rhinocakeco@hotmail.com

*PINATA* - Custom made by my awesome husband and my sister! 

*SCORPION in frame* - Found by my brother in law during  a run! Acck!

August 30th is a big day for us. PJ starts Kindergarten! August is always a busy month for me....so I knew that if I didn't take these photos now.....they might not ever get taken (ok, plus I actually had my husband along to help carry the desk hehe) ;) Plus, many kiddos have already started school again.....so I wanted to get this up somewhere in between those who have already gone back...and those who are going back in a few weeks. Just like last years "Back To School" pics, we literally threw the desk down, snapped away for 5-10 minutes and we drove off (although this was a different location from last year). So here is my little soon to be Kindergarten kiddo....with her bangs....and her 1st day of school outfit that she picked out.....along with the lunchbox she picked out. The funny part is that neither of us even noticed that they completely matched until we got home and laid them out.....

 

You can see "Ruthless Toothless" here....missing her 2 bottom teeth ;) hehe....

PJ had been wanting to cut her hair again for quite some time now. She's never been the type of girl to want really long hair....and I love fun/shorter cuts on kids, so I was ALL for it :) Since it was already long enough, I asked if she wanted to donate it again and she said "yes". Last week we went and visited Stella (who cuts my hair as well) and chopped it off :) 

Here are a few iPhone pics from that day.....

BEFORE shot and shot of the 2 ponytails she donated.......

 

AFTER shots (at lunch - mid chew hehe - and at home)........

 

Because of the new cut, PJ needed some new head shots, so I snapped a few pics of her the following morning.....

Her hair was adorable like that.....*BUT*....we had wishful thinking that if we cut it short, her hair (bangs) would stop being in her face so much......but it didn't (and she's infamous for taking pins and clips out).....SOOOOOOO, we cut her bangs again (i'll post pics tomorrow). In the pics above it was fine....but keep in mind I was moving it out of her face almost the entire time.  The bangs (which she's had before when she was younger) are pretty darn cute too......and we love that we aren't constantly moving her hair out of her face now :)  Ok, and i'm secretly happy that it makes her look a little big younger too ;) In the pics above, she definitely looks older than 5. I don't need her growing up any faster than she already is ;) 

In other news, PJ has lost her first 2 (bottom middle) teeth this month!! 5 years old is pretty early, but PJ got those 2 teeth at 4.5 months, so I knew she would lose them a little early :) 2 visits from the Tooth Fairy AND almost 9" of hair chopped off? Definitely an eventful month for miss PJ :) 

Stay tuned for a fun little post tomorrow :) 

I waited (for what felt like ages) until PJ could fit into the adorable, handmade outfit that the super sweet ladies (a cute mom and daughter duo, I might add!) from www.42ndandorange.com gave her quite some time back. Well the other day I wanted to snap some last pics of PJ with ALL of her baby teeth (thank goodness I did, because her first tooth fell out on Monday!).  As we went through her closet to grab a few outfits, she grabbed that one (like she has many times....but was always sad to find out that it was still too big), we tried it on super quick and wouldn't you know it?....IT FIT! The whole shoot idea was SUPER last minute, so with only about an hour left of light in the day, we ran home, grabbed clothes and the camera and knocked out 3 locations and 3 outfits in about 30-40 min :)  I'll just post a few with her m.o.m outfit for now though (since I want to keep this post special for just them) :) They have a store in Encinitas and an Etsy shop, so be sure to check them out and score some awesome and unique stuff for your kiddos!   Oh and the reason for the covered mouth in the first pic is because I told her (thanks to a You Tube video her godfather sent daddy, and daddy showed her) "Maybe we should tie a string on your tooth and a rocket and light the rocket and watch your tooth fly out! :)". So that is PJ giggling while screaming "Noooooooooo!!!!" and hiding her tooth ;) 

 

 

Summer has officially started here in the Cruz household! Miss PJ graduated from preschool last week, so along with shoots, editing, shoots for PJ, selling a bunch of PJ's stuff and getting ready to give her room a make-over and such, i'm trying to enjoy this short summer with her since she starts Kindergarten in August (p.s - I still think it's weird that school starts in August nowadays). I took this past weekend off for Fathers Day, just got home from spending the day at Sea World with miss PJ...and since my next shoots aren't until Saturday and next week, I wanted to do a quick catch up post on things going on.....

 

(1) *THE WEEK OF WOW!* - Starting on Monday - July 5th, I will be doing "The Week of WOW". What is the week of wow, you ask?  Well, July 10th is Lot116's      *3 YEAR* Anniversary! Last year I gave away 2 shoots for my 2 year anniversary....but I wanted to do something different this year. Since Lot116 wouldn't be what it is without the love and support of so many of you......I wanted to give back to those who have helped make Lot116 what it is. Sooooo.......I contacted some of my favorite vendors and will be doing giveaways ALL.WEEK.LONG! How do you win? It's as easy as leaving a comment on my Lot116 Facebook page. In order to do that, you'll need to "fan/like" Lot116 on Facebook, so be sure to do that before the giveaways start up!

 

 

(2) *FORMSPRING.me* - Wanna ask me a question? Wanna learn more about me? Visit www.formspring.me/jc2 and read/ask away! Please read before asking though....since a lot of the questions I receive have already been answered before....some numerous times ;)

 

 

(3) *CLICKIN' MOMS* - Are you a mom/woman just starting out in the biz? Maybe just a mom who is looking to learn more about photography so that you can capture better photos of your own kiddos? If so, I highly recommend joining "Clickin' Moms". You can ask questions, share photos, get tips/tricks, find things for sale, etc, etc. It's a wealth of knowledge and a wonderful group of women. Ready to join? Just click on the banner/link below and you'll be learning and loving in minutes!.....

 

 

(4) *"DO YOU SHOOT WEDDINGS?"* - I've gotten this question 3 times since yesterday, so I thought I would answer that here (for future visitors). No, although i'm flattered,  I don't shoot weddings....but I have lots of wonderful friends who I can recommend! :)  

 

Alrighty, well keep posted for sneak peeks in a few days....and hopefully some other cool news in the next few weeks :)  Thank you for visiting!! :)