So one morning, I took her kids off her hands for a couple hours.  We went for a walk.  We talked.  We explored.  We made silly faces.  We hung out.  And I got to know those kids in a way I hadn’t before.  And these are kids I’ve known for years.  Let me introduce you to their spirit.

Here they are, just the two of them, older sister and younger brother. Gorgeous brown eyes.

The girl, L, is a friend of my oldest daughter.  In fifth grade, she’s at that “tween” age.  That’s what they call it now.  Somewhere “in between” the younger kids and the teenagers.  In that “in between” of trying to figure out who she is, what she likes,  what’s important to her, how she wants to dress, a whole world ahead of her.

You can look at her and almost see the beautiful teenager and further on, the woman, she will become.

But, she’s still young.  And you can’t forget that at this age.  She couldn’t wait to wear some of her new stuff from Christmas.

She was loving her new black boots!  I remember at that age, I wanted heels so badly.  And when I finally got them, I’m pretty sure I wore them everywhere, whether appropriate or not.  But, L here, she was rockin’ the boots.

And her new nails!

Soon she will leave the “tween” phase and move on to a bigger world.  Where there are bigger decisions to make.  Until then, capture the beauty, the innocence, the way they are, as they move forward and onward….

And then there is the little brother.  This guy, like most boys I know, was a spirit in motion.  Here, there, and everywhere.

Climbing, jumping, running, picking up sticks, playing with sticks, throwing sticks.

What an imagination too!  The sticks were guitars, swords, baseball bats, you name it.  Active, active, active!

I did catch him unawares in one quiet moment of reflection.  But, believe me, this only happened for a brief nanosecond.

After we took some shots, we headed back to their house where their cousins had arrived from Pittsburgh.  It was fun watching them all together and reuniting.

The sun started to set and it was time for me to go home and make dinner for my kiddos.

The boy, well he just hopped onto his pogo stick and continued moving ~ everywhere.

Capture it now, I tell you.  Capture it now.

xo

A

Two of the kids are local to my area, and the other two girls are cousins, visiting from Atlanta.  It was amazing to me how much they were all like one big family, more like brothers and sisters than cousins.

Most of my time was spent chasing after them as they ran on ahead.  They kept trying to convince me to follow the trail to the end, though no one seemed all that positive about where it ended.  When we got to this, I told them it was a sign.

Time to turn around!

He is the lone boy in the sea of girls.  Seems to hold his own though.

His sister.  They get along as you would expect brothers and sisters to get along.

And this little girl had a tooth I was just dying to pull out.  It was the mom in me.

She and her sister were buds.

But, together, the four of them were like the three musketeers.  Or like the four musketeers, if there were such a thing.

Do you like the nails?!  They did that in the morning before I arrived.  They were completely loving their nails.  Well, the girls that is.

Is there a cuter crew?  It was so cold that morning, and the kids were having a blast blowing steam.  When I asked them to do it on camera, the boy held his composure.  The girls were all over it.

Same thing with the funny faces.  Every.single.time.  I would get three girl funny faces.  And one boy smile.  So sweet.

And then it was time to go home.

And we ended just like we had started.  The kids running ahead, and me walking a bit more carefully behind.

Neither snow, nor wind, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays {this photographer} from the swift completion of {her} job.

hehe.

Can’t wait till next year!

A