My littlest turned 5 this month. It's hard to believe that I am even typing that! Where in the world did the years go?! I know that everyone says that but it's because it's true. The years are just whizzing by - faster every year it seems. On the morning of Finnian's 5th birthday, I let him sleep in (that should be everyone's first present in my opinion). When he woke up I sang to him and we snuggled and talked for like an hour. It was a huge gift for me too, by the way. Finally, we got moving and while we were having breakfast and getting dressed we took some pictures with my Fuji Instax to commemorate the big day.

is two front teeth? Nope, not me. I am loving the toothless grin! I couldn't wait for the 2nd front tooth to fall out so I could see that fabulous little smile. I knew I had to get some pictures of it before the teeth start to come in. Today was perfect because Sayer was home sick from school and hanging around the studio with me all day.

This is one of the little milestones that I think are so important to catch when you can. Of course you have to get the "biggies" like crawling, walking, sitting up and so on. In between the big milestone moments are a bunch of other little jewels like the missing front teeth. One of my other personal baby favorites is when they play with their feet - especially when they manage to get the entire thing in their mouth. I also love clapping, the little newborn cheerio face (the mouth all drawn up into a tiny O), the first two teeth on the bottom and pointing (just to name a few).

Without further ado, here's our fun milestone!

One of the questions that I get most often is what equipment I use when I photograph my kids on vacation. I keep it super simple...the key thing here is "vacation". I don't want to miss the experience of the moment in an effort to document it. For this trip I brought my Lumix point-and-shoot (and never used it) and my Canon 5D Mark II with one lens (Canon's 24-70mm F2.8). I did not bring a flash. My choice of equipment (no flash and no point and shoot) did mean a few lost opportunities but I enjoyed having a little time to myself without worrying about the perfect shot. You'll have to visit my Facebook page to see the iphone shots of my Princess Leia costume though. I meant to bring the P&S but forgot (and regretted it actually because our costumes were awesome!).

A few liner notes on the shots...
1. The shot of the castle through the trees is from the top of the treehouse at the Magic Kingdom in case you were curious.
2. The dark shot with the lasers in the background is from the Buzz LIghtyear ride. That was the girl behind us.
3. There are tons of shots from our character breakfast with Winnie the Pooh. Finnian was beside himself he was so thrilled. You'll see how he was just perched on his seat waiting for them to come to him and then he would pounce and hug!
4. Finnian loves the Cinderella story so we waited in line to meet her but he was so shy he wouldn't even look at her! He told me later that she was just too pretty.
5. The last two shots are from our balcony at The Polynesian.
6. The amazing tree is called The Tree of Life and is at Disney's Animal Kingdom. It's an incredible piece of work. I asked one of the Disney employees how long it took to build it. He said "well, trees take many, many years to grow and that one was no exception".

A few words of advice...
1. It was hot, bring a backpack to haul your camera stuff in so you don't start to hate lugging it around. I carried mine in a little purse/backpack and it was easy.
2. If you plan to get on the water rides, ditch the big camera and bring a point-and-shoot and a ziploc.
3. The fireworks shows are amazing! Crank up the ISO on your camera and turn off your flash for the best shots. 

Anyway, here are some of my favorite images from our trip. Hope you enjoy them!