Tradition

Every year we've taken pictures of Mimi with sunflowers on her birthday.

It started on her first birthday when there was an amazing abundance of sunflower field around our house. And I'm not talking the boring little sunflower "weed-looking" ones, the BIG beautiful, faced to the sun GIANT ones.

So we had a photo shoot in a field of sunflowers with my little one year old:

(woa. I really meant to just insert ONE picture. But they were all so stinkin' adorable!)

Then the next year, on her SECOND birthday, I even brought props:

Then the third year I couldn't find a sunflower field anywhere. I posted a question on facebook and the closest one was apparently in Reunion, near the airport (and don't you think I didn't contemplate going). But instead we settled for the black-eyed susans in our backyard, and got a cute little sassy three-year old pic.

This year, same dilemma of no sunflower field (but not as much time or energy to even really care). But there it was, nagging me in the back of my brain...TRADITION. Listen, I like to live life somewhat flexibly, but sometimes I can be an overachiever too. I started with this idea about sunflowers every year, and by golly, I was going to SEE IT THROUGH! Maybe because of principle (the wrong reason) but maybe also because it's so fun to see these pictures all next to each other. It's such a cool way to see this little girl grow. And because traditions only exist if you carry them on. We miss one year, then the coolness factor goes down. (I'm perfectly okay with you thinking I'm crazy). But I wanted to find a sunflower field, dang it. 

We drove past a few private farms with rows of the big beauties, but I couldn't just stop and hop the fence. I thought about asking at one point, but it was never an opportune moment, you know, with two other kids in the car and all. 

So I was ready to kiss the whole idea goodbye.

Until I realized, "hey, why not BUY some?" Not as fun, but at least we fill in that four year old pic for the whole wall mural I'm planning to do someday in Mimi's future house, much to the dismay of her future husband. ;)

So here they are! A little sunflower shoot so the tradition continues.

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(this one's called, "my mom is crazy, start my therapy fund" ;)