For those who don't live in Texas, it is a requirement of state citizenship to place your small children amongst a patch of bluebonnets (our noble state flower), and take pictures to post on your fridge and facebook feed. The flowers grow in mass around here, particularly along roads with very high speed limits, so the highways in and around Austin are littered with people snapping photos of their color coordinated children bravely trying to smile as cars fly by at 85 miles an hour. It might not be our smartest tradition, but it's an important one, and the flowers really are pretty.
We never attempted these photos with Landon- he's not a native Texan, something I'm inordinately proud of, and I just never felt the need. But now we have our little Texas cowgirl and suddenly I felt compelled to get a picture of the two of them in a bed of blue flowers. I spied a patch of them in the little field across from Costco (really, drainage ditch; climbing down was not our classiest moment, but I refuse to take them next to the highway- the Biscuit moves quickly and without warning), so we stopped by yesterday evening on our way out to dinner. It didn't go quite as planned.
Setting the scene: Landon has been promised fruit snacks if he behaves and smiles; Claire has been promised nothing but is usually a reliable smiler so no one was worried about her.
Landon: Look I'm smiiiiliiinnnggg, I'm smiiiliiinnnggg!
Claire: Um why am I on a bunch of prickly green stuff? What? Smile? I have never been expected to perform under these conditions.
Landon: Clairebear, it's okay, just smile. I've got fruit snacks riding on this.
Claire: No, seriously, what's going on here?
Landon: See Claire, this is so fun, you love it.
Claire: I do not.
Landon: Yes you do! So much love!
Claire: Can I eat them?
Landon: Actually, I'm not sure.
Mommy: Lets move to a new spot.
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Claire: I hate this.
Landon: The fruit snacks are going to be worth it. The fruit snacks are going to be worth it.
Claire: Why do you keep saying peek-a-boo? Get me off this grass!
Landon, to self: What if the fruit snacks aren't worth it?
Landon: Okay, this is itchy, I don't want my fruit snacks.
Claire: I hate fruit snacks.
Mommy: Please guys, just one picture!
Landon: Okay Claire, we can do it, just one picture. Do it for my fruit snacks.
Claire: I am fraught.
Mommy/Daddy: Peek-a-boo!! Cheese!! Please just smile!! ... Landon why is your foot in the air?
Mommy: Whatever, I'll crop it out. That's a wrap. Fruit snacks for everyone!
"I am fraught." hahaha! The series is way cuter than the final picture alone.
ReplyDeleteHilarious :)
ReplyDeleteI have noticed this tradition. We have poppies and lupins, which are gorgeous but 2 1/2 hours away, so you try it ONCE, maybe. Tons o' people, lots o' cranky kids who have been in the car all that time. There's also a ranunculus (sp?) field, right near Legoland. TOO CLOSE to Legoland. Absolutely gorgeous though.
ReplyDeleteMy absolute favorite picture, and the one I would want to frame, is the fifth one. The halos around each child are perfect, they aren't just cheesing for the camera-- it's a real keeper. (Um, and if you don't want it, I want to scrap it as a "teaching" page!)
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Commentary is priceless. And although there were not as many bluebonnets out as usual for early April, I did see families out doing the same thing while on my drive back from Houston. :)
ReplyDeleteGood 'nuff!
ReplyDeleteThese crack me up :) You definitely have to save them & the commentary for when they're grown up!
ReplyDeleteomg the last one is perfect. You'd never know it was cropped. And in case anyone doesn't believe you - I can 100% vouch for this native Texan tradition.
ReplyDeleteExcept for some reason my mom NEVER got pics of my brother and I in the bluebonnets. EVERY year she said she was going to but for some reason something always came up and it never happened. By my senior year of college she said that I WAS NOT going to go to college, ESPECIALLY outside of the state of Texas, without having pictures taken with my brother in the bluebonnets.
So 17 year old me and 15 year old brother went and had pics in the bluebonnets. THANK GOD we found a field of them instead of having to go on the side of the highway. How embarrassing. We also had family pics done - It's one of my favorite family pictures of us though. The last one before I went to college and put on 25 lbs and the last one we took before my mom got cancer (her hair hasn't looked the same since then!), and my dad had a LOT less gray 8 years ago. So it's kind of what I always picture the family looking like in my head, except that my brother looks so young.
This is awesome. I even showed it to my husband, who also enjoyed it. I make his read some of your posts, and it has become a thing for one of us to say to the other, "A beautiful butterfly," and the other must respond with a super-happy face. I think "I am fraught" might become one of our phrases. You have a talent capturing these moments with your camera, then captioning them accordingly.
ReplyDeleteMegan your comment just made my night :)
ReplyDeleteAnd LF, that story cracked me up. I can just picture a 17-year-old Landon and a 15-year-old Biscuit trudging out to the bluebonnet fields for a family picture :) And I know what you mean about picturing your family in your head a certain way - mine is how everyone looked when I went to college too, especially for my parents.
An excellent tradition, an excellent Ally McBeal reference (I adored that show and its Biscuit), and two beautiful kiddos!
ReplyDeleteI was born further north in Texas, where there weren't bluebonnets, sadly, but when we traveled I always thought, "Hey, the state flower only grows on the sides of highways, that's weird."
LOL, yeah, you were much more successful than we were! Kids! And better bluebonnets, too!
ReplyDeletethe look on her face is number 6 is absolutely priceless.
ReplyDeleteOh, I agree with Lisa M, that while the final is awfully cute, the fifth one down is my favorite. It is such a beautiful and un-self-conscious shot of the two of them together. Indeed, a real keeper. :)
ReplyDelete