This Palatine, IL photographer may have been born and raised in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, but a little piece of my heart is still in Southern California (where I lived for 12 years). So I am NOT complaining about a January with temps in the 40's! We've seen more rain than snow, and that is a-okay with me. That said, I was more than happy to create a little" winter one-derland" in my studio for my little friend's cake smash session! Paper snowflakes are definitely my kind of winter.
I met this sweet family for E's newborn photos last year. Look how little he was!
It's so much fun to see how these tiny babies have grown in a year! We had a lot of fun at his cake smash session. First, some one-year portraits. I brought out my vintage sled and some snowballs to play with, a little music for clapping, and caught some super sweet smiles!
Then the cake. They had practiced with a cupcake beforehand (always a great idea!), but E was not super into smashing on this day. Which is okay! Not everyone wants to get their hands dirty or eat cake. (I pretty much always want to eat cake, but that's another story!) The cake was so pretty, and E was so cute, it didn't matter that he wasn't digging in.
We thought E might enjoy a bubble bath more than he liked smashing the cake, but we were wrong. He played with one of my wooden toys and little rubber ducky, but he was ready to be done at that point. Still really cute!
I try to keep my milestone and cake smash sessions fast moving and fun. I keep the area warm (especially during bath!) and can put on music. Lots of clapping, dancing, and playing with little toys. If the child is having a great time, I will let them go to town for as long as they want! If they aren't into one part of the session, I'll get the photos and move on to the next thing.
I love doing a portrait portion before the cake comes out to let them warm up and have a little fun, then the cake smashing, and lastly the bath, for clean-up and splashing.
I had a ton of fun with E, and I hope he had a good time, too! His first birthday is coming up, and I hope it's the best!
