Birthday Party Fun!

As a small local business, I love pairing up with other small local businesses to network, and trade services. We recently celebrated my sweet guy's 4th birthday and I traded my photography for face painting and party favors for his party. 

My friend and talented artist Emiko, owner and artist at Face Nectar Colorado drove from Denver to do some gorgeous, one of a kind face painting for all the kids. She took her time with each child to paint exactly what they wanted and made it extra special with glitter and details that you typically don't see other face painters do. The kids were so excited to see their faces when she was done! My kids wore their paints for two days and received so many compliments. It was hard to get them to wash it off. 

I also paired up with Heidi, a local momma and owner of Squishy Dough who made fun party favors for the party guests. Each favor included 2 of the softest play doughs along with 2 quality shapes made just for little hands to use and a roller. All was packaged beautifully with a custom label with my son's name on the dough containers, tied with bright colored ribbons and a thank you tag. The kids had fun creating while waiting to get their face painted. They loved how brightly colored and soft the play dough was and how amazing it smelled. Now we can never go back to the hard, store bought kind! You can see my photos on her business website!

Both ladies are using the photos I took on their marketing materials, company website and social media sites. How cool is that!? I love getting to know other business in my area, supporting each other and trading services.  If you are planning a birthday party for your kiddo, consider these lovely ladies for your party needs (and photography of course!). Also, if you need to jazz up your website with professional photography contact me and maybe we can work out a trade as well.

My son had so much fun at his birthday! Here are a few more photos from his day. 

If you have time, give these ladies some love on their Facebook pages:

Squishy Dough

Face Nectar

and your's truly:

Photography by Milana

Micah's smash cake!

Yay! Its finally Spring weather and I am a busy photographer bee and loving all the moments I am capturing. Recently I photographed a smash cake session for Sir Micah's first birthday! Then we walked around Rock Ledge Ranch and got a few more family photos.

Michaela and Andrew are young, beautiful and oh so in love.  They just adore their sweet baby. Michaela put so much thought into this session! The banner, the dapper onesie Micah is wearing during his family portraits are all her creative work! They also invited grandma who was the best photography assistant I have had. All these Micah smiles are all thanks to her! I was happy we were able to get a few photos of her and, as she calls him ,"my favorite person." She has a beautiful voice and together we were singing Adelle and dancing and doing whatever it took to make this like guy happy! He was ready for a nap, but came through with the loveliest of smiles and it was all thanks to her!  Grandparents are great to bring to sessions, they are always there to help and it is so important to get them in the frame as well. Micah will treasure these photos with Grandma when he is older.

So mom, being a good mom that she is, has never given Micah sugar in the past. When we placed this huge cake in front of him, he had no idea what to do with it. A few bites here and there and he was pretty much done, not impressed with all the sweetness placed in front of him. We had to get creative and smear some cake on his face and legs!. He eventually dug in and had a few bites, but was much more looking forward to nursing! 

Happy 1st Birthday "Scoots"! You are lucky to have such caring and loving people around you. :) Here are my favorites from his session.  

A Carnival Extravaganza

Birthday parties! They are so fun to photograph. Everyone is happy! Families and friends are together and, well, it's a joyous time! I am sucker for joyous times!  Best of all, mom and dad get in the pictures and get to enjoy the party stress free, knowing that all the best moments will be captured!

These folks know how to party! A fun filled carnival themed bash full of yummy carnival food, balloon animals, face painters and a bounce house! Did I mention they had an ice cream truck (yes with music) drive by to deliver ice cream for all the kiddos too? Yes!!! So much thoughtfulness and details went into this party and I am so happy that I got to document it all!

Below are some of my faves from the day. Sir. Kingston and his cousin Miss. Kay were celebrating their 7th and 10th birthdays together. They may be cousins but you could sense they are more like brother and sister. Sharing this wonderful party together is surely a memory they will treasure!