Living Arrows {which originally comes from a poem by Kahlil Gibran, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth”) is about celebrating childhood, and for me is about one photo from each week telling a story, mostly, all of it’s own.
Tonight as I hang up Eva’s uniform ready for the morning, prepare myself for the start of the school run once again I look back at this week and smile. It has been really busy with local adventures just me and these little people, we have fit so much in, had simple time together, individually and also with friends and we have made the most of every moment. We discovered the most amazing bluebell woods that we have actually visited twice this week and which is where both of these photos were taken, just on separate days, and just not in the bluebells!
Close to the entrance to the bluebell wood there is the most amazing huge tree swing sat at the top of the hill and after spotting it we all went up to have a play, I snapped this picture of Roma halfway and as you can see she was very excited. It totally sums her up, even more dare I say than last weeks which I thought was pretty perfect. She is loud and she is happy and she smiles unapologetically with the entirety of her face. Pure childhood joy. Oh and she looks so very grown up that I want to sob and smile all at the same time, she has only just turned 2 right!?
Whereas Roma is at the innocent age that I could take photos of her forever and capture said childlike joy, Eva is a different story altogether. At 6 she is so aware of the camera that she often can’t see past it and I am rarely able to get a true smile or candid shot, aswell as the fact that the latter part of this week she has been camera shy altogether. I love this one because it captures the moment perfectly, it captures her, a moment of joy when she was engrossed in play and just there you can see one of those rare genuine beautiful smiles that she may not always show the camera, but she always shows me.
I love that their is a random swing set at the bluebell woods. I used to love playing this when I was younger. Beautiful photos of your girls x #LivingArrows
Ah swing ball! I have such great memories of that as a child. I love Roma’d top – she is such a cute little thing! x
I LOVED swing ball – although my brother always used to aim it at my face! And Roma is just scrummy! Love them! Xx
I find exactly the same thing when I photograph both my children. I love the photos and that little shrug of the shoulder and smile is just perfect. #livingarrows
Such a lovely photo of Roma, you can just sense her excitement! And I know what you mean with Eva, my son just turned 6 and it’s getting harder to get a photo of him smiling naturally for the camera. x #LivingArrows