Sunflowers + Sunsets

When our girl entered the preschool stage, like most kids, she got pretty curious about things around her.  However, it's been a very different curious than when our son was this age.  I like to think that being a girl - or maybe being like her momma - has her asking more detailed questions, connecting things together, and wanting to experience things in person.  Last summer, she asked about going and seeing sunflowers, but it was too late in the season to find them in real life in our area.  (One benefit of being friends with lots of photographers that do mini sessions in sunflower fields is knowing when prime season is.)  In the last few weeks, our girl has also started asking to go outside and watch the sun set.  While we often get beautiful colors and clouds outside our front door, being able to SEE the actual sun set isn't very easy.  So while our son was away at camp, we planned a night to go hit both, and something like this certainly felt necessary to document.

Our main goal was to get our girl up close to the sunflowers to see their real life size, so we dove right in.  Daddy made sure to get her up high enough to check out the details on the flowers and see the bees working hard.  At first, she was a little unsure of being so close to the bees working.

Then Daddy decided to get his phone out for a selfie and she turned on the smiles.  I love that my husband offered right away to grab my camera and take a few pictures of us too.  We kept checking out the flowers and my girl was interested in figuring out what the bees were working for.

The fun of exploring with a preschooler is the excitement they have in new experiences.  Like the look of our girl watching the sun dip below the horizon.  And getting braver about seeing those bees up close.

After the sun set, we switched fields so our girl could have flowers a little closer to her level.  She loved being able to see them without needing a lift and got the biggest smiles when she saw one that was JUST her size!

Our girl wasn't nearly ready to go by the time my husband was. She was so excited to wander through the rows and see those sunflowers up close and personal.  She loved finding "baby" sunflowers, ones that were just her size, seeing more bees working, and looking closely to see the difference between the flowers (and pointing it out).

And honestly, my Momma and photographer heart could have followed her for plenty longer, even though we had lost the sun and most of the people that were there photographing.  The beauty of real life exists even after the sun has set.

Until next time,