NUMBERED : A BIRTHDAY PHOTO PROJECT

For Madison’s first birthday, we wanted to include a picture of her on the actual invitation so we decided to purchase a cheap wooden number from a local craft store to photograph her with. We painted it a shade of pink from a leftover can of paint used as part of a previous project and set it in her bedroom window and took pictures of her as she discovered it. Ultimately, we used a picture of her from behind yet had we known this little picture project would turn into something we did every year… we probably would have used an option with her face instead. However, there are plenty of outtakes.

We plan to encourage this developing little tradition of ours by having a mini photo shoot of sorts every year before her birthday with her age represented in small, wooden form. One day (for now we’re thinking when she turns 18) we’ll compile all the photos into a book as a visual representation of just how quickly she’s growing up. We aim to keep these simple in set up and inexpensive in execution, but relevant to the celebration that particular year. For Madison’s second birthday, we filled a basket with apples and propped up a thin decorative frame we spray painted gold in effort to portray a few details from Snow White’s story and we borrowed the wooded lot behind my parents’ house as a backdrop.

This year, we handed her a fistful of balloons in the color scheme of her backyard carnival celebration and strung up a few pennants along the fence that frames the footprint of land we currently own. The growth from one to two to three is obvious and at first we thought this recurring project may seem silly, but when seeing them one after the other as evidence in photo form of our little girl collecting the years that make up her life… we can’t help but promise ourselves that we’ll do it again next year and the year after that and the year after that, etc.