It's the time of year in Texas when a bluebonnet patch can draw dozens of freshly bathed kids in their cutest clothes, along with those amazing parents-of-the-year armed with high tech zoom lenses ready to upload the photos to online scrapbooks right away to share with Grandma and Grandpa in Poughkeepsie.  And then there are the rest of us.  This was kind of a disaster. 

Some of us fail miserably at capturing stellar shots of the surest sign of spring in Texas, and when I say "some of us" I mean me.  I ended up with messy-hair-sun-in-the-eyes shots, snapped after the 7-year old's fifth softball game of the weekend.  After losing the semifinal match of the softball tournament, the middle kid asked to visit the nearby bluebonnets, and since she had suffered through two days of big sis's games and had been forced to entertain herself by practicing cartwheels in the grass, I decided a good parent would probable let her have some fun too.

With no hairbrush, no change of clothes, and probably a few fruity snack remnants stuck in various places on their heads, we got those darn bluebonnet pics.  It's a must. The sun was in their eyes, and I didn't realize until later that perhaps it would have been a good idea to move positions to get to a better angle. We were all tired and hungry and that put the pressure on to git 'er done and get home.  I am not the parent of the year.

Jen Austin - Townsquare Media
Jen Austin - Townsquare Media
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But these pictures might be more memorable than all the other perfect shots we aimed for in years past.    These are real.

And I bet the shots taken by the awesome and amazing parents of the year (that end up in all those cute and semi-perfect scrapbooks) have a few shots like these that ends up on the cutting room floor.  We should make a calendar out of them.

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