Attempt Number 1

Now that I have five grandchildren I would like a group photo of all five. So when Kara asked her father to do a studio session with Evan, I tried to sneak in a quick group session with all five. I rounded them up and gave the older three a stern lecture. They needed to pay attention and smile immediately when asked--no fooling around!--because getting two babies to cooperate was going to be nearly impossible.

Mark only took a few shots because we needed Evan in a good mood for his solo photo shoot. Here's the best two group shots:

Neither shot is good enough to print out and put on our photo wall, but nevertheless they were much better than I expected for a first attempt. It turns out the youngest two were the most cooperative. The oldest grandchild trashed my photo session with his snarly smile. He was ticked off that I gave baby Evan to the twins. He wanted to hold him. I needed him to manage Lincoln. Jake, too, needs to practice his stage smile. I don't much care for the no lip look.

Maybe by Christmas I will have my perfect group photo. If I had lower standards, I could have the photographer cut and paste heads from different photos. I hear that professional (paid!) photographers do that. Not my photographer...at least not when he's working for me.