These yellow flowers are the one thing in our yard that have withstood my neglect and I live how bright and cheery they are. I’ve taken photos of Ellie with these flowers over the last couple of years because she likes to help water them (when we remember to!). Don’t be fooled by these pictures – they were incredibly hard to take as the light was beautiful and I tried every trick in the book to get Ellie to that light and those flowers – all while Lila was strapped to me. Totally worth it :).

I thought about removing her stains on her shirt in Photoshop, but I want to remember her just this way – the way life really was – raggedy hair, stained shirts and happy. That’s what childhood is about, right?
And just for kicks, here are some past photos of Ellie and the yellow flowers… both from last summer.