A Girl and Her Dog Photo Shoot

I know that I just wrote about this girl and this dog, but that was before we decided to throw a birthday party for the dog next month.

Stop laughing. I'm serious!

It turns out that my older kid, who hasn't wanted a birthday party for herself since she was... eight, I think?...is super revved up about the idea of having a birthday party for her dog. Yes, we're going to invite real people. Yes, we're going to have a craft project (metal stamping dog tags). Yes, we're going to have food (hot dog bar, because of course), and yes, we're going to make a cake just for the dog. I even showed Will photos of first birthday smash cakes for inspiration.

The people will have a cake, too. I've already found the tutorial for cutting a cake into a giant 4. We reckon Luna is turning four, maybe?

Anyway, we needed a photo of Luna for the invitations, so so that's what inspired this photo shoot. The kid brushed her hair, collected the dog, and off we trotted

literally

 --to my favorite photo shoot location, the drive-in next door. I had some shots planned out--some, like the one that I wanted of Luna's paw in Will's hand, went bust, and others, like the one below, I'm really, really happy with:

But the best shots that I got were after I just sat back in the grass, a little exasperated that the dog wouldn't sit where I wanted or stay sitting once I'd gotten her there or put her paw at just the right angle, etc. I sat back, sweaty and frustrated, and just took a break for a minute while the kid and dog goofed off.

Except that I actually sat back intending to take a break, then saw what the kid and dog were actually doing as they goofed off, and I put my camera back to my eye as surreptitiously as possible and got this:

And this.

After a couple of minutes of that I told Will that we were all done, and sent them off to play:

A dog who can put that specific look on that specific kid's face? Of COURSE that dog is getting a birthday party.