London Family Pictures

I’ve been SOOO excited to share the family family pictures we had taken in London by the amazing Rachel from Shoot Sweet Photography, but I was waiting until I finished my write up of our family travel to Ghana, but I just can’t wait anymore! Since we were flying through London on our way to and from Ghana, we thought we’d take a 3 day stop over to see the sites around the city. None of us had ever been there before (I don’t count our layover on our way France a few years ago), and I thought it would be a great time to explore! I connected with Rachel before the trip, and was delighted she was willing to meet us in the big city to capture some family shots of us at our favorite spots. She actually lives in Scotland, so she hopped on a train to meet us, and she was so much fun! Her Scottish accent alone was enjoyable, but also to get to know someone that grew up in a completely different place than me (and also shares my faith) was so much fun to talk to! She wants to do MORE family travel pictures in London, SOOOOO, if you find yourself in The Old Smoke, you can get in touch with her to do family pictures! Travel portraits have really taken off, and what better souvenir from an adventure, than pictures of YOU and your loved ones at your favorite spots??

As always, it’s a challenge to put clothes together! I often consult the post I shared last year, what to wear in family pictures by color, and knew that I wanted something that would complement RED, but not have red in our clothes. London makes me think of red with the phone booths and red coats, so I wanted the colors to look great against red. I settled on blue, green, and yellow.

Putting together clothes for a family of 6 is like a giant puzzle. I lay it all out on the floor, and if I move one piece, I have to move others. I think about the shoes, top half, and bottom half, wanting a bit of each color (but not too much) in each third. My neutrals here were gray and white, but used my COLOR as much as possible. I painted my white canvas shoes yellow, and my older daughters bow shoes green (got both at Wal-Mart for inexpensive). I had a hard time finding a green cardigan for my youngest, so I cut up a t-shirt I found and easily sewed off the edges. Younger son got a pocket sewn onto his t-shirt, and I wore a green shirt that I’ve had for a few years and always loved. Wal-Mart is a GREAT spot for solid colors, also got my husbands t-shirt and sons blue shorts there. The giraffe dress was from Gymboree this summer. Simple fabric earrings from Ivy Lane Accessories. They add a great splash of color without being over bearing.

Here are some highlights, this is going to be PART 1, as there are too many great shots I must share!

Big Ben is SOOO impressively BIG, hence it’s name! We enjoyed my favorite croissants by the River Thames.

Croissants….oh, how I love croissants…

This little one sure loves to ham it up!

This boy makes me laugh like no other…

We are hanging out on one of the bridges over the River Thames (pronounced Temms) next to Big Ben, and got dizzy watching the water swirl below!

Of course, my personal dream was to hang out inside of a red phone booth (phone box as they call it there) so I was THRILLED to happen upon our first one!

I actually came home with a hair brained idea for my husband to build one for our home–for a specific mystery purpose–of course, he thinks I’m crazy. We shall see if it happens…

The kids jumping in is actually the cutest shot…my husband wasn’t feeling it at the moment…they were pretty dirty (and stinky) inside.

We got to ride on the London Eye, which was so fun (and I’ll share more about that later when I cover the trip) so I loved these pictures even more with the big wheel in the background!

Love this father daughter cuddle captured…she lost a front tooth in Ghana the week before (but the new one was already half way in) and the 2nd front tooth the very next day (it’s leaning forward, on it’s way out!)

This is the image I have had saved as my phone screen saver the past mont, I LOVE how you can see the entire London Eye in the background, amidst trees in a park. My kids played on a playscape, just out of shot.

Found this super fun red flappy curtain thing that we had to jump into (Rachel was so patient with all of my suggestions, I just can’t let go!)

I have no idea why these ribbons are hanging on the ceiling, but it looked pretty cool! We had to wade through a bunch of college graduates in gowns to get this shot (also our bathroom break) but I really like it!