Playing at Kate’s Place

When I asked my friend if she had location ideas for our upcoming family session in her neck of the woods, her response was almost immediate.

How about Kate’s Place?  My kids love to play there.

Perfect.

Kate’s Place for Everyone is Waterloo Region’s first public accessible playground.  You can read more about little Kate and the amazing story behind this wonderful playground here.

My friend was right, it is a fantastic place.

We met on a perfect fall evening – the century-old trees were all the shades of golden-red-orange an artist could imagine, the grass was still vibrant and green, and the weather was fresh and beautiful.  (Little did we know the first snow-fall was only days away)  The kids were full of delight and energy and were very excited to show me around their favourite park.

First we had to play in the leaves.  Who can resist playing in the leaves?!

Then came the giggles, silly faces and laughter…

… followed by a contest to see who could squeeze Mom/Dad the hardest.

These two opted for some rather magical father-son moments.

While the kids ran off into the joyous land of play, I turned the camera on Mom & Dad.  Every session needs to have pictures of just Mom & Dad, because in the midst of the busy-ness of every-day living with and parenting young children, the joy and delight and wonder and frustration and exhaustion and throw-back-your-head laughter… even through all that, we might not remember what it was like before kids.  But Mom & Dad together matters.  It’s what started it all, and it’s what will be there when everyone is grown up.  Even if it’s only a moment or two in the middle of a session, I love getting Mom & Dad together where they can remember when they were simply husband-and-wife.

My turn!  My turn!  My turn to hug Mommy!!

Oh, these kids… melt my heart.

Then it was back to the playground, where we fed the rabbits…

and the beavers…

and had a nice chat with the moose.

There is so much love in this family… so much.  It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy looking back through these pictures.  There’s also a good dose of spice and spunk – the kind that keeps things interesting and will fill the air with giggles and laughter if you let it…

…enough that there might be tears running down your cheeks by the time you’re all done.

…not that I’m speaking from experience or anything…