I was sitting on the couch one day looking at the family photos on the wall behind me (not using the eyes in the back of my head ... I turned around) and noticed a picture that had to go.  Had. To. Go. It was not representative of our current family and the time had come to put up a new picture of us, as we are now.  Quite frankly, it was kind of icky to have the picture there and I think it might have scared off any chances of a successful run of dating if a potential suitor saw it (what would one think of the seeing the former spouse up on the wall STILL? ... not good, not good at all).

Recognizing the picture had to go meant taking a new picture of the seven of us to put in it's place.  And I really wanted a new picture.  BUT I have been at this parenting thing just long enough to know that getting six kids to perform on cue for a photo wasn't going to be easy, or particularly fun. The thought of sitting in the Sears photo studio smiling painfully wasn't very motivating.

And then along came Groupon (if you sign up using that link I get credit ... pretty please!) and the perfect deal.  So insanely perfect.  I immediately jumped in there and bought the deal - a one hour photo shoot with Angela Clifton Photography for $59.  Seriously, $59.  The images would be delivered to me on a CD and I could then do whatever I wanted with them.  So not only was I getting a great price on a photo shoot but I could develop the images any way I wanted.  I knew, of course, that I'd bide my time and scoop up some great online deals for printing and photo books.  Which I have, but I'll mention that later.

Dawn and Brett are Angela Clifton and they were awesome.  If you're in the Tampa Bay area I really recommend them.  The session was casual, held at a park near Tampa (we drove up the night before ... it was worth adding a cheap hotel room so we wouldn't be so harried in the morning).  They were so patient with all of us. The experience wasn't painful, though by the end of it we had all gotten our fill of smiling for the day.

Within two weeks we had a CD with almost 200 wonderful images on it.


Today I'm placing an order through Snapfish for a small photo book, which will become a Christmas gift for someone.  My total cost for a 20 page book, shipped, is $1.99.  Here's more about that deal.  A week or two ago I purchased 60+ prints, shipped, with an 8x10 collage included for $3.83.