My birthday party, a photo essay by Espen.

While I work on a post about Espen's third birthday party, I thought I'd give you a sneak preview through the eyes of the birthday boy himself. Espen had been very interested in taking pictures with our phones and cameras, so we gave him a camera for his birthday (a Vtech Kidizoom Spin & Smile, but we paid less than half of that at Walmart). Espen loves his camera and takes photos basically every day, and we love giving him the creative freedom that his own camera allows. It's also been really fun to see the world from his perspective, as you can see in the following photos:

Espen's very first photo with his own camera. It is early.  

Trying out the self-portrait function. 

Getting a little artsy with the frames and semi-abstract shots of hands. 

Miss Telyn has arrived!

Daphne poses beautifully by the presents. 

A few friends waiting for birthday cake. Daddy with his camera, and me lighting the candles in the background.

Stepper is beautiful even when posing for toddlers.

A pretty cool shot of the streamers and the top of my head. 

Some of the party treats seem from toddler perspective.

And I just kind of like the texture and focus in this extreme closeup of our couch.

Starting to pick up on a theme of Espen photographing pretty girls. 

Party food.

The party is over and the guests are heading home. Little miss T could be giving her dad some sass here. 

I think it's so interesting to see the world from his perspective. In a literal sense where you see how adults look so big and just how much time little kids must spend looking up at everything because the world just wasn't built for them. It's also kind of fascinating to see the things he chooses to photograph too. I've been transferring the photos Espen has been taking to the laptop and keeping a collection of the "best" ones. Of course, that's just me picking and choosing the ones I like, he might be happy with entirely different shots. I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with and the little insights we get into that fantastic little mind of his.