the bad girls are back!

About four years ago, Marcus and my brother-in-law, John, took our kids camping. It was on that trip that Alex and her cousin, Julia, formed The Bad Girls Club. To this day, I have no idea how they came up with the name, nor what its purpose was (I believe their initial intent was to be a rock band, but it was honestly a bit unclear). After the camping trip, I had the opportunity to take their official Club Photos, one of which you see in the image above (back then, Julia was 6, Alex was 4).

Then two years ago the Bad Girls reunited, and I was given the honour of taking some updated portraits. In the photo below, Julia is 8, I think, and Alex might be 7 (they're 1-1/2 years apart in age).

My sister and her family were back in town this weekend for a lightning-fast trip, and I'm happy to report that the Bad Girls have continued to retain me as their official photographer. I was thrilled to take their new photo again today, shown below -- Julia is now 10, and Alex is 9:

The girls remain thick as thieves, and judging from the weekend's activities, the mission statement of The Bad Girls Club may have shifted from music-making to more literary aspirations: they hand-made books with cardboard, paper and cloth, and spent most of the last few days filling their pages with what I can only imagine are immensely profound thoughts and eloquent paragraphs.

In any event, it remains so much fun to watch them grow up together.