However the medical receptionist was left 'terrified' when she later discovered the face of another child had appeared behind Byrin, despite no one else being in the area.
While originally sceptical of the paranormal, Laura says the picture has convinced her otherwise as it is so clear.
She hopes to return to the woods - at Plessey Woods Country Park in Northumberland, UK, as it has now sparked her interest in ghosts - though admits she hopes the apparition doesn't 'follow them home'.
Laura, from Newcastle, UK, said: ‘It's very unusual and everyone is really freaked out. Me and my daughter couldn't even go to sleep last night because we were so scared.
‘My husband is on night shifts and I was alone and I was like 'oh God'. I was terrified in case anything had followed us back.
‘I've had people on our Facebook saying they are going to send me prayers.
‘I didn't believe in anything like that until I saw this for myself.’
Laura had been enjoying the sun with her mum, dad and sister, along with her two children and her neice and nephew when they decided to walk the dogs after finishing their picnic.
It was on the way back that the youngsters came across the large tree and began to climb it - prompting Laura to get out her camera.
Laura said: ‘There was no one behind the tree, my daughter or my nephew would have seen them. There was nobody there.
‘There was only us there. It's very, very bizarre.’
‘I sent it to my husband as he was at work and he said it was very freaky.
‘My sister said 'oh my god, Laura, what on earth is that?' She agreed there was nobody else around us so it literally couldn't have been anything else.
‘A lot of people say it looks like a girl with pigtails but it doesn't to me, it looks like a boy. That's what it looks like to me.
‘I would love to go back to the woods, it's not put me off at all. I think it's dead fascinating now.
‘Obviously I just hoped it's not hanging around us as I don't want that feeling that something's with us.’
