Fake a cool background

Here are a couple of photographs that I took in our church nursery. The nursery teachers are hosting a table at our Women's tea and our wanting to decorate with pictures of the kids from the nursery. During the service I took a few pictures and got some great expressions. However, the lighting wasn't great and the background was quite distracting. The answer I got rid of it in photoshop and made them black and white. Now the kids and their GREAT expressions are the feature!