At 8

I was editing and uploading some photos tonight (have you seen the new version of Flickr? Am I the only one who hates it?) and it occurred to me that I haven't yet finished this year's birthday photos. We went out with cousin Jonah to do all the shots at once. Liam started having trouble with his eyes that day; we now think he has seasonal allergies, and is reacting to the pollen. He spent most of the night rubbing his eyes and tearing up a little, but even though I did not get a lot of him that night, and most of the ones I did get have puffy eyes, luckily I did get the one shot of him that is "the" 8-year old shot. I think this is the shot that I will have printed on canvas to finally have something to match the giant shot of Mallory that's above the armoire in our living room; I love it that much.

As for Mallory, I really did not get anything great of her, and I have been meaning to get her back out to try again, but if I do that now then the woods will be full-blown green rather than the just-emerging greenery that you can see here and that I like so much since it really signifies the start of spring and the kids' birthdays. It will be our little secret that it was actually already May when I took this photo, since spring was so late arriving this year; had we gone out the week of the kids' birthdays there may well have been snow on the ground.

(I am a little bitter that there is a frost advisory yet again tonight, so once more I spent time tonight covering the yard in assorted blankets, towels and plastic garbage bags. This is probably the 5th or 6th night I have done this, and yet the frost hasn't materialized once; but I just know that if I don't cover the plants, that'll be the night it hits.)

Anyway. Mallory's birthday shots: still on the to-do list, six weeks later.