Eight and Seven Twelfths and other things

For the first time in Malachi's short life we decided to separate his birthday from Christmas and celebrate it closer to the middle of the year. We picked July because we don't have a birthday in July in our family.

So here's the boy with his 8+ birthday cake.


It ended up that we couldn't do sparklers that evening so we brought them out the next night and the kids had a bit of fun writing their names and swishing the sparklers all over the place. I was happy to stay behind the camera and try to capture the fun that way.


This is what you get when you forget that your camera is on the manual setting on BULB and you go to take a photo in the full sun!!!


And this is what it looks like when you get the settings right.


I had the pleasure of being able to sit in the sun and draw this challenging scene while I waited for the bus. I am so inspired but Urban Sketchers that I long for times like these - they don't come my way very often. Here's a little bit of my urban world.