Many updates...

Whew! Between gardening, school, fiddle, shopping and cooking it seems like the days are flying by. Each afternoon I check the clock thinking it must be about 2pm and it's 5! There are just not enough hours. Sasha and Ted are on the go from dawn 'till dusk and when they're not fighting over the swing they come up with some pretty great games to play on it together. Sasha has fallen in love with Grammy's Kirsten doll so when we found a kid size apron and bonnet in a local store I had to get it for her. It's become her new uniform!

Meanwhile the ball of fluff in the nest has become 3 little chicks. Early last week they opened their eyes and checked me out. "Whoa kids - I will be checking in on you daily but I'm not your mama so try not to imprint OK?"

The kids were invited by their teacher to join in her Suzuki recital. Ted opted to be an audience member this time but Sasha knows most of book 1 so she was happy to join.

They did a book 1 play-down. They started with the last tune in the book and then played the tunes in reverse order. So when they got to a song that a kid had reached they joined the rest of the group on stage. It started like this:

And ended like this! Check out the itty-bitties in the front row. SO CUTE!

 

Of course Sasha had to put her apron right back on the second it was all over which was a good call as we all had popsicles to celebrate. Here they both are with Morgan, our AWESOME summer fiddle teacher.

We also love to go over to Ana and David's house. They run a summer camp and have an entire petting zoo on their property. Teddy checked out the pigs:

And Sasha got to hold a chicken!

Then we all got to feed a bunch of baby goats. They have sheep too and each sheep had 2 lambs this year. The lambs stay right with their mamas so you can really tell who belongs to who. It's really cute.

Then last Wed we went to see MONTY! He was so happy to see us! He took us on a romp through the fields and took us down to his river and ran through the water and was just so full of himself showing off.

He recognized the kids immediately and the kids just spent the afternoon loving all over him.

Sasha even got in some snuggle time. She has been so sad about Monty and asks me all the time why we didn't bring him to Korea but once we left she said "Mom, Monty is so happy there and he gets to run free and go down to the river. It's so much better for him than living with us in our apartment..." So I was happy to know that she feels good about it now and will be able to picture Monty in his home running free.

By the end of last week the baby birds were going through their gawky adolescent stage. They had weird tufts on their heads and their wing feathers were growing in. The mama bird taught them to poop over the edge of the nest instead of in it. So the edge of the nest started getting kind of chaucy but I had to give kudos to the mama bird for successful toilet training at 1.5 weeks old. It took my kids 2.5 YEARS!

My 4th of July garden is filling in. Expecting great things by pig-roast time.

Last weekend we went to Asheville for the day. We wreaked havok at a shoe store and then went to a kitchen store that was HUGE!!! Cora, Zoe and Ivana would lose their minds. Actually Zoe would still be there because she would have refused to leave! (Julian, if you're reading this, a small bribe will insure that Zoe never sees the inside of that place. Small bills....3 figures should do the trick - believe me, you're getting off EASY!). Afterward we had a great lunch out at a nice little bistro downtown.

This was the last picture I took of the baby birds. It was early this week. Their wing feathers were all grown in and I knew that any day I would check the nest and it would be empty. Sure enough on Wednesday they were gone. I will miss my daily visits but feel so blessed to have watched the entire process. From eggs to birds in 3 weeks. What a miracle!

Meanwhile I am the master of all things vegetable, but Mom is the master of the flowers. Her gardens and different areas are EPIC. It takes like 2 hours to water them all. Seriously. No wonder her hip was out! This purple thing erupted over the course of about 2 days. It's gorgeous. I'm just not really interested in growing things unless I can eat them so we make a good team.

Speaking of gardens, the kids' garden is doing really well considering it's only 4 weeks old!

The main garden is awesome though. I go out there first thing every morning and check in and there is something new every day. This week Star of the Week Award goes to lettuce (any body need any? we're rolling in it!) ....

....and beans! I pick this much every other day and 2 types haven't even started producing yet. Good thing we all like beans. After living in state where it's almost too cold to garden and then in a state where it's too hot to garden this is a nice change. In NC you plant the seeds and then run for cover as the garden spews produce at you!

The corn is coming along but needs motivation. Watching Jeff lead for the last several years I know just what to do.... we now have team building meetings and pep talks and we have isolated our short-term, long-term and quarterly goals. Everyone needs something to shoot for right? Just trying to promote synergy.....