Afternoon conversation

D: I'm gonna play on the last day of my life

E: That means you're gonna die

D: No I'm not. Mom! Emma said I'm gonna die.

E: Everybody dies. You don't last forever, unless you're a Christian.

I am not taking responsibility for the last comment.

Emma Funnies and Ponderings

We are playing 20 questions in the car. It is Emma's turn to pick the animal. Delaney asks Emma if her animal eats tigers. Emma responds, "A tiger is an apex predator! No one eats tigers."

Were there Christians before Jesus' birth??

Easter

I realize that my blog is really more of a photo essay than anything, but I love all these pictures. I can't help it. Here are the girls discussing the pros and cons of different egg dyeing methods as we set up.

Delaney checking out the effects of rubberbands.

We had a lot going on here. We placed some small leaves on the eggshell with a nylon over it which always looks nice.

The finished product. I love dyeing eggs. Even if I didn't have kids I would totally do it.

Here are the girls, all excited to find their baskets at the crack of dawn. Good thing the E.B. anticipated this early rising and set his bunny clock for 5:30. Just enough time to get a jump on these cuties and hide some eggs.

Hunting. Last year the backyard was being renovated so we hunted in the front yard, but this year we got to enjoy Sam's lovely work and hunt in the back. There was a lot of excitement and squealing. Delaney watched Emma find a bunch of eggs before she got into the swing of things. Emma needed some sort of handicap in this event, but Delaney didn't seem to mind.

Enjoying a hard boiled egg, or as Delaney refers to them hard boyd, for breakfast. What joy the small pleasures bring these girls.

Spring Break

The first thing we did on spring break was to go and pick up a desk for the girls from a woman selling it on Craigslist. She lived very close to the La Brea Tar Pits, one of Emma's favorite places to visit, so we headed over there. We checked out the sculpture gardens outside of LACMA.

Here the girls are posing with the Dire wolf skulls. I love the glow. Sam called this Ice Age Gothic. The thing I really like about this museum is it is small and easy to get through. I tend to get ants in the pants at museums and like that we can do a lot of running around outside. The girls especially love the hills outside.




Emma flirting with the camera.

Okay, this was just funny, and a different trip altogether, but I had to sneek it in. This pig was crazy! He kept lifting the bars of his stall and crashing them to the ground. He reminded me of the rough pig that Wilbur meets at the fairgrounds. Piglets are so cute, but as they grow I think they lose a little of their charm, no?

The other thing we did for a lot of break was to work in the garden. Sam cleaned up the side yard and planted some jasmine for me outside of the kitchen windows. We also cleaned up our beds and put in some new tasty things. This year we are only planting stuff we eat a lot of, like cucumbers, bell peppers, green beans, cherry tomatoes, snap peas and herbs. Sam purchased several dwarf fruit trees also...a cherry, nectarine, plum, and apricot. I can't wait for a harvest. The girls are a great help, and love looking for worms. I love how much they enjoy planting, and then picking and eating what we grow.


Emma thinks she might sell these sweet peas to make a few extra bucks. She had big plans as we pulled this out to make room for new plants. She came out with her scissors and cut away happily. Now we have a lovely bouquet out on the patio.

Busy Girls

It has been so long since I have written anything about what the girls have been up to. It feels impossible to catch up, but I will try. They are both such busy girls...always up to 1000 things, and never at a loss for something to entertain themselves. They rarely ask me to play, and their friendship is really blossoming and lovely to watch...most of the time.

Emma has been home this week with pink eye, a cold, a fever and a double ear infection. The funny thing is that it has been nice to have her home. She has been doing endless projects with pencil and paper. She wrote letters to 3 of her friends, made little American flags, scootered around the house,drew pictures, planned some science reports she wants to do for school, organized her books into non-fiction and fiction, made a hilarious sign to stop dogs from pooping on our lawn, and on and on. Everything seems possible to her, and she is so enthusiastic that you just have to smile. Tonight she discussed with me how some people think monkeys evolved into humans. I wish I had a recording of it. She is a voracious reader. Together we read all 25 of the library books we checked out the other day in one sitting. She read a few to me as well. Her love for books came in very handy at her Dr. appt the other day when we had 3 vaccinations to do. I just read to her, holding the book to block her view of the injection. She didn't even flinch, and I tried it today with Delaney with the same wonderful results. She has learned to ride her bicycle without training wheels, and loves to ride to school on the mornings when we are not running late. She is pining to lose a tooth like everyone else in her class, and in such a hurry to be big, in first grade. It is all going much too fast for me. I can hardly remember her little self, sweaty head, snuggling close, nursing to sleep.


Delaney is a busy girl as well. She loves water and soap, and toothpaste and water, and water and water. When I hear water running in the bathroom I know it is a bad sign. She loves our cat Hopper much more fiercely and often than he would like. I come to his rescue periodically during the day. She has just begun to draw pictures, many legged things, like little bugs and spiders. She seems to favor her left hand, so it appears I do have some genes in there playing a part. She is funny and loves a good joke. She also loves being naked. The other day I came into a completely rearranged living room, and to Emma shouting, "Welcome to the circus!" This involved jumping from the chair to the ottoman and back to the couch. Delaney, of course, was a naked little daredevil. She is not a baby (such a terrible insult)!! And she is very much looking forward to turning 3.

End of Summer

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Our summer is officially over. I am a little sad with all of the changes...Sam going back to work and Emma heading off to kindergarten, but ready to start having a bit of a schedule. We had a lovely summer with Sam off for a good portion of it. We hit the beach, went camping, visited Northern Cal. seeing the King Tut exhibit, climbed the tree in our front yard and went SWIMMING a lot. This was the summer Emma learned to swim. She had been adamant about not taking swimming lessons and hated to get her face wet. Then she put on a mask at my parent's house and started to love going under the water. "How do you do a somersault," she asked, and then proceeded to do it. She did it all over a few weeks, trying out things like going to the bottom of the deep end with me. In the last 2 weeks she has stopped relying on the mask and is using goggles and being really successful. It was exciting to see her do it on her own terms. And I love her with goggles on. She looks like a crazy chameleon. Today was Emma's first day of kindergarten. She had been looking forward to it for some time, and was always excited when she talked about it. I was hoping she wouldn't be nervous, but know that she takes a while to warm up in new situations. She was fine until just before we left, when she became hysterical about everything. Her new shoes were HORRIBLE. Why did I buy them for her??!! Her uniform was ITCHY. She HATED her skirt!! She ABSOLUTELY wanted to stay home. She cried half of the way to school, and then she pulled it together quite nicely. When I picked her up she said, "It's great! I love it!" Her teacher really seems like a good fit for her. I think it will be a good year.

Birthday Girls

This year for the girls birthday present I wanted to sew them both skirts and shirts with their initial on the front and their age on the back. This was only a little tricky since I don't really know how to sew, but I was determined to do it and not be intimidated. I am so glad I did because they were a big hit. The amazing thing was that they were made using tutorials I found on the computer. I love the internet!

For Emma's birthday this year we went to Disneyland. California residents are free on their birthday, plus Sam and I had gift passes from one of his students. We invited one of her buddies and spent the day enjoying the rides. She was very excited to buy this Pooh Bear for herself with birthday money from her friend.

Emma's tricky birthday request was a pyramid cake. I was worried it wouldn't turn out well, but it was great. Besides the pyramids are pretty rustic, so I couldn't go wrong.
For Delaney I made Hello Kitty cupcakes also found on the internet. They turned out really cute, and of course she loved them.

Gardening

Our garden has exploded, and is filled with all kinds of tasty goodness. We are eating snap peas, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, strawberries, basil, green beans, but are still awaiting our first tomato. I made some yummy pesto the other day and have been enjoying swiss chard sauteed with a little goat cheese added on top of toast. It is so much fun to go out in the back yard and pick things. Here Delaney is holding a caterpillar that had been nom, nom, nomming on the tomato leaves. We have to get rid of them on the sly because they are such good friends. Can't you tell?

Latest News

Emma continues to be enthralled with ancient Egyptian history. We have read lots of books on mummies, Egyptian culture, and the pyramids. What is the best way to celebrate our interest? This summer we are all looking forward to going to see the King Tut exhibit in San Francisco. Today we had an inspired moment...inspired by my desire to stop the girls from fighting with each other for 5 minutes, so we made Egyptian costumes. They had a great time goofing around and jumping on the bed. Sam titled this picture Egyptian Gothic. He's funny like that.

Here are the girls after they have commandeered Sam's portion of the salad. Emma loves veggies, but very often will not eat salad, and Delaney...it's anyone's guess what she will eat from meal to meal, so I was happy to see her eating this.

Emma is done with preschool for the summer, and went to an assessment for her kindergarten admission this fall. I can't believe we are here already! She loves to read with me, ride her scooter like the wind, and play with her friends. She seems to be excited about starting school, and turning 5. Everything is set to happen when she is five. "I will have sleepovers, put my face underwater, etc. when I am five." She wants a pyramid cake for her birthday. Yikes!

Delaney is a whirlwind as usual. She loves being with Emma. She also loves doing things her way. These two things often cause them to be at odds. She is no shrinking violet! She is using the potty and talking up a storm. She loves dessert, climbing, and finding out how things work. I recently weaned her and she has done quite well. She often talks about it at nap or bedtime saying, "Not nursin'." "Just 'nuggle." And then she laughs and says, "Just knuckle," pointing to her knuckles and thrilled by her joke. She will give kisses if you are hurt, and often shows great compassion for someone so young. She has a couple of funny words that are a combination of other similar words. The pecans on my cereal became leprechauns after St. Patrick's Day. Tonight in the shower she said, "Ice cream," pointing to my shampoo bottle. I realized it was the CREAM rinse. Yogurt=yoga.

We are looking forward to the girls birthdays and a little time off this summer with Sam. If we can sneak in a camping trip or two, that would be great!

Tell That to the Jury

This morning Emma and Delaney were driving each other and me crazy. At some point Emma was in the kitchen pouring her cereal and then I heard Delaney crying that Emma had hurt her. I was beyond irritated.

I went in to help Delaney and began to grill Emma on what happened, what exactly had she done to Delaney. She was being vague and working on her breakfast. I kept pushing, frustrated, until she said, "I am just one person. I can't stir my cereal and tell the truth at the same time."

She kills me. Talk about defusing the situation!

Delaney Funnies

I said, "I need to get on the floor and stretch my back."

She threw herself on to her stomach and said, "Yah, do yogurt."

New Yard

I was really sad when we moved from the back house, which you can just catch a glimpse of in the middle of the photo to the right of the pomegranate, to the front house for a lot of reasons. One of the biggest reasons was that we had finally gotten the back house and yard really nice. Some stuff wasn't even nice until we rented it. It is so silly how you will make stuff nice for other people, but not yourself. I guess life just gets so busy. Anyway, we haven't waited so long to work on making this house more enjoyable. Sam spent his spring break tearing out the old grass and building raised beds. The yard was overgrown and unloved. Until now. This bed has carrot, radish, and swiss chard seeds planted, as well as cilantro, egglplant, and a tomato. It is nice to be growing things again. Eventually, Sam wants to plant and espalier a fruit tree to the right of the window along the fence, which would be a great space saver in this yard.This is our new table that provides us with some much needed shade. We love to eat outside, especially in the summer when it is hot. I think we will live out here this summer!
Here is the other raised bed that Sam put in. It has bell peppers, tomatoes, parsley,sugar snap peas, and chives. Our compost is happening very slowly in the back. It doesn't get as much love as it should, because...Hey, I've got kids to take care of. I can't be fussing over this pile!I really love this bed and it's curves. It has strawberries and some jasmine there, which I am hoping does a nice job filling the fence in. I love this window. It was part of an old dilapidated door in the back house. I am so glad we salvaged it.
Sam surprised us and planted two blueberry bushes. I have great hope that they do well. They look happy now, and even have a few unripe berries. I was a bit sad we didn't do anything much while Sam was off, but I am so glad he worked so hard out here. We enjoy it every day, and I just love waking up and heading out to see what is happening in the yard!

Disappointed

Today as I was going out front with the ladder to wash windows, I thought I should check on the progress of our mockingbird nest in the neighbors palm. Last time we checked there were three little eggs. I was distressed when I could not locate it. I had wondered why they had not seemed very attentive lately.

Then I remembered a conversation I had previously with that same neighbor before I realized we could look at the nest from our side of the fence. What a mistake that was. I asked him a couple of weeks ago if we could come into his yard because we were so excited to see the nest that had been built there. I told him how excited we were that the birds had used some of our yarn and sticks, and that we enjoyed watching the progress.

"Oh, that's what all that racket has been," he said.

The nest seemed pretty sturdy to me, and my suspicion is that he knocked the nest down, which makes me not like him very much anymore. I didn't tell Emma. I knew she would be sad and wonder, as I did, why would someone do that?

Conversations Overheard

Emma and her friend are at play in the other room. I hear Emma say emphatically,"We are very, very poor. We live in such poverty. We live in the desert."

Later I hear this...E: "You don't want to kill a scavenger." A: Yah, because they clean up all the stinky bones."

Silly kids.

In Which I Inundate You With Pictures

We visited a local Botanical Garden and communed with nature. Here are some lovely bleeding hearts.
I love Borage. It is such a hairy little plant, and the flowers are edible.
Amazing roots on the Moreton Bay Fig.
Girls who run with the wind.
This bee was in need of a stop to unload his amazing pollen saddlebags.
Wisteria spiral
Monarch caterpillar on a milkweed plant. The plant and it's strange pods are what actually stopped us. We didn't know what it was until closer examination revealed 5 or 6 little fellows munching away contentedly.
This working water pump was a highlight.
This nest is actually in our neighbors low palm. We have had fun watching "our" mockingbird and her partner building their nest through our kitchen window. At some point we went out in the yard and broke a bunch of twigs off of some branches and threw some snippets of yarn out for them as well. If you look closely at the bottom of the nest you can see our pink yarn. The last time we checked there were 3 eggs. We can't wait for them to hatch!