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?