Ballet Buns and Bobs

I don't know if two parents could be any more proud... or continue to be any more surprised by their five and a half year old. Last Sunday was E's ballet recital and she amazed us.


Even though she got a little nervous the day before, she was a rock for the actual recital. She went through the whole evening in her various staging areas (first a green room, then special seating to watch the performance, then back to the green room) and finally her class's turn to dance. Our little performer (?) caught sight of her family in the third row back and during her free dance portion she twirled her way right over! During the intermission, J went to go get her, thinking that she was done and ready to come sit with us for the rest of the show. She shooed him away, telling him she had to go on for last bows! Who was this little girl?

Here, L enjoys some snuggles from his sister- with her "post-ballet" ponytail and waves.

Speaking of hair, we delayed what we knew was the best choice for a summer hairstyle. Shorter. The long hair, as gorgeous as it was, was becoming a maintenance issue. She did not enjoy the morning chore of brushing- nor did I.... And I have to say, the result is so, so cute. The pictures really tell the story best.


Before:









During: (both mommy and daughter had cold feet)




















After! Wow! The whooshing and swooshing! Freedom!
The pony of hair is being sent to Locks of Love.

Gardening

Some things in life you either love or hate. Like cilantro. (love) Or sports. (hate) Or how Bend smells. (really hate) I'm still on the fence about gardening. I think I love it. I know I still very much love the idea of it. But for a "completion oriented" person (what other kind of person is there? I mean really? "Oh, I really love doing this task and don't care if I ever get done" OK, well, maybe...), the fact that the flower beds I have weeded already need weeding again... and I haven't even come close to doing the first round on all the areas.... well, that is just crazy making. But what I am talking about here is produce gardening. I have plotted, planned and visualized a masterpiece here. And it may not be too soon to concede defeat. No, no plants are actually in the ground in the beautiful 30x50 area that Dad tilled for me.My little seedlings are now leggily reaching toward the "sun" in their various locations between mom and my houses. I have started everything from basil to zucchini- I estimate about 200 seedlings.

Before:
After:
The flaw in this plan may be:Yes, as cute as they are- they themselves are on the fence about farm life. E is trying to work through her bug issues. She hollers like a logger with every sighting, which makes outside time...well, rather loud. S had a bad experience with a very low flying helicopter last week which has amplified his general distrust of farm equipment or aircraft. He LOVES these thing in books... just not in loudly reverberating real life. So, HE runs screaming for the house if anything flies overhead or if anyone starts a motor anywhere on the farm. And L is auditioning for a part in "Click Clack Moo" and spends most of his time trying to get off the blanket and over to munch some grass. Consequently, we have some productivity issues.
That said, we do have a nice garden in my "old area" of raised beds and now berry/potato patch (see below for what a great idea that was). We have already eaten lettuce from this garden and will soon be having new potatoes, snap peas, strawberries, herbs, leeks and more.
I have learned a couple things already- and learning in gardening requires filtering through ALLOT of information to find a concise "do/don't do" list. Here is a start on mine:

• Do use special seed starter potting soil to start your seeds. Those 200 seedlings? That took three rounds of seed planting.
• Raspberries may prefer morning sun and afternoon shade. I think I will have to move my three rows sometime next year. (and also try to not to overspray them with an herbicide)
  
• Apparently, potatoes and berries are not good "companion plants". I will let you know how this goes since my potato patch is between the raspberries, blueberries and strawberries.
• There may be more than one way to "harden off" seedlings. I have been gently shaking the dresser my plants are on, brushing them with duster, and have a fan set on them to simulate the wind. Mom told me that she threw the pots of starts that were on her table outside a few days ago..... They seem fine.

If all goes well, you are all invited over for a squash extravaganza!

May Day Flowers

Every May since E was a baby, 2005 to be exact, I have taken pictures of the kids in front of these adorable little white "star" flowers. I don't know what they are, exactly, but they are bulbs-and they are prolific... and they open during the day and close during the night. I have moved them, spread them around the farm.
I got this year's pictures taken of the kids last weekend, it is getting harder and harder to get a picture with everyone co-operating! But first... a little walk down memory lane!And then along came S!And L! And M, N, O and P! Just kidding... but not so much about the "P" part...

Holy Guacamole!

So, once in a while.... every so often.... on a very occasional basis... you know, like hourly.... someone around here makes a mess. Sometimes it is a big mess- sometimes it is a little mess. Well, I think once it was a "little" mess. The most common variety of mess that we have is also the most difficult. Well, maybe not so much difficult as tediously annoying. It is the "general and complete household toy re-distribution". This involves taking one or two pieces of every toy and involving it with a few pieces of another in a series of small toy compilations. Apparently for the game to work you must also span the entire length of the house covering every square inch. A few doctor kit toys mixed in with the train stuff piled under the dining room table. Play food toys in the stuffed animal bin which has inexplicably been moved into the bathroom. A collection of dolls sweetly reading a collection of books whilst sitting on my bed. And a very long stream of trucks snaking its way through the refrigerator magnets on the kitchen floor. Lately this has been the mess that makes the husband and I wish for simpler days when the children only had one corn cob doll and a pea shooter.
The other day, though, at dinner, we experienced a new kind of mess. The kind that makes everyone freeze with eyes wide and mouth agape. Because we like to laugh (theoretically) at situations that a) no one got seriously hurt and b) there isn't anything else one can really do- we laughed and then took this picture:No. It was not "photo shopped".
This is E discovering what happens when you are animatedly gesturing while telling a story at the dinner table and you slam your hand down- just barely catching the edge of a bowl of liquefied avocado for the baby. What happens is this: the bowl flips and catapults upward spinning it's way through the air- its contents hurtling in each direction. The window on the far side of E got this same treatment, as did I sitting across from her.
Holy Guacamole!
After the picture taking we began cleanup. The second part of this particular mess involved the two year old. Who pitched in to help by feeding the baby, who does not care to have his dinner interrupted, regardless of the scope of the mess. How sweet is that?Oops. That's kind of a mess too....