Superindulgent gushing parental tripe, More of the same, la-dee-da,

There's something so sweet and so heart-wrenching about First Best Friends. Rosie learns new and wonderful things from her best friend M-- all about sharing and imagination and wrestling and just-kids-games and negotiating and making up. They scream each others' names and run into each others' arms every time they see each other. At the same time, I thought MY heart was going to break the other day when M shouted, "Rosie, You're not my best friend anymore! I don't want to play with you!" And Rosie just sobbed and sobbed. I want to protect her FOREVER from that kind of pain-- but not from the kind of giddy kid-friend-love that I can never give her.
It is funny and alarming both when Rosie tries on M's bad habits, just for size, to see if she likes them. Cute when the bad habits are from a 4-year-old (foot stamping and hair-twiddling is A-OKAY with me) but scary when you think of 13 year olds. Ah, I just love my kid.


Our orange tree-- I wish we could take some credit for the darn thing-- produces the most amazing sweet juicy oranges. Ever. In abundance. I eat them at every meal, juice running down my elbows.

Lining up the day's spoils."Keeteeee."
RJ announced that it was time to wash the car. So we filled up a foam cooler of soapy water and gave her a sponge-- she went right to work.
Just a few distractions...
And... taking a break. Until the styrofoam broke.
So we upgraded.




My kid is WAY into "floppy ponytails."And the weekly gymnastics class? You couldn't BUY better comedy.
And... something is looming on the horizon. More gushy parental tripe to come soon. Hopefully, very soon.

Chicklets

We got us some new little chickies! Rosie is mostly very gentle with them, holding them softly and cooing like a mother hen to them...We have no bathtub in our house. This has been the favorite substitute lately-- and really, don't YOU want to have one of these? The bubbles, the shade...

Rosie the pirate and her chick-parrot.

Our laying hens got an upgrade too-- here's their fancy new coop! Way to go, extension agent Matt!

Just try and figure out how this cat is all tied up...
A lovely day for a bike ride!

And... PIPERS!!!!! From Oahu! In a guy's garage!
It made our ears bleed.
Not impressed with the Scottish victuals or the blasting "trumpets" as Rosie called them.
Thanks to a generous invitation from Alii String Quartet, I got to go and sing some Robbie Burns (and other classic Celtic) tunes at a fanshy shmanshy Burns dinner... and Matt got to get all dressed up and look awfully dapper.
I tried but I just looked enormous. Here I'm trying to think "Liz" but I'm afraid the overall impression was "Moby Dick."
I love the pipers in the palm trees.
And the not-totally pleasing combination of hula and bagpipe chorus.

But it was a gorgeous night, a beautiful setting, and it was SO FUN to play music. It had me-- ack-- feeling nostalgic for Fiddlesticks! Heaven forbid.