Memorial Day

 We decided to have a Memorial Day Cookout very late in the evening on Monday. All we had to do was get the girls ready to go the store, go there, end up having to push Evangeline in the stroller because she wouldn't sit in the cart, keep Evangeline from picking too much stuff off the shelves, shop for food, buy it, make it home without too much crying, get the stuff ready, protect girls from mosquitoes, grill the burgers, convince Evangeline to take one bite of her burger, feed Irene in a really messy fashion, and have as much fun as possible before the torrential rain started.

You know you might not be the best parents when you let your kid
eat lunch like an Indian orphan.

Last-minute hillbilly Memorial Day cookout =
Evangeline plays "baseball" with her rake.

Reme got a cool 3-month top to protect her from
the mosquitoes and way too hot socks. And a lid to play with.
Am I imagining this, or does she look embarrassed?

So, we got rained out and everything returned to normal. Plus it was almost bedtime. Which was really really good news.

"confirmation"

Kaylie, Jayla and Moses professed their faith today and received the Sacrament of the Altar.

Reverend Mietzner's Good Times Family Glory Band

Irene had been playing the tambourine with her feet, and Evangeline sometimes picks up the washboard.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

We decided to get out and see some of these mountains that are supposed to make us love North Carolina so much. So, we drove over to Hanging Rock State Park. It is part of the Sauratown Mountain Range, which is close to the Blue Ridge Mountains, but is completely separate range.

Thumbs up.

People pay good money to get this sort of workout. I think I need to make my belly more full and rounded. It just looks weird as it is now.

Irene really didn't love being in the new babyhawk carrier, but eventually gave up and fell asleep.
I wore it at whole foods the other day, and it did not make me feel good about myself. It looks a billion times better on Ellee.

So, you climb 1.3 miles up the side of a mountain and when you get to the top it is pretty much the most dangerous place in the world for a toddler. Sheer cliffs all around and nothing to stop her from toddling out over them. We didn't really stay for long, but it was incredibly beautiful. There were plenty of people up there basking like lizards.

Evangeline loves monadnocks.

We let Evangeline walk the last half mile, and Irene made her way into the baby carrier we got at Salvation Army. She thought this was the best thing that has ever happened to her and smiled for the whole rest of the way down the mountain.

The final 1/10 mile of the trail is basically a sidewalk. Evangeline was really into pointing out all the circles on the trees marking the trail. Of note was this water pipe cover in the wilderness. There were also some manholes out there that looked like the hatch.

Since the girls were complete saints during the trip, we decided to reward Evangeline with ice cream immediately upon arriving home. We rewarded ourselves for finding the Popeye's by buying some chicken. These two worlds collided and Evangeline was forced to eat two kinds of drumsticks at the same time.

Irene turned into a Dickensian urchin.

Irene all the sudden realized that we were eating fried chicken among chickens.

She is getting really good at using those thumbs, and for the most part knows where to direct the water.

Bird News:

This is the new Black Copper Marans chicken. The others don't really pay attention to her and she sulks around the yard by herself. I think they are really afraid of her. Doesn't she look tough?

A robin made a nest in the grape arbor and has laid four eggs.

Return of the Sink Baths

Irene sort of outgrew the infant tub and it was a pain bending over to bathe her, so Ellee made the executive decision to use the sink to clean the child.

She loved it.

Even blind kids need to bathe in the sink.
Oh yeah, this bath brought to you by Seventh Generation Dish Soap.

Evangeline lent her bathing expertise and poured some water. She is super helpful. They are really growing up eh?

Voila! Its been almost a year since her last sink bath, and all the sudden she wants to get back in there. I wonder why?

In other news, we drove out to the country to get another chicken today. This one is a Black Copper Marans, which is a rare French hen that lays super dark eggs. You know its going to be a good trip when the guy on the phone doesn't trust your GPS and says "I only take cash. Bring your own box."

Literature Agriculture Cuteness

A little morning reading. Unaccountably, Evangline
only wants to read the "Doctor" page of this book. Irene
likes to browse all four pages of hers.

Cool x2

You can tell by the expression on her face that she really thinks she's gonna
get this thing going.

Oh, hi!

Ascension/Pizza Friday

We are celebrating Ascension this Sunday (tomorrow) at church. We had some friends over to do Ascension cookies and then stick around for pizza Friday. There were seven kids/babies here. There was lots of unsupervised cookie decorating (eating icing), dog scaring and marshmallow roasting (supervised). One of the girls explained to her dad why we were making blue and white bird cookies. He said, "I'm so glad you know that." So are we.

The bad part is that with all the action, I only took a few
haphazard pictures. 

We relinquished all (most) control over cookie cutting/decorating.
So besides birds, there are some flowers and hearts and a pterodactyl.
The general icing theme was definitely "more is more".

Their nanny came along to help and she was a huge help
and even more so since I discovered she speaks
a little Finnish. I'm sure my mom would have figured out
how we are somehow cousins.

In which Evangeline pretends to eat.

Them Girls

Evangeline insists that they wear the ears together. Ear color
does not seem to make a difference. Irene gives "bunny paws"
her best shot.

If infants were on Star Trek, this is what they would wear.

Apparently everyone likes bagels.

We went to the arboretum/playground today and
definitely needed some ice cream to go with it.

Mum's Day

This is Evangeline and me before we went to see "Cats" (the musical). I asked for this for a Mother's Day present (I also got a Choy Doh, as Fr. Capon suggests, but we'll picture that later). So, I didn't know how long we'd last at Cats, or what would happen. We left the house at 6.30pm and returned at 10.30pm, having had a magical time at the show. Evangeline never missed an applause, did a little dancing, and let out a blood-curdling scream when the cats came through the audience with their glowing green eyes. Everyone around us was thrilled with her presence and her behavior and she definitely spiced things up with exclamations of "oh no!", "mommy, daddy, daddy!", and "a cat!" among other things. She sat on my lap the whole time and never fell asleep or took her eyes off the stage. I can't wait to go to another show with her. Especially if it has lots of lights and cats and smoke machines. -Ellee

Oh and Ellee got a new haircut. We call it the "Reme".

Grandma Lucy, Grandaddy, Aunt Carol, Uncle Mike, Baba and Grandma came down from the mountains on Saturday for Mother's day. We spent a fair amount of time porch monkeying.

We are ever grateful that Mike is still his delightful self after getting and treating pancreatic cancer in the last 3 months.

Looks pretty crazy eh?

My grandma grew up in rural NC with animals.
Evangeline is growing up in the hood NC with animals and kites.

Aunt Carol claims that babies do not like her.
Irene doesn't really care if other babies don't like Carol.
Grandaddy watches the chicken action.
Dad grills the famous bleu cheese burgers.

Dinner.

Evangeline and the New Hampshire Red are good friends. She can actually pick up the chickens. I read somewhere that kids under ten won't care where their meat comes from.

All in all, it was a good mothers' day.

more agricultural news

Evangeline loves peas. She yanked off every last pod in the garden today.

 She surrendered a few to me, but mostly packed them in and chewed on them for a long time.

disregard the cyborg eye

She also noticed that the grapes are starting to grow. 

She would have gladly yanked every last tiny grape off of the vine.

 She occasionally gets sidetracked by the sandbox.

Its going to be mighty hard to kill these guys.

 We harvested the radishes today. Evangeline really liked pulling them up and carrying them around, but refused to eat even a slice.