Finally

Finally Evangeline gave in and wanted to take a bath at the same time as Reme. It was fun. Evangeline took all the bath toys. But Irene was ok with it.

The answer to "smile!".

Someone's 2 cool 4 U.

Hey, and Evangeline's been delighting us with her talking lately. Girl's learning actual words, it seems.
1. Water is now "wawa". Pretty pedestrian toddlerspeak, but what can we do?
2. She went to "Bible cool" today, and when they went to their class rooms she changed her "go Bible cool" chant to "go bible class".
3. We are both amused and relieved with her word-using.

Culinary Adventures

We started off the day by going to our local cool guy coffee shot. Evangeline gets a vanilla steamer. She loves it. Its pretty crazy how she will just sit there like everyone else and drink her coffee.

We later went to the Super G Mart. The Super G Mart is the local pan-Asian/Mexican super market. It is a wonderland. You can get gigantic spiny fruit, pig brains, and everything in between. We picked up some lemon grass, kimchi, and other stuff. We were really looking for chhü. The kind folks of G Mart didn't know about this obscure Chinese yeast ball, so I will have to call back. The G Mart also has a flea market and some restaurants on the side. We went to the Vietnamese place and got lunch. Evangeline got her first bubble tea.

 We had some excellent banh mi.

We have been noticing a rash of posts about grilled pizza on the facebook lately, so we decided to try it. If you can get it not burned, it is the best thing you've ever eaten. Luckily, 75% of ours was unburned. Try it.

What do you do with the burned portion? Feed it to your chickens, of course.

Evangeline later spotted Baba and Grandma on the airplane.

This is Irene's new scrunch.

Who do you think won this competition?

Toddler Cuisine

Sriracha and Cheerios. Evangeline's invention. Yes, she
had some around her mouth.

We had a rainy day and pulled poor Irene around the
house in a Huggies box for a while. My friend Rosie mentioned
something like this a couple of years ago, and oh did I laugh.

Irene still has a cold, but humored us.

Sick/Better

The last few days have been lived in the shadow of the illness of Evangeline (patient zero), Ellee, and Irene. There has been lots of coughing and fevers and lots of nose wiping and administering of medicinals. Today things are starting to look up after two long nights of Irene-related insomnia. Children recovering from being sick is a wonderful thing.

Yesterday. Irene takes a break from an awkward
"peek-a-boo" game to wonder "Why Me?"
And yes, Evangeline is drinking a juicebox in the morning.
Moments earlier she discovered that orange juice
really hurt her throat.

Evangeline was feeling good enough to take a dip in the pool.

Irene watched with her usual cool detachment.

Evangeline's dip was quick, as much better things were going on.

So Irene kept an eye on Katie.

Finally, she learns to stack wood.

North Carolina!

Look and see all the work Kyle has done for us:

We are going to have enough tomatoes. We have 16 plants.

Peach trees from Beth and Jim. Getting there.

Evangeline couldn't even pick all these peas.

Ronde de Nice squash.

How about figs, you ask. Yep. Got them too.

I didn't get pictures of all the broccoli, brussles sprouts, swiss chard, spinach, okra, carrots, lettuce, beets, etc etc etc. You get the picure (even without the picture). Don't forget the chickens. We think Kyle is quite amazing. And he didn't get sick either, so he must be magic, too.

Oh wait here is a purple carrot and a white carrot.

Naptime With Seahorse

...and dog and lambs.

Proof!

Proof that we are hillbillies.

 It was not good enough that I play the banjo for Evangeline while mom was out. Instead she had to commandeer the instrument and entertain her sister herself. She really can pluck out a tune, and Irene totally loves it, as is evidenced by her blurry legs.

Irene saw how we are descending into hillbillydom and decided to put on a Freud beard for the first time. Someone has to bring some seriousness around here.

Isn't this cute?

While the Dad's Away

Kyle is gone on a beach vacation (district convention?) in Virginia Beach for 3 days, so Grandma M (and Grandpa arriving this evening) was nice enough to come and help me with the tots. It has been great and the girls are loving having a grandma to hang out with for a few days.

Wearing Grandma M's first ballet costume. And hardhat.

Then Irene was all super cute in the bath. 

Still cute in the bath.

Yes

Can you believe it?? STILL CUTE IN THE BATH!

Doing a science experiment. She's pretty smart.