Ballet Recital

Evangeline had her ballet recital yesterday.

Four classes.
Each class sat and watched the other classes perform.

Evangeline was probably the best of her group.

She has a mean curtsy.
Each class came up with a story for the performance.
E's class was about Princess Vanessa befriending a mean witch, who ended up being converted to a nice witch.
We asked her who came up with the name Princess Vanessa, to which she promptly responded "We all did!"

Irene was super proud of her big sister.

When the dad gets the flowers, they are going to have thorns.

Whats a ballet recital without facepainting?

Stay tuned for a video.

The robins left the nest, and I found this one hanging out on the front porch this morning.

full swing spring

It took a few years, but check out how many peaches we've got now! 

Our friend Adam didn't believe me that this drill actually worked, and drilled a hole in the gate. Irene saw it and after he left, went and drilled her own hole. This is Grandma Ernst's drill.

Guess who got suckered into letting his daughter eat a bag of cheetos for lunch.

I made this bread.
It is a sourdough country loaf made with mostly wild yeasts, a recipe from Tartine, in SF.
I started the sourdough culture initially with the lees from a mead I'd made,
but I think that its actually become quite sour and tasty by now.
I could hardly believe it when I took it out of the oven and it looked like it is supposed to.

Things are finally growing in the church garden.

 Schara graduated from UNC, and we went to her party.

There was a dj and a dance floor.

Evangeline burned it up, with help from a new friend.

The girl can do the cha cha slide.

The baby robins aren't so babyish anymore. They're sure to be gone any day now. If I want a pet robin, this is my last chance for this year.

We decided to brave the wilds of the restaurant frontier after Ellee's concert today and made a trip back to our old haunt, the Printworks Bistro. The food was great, but the dining experience was a little hectic thanks to these two blessings. Irene brought us probably 12 pieces of broken glass. But hey, they have a good mom, so its all okay.
The relative peace of this time was promptly broken when Irene brought a cigarette butt to her mother and put it in her lap. How beautiful.

Evangeline finally figured out how to pump on the swing.

Mom brought home goggles.

This is more fun than it looks.

We had some friends over for dinner tonight and Irene held the bantam chicken pretty much the whole night.

Blood

The time came for the two largest chickens to be slaughtered.

The girls were actually pretty into it.

They watched the whole thing and even plucked a few feathers.

We had a feast with Adam, Matt (who helped with the slaughter) and Bethany.
Thats the chicken in the middle there.
He was really tasty.
For some reason I was worried that it wouldn't be good. I was wrong.

 Sunday brought the first of this season's GOS concerts, which was held at the UMC church around the corner. Evangeline really wanted to follow along in the hymnal.

Its that special time of the year when its not too hot out and the bugs aren't really here yet.

And we've got more robins. The are ugly.

Did we tell you that we're trying to do away with the pacifiers?

Baking Bread

I hate to admit this, but I just read (listened to) another Michael Pollan book. Cooked is about four different ways of cooking. One chapter was all about bread. So of course, I had to "get into bread" for a while. I've also "gotten back into fermentation" right now. We'll see how long these things last, but anyways, I've been cultivating this sourdough starter, and we're baking another loaf. They like to help and Evangeline likes to look for the yeast working. This is much more satisfying than brewing, because the yeast works right away, and you get to eat it the next day, rather than stare at it in a glass jar for a month first. They're actually really good at stirring new flour into the starter.

Happy Πάσχα!

We celebrated the paschal feast in sincerity and truth this weekend.

The Easter Vigil continues to grow, both in attendance and size of fire.

This was the best one yet.

 Aunt Jessie, Grandma Becky and Baba came too.

I think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

The day was beautiful, adorned with alleluias, wonderful Easter dresses, flowers, and plenty of laughter.