Kinder Ballet

This week brings our first summer camp, Charlotte's kinder ballet camp. There are ballet crafts, ballet stories, and of course ballet dancing. Here is Charlotte all ready to go!

Summer delight

What a wonderful summer weekend! Summers in Minnesota are the best, and sharing it with friends make it divine.

First off, I attended an overnight knitting retreat with my neighborhood knitting group, The Tangletown Ladies Needlework Society. We went to a cabin 1 -1/2 hours away on a lovely little river. We ate and ate and ate, and knit a bit. Man, I am bad at knitting, but luckily I'm pretty good with the cooking, so that saved me. The Needlework Society is full of smart, interesting and funny women: progressive reverends, writers, and cooks, which made for great conversations. I was in heaven.

Promptly upon my return home, we had an ice cream party with our good friends the Logans to celebrate the ending of a successful school year. Undeterred by previous pizza grilling disasters, we forged on ahead, and finally, success!! Crisp and crunchy asparagus, gorgonzola and spinach pizzas. Michael was busy making mojitos which included copious amounts of vegetation.




The children discovered later that the neighborhood boys were sleeping out in their tent, so of course ours had to go up as well. Predictably, that lasted about an hour and a half.



The next day, I went to church and heard the most delightful sermon on beauty. We have a new intern from Berkley, and he rocks. I'm really hoping they will post his talk on their podcast soon. http://www.unityunitarian.libsyn.com/.

Later, our friends Geoff and Dawn arrived for an afternoon nibble of a Queen of Sheba tart and a garden tour. The girls became totally enamored with Dawn and became a permanent fixture on her lap. Geoff is the mastermind behind the weehouse. See weehouse.com

Meanwhile, Charlotte has blown all of her allowance money on a towering four pack of princess shoes. Day and night she is sporting her new apparel, and she couldn't be more thrilled. How can shoe obsessions begin at the age of 4??

the byrds get wet

Well, it's been quite a week!

William and Charlotte began their 2 week intensive swimming class at the U. They love it, and their teachers are terrific. They just about blow with excitement everyday before it starts. There are only two other children in the class with them and they are learning A LOT. William is now doing the front and back crawl across the pool, and Charlotte dunks with abandon. Plus, I joined a gym this week and have been swimming for exercise. Its a swim-o-rama.







William had his last day of school today! Mama was sad, William was not. I'll miss his teacher, Ms. Johnston. She was wonderful.

William's quote of the week:

"You know what I learned throughout this year?
I am very likable."

Yes you are, William! Yes, you are.

Here's William with his friend Mac. They carpooled together a lot this year, which really saved my sanity. Thanks Mr and Ms Coleman!


Well, look! Here's Ms Coleman, attending a reading party with the first grade class last week. I didn't know we were supposed to bring a blanket, so she kindly shared hers. Charlotte spent most of the time with her head nuzzled in Ms. Coleman's lap. Ms Coleman was a good sport about it. We've come a long way from the beginning of the year when Charlotte wouldn't get in the car with her!Here are some of the highlights of the books William made this year.
First, there is "Sharks Doing Their Stuff"


Then, his poetry book, "I Like Poetry."

Here's a poem, "I like chickens"
i like cickins
green cickins
bloe cickins
qwick cickins
slo cickins
i like cickins

We've been talking about chickens quit a bit at home, huh? The subject came up at our neighborhood knitting night this month, and my neighbor got wind of my idea. It did not exactly go over well. We might have some work to do before those little silkie bantams start strutting their stuff at the byrd house. How could you say no to a face like this?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mypetchicken/384233601/

William also wrote a cute note to Michael.

thank you for helping me on stuff I need help on
to Mickl
from William
I love you
you are a grat dad

(on the back:
and you are grat at fishing)

We received two big boxes from the Mayeuxs, and Charlotte was in heaven. Hello Kitty jammies and red danskos, oh my!

On the baking front, we had a huge kitchen disaster. The "Angel Cheesecake" blew its top. Charlotte knew it would. When we were pouring it into the pan, she said, "um, mom, do you think this is going to fit?"


Well the whole adventure certainly didn't stop my friends and I from digging in! Delish!