Strawberry Picking

On Sunday, we went off to the strawberry farm for our

annual harvest, like we did in previous years.

Three walking children this time. Ooooo.

We did get Jenna to actually eat some berries this year.

She said, "Last time I didn't like strawberries.

Now I like strawberries!"

Kate liked them, too.

Here is how to eat a strawberry - a pictorial tutorial:

Step 1

Sashay up to the buffet.

Step 2

Select (surreptitiously).

Step 3

Position

Step 4

and mash into mouth.

Step 5

Nonchalantly walk away.

All done!

We did 14 lb this year, before the children vocally made

it clear that they were more interested in lunch. Minimal

berry processing this year because we still have lots of

jam left over in our freezer from 2008 and 2007. So just

4 pots of jam and the rest get frozen for pies, shortcake

and other winter dessert needs.

Picnic for Fish and Men

Two weekends ago, we got to do an outdoor lunch

with G. Arne and G. Karen.

We went to one of our favorite parks, which had a fishing dock.

Of course, all the real fishing was done by other people.

We came with lunch for the fish. The girls and I were

here the week before, and they liked it so much that

they wanted to share it with their grandparents.

The fish were mostly crappies (we think).

All that stale bread made us hungry

so we had a picnic ourselves

after which the girls (except me) ran all over the fields

and had races with Grandpa.

We stopped to smell the flowers

before adjourning to the playground.

Jenna's face says it all -

summer days+outdoors+family = priceless.

Random Summer Activities

Some hot days recently, so this is one of

the ways we've been cooling off.

The girls thought they were very interesting.

Being gentle folks, we decided that even in

water wars, there must be some rules, like

1. Thou shalt only throw balloon at the feet of another person.
2. Thou shalt not throw balloon at a person if that person looks genuinely scared.
3. Thou shalt pick up colored balloon shrapnel after the war.
4. Thou shalt not eat balloons or shrapnel (especially for Kate).

Chilling on the deck steps after

and getting in one last shot.

Random Summer Meals

Some afternoons are too hot for anything but cold lunches.

Oddly, Emily thought the plain (white) cream cheese

pinwheels were better than the strawberry (pink) cream

cheese ones. First time she's ever not declared pink superior.

Telematch

Remember this?

Can't find any actual episodes on youtube, unfortunately.

But just watching this intro made me feel like a kid again!

Photo(s) of the Day

From left to right: Jenna, Wa-wa, Kate, Emily

That was not one of Emily's best poses.

Here is a more Emily-like pose.

She is very proud to announce that she has lost one

more tooth, bringing the grand total to three, although

she only has two gaps, since the second tooth she lost

was that mesiodens that got yanked out in surgery. Her

latest sacrifice to the Tooth Fairy is in the bottom row,

and directly under the upper gap. She is especially

pleased that the two missing teeth make a super-long

hole for her tongue to peek through and she said, "The

gap at the bottom can make friends with the one at the

top!" Clearly a social creature, our Emily.

Lots have been happening here in the summer but it's

hard to keep up with blogging about them. Have news

going as far back as Emily's last day of school (shocking!)

so will attempt to slowly show and tell over the next few weeks.

A Diaper Mystery

After yesterday's high-fives, I want to share a not-so-high-five.

On Saturday, after lunch, Kate was found to be missing her diaper. She had her shorts and Tshirt on, yes, but the diaper was somehow.... not there. Very disturbing. Asked Kate, "where is your diaper?" and she replied helpfully, "down!"

Yes, down. But where?

After putting a new diaper on her and searching the house thoroughly, we still could not find the missing diaper. Our final conclusion was that Kate had removed the diaper and thrown it in the trash herself. We hope. Or else we are in for a Rude Shock someday when we spring-clean the house.

Going with the assumption that Kate did indeed toss her own diaper, I guess it is a high-five after all. So OK, high-five, Kate (fingers crossed)!

High-fives for the Children!

Quick post this morning to say Jenna used the potty for

the first time today! Very proud. She was so surprised and

pleased. Emily came and cheered for her after.

As a little incentive (and to keep our earlier promise),

she got a new Maisy book. High-five, Jenna!

And Kate our ex-insomniac is now sleeping through

the night! A bit late, after 14 months but we are too busy

dancing around celebrating to complain. She is also

falling asleep by herself. So our nights have just gotten

a little nicer. The success of this is, in part, to her adoption

of a small brown stuffed dog whom she calls Wa-wa.

She carries it with her everywhere, including church and

the supermarket. She'd gone all this time with neither

finger-sucking (like her elder sisters) nor pacifier, despite

our attempts to make her try both. We had all but given

up figuring out how to help her self-soothe before

Wa-wa came along. High-five, Kate!

Emily can now ride her bike (with training wheels) all

round the block. Thanks again Ma and Pa, for her bike!

She is so proud. She has also started to read and

write words. We didn't want to do the whole flash-cards-

alphabet-poster thing and let her start when she was ready.

She'd already been writing her name and simple words

like "mom" but recently she started asking how to

spell words like "birthday" and "garage sale" so she

could make invitations and posters in her pretend play.

Very funny. She has also started reading car license plates

to identify our van in parking lots (not that our usually-

filthy van is easily mistaken for anyone else's). Now must

get some of those tracing alphabet books so she can

develop good penmanship i.e. write ROUND letters. I

remember Auntie Laura training me to write round.

Round is good. Right now we are using parchment paper

to trace letters from random scrap paper. Better get to it.

High-five, Emily!

Sadly, Dave and I have no amazing accomplishments to

report. No high-fives for us. We don't mind not being

clever - we now get to actually sleep!

Happy Father's Day!

You are all these and so much more, Dad!

Here's what dad got in the post from us:

Freezer-paper stenciled Tshirt. Only I must add that Dad uses

a compound bow not the Legolas-style thingy depicted above.

Read more longwinded boasting about Dad here.

Lots of hugs when we see you in the winter

(our winter, your CNY, I mean)!

Jennaism: Naming Softies

I need to record this here so that, years from now, I can look back and remember the way my children's minds worked. Jenna has begun to assign names to some of her stuffed animals. Here are some I remember:

Name of white polar bear: A Man

Name of hedgehog: Sabina-and-she's-a-girl

Name of colorful parrot: SnailOnion (my favorite)

Name of small white polar bear: Precious Little Guy
Name of pink teddy bear: Lei-lala

Will update this list as more come to mind.

Analyzing Gender: a new Jennaism:

Yesterday at lunch, Jenna was meditating on her long-sleeved 

shirt. (I was also meditating on our long-sleeved shirts in the 

middle of June, but Jenna's thoughts were more polite to 

record in a post than mine.) (And yes, I know it is terrible 

grammar to enclose an entire sentence in parentheses.)

Jenna pushed up the sleeves of her shirt to above her 

elbows and said, "I feel like a boy."

I asked, overhearing from washing up at the sink, 

"What makes you feel like a boy, Jenna?" 

She replied, "when my sleeves are up."

Then she pulled them down again to her wrists

and said, "Now I feel like a girl." 

Choosing The Right Thing or A Good Day Out

Last night I happily wrote out my To-Do List for the day 

- 23 items. Mmm, fun. I really do like lists - see my 

profile info for my public confession. But they must 

have small boxes in front of the list items so I can color 

in the box when I've completed them. I don't cross off 

items I've done. Crossing off means "good riddance" 

(I used that kind of list a lot when I was working for 

the government). Coloring in the boxes means "hurrah!"

This morning, though, we finally saw blue sky and sunshine, 

so off we went to hit the parks, armed with stale bread to 

feed random animals (ducks were our first choice).

Park #1 was supposed to have a "Beach". When we were here 

last, it was close to fall and there were a pair of ducks that 

we fed. So we thought we'd revisit it now in the summer.

Yes, it did have a "beach". Erm.

It was a modest little sandy bank with icy cold lake water 

that was still as wellwater. No lapping waves, no salt air, no 

distant horizon with little ships. The three girls were so happy 

they got to throw handfuls of damp construction-quality sand 

into the water. Felt depressed and homesick for a moment, 

then adjusted my expectations and took in the beauty of the 

scene for what it was - picturesque little freshwater lagoon 

surrounded by thick foliage. It was beautiful  - but as long as 

I relabeled it in my head as "bank of lovely lake".

Just for fun, this is a Beach, as we call it back home:

Singapore

Singapore

Bintan, Indonesia

Darn, it's hard to live away from the equator, sometimes!

Park #2 had a lovely little dock where we sat and fed 

the fish. Kate was thrilled to see the "shish" surface to eat 

our little scraps of bread floating on the water. We spent a 

long time here watching the fish and probably annoying the 

fisherman sharing the dock whose clientele we'd stolen. 

Then on to Park #3 to enjoy its marvelous playground. 

We played till it got too hot, then hopped back in 

the van and headed home for lunch.

My 23-item to-do list still has all 23-items on it, but I think 

we chose well today, the things that are more important 

to do while the sun shines. 

P.S. No photos of today's adventures. I keep forgetting 

to bring the camera with me on our outings. Plus I'll 

probably drop it into some lake while trying to do 100 

things simultaneously with two hands!

A Birthday Concert for Grandpa Desmond

It's Grandpa Desmond's birthday today!

Happy birthday! We love you and miss you!

Here are some greetings from this side of the planet.

We would've done some spectacular outdoor videos 

but today is Day #5 in an unusual stretch of miserable 

rainy, grey summer days. So here we are looking like 

we live in a dungeon even though it is 9 am.

First up, a birthday song from the kids. 

Note how strangely still Kate is. Must be in shock. 

You'll see her in her usual ants-in-the-pants state 

later, starring in her own movie.  

Next, a rendition of Jenna's favorite bedtime song, 

personalized for Grandpa D.

Immediately after singing this, 

she went to put Lana (purple doll) to bed, 

singing this same song to Lana.

Here are the lyrics, in case you want to sing along:

Jesus loves Grandpa

Oh how He loves him!

Jesus loves Grandpa each night and each day

Gave His life for him and always protects him

Jesus loves Grandpa and calls him by name.

Here is Emily singing one of her favorite bedtime songs,

made famous by The Seekers, but made memorable by 

G. Desmond and G. Mae. The song's real title is "Morning 

Town Ride" but the kids call it "Train Whistle Blowing".

And finally, Kate, who, although not yet able to hold a 

recognizable tune, is quite good at impersonating cats 

and other screechy animals.

Happy birthday, Dad/Grandpa! 

Your gift is on its way, typically late, I'm afraid.

Hugs and kisses from us!

I Am Now A Famous Public Figure

Rare is the family that has outlived its telephone number.
We knew this when we were given our number by the phone
company upon our moving into this house. We knew we
might get the occasional call from someone looking for the
previous phone subscriber. We knew we might have to
politely decline goods and services from telemarketers
fortunate enough to have our number on their lists from
prior transactions. We knew our phone number came
with a little bit of history from before our time.

But imagine our reaction to discover this little bit of
history included crime and a couple of fugitives! Tax-
evading fugitives, to be exact, being looked for by lots
and lots of people in addition to the police: news
reporters looking for interviews, former clients,
coworkers....... Probably more callers have asked to
speak to the pair of outlaws than to us. After enough
involuntary phone conversations with strangers , we
now know a fair bit about The People Who Once Owned
Our Number. And we are now also able to efficiently
deflect inquiries about their whereabouts.

Last Saturday, Dave was reading the papers and said,
"Hey - you're in the papers!"

Yes, I am.
In an article about Them.
Not my first choice for how to burst into the public eye.
Oh well.

P.S. I also know a bit about the person who used to own
my mobile phone number. I've had a few calls from people
asking me if I "did alterations". One particularly desperate
client, when told this number had been reassigned,
actually asked me if I happened to do alterations too. I
was very tempted to say, "no, but I sew bibs. Want any?"
I didn't. Drats. Should've.

Being Outside

A beautiful week of 70-degree weather.

Arts and crafts are now done outside.

And evening walks have resumed.