Farmers' Market

We all love walking around the state capital's square on Saturday. Today, it was chilly and there is still not much in the way of fresh veggies, but the cookies are there which is what excites Julia.
Typical Saturday scene around the square.

Cookie break!

Mother's Day

It was a lovely Mother's Day!

Marianne is still with us which has been delightful. Having a dear visitor from far away is almost as good as traveling myself . . . not quite, but almost.

Julia signed a card and was very proud of it. Couldn't really wait for me to open it. David bought lovely earings that went on straight away. It was my turn to teach at church and this lesson was about the Unitarian ritual called the Flower Communion. I have not been at this service yet but the story was sweet and I find I have no trouble at all teaching anything that involves gardens and flowers. We make egg crate and pipecleaner flowers which the kids enjoyed much more than I thought that they would. I can see this this year of teaching RE has really helped develop my skills with kids and has been a good basis of comparison as I think about the social skills group.

Walking in the Olbrich Gardens was beautiful and Julia led the way as we went to the conservatory, the Thai temple, and the great lawn.

Monkey Bars

Cherry Blossoms and Branchbrook Park

From the time I was born until I was about to enter third grade, our family lived on a small street that deadended at an entrance to a wonderful park that had the second largest cherry blossom display in the country. (D.C. had the largest in those days) Every spring when blossoms adorned every tree ( or so I thought), people would come from all over to stroll in the park and enjoy the beauty. Of course, we walked in the park amost every day. I remember walking with my parents, my grandparents, with my mother and the stroller, with my mother and grandmother walking through the park to get to our local butcher, with my grandfather to roll down the big hill. Almost always, we stopped at the playground and I rode the swings the tall wooden slide, the seesaw, and the merry-go-round which was powered by bigger kids and went around much too fast. But when the cherry blossoms were in bloom, our family would get dressed up in Sunday best and join all the other "tourists" to stroll in the park and take pictures.

When Julia and I were out in Jersey a few weeks ago, and Cheshire was with us, I took them to visit my old park and we visited just after the peak of the cherry blossom display. There are still beautiful trees, some very old and hardly in bloom at all, and many small new trees in their first blooms. The display was not as lush as I remembered but it looked like there will be lush displays again when the new trees mature. Still, it was lovely, and we walked, played in the playground, and took pictures of my lovely girls.

Turtles

Julia rides the wild bronze sea turtle."I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille."
Julia tries on a shell and decides it is a lot better to ride on the shell instead of carrying it on her back. Can you tell which picture mommy made Julia pose for? I think that modeling is not her career. LOL!

Saturday Cookie

It maybe just me but it seems that Julia has managed to find the biggest single cookie at the Farmers Market. She usually has permission to pick out one cookie, and I thought we were pretty safe saying tht she could have one, just one. However, over the weeks we have progressed for small oatmeal raisen cookies to ginger cookies to M&M cookies to this giant cow cookie that is iced in vanila and chocolate. Fortunately, there is only a few more weeks before it is too cold for our Saturday shopping, and who knows what they will be making next spring.
The balloon bunny made it through walking through the market, through lunch and the drumming show put on the Children of the Sun, but popped before we made it back to the car. Not easy being a balloon bunny.

The hat ladies

On Sunday, Julia and David went to the church fall festival while I went to my UU class. Unfortunately, it was raining so the festival went inside but they enjoyed chilli and pizza which seem to be the main purpose of the festivities. Julia also was able to experience the hat ladies and she was so excited about her new hat!

The hat ladies arrange two big tables with long pieces of fleece and triangular pieces of fleece in all sorts of colors and patterns. A kid can pick out one long piece and 6 triangles for her hat. Then she hands it to one of the ladies sitting in back of sewing machines at the other end of the tables. That lady starts sewing and in the snap of a finger, blink of an eye the long rectangle and 6 triangles become a hat -- a rare and unique hat. Julia was very please with hers. I came to see David and Julia during a class break and it was just as the hat was finished. You would have thought the woman waved a magic wand, Julia was so excited. Good to see some everyday magic and sparkles and shines.

Julia is wearing her first pair of tie sneakers to school today. She needed real sneakers for gym but I have been dragging my feet because Julia can be so picky about foot wear.

Pumpkin pickin'

We went to find pumpkins today at a farm. We rode in a wagon pulled by very large horses and were dropped off to find out perfect pumpkin. We found a few!
Julia made a very good pumpkin guard.
Julia visited with a turkey who ate all of the corn kernels that Julia could find to give him. And I wondered if he knew how close to Thanksgiving it is.

Saturday night in front of the television

Tonight, I finally finished an old post about our China Group Reunion. And here is a picture that Traci took of four of our girls. I have been fooling around with it -- such a good story.

A new violin & my fixed computer

Yes, my computer is back and wonderful! The call from the fix-it guys came in at 4:30. Julia and I jumped in the car and went to retrieve the laptop before the store closed. Virus gone, new protections, and new speakers. So happy not to have to go through another weekend with my machine.

Yesterday, Julia and I met Lindsey who is going to be Julia's violin teacher. I had first contacted her back at the beginning of July but our schedules did not allow a meeting then. This was one of the things that I was hoping to start in the summer when Julia was not in school, but . . . we do it when we can.


Lindsey is a special ed teacher. She did her master's thesis on adapting Suzuki method for kids on the spectrum. She is very excited to get another student on the spectrum and we are very excited to get her. Lindsey came in bringing a shoulder bag full of goodies -- toys to play with, a make-believe bow, cards, and other stuff. Julia was fascinated. Lindsey played Cheshire's violin and Lindsey and Julia played the piano. Julia loved singing that ABC's and Twinkle. The lesson was about 20 minutes long.
The initial plan is that Lindsey is going to teach me beginning violin and we shall wait for Julia to want to join in. Towards that end, Julia and I went to rent a half size violin after school today. I can just see Cheshire rolling her eyes, but I did feel that it was so sweet to be taking home a little violin. I had no idea what Julia would think about getting the violin. She was pretty happy. She was patient when she was measured and the sales person tried two violins on her. She asked me a few times whether this violin was for her and whether she could play it. She carried the violin out to the car proudly. As we were getting into car, she told me that she was going to play Julia's violin, not Cheshire's violin.


We shall see.

China Reunion Weekend

Brown County State Park in Indiana, Abe Martin Lodge and five families that travelled to China together two year ago. It was hot and muggy, just like China, but I guess we are use to sweating together. The little girls are all getting ready to turn 3 and all are growing and talking and scampering around. Julia was at her 7 year old best. What a joy to see them all plus the wonderful grownups and siblings that the kids are attached to!

As we had to pass through Indianapolis, we took the opportunity to pick up our ShaDiamon and include her in our weekend. It has been a year since we've seen her last and it was so sweet to spend some time with her. Julia especially enjoyed have her "Diamon" to sleep over in the same hotel room, swim, and run around with. I think that ShaDiamon enjoyed herself as well and we hope to make come Christmas vacation plans.

On Saturday morning, after a big breakfast, we headed down to the stables to ride the appropriate sized horses. David and ShaDiamon joined most of the Scotts to go on a trail ride and the little girls lined up to ride the ponies.

This is an unusual pony ride. I paid for the ride at the cashier and then was told to go over to the ponies who were tied to the fence with a trough in front. I can't remember what the name of Julia's horse was but it was something cute like Noodle, and he was a real pain! I lifted Julia onto the horse and tried to get the horse to disengage from feed, head up, and moving towards the oval. When his head came up, he was headed around the oval faster than I was willing to walk him around. I pushed and pulled and slammed myself against that horse to gt him to slow down and go the way that I wanted him to go. LOL. The video would have been very funny.

Other pony riders included Petra with Kim in the lead . . .

Jaden with Momma Traci . . . .

And Jenae with Daddy Calvin.

Meanwhile, David and ShaDiamon were riding the big ones! Traci caught another side of David's ride.

After a great lunch which Becky planned and Jenae's grandma helped with, naps for the littles, swimming for my girls and Tracie's big kids, the group assembled for dinner.

And then outside for family pictures.

Becky did so much great planning for the weekend. She and Calvin and Jenea are waiting for a son and little brother coming home soon.

Kim and Ed and Petra -- oh that pixie Petra.

The Smiths -- Valerie and Kevin played with ShaDiamon and Julia in the pool and around the lodge. By the end of the weekend, Julia was hugging Kevin and telling him that she would miss him. WE miss all of thm!
Angela and Lainey looking happy and doing so well. We missed Lainey's daddy but we expect him next year.

Us!

Craft Time!

We went back to the lodge to make frames for our new Red Couch picture. I brought plastic frames, stickers, jewels and glue and paper. It was not really as cool as the tee shirts from last year but the kids could almost do these by themselves with only a little bit of mommy coaching. Who knew that we have a few craft shy among us?

Julia found time to make a little sculpture with some play dough. .










The girls ran aound and danced around.

While Tracy and I talked.
Next morning, we tried once again to a great red couch picture. Our previous attempts -- 2006 in China and 2007 in Indianapolis -- were not entirely successful. The best picture taken in 2008 can be found here. The out takes are right here!

Now here is a picture in which no one was smiling. You know how hard that is to get????

Julia was the first to advise us that she was finished posing . . . .

But not the last.

And just one more picture of ShaDiamon and Julia.

It never ceases to amaze me how fortunate we were to travel to China with this wonderful group of people. To have gone on this incredible journey for a daughter was our aim, but we came back with China sisters and dear friends. Our family grows.

Wednesday in Maryland

We are with Lisa and family for a day and a half. Lots of fun and vacationing for us! Today, we went tubing in a small stream (river?) close to the house. Julia loved tubing with Sarah Grace.

And even walking back to the start of the riding. Unfortunately, Julia lost one of her flip flops to the river. She needed them walking on the rocks (as I did) and now all she has are her shoes until we get home.
David and Cheshire relax on our picnic blanket.
Most of our crew -- I am snapping pics and Nick was working. But what a beautiful bunch!