Last Day Of Kinder.

Today Ivy, my little red, graduated Kindergarten. Her teachers put on the sweetest little ceremony, complete with a tear-jerking poem and a group song from the students. Ivy was so proud to be surrounded by her classmates and supported by family. 

 Her audience.

 Receiving her diploma from Mrs. Trilevsky.

 Family cheering her on.

This is The Morris Family; Tara, Jeremy, Luxon and Olive. Olive and Ivy are girlfriends and in the same class. We are so thankful for their friendship. Goo and I have enjoyed many school mornings playing with Lucky and Tara while all little girls were in class.

 Goo and Hank debriefing.

Proud Mama.

This sweet lady is Mrs. Trilevsky. She is Ivy's Kindergarten teacher and is the most patient person I have ever met (I mean super unnaturally patient), her kindness and genuine sweet nature are incomparable. She is so organized and thorough, juggling all her students differences and needs. Her family is relocating this summer and so it is with thankfulness and relief that I say I am quite delighted Ivy had the opportunity to have Mrs. Trilevsky as a teacher.

Lately.

This weekend we spent quality time with good friends close to home. We went to The Potter Family's Silvertip Ranch. Evenings at their property are sublime. And while Tim worked yesterday, The Littles and I went to a pool party of some dear friends here in town. I made whoopie pies and deviled eggs.

So The Babies aren't babies anymore. These chicks sit here on the deck above their coop in the evenings, I scoop them up and put them to bed. They act like they hate it when I hold them, especially Tiny the white Americana (and the largest of all), but then the next day they do the same thing.

This is the last week of school. While I am excited to have The Little Girls home with me for the summer, I am also soaking up as much one on one Goo-time as I possibly can.  

R&R.

This week has been a blur. I've had trouble adjusting back to the jolt of each day's busy reality after such a calm relaxing vacation. Truth be told, I don't think the stresses of all I take on are good for me. I need boundaries and I forget that most times. Tonight is Book Club and the host is holding it at my favorite local restaurant but I couldn't care less because I'm tired. What I really need is a quiet night at home. Enjoy the long weekend.

Zoo Day.

Today was Ivy's Kinder zoo field trip. We had a fun time visiting her favorite animals and spending time with her friends outside the classroom.

But Ivy's favorite activity was riding the flamingo on the carousel. And The Goo too.

Post Vacation Bliss.

I love coming home from a vacation on a Saturday. And if I could get home before noon on a Saturday, even better. And we did, I told Tim I wanted to be in my garden by noon. At 11:38am I was standing inside the fence looking at a week's worth of maturity. 

We carried our carefree vacation state of mind throughout the weekend, enjoying family time still while also indulging in the comforts of home. So far The Littles haven't fought in a week (!), Tim's gruff-ness has been replaced with playfulness and my typically woundupneversitdownalwaysbusybusybusy self can't get off the couch or would rather snuggle a Little than do anything. I think its safe to proclaim, WE NEEDED A GET AWAY!

We were so happy to see PUG when we drove in. Thank you Nita for loving on her.

 

Ease.

 Our days are easy here in the desert. We swim...

 play freeze tag or run around on the golf course at dusk...

 and take night walks to the playground and family activity center.

 In the morning we snuggle and do schoolwork, then start the whole routine all over again.

 

Salvation Mountain.

Hello from Palm Desert! Each time we visit, I always hope we will make the trip to Salvation Mountain alongside The Salton Sea. But it's a bit of a drive beyond Palm Desert and so we get busy swimming and playing and time rushes by without a visit to this great American folk art installation. But a visit was my Mother's Day wish and so we drove toward a remote area in the desert called Slab City. Though you can't see in these photos, there was a fairly aggressive sand storm barreling down on us. Ivy and Goo wanted nothing to do with these elements so they appeased me for a photo for less than 10 minutes. But Savannah was in awe and carried a deep appreciation for artistry of Leonard Knight. The colors against the neutral backdrop of the desert vibrate the mountains message of God and Love.

 

Brave.

Ivy lost a tooth tonight. She just spit it out into her hand and then teared up. And I was right there tearing with her. To date this was the toughest tooth emotionally to loose. She and I had a quiet cry and then it was back to dinner and bedtime routine with lots of Tooth Fairy talk.

Already I miss the youth and innocence, the baby-ness this front tooth represented in Ivy's smile. It will take a little time to get used to this space.

Beehives.

Krista and I waited a full 24 hours after picking up our Beauties to hive them. They stayed cozy in Krista's coat closet, remaining calm and cool. Then yesterday at dusk we suited up and took the bees to the hives.

All The Littles were so excited to see us in our bonnets and garb, but mostly they wanted to see the queens and their crowns (such darlings!).

The process is this: Pull sugar water can out of transport box and cover opening with a board. Then while covering hole, simultaneously slide queen box out of hole without letting out the colony. Once the queen is out, replace cork holding queen inside queen box with two marshmallows then hang queen box on a straightened out paperclip and hang between two frames. Next pour colony on top of frames holding queen (really need a spatula for this part), make several hard taps to knock bees out of box (they really don't like this) and then once most bees are out, cover hive with lid. The left over bees in transport box will eventually find their way out.

Hutters, hiving bees is intense. Think liquid bees. Keeping your cool while the bees are loosing their shit to get to the queen and figure out where home is disarming. Yes, it's chaos and though we spoke in quiet tones and moved slowly, my brain was like a fire alarm, blaring. What a rush!

In a few days we will suit up again in order to see what progress has been made. By then the worker bees should have eaten through the marshmallows to release the queen and also started work on the honeycombs.

A Girl Date.

On Saturday The Little Girls and I, Krista and her Little Girls went downtown Sacramento for brunch and bees.

These sweet friends...I couldn't be more pleased with how well these The Little Girls care for each other.

We had an appointment to pick up 2 hives worth of bees, the excitement in the bee shop was just as I imagine a beehive feels. Here was our first introduction to our bees.

The round lid is a jar of sugar water also traps the bees inside the box, the thin metal strip to the right of the jar is the hanger for the queen's box (you can see all the bees want to be right beside the queen, she is their compass and the nerve center of the hive). She is held separate from the other bees until we release her by pulling out the cork, stuffing the cork space with marshmallows and then hanging her box between frames in the hive box. The worker bees eat away at the mallows until they release her inside the hive (it takes about 3 days, meanwhile the workers also start building comb).

Krista and I with our Beauties, happy and proud. We can't wait to set them up in their new home.