what is new

Clara has been in kindergarten for a whole month now.  She's so cool and grown up now.  Reading is just around the corner for her, and her written alphabet letters are looking pretty good.  And except for having to wake up too early, she loves the whole experience.

Meanwhile, Janny didn't at all enjoy Clara's absence during the day.  Mommy just couldn't replace Clara (and Mommy really didn't want to).  But she's getting the hang of life with less Clara.  She has a good friend (the only other girl) in her preschool class.  And Jill is working hard to inspire Janny to learn things and play on her own a bit more.

Our church has a nice tradition of passing out Bibles to new kindergartners each fall.  Clara lined up with her friends to receive theirs during the service last month.

Clara's birthday party was a bit smaller scale this year, but so much more grown up.  She invited 5 friends, and their parents didn't stay for the party.  We built legos and whacked this pinata.

 A couple of years ago, I bought a new fridge which turned about to be about 3 inches wider than the old one.  It barely fit between the counter and the cabinet.  I suspected that one reason we never had much ice (besides Jill eating so much) was that the water line was too close to the exhaust and there wasn't any place for it to go.

Enter Grandpa, always a willing worker!  He helped me move the cabinet over about 2 inches.  Sounds so easy, right?  But we got it done.  The fridge now breathes.

 Janny is a 2 wheeled bike rider!  She is so proud of this (and I am too).  On her third ride (on the way to pick Clara up from school), she crashed and cut her mouth (likely on her handlebars, see photo below).  Much blood and tears flowed. When she and Jill got Clara and returned to the crash site (and the bike), Clara showed Janny how to start by herself.  Janny took off and hasn't looked back.

 Our garden produced a watermelon!  It was pretty decent even.  One more remains to be picked.  Tomatoes have been growing well also, except that squirrels are stealing many of them.  Red raspberries are again available in small numbers.  And our moon vine bloomed yesterday (just a day before the super moon eclipse tonight).

 Clara and Janny are both getting a little big for their respective bikes.  So I got to thinking.  And reading the internet.  And scouring ebay and craigslist.  Eventually, I decided on a 20" Specialized Hotrock with coaster brake.  It's a super cool purple.  Clara loves it, despite being just big enough to ride it.

Not one to leave bikey things well enough, I have a few items on order to hotrod it up a bit.  The coaster hub will be replaced with a single speed freewheel hub (when I'm convinced that she has the hang of the hand brake) and some fancy bmx race tires will replace the flat-proof tires that came with it.

Janny tried the pink bike, but still prefers her 12" purple bike for now.  Her legs spin so fast (trying to keep up with Clara) it's hard to keep her feet on the pedals.  Maybe if she's grows an inch (she's tiny for her age), the transition will be easier.