Kids

The goat family took us to visit with this year's kids born at the Berkeley home where Prima & Xochi were born. Urban goats, through and through.

Goats

One of the most exciting development in the past few months is that we've joined a goat-milking co-op. In April we were connected with a family nearby that keeps to dairy goats in their yard. They've set up an informal co-op where each member signs up for a weekly milking shift. Milkers keep 1/2 the milk, and leave the other half for the family. Since dairy goats typically need to be milked twice a day, 12 hours apart this co-op setup makes a lot of sense. So for the past two months we've gone every Saturday morning and fed, groomed, and milked Prima & Xochi (actually, Xochi isn't making milk right now, but we still get her up on the stanchion and groom her). It's a lot of fun and we get some fresh milk to boot! And as if that weren't enough, the family is super sweet and has the cutest 1 year old baby that Molly & Clara like to hang out with (or at least they like hanging out with his toys).

Haircut (March 2009)

You know I've been slow about posting pictures when I find pictures of Molly's "new" haircut... after I've cut her hair again. Regardless, I think the haircut (in March and today) is super cute. For the haircut pictured here Molly asked me to leave her bangs and just cut the back. Yesterday's haircut she requested an all-around haircut. (I did a repeat of this one, but with shorter bangs.) The un-cut bangs in March led to a few months of frustration with bangs, compounded by the fact that of course Clara wouldn't let me cut her bangs if Molly wasn't getting her bangs cut. But on most days in the last few months Clara and Molly also wouldn't stand for much hair-tying-back. We finally agreed on a haircut last night, and both are very cute in their short bangs.

Pictures will follow, promise! I just have to get through the last few months of pictures first.

In the mean time, enjoy March's haircut!

the bees' knees

This spring has been full of urban agricultural adventures. The most buzzy is, of course, bees! Our neighbor, Iain is not only a fantastic winemaker (check out his wine at eightarmscellars.com) but has also has been bitten by the bee bug. He turned that bite into a neighborhood adventure in bee-keeping by inviting a group of (mostly) neighbors to join him in getting a hive. He calls us the "California Street Bee Co-op" or CalBeeCo. We all chipped in for supplies, and get to help with the hive maintenance. As the member with the most bee-education, though, Iain has been taking lead with the projects, but it's been exciting to watch the installation and bits of maintenance that have happened so far.

Clara (on green)

Clara and I out for an evening walk/run/scoot.

pre-dinner activities

it's nice to see that the girls are both old enough to be completely absorbed by coloring the kid's menu at the restaurants now. Even with delicious guacamole sitting temptingly close...

ballerinas

Several weeks ago I finally signed Molly up for ballet classes. Her best buddy Rylyn has been taking classes for several months, which means Molly's been asking for classes that long.

The ballet school has a strict dress-code, so Nona had to help me acquire the specific leotard, tights, and shoes. And in a fit of grandmotherly equality for grand kids she/we got Clara a black leotard, which was intended for gymnastics but has spawned a desire for ballet classes for Clara as well.

Here the girls are trying on they ballet clothes. Molly insisted that ballerinas are very serious indeed and do not smile for the camera while they are dancing.