Sisters forever!

Big sister Mya with Piper, a few hours after Piper was born.

Piper's here!

Piper Ivey Lewis arrived at about 4:52 a.m. April 29th.  She weighs 6 lbs 11 oz and is 20 inches long.  The nurses and doctor have observed her to be a laid back baby, so far, in the first 8 hours of life. ;-)

You shall see wonders! Welcome to the world, Piper!

"Yarn storming" in the 'hood

So the latest controversy on the neighborhood list serve is whether yarn storming kills trees.  (Yarn bombing, yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, urban knitting or graffiti knitting is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fiber rather than paint or chalk.)  Some are asking the anonymous knitter to unwrap the afghan and hire an arborist to determine what damage, if any, has been done to the trees.  If none, re-install the art; if some, then no more guerrilla knitting in the 'hood!



Being that it was 84 degrees today, I'm guessing the trees would vote for removal of the yarn, at least for the summer months.  Another neighbor suggested leaving the artist alone and focusing on putting mulch around the trees and watering them 

Grackle in the cat food!

When it was misty out the other day, we put Millie's cat food bowl inside so she could stay dry and eat.  Turns out the grackles were very interested in Millie's breakfast!



Can you spot the grackle in flight?

Roses for the grandgirls

I'm working on a rose garden for the grandgirls.  I'm choosing varieties with names that have to do with each granddaughter.  Here's the Lady Emma Hamilton rose in bloom at the end of April.

The Cinco de Mayo rose bloomed in mid-April. 

Emma will be recognized at Duke University on May 20, 2013

MMS Students Earn Duke Talent Honors

Posted on Apr 18, 2013 in Feature, Secondary Academics | 0 comments

The Duke Talent Identification Program is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving academically gifted and talented students. Duke TIP works with students, their families, and educators to identify, recognize, challenge, engage, and help students reach their highest potential. Now in its 33rd year, the 7th Grade Talent Search identifies exceptionally bright seventh graders based on STAAR test scores achieved in sixth grade.

Candidates are then invited to take the ACT or the SAT college entrance exams as seventh graders, which allows them greater insight into their academic abilities. In addition, they gain valuable benefits and have access to unique resources for gifted students.

These students who qualified for state recognition have earned an award by scoring at or above the national average of recent high school graduates on at least one part of the ACT or the SAT. These students are invited to a special recognition ceremony held at Texas A&M University in May.

State Recognition Winners include: Emma Horn, William Stamey, Andrew Kanz, Jacob Gochis, Max Madison, Emily Dodson, Jessica Sain, Phoebe Park, Bethany Johnson, Calvin Atkinson, Callan Tawater, Wilson Burnett.

In addition to state recognition, Emma Horn scored high enough to qualify for grand recognition. This means that Emma scored at or better than 90 percent of recent high school graduates who tested on at least one part of the ACT or the SAT. Emma will be attending a special recognition ceremony at Duke University. Only about 3 percent of all the participants in the talent search qualify. This is quite an achievement!

Congratulations to all of these MMS 7^th graders!

Prom night for Celeste and Colton

Colton (born on 02/14) will graduate in 2014.  In the meantime, it's prom night for Celeste and Colton.

"Don't pet Baba!"

Since being scratched by Baba, Jade reminds us, "Don't pet Baba!"

Why shouldn't we pet Baba?  Jade will tell you: "She'll scratch you!"  Mya, I think  Baba scratched you at Thanksgiving.   You demonstrated to us how fast her paw was moving:  very, very fast!

Mulch!

From our neighborhood list serve:  Mulch!  Come and get it!  So Papa Tom did!

So far, we've had a relatively cool, wet Spring.  But the sun and heat are coming!  Our garden will thank Papa Tom for  spreading mulch around the peppers and tomatoes to help keep them from drying out and burning up.  I think I'm supposed to be in that picture with Papa Tom and the pitchfork.  "American Gothic," isn't it?

For the parrots

Here's our accidental sunflower forest.  I put sunflower seeds out this winter for the birds and squirrels.  They didn't eat all of them!  Now we have hundreds of sunflowers sprouting in the back yard.  We're leaving them in hopes that the wild parrots will hang out with us this summer. 

My helper

I got up from working for a minute and when I came back, guess who had been writing my decision while I was gone?

She refused to leave my chair.  I guess she wasn't finished.  I finally had to  move the entire chair and put another one at the table.  She didn't budge from the cushion, even when I was carrying the chair away from the table.  Silly Millie!

Later, she became bored with watching me work and wandered into the bathroom to curl up on a towel.

Millie's turn to be admired!  She settled in for a long nap among the other animals and left over birthday balloons.

Classic New Orleans Dinner at Brennan's: cooking class April 13, 2013

Waiting for class to start.  First dish:  oysters pan roast Warren with fresh-baked French bread. 

Second dish: shrimp Sardou.  Spicy fried shrimp served on a bed of warm, creamed spinach and artichoke bottom with Hollandaise sauce.  Shrimp was followed by Brennan salad with Creole salad dressing, to cleanse the palate in preparation for the Redfish Nancy:  red snapper (for our class) with lump crabmeat, capers, and lemon butter sauce. We couldn't help ourselves!  We forgot to take a photo of the Redfish Nancy before digging in!  The sides of glazed carrots and stuffed tomatoes were delicious too.

Brennan's serves between 700-800 orders of Bananas Foster daily.  If there's one dish we must learn how to fix for you, this is it!  Not sure where; the rum flames were high enough to set off our smoke alarms if we make it in the kitchen.  Caramel sauce for the bananas is made with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and banana liqueur.  The flaming rum causes the sauce to form a wonderful crust around the bananas.  The sauce and bananas are served of Bluebell vanilla ice cream, so there's a little bit of Texas in this dish after all.

On our way home

Green peaches

We'll have ripe peaches in June.

Still a few peach blossoms on the trees.  Oh so pink and pretty!

Do you see the two baby peaches forming above the blossom?

Weekend fun with Jade

Jade spent the night on Friday, April 12.  She's got her Muses Mardi Gras bracelet, toys on the high chair, and Julie's mocha java ice cream.  Does it get any better?

Well, maybe, when Mia gives you a hug!

Saturday morning fun with Papa Tom and Abu the Monkey

All dressed up on Saturday morning, with a cup of Quackers (duck-shaped crackers)

Fragrant freesia

I love it when the freesia bloom in our back yard each Spring.  I picked some to put in the kitchen; I wish this blog could capture the fragrance for you.

Great-grandma Evelyn's birthday balloons are on the kitchen tree

What a great idea!

Here's a water fountain on the UT campus that can also be used to easily refill water bottles.

An evening with Mary Gauthier: April 10, 2013

Mary Gauthier, on guitar, is one of my favorite folk/rock/blues musicians.  You might have heard Jimmy Buffet's cover of her "Wheel Within the Wheel."  Apparently Boy George is going to issue a cover of "Mercy Now."  She joked that it will either be a beautiful folk song or we'll all be dancing to it.

Papa Tom is shushing the "Most Interesting  Man in the World," who we encountered at the Mellow Mushroom restaurant , where Anjanette works, before catching Mary Gauthier at the Cactus Cafe.

Happy 95, Great-grandma Evelyn!

Great-grandma Evelyn celebrated her 95th birthday on April 7th.  Here's Gran-Jan with our great-nephew Jim (Great-grandma Evelyn's great-grandson).  

Great-grandma Evelyn and Jade

Ice cream and cupcakes on the back deck.  Great-grandma Evelyn sits between Kirk and Jade.  Jim is peeking out of his baby carrier in Sara's lap with Gran-Jan nearby.

Annual neighborhood plant exchange: April 6, 2013

Our across-the-street neighbor Suzan hosts a neighborhood plant exchange every Spring.   We all have greener yards with more interesting plants, thanks to Suzan.  Thanks, Suzan!

All the plants to be exchanged huddle in the center of the deck.  We all describe what we've brought, then draw numbers and choose plants or birdhouses or baskets or whatever until they are gone.

This year, I came home with Squirrel-crow (hoping to use him on the back deck to discourage Scout from burying pecans in the flower pots); some spearmint (will be looking at mint ice cream recipes, Emma!); and a pretty orange pot with a possibly dead amaryllis in it.  But I'm going to take care of the amaryllis bulb anyway, just in case.  Those are fragrant freesia from our back yard behind Squirrel-crow.