July 2016

We returned from Israel at the beginning of July. John had an extra week off work so we spent it at home. He had to go to San Francisco soon after, then both girls got sick. Then we went to Canada. So not much happened at home. The sunflower grew. It’s the first sunflower we grew successfully. All others before it died. This one is probably at least eight feet tall.

  

Some of the other plants grew too. We had a couple teeny tiny melons, the zucchini is a beast and now is much larger than in this photo, as is the artichoke. We were home for Fourth of July, but because we landed a day earlier after a 15 hour flight, so none of  us made it past 6 o’clock and we missed any fireworks that happened that night.

Before we left for Israel our local park closed for “upgrades”. When we returned, it was all finished. Coincidentally, we saw Fiona’s friend there. We decided that the “baby” part is much better but the “big kid” part is not an improvement and Fiona is not very happy about it.

   

Here is Victoria, playing with Fiona’s old camera. She often uses it like a cell phone and has extended and in-depth conversations on it, often with her dad.

 

 

Fiona got her ears pierced. The photo with the doctor is posed. We had her pediatrician do the piercing and he said that per some law or code, I cannot take a picture of him actually piercing her ear, but I can take a picture right before or right after. So they posed:   

Fiona and I saw The Little Mermaid (Disney version) in Thousand Oaks. She dressed like a mermaid, using whatever she had in her closet and drawers. I wore a shirt that was the closes proximity to fish scales. Fiona also brought a picture of Ariel the Mermaid she drew. We both thoroughly enjoyed the show and plan to see Peter Pan there next summer.

    

 

It was hot, not Israel hot as Fiona often says, but hot enough that Victoria spent most of her time at home wearing as little as possible.

  

John and I saw A Chorus Line at the Hollywood Bowl. I love A Chorus Line and always wanted to see it, but I don’t think it was performed very much in the last decade, at least not in or around Los Angeles. When I saw it was playing for three nights at the Bowl, I jumped at the chance  to see it. It was a great show and we had a wonderful little date night. And this time we did not have to dispose of a good bottle of wine or drink it down too fast.

  

The girls spent a lot of time climbing on things and each other. And their dad:

 

         

Very soon after we returned from Israel, Fiona had a fever. Then Victoria had a slightly lower one. And John went to San Francisco for work. I was really tired.

 

On our walk to school there is often a lot of dog poop. Fiona made this sign to put up to remind people to pick up after their dogs:

 

At the end of the school year, Fiona’s class germinated sunflower seeds. We planted the seedlings in the front year and they grew. The first two were taller than she is, and third one was very very tall, though it bloomed later.

 

The zucchini was  a beast again. In this picture, it is small compared to how large it is now:

Fiona was playing with playdough one day and brought over three shapes. She made the lifecycle of the butterfly, explaining that first a butterfly lays eggs on a leaf, then the eggs hatch and turn into caterpillars, then they build a cocoon and then become butterflies.

 

Our garden this summer was odd. We got a few good cucumbers, a teeny tiny melon, lots of okra (that we all love), lots of green beans (finally), decent zucchini yield, many many lemons, but few tomatoes and the ones we have are very small and not as sweet as usual. The eggplants are growing, but the butternut squashes died. This makes me sad. It will be the first year in many that we will not have homegrown butternut squash in the fall.

Victoria still thinks she is six and Fiona loves school. Up next, August.