What fun to have Kim and Delaney come to see us. We took them to the zoo and the aquarium, went on a carriage ride through the French quarter, had beignets at Cafe du Monde, and took the girls on a streetcar ride.

Aunt Lori!!!

My mom and I talked Auntie L into coming along with her to visit us the weekend of the girls' birthdays, or for you Northerners, Memorial Day week-end. Mom stayed home while Aunt Lori, Shalom, Dahlia, Dahlia's cast, and I went on a Mississippi River boat ride.

Botanic Gardens

Is Dahlia a heat-tolerant flower? We spent a few hours in the Botanic Gardens in City Park today. We had the place pretty much to ourselves. In addition to the amazing flowers and trees were hundreds of little lizards scurrying around. It was inspirational! Should we plant striped petunias? Diascia? Coleus? Actually, we didn't see any dahlias. And it was HOT today.

family picture

Thank you, Sam for taking a picture of our family following the free concert in Lafayette Square this past week.

Attachment parenting

We were endeared by the baby anteater riding on his mama's back when he was a teeny newborn back in January. Now that he is a big four-month-old, well...

Grandma D

One of the highlights of our spring trip to Chicago--spending a lot of time with Grandma since the girls' running noses and coughs kept us from visiting with the rest of the fam. Where are the cats in this picture? There are not enough people jumping on Grandma D.

Freret Market in April

Once a month, we walk around the corner and down the street a few blocks for a street fair and art market. At the last fair, there were three stages set up with live music all day. Here, Shalom is dancing with a friend from preschool.

Caterpillar on the head!

My little garden helper has been planting seeds, watering the garden, weeding, and keeping me company. She has developed a love for insects which includes building a castle for a worm we found yesterday. Her she is with a caterpillar on her head!

Bath time

Aquarium with cousins

The aftermath

We did hustle a bit for the twenty or more stuffed animals and twenty thousand beads. Now we will send the animals away and donate the beads to a charity who will re-sell them so the krewes can buy them and throw them to us again next year, at which time we'll donate the beads... Anyway, this is not even all of the loot and thanks, but no thanks, to Aunt Sally and Dick who left most of their beads here, too! (Just kidding, Sally. Thanks for the tips about composting although being eco-conscious seems quite at odds with the loads of plastic junk Mardi Gras seems to center on.)

A big help!

Things are getting better all the time. Shalom got herself dressed, which is less unusual than the fact that she dressed Dahlia! Shalom took off her sister's pajamas and put on the shorts (it's actually a skort) and socks (Dahlia had the shirt on under her jammies). Shalom picked out the matching tie-dye socks for the two of them--thanks Grandma D! I guess there is no better motivation for Shalom to do this than having mom take two hours to get ready to leave the house after a week-end with four guests, six parades, and maybe more drinks...

Mardi Gras day

We only had to walk ten minutes to the parade route on Napoleon to see Rex roll on Tuesday. We brought our chairs for once which was a good thing since Shalom and Dahlia were getting pretty tired of the craziness: observe Shalom covering her ears with the cups as the band goes by. They actually sat for most of the parade which was just as well because my back was starting to kill me after carrying them around for the various parades. I would have taken more pictures of the floats this week, but somehow every time I tried to take a picture someone threw beads into my face. Hmmm. Shalom is wearing one of the more interesting beads we got on Mardi Gras day.

Danneel Park

What weather! It has been sunny and in the 70's the past few days. I broke down and watered the garden since it's barely rained this past week. We live a few blocks from this wonderful oak-canopied playground at the corner of Octavia and St. Charles. While we play the streetcar rolls past every few minutes. The equipment and turf at Danneel Park is actually very old--not quite as old as the park itself which was designated as a public park more than a hundred years ago. In June, however, the playground will be totally rebuilt. Yeah! Unfortunately, there are very few playgrounds here in New Orleans relative to Chicago. We chose our house so we could be within walking distance of one of them.

Silly girl

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Shalom painted her own face. The girls had fun with the all the beads we caught. Shalom was a natural at begging "Throw me something!" Too bad I didn't "accidentally" drop the candy necklace a little girl gave her. We've already seen five or so parades and Mardi Gras day is still a week away! The bead necklaces disappear onto our porch railing each night so we can get the choking hazards away from Dahlia.

Our new house...

...for those of you who haven't visited yet, come on down!

Getting cuter every day!

Shalom picked out her outfit--not bad! (this time)

Thanks, Aunt George & Uncle Rick

Thanks for the fun Hanukkah t-shirts, the funky clock...and that hilarious card! I took this video while Dahlia was napping. Maybe someday I will capture them wearing their shirts at the same time. I hope you guys enjoy the inauguration madness and, speaking of madness, come visit us soon! We are getting ready for Mardi Gras--people say it's fun with kids if we go to the right spot for the parades. Some of the parades are passing about five or six blocks from our house. I think it's the perfect distance away, so we can walk to see it but people won't park near our house.

Flashback to Halloween

I have slacked on the blog for the past six months while our lives have been turned upside-down by the move into our new house. Fortunately, we moved in just a week or two before Halloween. (No comment for now about the months while we were looking for a house, negotiating over the price, waiting to hear from the seller, commuting from Slidell...) We had a blast trick-or-treating down Octavia from our house towards St. Charles. We met a lot of our neighbors, including a dad dressed as Elvis, and had an excuse to get a little closer to some of the homes we usually just admire from the sidewalk. Our neighborhood served as somewhat as a trick-or-treating destination from kids from who knows where. I didn't want to miss posting pics of Shalom and Dahlia dressed as kitty-cats. Too bad we can't go back in time and throw out all of the candy before the post-Halloween drama ensued.

our back yard

Our yard is not too big, but I have big hopes... Maybe I should keep them modest and focus on not killing the grass. However, I dream of growing flowers on all three sides of the yard, on the side of the driveway and in front of the house. The previous owner planted a lot so things are popping up all over the place. There was a border of bricks protecting her flower bed under the tree. I removed the bricks, moved some plants, and let the grass overtake that area. Weeks later, there are all kinds of plants popping up there. Fortunately, we had beautiful weather--into the 70's--all last week so we spent a lot of time outside. Inspired by last week's visit to the Insectarium, I started to weed my jungle/butterfly garden in the far right corner (mostly jungle). It has cooled off, so I may have to put the outdoor work on hold for the time being. Lord knows we have plenty of things to do in our house, too.

Thanks, Ma-Ma

Thanks for the fun Christmas gift! Shalom & Dahlia love the kitchen. Come back soon so they can make you a snack!