Here and there

Frances, George and I made the trek to Maymont this week.

We lucked out and saw nearly every single animal on display (except for the nocturnal bobcat.  In my 30+ years of Maymont visits, I have yet to see that one).  The bears were especially active, playing right in front of us.

Maymont is an incredible place.  The park houses animals that would otherwise perish in the wild (orphaned bear cubs, injured bald eagles, blind barred owls just to name a few).  The ‘animals should run FREE’ girl in me always feels a bit better going there than the average zoo.  I know in my heart of hearts, zoos do great things for animals – but I can’t help but walk away a little sadder after watching the white tiger pace his 20th lap around his “extra large” cage.  Something just doesn’t sit right with me about that.  Please feel free to convince me otherwise though; I would love to take the kids to the zoo with a good conscience, particularly since we have a great one here in Richmond.

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My latest obsession?

George with his shirt tucked in.  How has it taken me this long to figure out how much I love this look?

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Frances’s latest obsession?

Her yellow, heart-shaped diamond ring from the haircut place.  After successful haircuts, the stylists let each child pick out one ‘treasure’ from their chest of toys.  Predictably, George grabs a bug or dinosaur figurine; the Princess looks for the most sparkly object in the box and even I have to admit she lucked out this time.  When she asked if I wanted to try it on, I may have said, “YES!” before she had completed her sentence.  What can I say, I like sparkles, too.

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Speaking of Frances, she recently finished up her 20-day round of antibiotics for Lyme disease:

The same weekend Max passed away Frances discovered a tick buried in her scalp under her ponytail.  As a precautionary measure, the doctor treated her for Lyme, strep and staph (all of which can be transmitted by a tick – who knew?).  And for my peace of mind, I purchased some tick repellant from Avon.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it works or it’s going to be a LOOOONG summer.

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It was at about this point that I thought, “I wonder if that recipe yielded how many people it served?”

Two large Dutch ovens (and 4 ½ pounds of Italian sausage) later, I realized that when you make a dish from your church’s cookbook, you run the risk of making enough to feed the entire congregation.  On the plus side, the spaghetti sauce was delicious.  Several of you may be receiving a quart or more in the coming days.

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We lucked out in getting another shot of the four of us (thank you, Heather!).

This was taken on our last day at the Outer Banks, which inevitably required that I wear a shirt over my bathing suit to cover my sunburn from the previous day.  Of course, all I can think of when I look at this picture is George announcing to the entire Sanderling beachfront, “Mommy, I see your underwear!”  When one is already towing the line between normalcy and nerd-dom, you can never quite recover from that comment.

Happy Friday, everyone!