spring flings

Life has been a tad bit nuts here lately.  Here is some blogger catch up. 

Nothing says spring more than short sleeves and feeding a fleet of ducks in the harbor with Grandma.

 

Okay, so maybe daffodils are a little more representative of spring, but did I mention BABY ducks?  I mean, c'mon...

 Maya is a very enthusiastic duck feeder.  And she wearing cowgirl boots.

 Also, apparently nothing says disobedience of a town ordinance like harbor duck feeding.  We saw this sign once the bread bags were empty.  No arrests though for tampering with water fowl.

 We love days poking around Camden with Grandma.

Spring in Maine is also marked by degrees of bravery to enter the woods.  Had we had a thorough understanding of the bug situation in pines, we certainly never would have attempted it.  It was literally a swarm the entire time.  Our arms were exhausted from swatting and even the "big guns"  (the bug spray with Deet)  didn't help much.  We probably should have turned back when I couldn't even get a picture in the parking lot without arms going in every direction to ward off no-see-ums but I am not really accustomed to the "turn back now" mentality.  So we went. 

I kept saying to the girls, "Just keep going!  We will rest at the top and have lunch.  There will be a breeze up there and no bugs!"  What a liar I was.  It was worse on the top of the mountain and they literally couldn't have a picnic.  We basically hiked down as fast as we could so they could eat in the bug-free car.  Good character builder.  Except for me who was trying to be the mature adult and not cry with Maya on my back and bugs trying to get in my nose, mouth and ears.  

 We were never so happy to return to our bugless yard.    When kids play in packs at our house (which I delight in saying is quite often)  things very quickly turn to mud.  I get it.  There is so much to love about mud.  Except scrapping it off your entry floor.

 Ella's softball season has been short and rainy with lots of cancellations and we kind of dropped the parent ball and getting pictures this year.  But I did manage one of our softball girl.  It was really fun to see how improved she was from this last year, stronger, more focused and with more grit.  She swings hard and like she means it this year.

  

We have had the joy of playing with baby Ava while her mom helps in the dugout with the team.  Maya, who often feels like the tag-along kid sister with Ella's friends, needed Ava to adore her the way she does.  Maya will sit with her for extended periods of time making her giggle and feeding her those dissolving baby puffs (which Maya often pilfers on the side because she thinks they are so tasty).

One softball game, I was sitting chatting with a mom during the game and when it was over, her daughter came over and grabbed a snack out of her mom's snack bag.   Maya watched as the girl opened up a bag of beef jerky and began to heartily eat it.  Maya leaned over to me, very concerned and asked, "Is that girl eating dog food?"  I nearly died.

And two last unrelated and cool things:

After nearly 10 weeks of no wine on my elimination diet, Sandi poured me a glass from this bottle that turned out to be one of the best wines I've ever had.  Now, I can't fully attest to truth of this statement- it could just be that phenomenon that happens where absence greatly heightens the return of something- but this was like one of the top 5 best glasses of wine I've had.



(Side story, I experienced this phenomenon previously when I was 17 and was diagnosed with Type I diabetes.  I had been so very sick and was on a liquid diet for days as we waited for my blood sugar to come down.  When I could finally eat I choose a cheeseburger off the hospital menu and when it came it was literally the best burger, best food, I had ever eaten in my life.  I kept offering bites of it to people who were visiting me and they kept looking at me with ever increasing doubt as I devoured it.  Several days later as I was getting ready to be discharged, it came back on the menu and I ordered it and awaited it with anticipation.  It tasted awful.)

 And lastly, look whose in this month's Woman's Day magazine?  Our dear friend Matt works for Darling's, which is a very community focused car dealership and they do lots of cool stuff around Maine.    They have the Darling's ice cream truck that raises money for different charities and it is such a cool and fun thing to be a part of.  Two years ago Darling's donated a day of ice cream truck donations ice cream truck donations to one of Sandi's anesthesia classmates who was undergoing breast cancer treatment during school.  I think it is so cool that a national magazine did an article on this really awesome company and all the work they are doing to make the world a better place.  Ella, Maya, Kaylee and Kendall came to help out on the truck and this picture made it into the article.

And one last catch up: although I haven't taken any garden pics this year, my garden is just as much a splendor to me as last year and I am continually amazed at what the frozen Earth can produce.  

 Okay, phew.  You are mostly up to speed now.