We're still here!

It's a long weekend.  Ivan is getting an extra long weekend.  He came home early Thurs. with a fever.  Then he had to miss out on swimming the next day in the city.  I have to admit, I love our city runs.  I load up on produce at Superstore and get some of our favorites- even if they tend on the expensive side at times, it's so nice to have our veggie treats.  I'm partial to the giant bag of snow peas, Brian loves the huge (probably genetically modified) spinach that doesn't seem to go bad ever, and Dominique has fallen in love with a weird veggie called daikon, strawberries were on sale, got a big bag of kiwis, bananas on sale...  I know, this doesn't seem very exciting, but when we've been eating nothing but apples, brocoli, lettuce, carrots and tomatoes, our new bounty is refreshing!

Seen these before?  These are purple potatoes that my parents grew and shared with us.  I've been singing a song for years at the library and with kids "stirring the purple soup, with purple potatoes and purple tomatoes..."  I didn't even know they existed!  I'm going to bring one next time to show the kids.

Here's our cool dude Emora in her daddy's shades and hat.  This one is always thinking ahead and coming up with ingenious plans.  She's also oh so tough- so watch out!  She likes to do things on her own terms and get her way-- don't we all? ;)

After our super long, cold, snow filled winter, these turkeys think the sun is too bright!  WOW- I'm so happy about the sun finally shining and they wanted me to close the blinds.  I said "no way!", so they got out their umbrellas to make their own shade!

We are excited for spring to be here-- is it finally?  The pelicans came back.  They are my absolute favorite.  I've never seen a more graceful bunch in the air.  They like to soar on the currents and fly in all sorts of formations.  I'm so glad we are on their path between lakes.  They often soar over our house, in my line of sight.  Also, the snow is nearly all melted (maybe today?) and our little seeds (planted indoors) are popping out of the dirt.  We have been told that this may not actually help us in harvesting food earlier, since the plants have a set back once transplanted, but at this point, we just wanted to see something growing- even if inside.

Brian has made me a couple of plant holders- for strawberries and/or flowers and he's also built a triangular arbor type structure that we wanted to train the squash, cucumbers and zuchini to grow on, in an effort to keep them from taking over the entire garden again.  Looking forward to planting in the next weeks.  Dance is winding up this week and soccer will be starting at some point, so we are happy about the season's changes.