Backyard bathers

These are actually from a while ago, near the end of May, when the first of the real warm weather descended upon us. And at the first whiff of heat, Mudzuks and Vecais dusted off their old trusty turquoise friend...

Mamuks' third baby.

She's not too sure how much it weighed, but it was about 8.5 x 11 x 3 inches, clocking in just under 500 pages. She's not yet sure how it compared to the first two births on the pain scale, but she is confident that this one might actually let her sleep through the night.


The official cord-cutting ceremony still has to wait a few weeks: August 6th!

Midsummer's

Another June, another Midsummer's! (Or, as some of the Latvians say, another June, another excuse to drink lots of beer and cavort about in flower crowns, searching for the elusive fern flower...).

We realize that some of these Midsummer's pictures are becoming sort of like "same thing, different year".... but that's half of the fun.

The girls sporting this year's wreaths:


And here again, this time joined by their crown-less siblings (2 year olds have little patience for such adornments):

Chow time (with wreaths long-since tossed in the bushes):


And so it appears that Midsummer's has a new sporting event: "lifting."

And here are the little kiddlies settling in to watch the folk performances. Kinda boring. Or so they thought at first....

Indeed, not moments later, Mudzuks and Kaiva were truly mesmerized by the Latvian folk dancing. Literally gob-smacked. Vecais was interested, but hardly as impressed.


And soon enough, Mudzuks had enough of simply watching the dancing:

And no Midsummer's is complete without glowsticks and sparklers (kind of a pre-school version of a rave, minus the acid, whistles and soothers [well, some of them still use soothers]).


Til next June!

We've been keeping her on her toes...

Here she is before the dress rehearsal....



But then as Mamuks always says, life's not a dress rehearsal! So here's the real deal - backstage and onstage.


And the DQ reward! (At least Vecais finally gets in on the action)

Show us yer peonies

Oops - couldn't close the door on May blogging without documenting our tree peonies - those wonderful Spring flirts that tease you for a week, erupt in their full glory only to leave nothing but a smush of petals in the dirt 4 days later. But we wait for them every year with baited breath, nonetheless...
And might as well throw in the May radishes (the garden's first fruits, thanks to Papuks' loving labours) while we're at it...

And while we're on radishes, might as well show off the first pea pods, even though that was technically June 1 (because technically, they were probably ready in May!)



Okay, May begone!

So many pictures, so little time... Spring has already sprung off to greener pastures!

Mayday, mayday- Mamuks has really fallen behind in her blogful duties. Bad mamuks. In a mad effort to catch up, here are some pics of our own May Days. Here's Mudzuks (obviously quite a while ago as the lilacs are still in bloom and Mudzuks' finger is still bandaged from the "little accident"), enjoying the swinging, springing Spring...


And some more where Vecais decided to get in on the tree-climbing action as well... A few weeks ago Mamuks asked Mudzuks what kind of lessons she wants to take next year --- ballet, gymnastics, soccer... She paused thoughtfully, and then assertively replied, "Tree climbing lessons." Sounds good - where do we sign up?!


Here we are visiting our new friend, mid-May arrival Baby Beck (Odelay!)


Vecais, the Creative Gardener (there must be something to his technique, because that particular spot is now crawling with potatos!)


And we rounded out May with a nice little Happy Birthday to Papuks! (Notice Vecais had a wee bit of hair accessory envy)


Stay tuned for June adventures!