Catch-Up

Um, okay. There has been enough of a gap here that it is daunting to think of catching up. But since I do this for me, and not for you, gentle reader, I will attempt to do just that over the next couple of days.
Last Friday's bliss segued into the loveliest of weekends, during which we decided to do nothing useful. We sat on the porch a lot and we talked a lot. We also watched three whole Harry Potter movies (Chris just doesn't have time to read the books, and I must have him understand the plots so I can talk to him about them).
Monday was Cypress Gardens day for the kids' school. Yes, grades K-5 rounded up their parents, purchased school group discount tickets and headed out for a day of sweat and sunburn. Since this activity involves lots of photos, I will save it for another day.
Today was the last day of school. Chris took the day off so he could pick up the kids after the early dismissal and so he could attend the awards ceremony. Drew won every conceivable award from reading to overall academics to typing to running (it wore me out just to email the list to my family) and Emma's teacher would like to keep her for one more year, if it's at all possible. They went to a friend's house for a pool party and hot dogs, and tonight, oh tonight....
Tonight is Dudes' Night at Uncle Jon's house. That means XBox and pizza. Probably lots of scratching and unpleasant aromas as well.
This happy occurrence left the evening available for girls' night. We decided against a restaurant and opted for crab legs and lemon sorbet at home. We laid out a tablecloth and fine, floral china. We poured ginger ale into wine goblets. Emma made place cards and we lit six little candles. I even splurged for roses to put on the table. Ahhhhh. It was just right! Such pleasant conversation! We adjourned to the porch for dessert (also served in wine goblets, of course) and spoke of the things that bother and buzz about in a no-longer-kindergarten, newly-first-grade girl's mind.
What if there were no vowels? This is the first question I was asked. Well....I had to think this one through. We tried pronouncing lots of different words and the names of our friends with no vowels. I wisely stated, then, that vowels connect the consonants together. Aha. We decided to keep them as part of our speech. The rest of the world can make their own decision about this, but we feel that vowels make life much easier.
We then moved on to ticks. You may think this strange, but ever since I found one on our dog, this has been a genuine concern for her. It was determined that ticks hide in tall grass because other animals hide there, and ticks need other animals so they can eat. I mean, ticks get hungry too, you know. As we listed the different types of animals that ticks might bite, we came down to insects. Do they bite other bugs? I said that they probably don't. Other bugs are way too small to hold enough blood for a tick to eat. She then told me that a rhinoceros beetle was probably big enough for a tick to bite. "Yes, well, I suppose so," was all I could think of to say.
Having solved that matter, she quickly asked me if she could watch a movie before bed. "Yes" I said, "but only if it's a girly movie - it is girls' night, you know."

DAILY BLISS: clearing my desk, lemon sorbet, and enough wind to sound all the notes of my wind chimes