Jack-o-apple?

Zara does this funny thing with her apples. Yes, that's meant to be a face. Oh, yeah, and that apple comes from our favorite no-spray market farmer, from whom we get most of our eggs, green beans, potatoes, cucumbers, etc. I'm making some sort of "buy local" comment here. Pardon me if it's vague.

Balls

Every Fall, UVa fraternities and sororities raise money for charities by throwing a "Carnival". I'm not sure exactly how they raise any money, since all children under the age of 14 get 20 free tickets. The "rides" are all moon bounce-like, similar to what you see Zara enjoying immensely. PS Coda's been fixed. No pics.

Huh?

Jo likes this picture because it captures Zara "in the wild" -- not how our pictures of her often look. Usually, she sees the camera and posses right up. I think in this case she was so engaged in playing at the sink that she just didn't care what the rest of us were doing.

Pizza

With the weather turning, we can start making pizza at home again. I'm working on a new crust recipe based on the no-knead bread recipe. Yummy so far. Of course, not all the toppings make it to the pizza....

Kiera's first day at preschool

In celebration of Kiera's first day, Claire & Zara wore these commemorative lego hats. Also, Luke & Charlotte have agreed to watch Zara for many hours some time while Jo & I go do something really irresponsible.

I lied about the dog

You'd never guess that neither Zara nor Coda actually sleeps in this bed.

New Windows

While our long anticipated new windows were bring installed, we went to the official Thursday morning C'ville Class of 2024 playgroup. Here see Zara pictured with the hosting toddler, Alden. Zara and Alden get along very well, as a couple of rambunctious extroverts.

Happy Stuffaversary!

One year ago today, Allied Van Lines finally delivered our stuff. It had languished a mere 10 miles from our Ann Arbor address, more or less for the entire wait. This is because "professional" movers routinely overbook during peak moving season. So, they more or less never planned to deliver our stuff even close to the promised date. It took another six months after we moved to work through all of the "penalties" that they owed us for being late -- not close to making up for the woeful lateness.

Anyway. To celebrate, we drove with the M-M's down to Crabtree Falls, to hike the largest vertical drop waterfall east of the Mississippi. As it happens, I've also hiked the largest one west of the Mississippi. The east one is cute, too.

After, we stopped at Rapunzel's in Lovingston to get ice cream.

Genug mit the dog!

Jo started Coda's very own blog, so I'll do my best not to take any more pictures of them together. Other than this one right here.

Take A Picture!

Somehow we've taught Zara that she should grab Coda's collar and shout "take a picture" whenever he's chilling out minding his own business. You can see from this shot which is more enthusiastic.