Mmmmwah!

Nile found an egg in the backyard, laid in the grass by one of Grandma and Papa G's eight chickens.

She decided we needed to use it to bake a cake!

So we put on our aprons and she donned her toque (I came across that word for the very first time in one of my first weeks copy editing at Gannett and had to look it up! I can see it is not a very useful word to know.) and we went into the kitchen.

We ended up making two individual-size apple crumbles (sorry Nile, no eggs) from one apple, a bunch of oats, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla, and a lot of butter!

Today's PhotoADay theme is "From Down Low." We'll, that didn't happen.

But this is Nile in her chef gear, blowing kisses to her other Grandma in VA!

It's 4PM, Do You Know Where Your Baby Is?

Today's PhotoADay May theme is "4PM."

I missed that exact time, but got this pic of Pilar watching TV, chillaxing, at 6:05 p.m. Too funny!

Not sure what exactly we were doing at 4:00 p.m., but I think I was at an appointment with my sister-in-law, Becky.

The girls and I are filling our days with appointments before we head off; this morning Nile had her very first dentist appointment and I'm happy to report she has no cavities, her front tooth where she hit it in a fall from her scooter a few months ago was X-rayed and is OK, and she doesn't have to stop sucking her thumb till she's 5 1/2! Good news all around!

Little Man

Baby Logan is just the cutest thing ever. And I'm not just saying that because I'm his aunt!

Don't you agree?

Today's PhotoADay theme is "Us."

Nearly the whole family got together for dinner (taco salad!) and dessert (ice cream sundaes!) tonight. So all of US were together.

This pic of Logan -- in the moustache shirt I got for him in Botswana, made by Sticky Fudge (most adorable kids' clothing!) in South Africa, plus his whipped cream-from-a-spoon moustache and dimples -- was the cutest!

Collection!

Today's PhotoADay theme is "Collection."

Not sure how to interpret that, so here is a collection ... of photos of the girls today!

Nile with a bouquet (a collection?) of grass. I was laying out in the backyard and she wanted to be in her swimsuit, too.

Pilar swimming with Papa G!

Dots and a Movie

Today's PhotoADay May theme is "Snack".

I went out to dinner and a movie with my sisters in law Lisa and Becky and a bunch of their girl friends. Sushi at Blue Wasabi (me, when the food came out: "Um ... Why is the wasabi blue? Ohhhhhh I get it!") and "The Other Woman" at the theater. Cute chick flick-y movie. Glad I've kept a free movie pass in my wallet for the past two years -- came in handy!

Being the sugar fiend that I am, I got one of my favorite movie theater snacks, DOTS!!!! Love 'em, especially the pink and red ones.

Good times in the U.S.A.!

In other news, I figured out a way to upload and post pics using my phone and the iPad. PhotoADay May is back on track!

PhotoADay May: It All Begins With J

Jammies!

The PhotoADay theme for today, May 1 2014, is ...

"Begins With J"

It was too dark out when I got around to it to get my planned image of the girls Jumping on the trampoline in Grandma and Papa G's backyard here in Mesa, AZ.

So instead I give you a sweet image of the girls, ready for bed in their matching jammies.

These were a gift from Grandma and Papa G when we visited at Christmastime and they treated all 10 grandkids (and parents) to a ride on the Polar Express train. Wonderful memories!

I realize this PhotoADay thing may be better suited to those (not me!) with photography aspirations or at least an iPhone with filters and whatnot, but this will at least get me on here every day with an illustrated post, which I think -- I think -- is better than nothing.

Back By Popular Demand

Time to fire up the ol' blog, there are big changes afoot!

This web log started when I was single, living in VA. It continued when I got married, moved to Argentina for two years, and had our now-four-year-old daughter, Nile. Some of our next three years in Botswana were chronicled -- but not the birth and delightful infancy of our lovely, now-17-month-old, daughter Pilar. Sorry, baby girl!

Now it is time for the biggest change of all, and I keep being asked if I'll start blogging again, so here goes.

A mere 18 days from today we will relocate to deepest, darkest Western Europe! Switzerland, to be exact! We will begin a new phase of our lives in the lovely (at least in the Google images) Swiss capital of Bern, pronounced "BAY-urn" by those in the know. Consider yourself in the know!

I am not the biggest social media participant, and living in Africa for three years with slow internet and no smartphone didn't make it easy to keep up on this blog or Facebook.

I keep seeing the Facebook hashtag #fmsphotoaday. About five minutes ago I finally got curious enough to look it up. Photo a Day is apparently not just posting a photo every day -- there is a suggested theme for each day; for instance today, Sunday, April 27 the theme is "Under my feet."

The themes are published from Australia on the last Monday of the preceding month, so quite coincidentally when I looked it up, guess what? It's Monday in Australia! I got to see the list of daily themes for May 2014, a very big month for me and my family. And that was the impetus for writing today's blog entry.

On Thursday, May 15, 2014 we board a plane in Phoenix. On Friday, May 16, we touch down in Zurich.

The respective themes for those days are "From Where I Walk" and "Create."

So appropriate, how could I not take this as an invitation to begin blogging again? Our first weeks in Switzerland include the photo a day themes of Sunrise, Neighborhood, Meal, Unique ... I think this will be a fun way to document my first impressions of our new environment!