Car repairs, trip to MN

We finally got our van back from the repair shop yesterday, after being without it for 3 weeks after a minor fender bender. Nothing is easy or cheap these days. But while it was in the shop we got new tires and some other maintenance, so it should be good to go to MN in a month. The kids are so excited about it. Tom can't wait to play Steve's video games, especially his X box which is the only system we don't have. (Of course, Tom is pricing them used as he has $50 and 4 lost teeth to pay for one with...don't ask about our tooth fairy!) Jim can't wait to play anything with Zach. Bug is sure Zach can't wait for him to come and play soccer with him. Antonia misses Jasmine, and I hear Jasmine is already planning the princesses' sleeping arrangements when we are there. It is coming soon.

Squeaky the Caique!

Squeaky is a Black-headed Caique (cai-eek) who hatched on 2/25. We brought him or her home last Friday the 13th. (We will probably get DNA sexing done at some point; until then it is impossible to know if Squeaky is a boy or a girl.) He is a cutie and very friendly. Whenever someone comes into the room he climbs around the cage trying to get close, and he loves coming out for a visit. He is a little bit "beaky" yet, exploring just a touch too hard with his beak (which is very different from aggressive biting!) but he is very sweet. He is mainly Tom's and my bird and Tom picked the name. He sometimes makes a noise that sounds just like a baby's or a dog's squeak toy. We call him Squeaky the Caique-y and are a bit bird-crazy right now. Caiques are small parrots from South America that just talk a little bit but are very playful and mischevious. Squeak likes to hang by one talon upside down from just about everywhere in his cage!

Summer is coming!

The lilacs are almost done blooming here is central Jersey, a month ahead of MN. I remember in jr. high my friend Ann and I would walk around St. Paul Park after school and "steal" armfuls of lilacs to bring home. Our neighborhoods in Cottage Grove were new back then and the lilacs were small, but St. Paul Park had 18 footers at every other house. This was right before school got out in the beginning of June, so that's a whole month later. the bulbs are about done here, and irises starting. They have an Iris Festival in the City of Bordentown. (We live in the township, which is just as developed and actually a bit larger than the city; the city contains the older buildings, established in the mid 1600s. Out here there are tons of tiny municipalities and they generally don't cooperate on much of anything. As an example, the township and the city have their own independent fire stations and ambulances!)

The kids are getting VERY excited about summer as it warms up. The community pool for this development opens May 28, only 3 weeks away. It will be open every day from 11 am to 8 pm, with a lifeguard--pretty nice!

Today I am taking Bug and we are going to bring Dairy Queen to the 10 kids and 4 teachers in Tom's class, to celebrate his birthday, which is Saturday. I have to find the Belmar DQ and then his school from there, then get a visitor pass and guide and bring in 16 ice cream treats plus a 3 year old--should be fun! Tom is really looking forward to it, though. (Check out the Belmar cams--pretty soon everything that happens everywhere will be on camera!)

Then tonight at 7 Tom and I are going to visit our new birdy, who is too little to come home yet. He is a black-headed caique, he or she I should say. Gender is only determinable by DNA testing, which we haven't paid for as of yet. They are about an hour north of here, almost to NYC but a bit west. We'll be able to bring the bird home at the end of the month.


This is the breeder we are buy ing from, Joe and Mary's Parrot Place. You can read about Black-headed Caiques, which are from South America, here.