Our Family: 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.