TWO YEARS of TOGETHERNESS!

We celebrated 2 years of being together yesterday- August 28! We are so happy, says Eila! .(We agree!) We hope all the families that were with us on that day had a wonderful celebration also!

Lazy Days of Summer

We have decided to get musical in the near future and read about "perfect pitch" in the Washington Post. In the last week we have tuned up the piano and will start the Eguchi method soon. If you are interested in the article, it tells you about an "easy way" to teach kids perfect pitch where they learn notes just like they would learn their colors or numbers or anything else. Here is the link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/26/AR2009072602350.html

We also just got new strings on our old guitar that has been gathering dust in the basement and Kushang is planning to learn to play. Maybe it about 5-10 years it we'll be jamming harmoniously...

The garden is producing lots of vegetables- we had a garden meal yesterday with zebra tomato cheesy parmesan pasta. The green and black zebra tomatoes are almost too pretty to eat. Our sunflowers brought some friends to us yesterday...goldfinches! They love the seeds.

Koi Koi! Crazy Koi!

Eila in the herb garden, feeling the herbs

Eila reading in the afternoon...I like the reflective light on her face off of the book

I have been yearning for a trip to the National Arboretum to let Eila feed the koi, so I just decided to go yesterday afternoon despite knowing I'd get stuck in traffic on the way home. It was worth it! The gardens are gorgeous and the experience was invigorating! Those crazy carp are ravenous! We had a blast...the koi would follow her up and down the long, long pool like puppies. She keeps asking to see the pictures over and over again...she says "I LOOOOVE those FISH!"

Auntie Lisa comes to town!

Eila in the National Botanical Gardens

Hanging out by the waters of the National Museum of the American Indian

Crazy ladies in front of the Capital

Lisa, Kari and Eila in front of the falls of the National Museum of the American Indian

Cousins- Keya, Eila, and Cimeren hanging out together at family dinner night

We enjoyed a great visit from aunt Lisa in DC. Eila had a great time touring the city with her very loving aunt. Lisa braved the DC sweltering heat and we made the rapid tour through Dupont Circle, several museums, and some nice gardens. We cannot wait for her return visit for Thanksgiving with the cousins too.