we're soaked!

It's been raining almost non-stop for 4 straight days, and very hard rain has fallen in periods.. Buildings, houses, streets and parks all over the Washington D.C. area are damaged from all the water... Luckily our house is up on a hill so there is no damage as far as we can tell, although i did discover some water seeping in at the bottom of the wall in our basement family room. no damage to the inside wall as far as we can tell, but the carpet is moist... and it is going to rain for another day or so! This must be a new record, i have never seen it rain this much - EVER - in Washington D.C. We must have received 14" (~30cm) or so of rain since last Friday night?!

Here's a picture of some flooding right across the border of D.C., in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Latest garden update

Steve's salad mix is ready to be eaten








A huge perennial Echinacea bush is flowering







My biggest sunflower is about to open up












Our hosta bushes are starting to bloom








Steve's large herb/vegetabe bed is improving: tomatoes, carrots, raddiches, cucumbers, green beans, oregano, tarragon, squash, peppers... did i forget something?

Party weekend w/visit from Norway!

We had visitors from Norway June 8-12 : Liv Ormberg and husband Jens Kristian + Ivar (9 months) stopped by D.C. as part of their 3-week vacation in the U.S. and Canada.

For the occasion, we had invited friends & their kids to a summer potluck party on Saturday afternoon/evening to have some fun around the house with all of our friends, and lots of people showed up! And everyone brought wonderful food and desserts that we all munched on all night - there wasn't much leftover when the last guests were out the door!

Pics from top to bottom:
Kitchen table full of yummi food
Steve becomes a living toy for Isabella and Anika
'Norwegian' sofa: from left: Trine, Liv, Heidi w/Michael on her lap, and Jens Kristian
A very happy Ivar on Monday morning 6am...
Liv, Jens Kristian and Ivar are ready to fly to Canada Monday morning

Fun at Ansel's

BBQ at the Parke's was a lot of fun, especially for the youngsters, who always have a lot of fun playing together. This time Tadeusz was there also.

Pottytraining has started!

We came across this cute cushioned toddler toilet seat in the store today, and Anika wanted to try it when we came home. Hopefully she will figure out / be able to do something on it pretty soon -right now all she wants to do is sit on it and talk about what we do on the toilet ;)

Anyway, the path to a diaper-free girl has started!

32 weeks (8 months) pregnant

Only 8 more weeks now!~

First weekend over 90F / 30Celcius

Memorial Day Weekend turned out to be a hot one, with temperatures in the 90s (30+ Celcius). Anika had lots of fun with her little pool we put up for her on the patio. Grandma and uncle Chris were visiting, which was extra fun!

Ella (next-door neighbor) visited Anika one afternoon and the two of them had lots of fun in the pool + painting with water on the brick. Easy and cheap fun!

More flowers...

First rose has sprung, Steve's first seeds are coming out of the ground, and I finally had time to buy and plant some colorful flowers around the patio (sage, lavender, echinachea, petunia, etc.) + my nasturtium is finally flowering!

Family Day at Anika's new preschool

On May 20th we were invited to Maddie's birthday party. Maddie is the daughter of Rebecca, the director of the preschool Anika is transitioning into. Check the preschool web site: http://www.discoverywoords.org/ Anika had a great time, and she especially enjoyed riding the pony! She hasn't stopped talking about it since then, and Steve's fearing that in a few years we will have a girl who's non-stop begging for a horse...

Grandma + uncle Chris

Anika and grandma Kathleen spent lots of time in the Dora 'playground' inside a museum they visited the day after Ram's graduation.

A rare picture of uncle Chris, who moved from Vermont to NYC a few months ago.

Ram graduated from LIU!

Steve and Anika travelled to New York City / Brooklyn to join Ram's graduation ceremony at Long Island University (mamma got 4 days on her own at home!). Congrats to Ram on earning his bachelor degree!

Early May flowers

Returning from our California trip, we found nice peonies, irises and other flowers in full bloom in our garden! The irises were really beautiful but only bloomed for a couple of days.






The first weekend after we came back, Ansel & parents stopped by. The kids were racing around the cul-de-sac with their matching strollers. They have a lot of fun together!