Home Day

April 11 is Home Day around here - we've been home with Avena for a year. I'm pleased to report that Ben and I don't look a day older than when we got home from Ghana. We're celebrating our made up holiday by not leaving the house! It is really raining here. They promise it's the last storm of the year, but I'm skeptical. If you know any long-time Californians, you know that when it rains the first thing we say is, "Well, we need the water." We've stopped saying that! We are just tired of the rain. Ben and I saw the Soweto Gospel Choir of South Africa perform at the Paramount Theater in Oakland a couple weeks ago. If you have the chance to see them, do it. They are incredibly talented, and it was a great mix of songs in several South African languages, as well as some English-language standards like This Little Light of Mine. How can you go wrong? The first photo is of our latest hair experiment. It's pretty cute, but it needs some adjusting, so I didn't leave it in long. Next time I try it I wil make the braids go back further on Avena's head. You can't really tell in the photo, but the "tails" of each of the braids (the loose part after the rubber band) kept sticking straight up and looked a little wacky. The braids themselves were pretty easy, so I think I'll put this in the rotation with some tweaks to my technique. I'm also going to try finishing the braids with some snaps, since I didn't like how tight the bands are on her hair. Of course I posted a couple Easter pictures. You can't go wrong with an 18-month-old in hot pink from head to toe. Our Easter was pretty low key, so Avena wasn't actually fancy for too long. I think her Easter dress will also be her dress for graduation season! The last photo cracks me up, because as most of you know, I've never met a big chunky bracelet I didn't like. Avena associates putting on a bracelet with going "bye bye" because it's usually the last thing I do before I head out the door. So, here she is in the doorway wearing one of my bracelets.