Coming up roses

 This morning the girls and I spent a couple of hours enjoying the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden.

 These pictures are in no particular order, but you can see we enjoyed ourselves. 

 Climbing trees. 

 Posing for pictures. 

 Watching the mama duck and her duckling. 

 Practicing cartwheels. 

 Being silly. 

 More posing. 

 More cartwheels. 

 Literally smelling the roses. 

 Being sisterly.

 Looking photogenic in front of a redwood.

 Even more posing. 

More smelling. Lots and lots of smelling. Oh, and we played hide and seek, too. 

Going global

Last weekend, Lily participated in (and won her cub category) at the International Bowhunting Organization West Coast Traditional Championship. This was an outdoor trail target shoot, one arrow per target. She was the only cub to participate, but as Andy says, she beat most of the adults and was quite a celebrity with the other archers by the end of the weekend.

Even more exciting, she just found out that she won the International Field Archery Association World Indoor Archery Mail Match. This was a worldwide postal competition where she had to send in her best score each month in January, February, and March, shooting 12 ends of 5 arrows at 20 yards. She beat four other female cub barebow (recurve) archers from Brazil, Ireland, Australia, and England--perhaps laying the rivalry groundwork early for future Olympic competitions. :-)

Happy feet

This week was the 4th/5th grade music concert at the girls' school. It's pretty amazing what their musical director, Mr. Golden, does, with just one day a week with the kids.

Last year, Lily was on the recorder; this year, promoted to mallets (2 in one hand, 1 in the other). She was very excited. Note that's our neighbor and Lily's new best friend, Jenna, sitting in front of her.

Before the music, though, was a gumboot routine (I'm assuming it's some relationship to stepping). Lily (in a blue dress) is behind Ali (blue and white shirt). You can occasionally catch glimpses of her. 

The Bagby version of Pharrell Williams' song "Happy" (which explains why Lily all of a sudden could play it on the piano). Unfortunately Lily is right behind Jenna, but you can see her every now and then when she leans to the side. 

Spontaneous zoo playdate

While Andy and Lily were shooting at stuff in Santa Cruz, Amalia and I headed up to the San Francisco Zoo.

 And what a surprise to run into old friends!

 Animals? At the zoo? Nonsense! 

 Let's just hang out at the playground all day. 

 The monkey exhibit. 

 Finally! Looking at some actual animals (sea lions). 

 Ooh, flowers!

Dane, Piper and Amalia--not much animal viewing, but we had a great time. 

These last two pictures are of a couple of goats that Lily used to visit almost every weekend back when we lived in San Francisco 7 years ago. I asked, and was so happy to hear that Poppy (above) and Lily (below) are still alive.

Though goat Lily, at 11 years old (2 years older than girl Lily) is now very arthritic. Today she was just lying down, licking her salt lick. 

Outstanding in her field

Today Lily competed in the MTBA Regional Field Tournament in Santa Cruz. Isn't this picture amazing?

 She continues to improve her skills and impress the adults shooting alongside her. 

The only girl her age, she again won her category. But more importantly, she's still having a lot of fun.

Walk like an Egyptian

 Yesterday the girls explored the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose. According to the website, it "was architecturally inspired by the Temple of Amon at Karnak and houses the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in western North America."

 The girls were more inspired by the statues and gardens outside. 

 That's a mummified cat (yellow) and cat coffin (white)--no cat inside. 

 The girls playing a game of senet, a board game from ancient Egypt. 

 There was a lot more stuff inside, but flash wasn't permitted so we'll stick with outside shots.

 Back in the tree. 

Spring break writing

On this last day of spring break, the girls each spent some time coming up with new writings.

First, a poem by Amalia:

Seeds
I see you are
a seed. Tell me
What do you need.
I need some water to grow
and some sun
to glow and some
air for my
leaves to get and
some dirt for my
roots to spread.
Now I am a plant!

Next, a micro-story by Lily:

California's Water Town
Once, there was a rather large town in California. But it was not just any town, it was a water town. A water town is a town that, instead of streets, has rivers and lakes and streams and all different kinds of bodies of water. It was a very happy little town. Until one year, it was said that there was a drought. The worst drought in 100 years, in fact! So one by one, very slowly, all of the different kinds of bodies of water disappeared, and the people of the town were devastated. From that year on, that town had normal streets like everyone else. And the drought just kept on getting worse and worse, year after year. And that's where we are today.

Strings and things

Lily had a violin recital a couple of weeks ago. While Andy tries to figure out how he can get the video of Lily's performance off of his work phone, here are a few pictures taken by the event photographers.

 She played "The Gypsy Dance"

 In a duet with her instructor, Sally Dalke, who plays in several area orchestras. 

 Rocking leopard print and Chucks.

She did a fantastic job--nerves of steel.