Chickpeas Circus

Chickpeas worked for a few weeks on some acts and some costumes so that they could stage an end of the year circus in the backyard playground. The girls were so excited.

Hennie & Sophia, who were fairies




Hennie & Ilyiana, one of her teachers.




Mette & Sabine (Sophia's little sister)


with Carolyn, her afternoon teacher

owen @ 5

Owen's 5th birthday was in Prospect Park with a lot of fantastic food from Perch and a lot of room for gymnastics equipment they brought out. They had face-painting and a woman who led them in gymnastics and games.

Spiderman, aged 5


hennie and Kai (owen's little brother)






Owen, Zora, and Hennie

watermelons

fathermother just took a trip to Washington DC and picked up some dresses for the girls. they love them.

chickpeas rummage sale

our last fundraising event for hennie's preschool (Chickpeas) was a big yard sale at the site of the new location. it was a chance for everyone to gather at next years space before it gets demo'd and remodeled, and to kind of announce ourselves to the new neighborhood. its 2 storefronts with a nice backyard, and about 3 blocks down 7th avenue from the apt. hege and i were renting when hennie was born. so we enjoyed being back in the neighborhood for the day, even though we aren't coming back to chickpeas with hennie next year.

the sale was a huge success, with everyone baking and bringing food, clothes, cds, and toys to sell. the girls loved it and were well behaved the entire day. this is hennie with Mia. and thats mette eating the top off the inventory. (one of many cupcakes she destroyed that day)

deck progress

we got the deck moved along a little further in late may. the steel cable came in, and i used the rest of the cedar board I had to make most of the side guardrails. theres still much to do, and the new wood makes the asphalt shingled facade look just that much worse.

hege and the girls had a great time buying a lot of plants.


we've got tomatoes & jalepenos planted amid the ivy and flowers.


a couple of weeks later, hege and the girls went out and i took the sawzall to the bedroom wall.

i managed to get the tarp up before the sun went down and we spent another strange week feeling like we were sleeping in a tent before we got the door installed and some temporary plywood sheathing up.