To Pop after his surgery:

Feel better soon, Poppy!  

We can't wait to check out all the staples in your neck and the x-rays of your spine.

The biggest girls are making cards for you this morning, but there were a couple things they had to tell you right away, so we wrote them here...

"Pop, if you feel better we have to have a sleepover." ~ Leah

"How do they put your skin back on?" ~ Grace

OINK

The girls, April, my friend Betsy and I traveled up to the Prigel Family Creamery yesterday to help feed their orphaned piglets. 

Raising Girls

When Steve discovered a turtle in the yard this week, we didn't have to worry about it ending up in our bathtub or under the kitchen table or on someone's pillow {that's what boys would do with it, right??}

No, Grace and Leah took a timid look or two, said an unsure "cooooool", and then hightailed it for the porch.

Princess shoes are so much more interesting as playthings, anyway.

The Return

Through rain, through sleet, through dark of night...

over an entire ocean...

it boldly flew where no Grotto's Pizza balloon has flown before...

probably through flocks of Maribou storks and over rivers teeming with crocodiles...

until it reached Uncle Matt, in deepest Africa.

And yesterday, it came all the way back to the arms of the little girl who lost it in the first place.  

The saga has come to a happy ending!  And to top it off, Uncle Matt also included some Kenyan and Ugandan jewelry for Grace and Leah:

Bubbles

My Poor Camera, My Poor Knees, and a Fun Dessert Idea

I've been cheating on my Nikon with Steve's iPhone lately.  It's so fun to take photos with the Instagram app.  And the phone weighs significantly less than my camera.  And it fits in Steve's pocket.  I'm finding it hard to lug around my camera AND baby paraphernalia AND three-year old paraphernalia AND four-year old paraphernalia AND my own paraphernalia.  It's a good thing I decided to do a Project 52 instead of a Project 365 this year!

Here is an Instagram photo taken with the iPhone: 

After 7 weeks of knee pain, I went to the doctor and found out that I'm predisposed for knee issues.  Apparently the tendon attached to the top of my knee curves off to the side... it's called a Q-curve, or something.  So, any time I bend my knee the joint could rub the wrong way, because it's being pulled to the side by my quirky tendon.  It's in my genes.   If I faithfully do my leg lift-exercises I should be able to squat and lunge and sit Indian-style again-- someday.   Strengthening the muscles around the knee will keep it straight so that the joint moves correctly.  Everyone look down at your knees-- if the tendon protruding at the bottom doesn't make a straight line to your leg bone, be sure to keep your quad muscles strong!

One of the few pictures I've taken this month was of Mom Deterding's birthday "cake".  It's actually a cakestand holding trifles served in individual-sized canning jars.  We had german chocolate cake+chocolate pudding+whipped cream, and pound cake+lemon curd+strawberries+whipped cream.

Fun idea for a summertime dessert!

Relaxin'

Video for Matt: Grace's New Ride

They're Related

Grace Olivia, June 2007

Leah Anne, December 2008

Avery Lynn, July 2011

How about some Deterding girls to compare!  They certainly look like sisters, but after looking at these three photos of our kids at the same age (three months), I'm shocked to see that Avery isn't quite the spitting image of Grace that I've been assuming she was.