The girls say hello to Mr Strauss, he showed them the Viola.
Originally uploaded by annamaren.

This moment was a sweet and fun moment after the Symphony in the park on Tuesday evening. Every year the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra plays an evening in our local park. It's always well attended, and last night was beautiful. Lovely weather, lovely music, and lovely community feel.

After the performance we walked over the stage and saw Mike Strauss, K's teacher's teacher.(He is the First Viola in the ISO) He saw us, and waved hello, and came over to show us the beautiful viola he played in the performance. He has kids, and he is *great* with kids, he was telling K and her friends all about the pear wood back , and letting them touch it- it was made without sandpaper, so you could feel the places where the wood was planed, not sanded.

Then we happened to run into K's first violin teacher, who had been subbing for a violin in the performance, and that was fun too!

I sat back and took in this moment... how grateful I am to be surrounding K with such a wide and varied network of people to support her learning journey. It was a really neat moment for me, to truly take that in, and realize that we are blessed. I am so thankful for the music that threads through our life in so many ways. And all the people who make it, including Miss K herself. Here's to joyful noises and joyful community!

K and her girlfriends out on the paddleboat!
Originally uploaded by annamaren.

Our summer has been very summery lately. We are having so much fun, doing a wide variety of things *outside!*.

This photo captures a moment on Tuesday that was so beautiful and fun- K and her girlfriends heading out into the lake in the paddle-boat, and being oh-so-independent about it!

Indy Star Article detailing that at one particular IPS school about 200 students out of an expected 620 showed up for school on their first day back! Woa!

I don't know what this means, except extra work for everyone involved- the administrators, teachers, and the other students and parents.

K and the yurt we slept in!
Originally uploaded by annamaren.

We had a fantastic camp out over the weekend, with K's Brownie troop! I found a place with a yurt for us to go visit, and so all the girls and their mama's slept in the yurt for our first overnighter!

It was so much fun, the girls all got along so well, had some fun activities, got to participate in some of the best storytelling I have ever heard, and most of all, had a lot of fun playing and hanging out *outside*.

I hope this is the first of many fun trips the girls get to take together!

K and turtle...
Originally uploaded by emaho.

We met a friend in the woods on Friday- a box turtle! The kids had to say hello before putting him down and letting him be about his business.

Wedged...
Originally uploaded by emaho.

Some days my kids drive me up a tree!

LOL! Of course not in this case, I was just tree-climbing and Jamie caught it!

K looking for monarch caterpillars...
Originally uploaded by emaho.

It's that time of year again! We have a tiny monarch caterpillar and an egg on a leaf to raise. Last year we raised 3 monarch caterpillars to butterflies. It was interesting, educational and beautiful!