Harper does things that merit notice

Harper has again been named a finalist in the PBS Kids Writers' Contest. She got in the top 30 (out of 800 entries!) with a charming tale entitled Little Lost Owl. A burrowing owl gets blown away from his family and gets taken in by a family of barn owls. My favorite moment is when Mrs. Barn Owl offers the little owl something to eat, and two of the choices are "caterpillars or voles." WHAT will he choose?? Harper suggested that it would be the Best Prize of All if the winner got their book published, instead of just receiving a bag of public broadcasting paraphernalia, and the hope that they might win at the national level and get an ipad. I could not agree more, dear one. I suspect you might get published yet.

She also had her piano recital on Sunday, and played "Ecossaise", the first song from Book 2, with enthusiasm and confidence. The Grandparents Pate were here to celebrate all of this with us, which made it even sweeter.

I got a fitbit for Mothers' Day. I casually asked The Husband what they even WERE a few weeks ago, and he was so terribly excited that I was expressing any interest in Something Technology (maybe you will remember I am a General Luddite) that he went and bought me one. I feel a little bit like a character in Brave New World, and also I should confess that after I put the kids in bed just now, I realized I was only at around 8,000 steps, so I went outside and walked around the block until it started buzzing on my wrist and having the little 10,000 steps party. Am I enslaved already to The Machina??

We harvested our first strawberry from our little raised-bed garden. I referred to it as the "$100 strawberry" because that is about how much it cost to start a raised bed. I cut it into three tiny pieces and the kids proclaimed it The BEST STRAWBERRY EVER GROWN. Unfortunately, the wild bunnies in our neighborhood tend to agree, and have figured out how to circumvent the net I have wrapped around the bed.