Day 4 of chicks

For the chicks 4th day of amazing growth, Neil and I took them outside for a photo shoot. We put a little photo sweep backdrop down and then tried to have a picnic table and the cage to corral them in a bit. At first they were totally freaked out with me bumping their cage down our spiral staircase to the back yard. They kept very close to me, which made me feel like mama hen. Yes, these odd things really matter to me.



You can get a pretty good idea of their size here. Louise on the right is crouched down a bit, but she is definitely the smallest of the group. She's the pushy one though, so don't feel sorry for her. You can also see that their wing feathers are starting to come in through the chick fluff.



Once they got used to their surroundings, they had a blast pecking at the grass and scratching around on the ground. I'm going to take them out every nice day to let them have a little spa treatment.

We went away to Abington, PA for the weekend to visit friends who moved out of Brooklyn. Their daughter Quinlan was in daycare with Lindsay, so she is one of Lindsay's oldest friends. It was a lovely weekend of hanging out in their new house. They were crammed into a typical NYC apartment, and now their house feels like an absolute mansion. We're so happy for them, although we're going to miss having them here in Brooklyn. My upstairs neighbor watched the chicks while we were away.

Easter

We spent a lovely weekend with our friends the Remke's at their house on the North Fork (of Long Island). It's really beautiful out there with tiny old towns, rocky beaches, zillions of birds, protected land and lots of agriculture. They seem to be very careful that it doesn't turn into the obnoxious scene that the Hamptons have become. When you buy/sell property there is a 1% tax that goes to a land trust. They've been buying up land to preserve. There is a vineyard for sale across the street from our friend's house that has a stipulation that there can't be any development of that land. They can't even build a building for the vineyard, so it is going for what is a very cheap price out there. Something like $800k for over 30 acres.

We explored the beaches, had our first bbq of the season, and had an Easter egg hunt. Here are some photos of the weekend.

Happy Halloween

Lindsay is going to be a fairy today. My friend Simone helped me design and make the frame for fairy wings when she was visiting here. I just finished and painted them today. Hopefully the paint will be fully dry in a few hours! I'm really happy with how they turned out. I based the design on butterfly wing patterns and the swirls on the cheapo set of wings that came with her costume. The leaves in the center are to hide the joins.

40 years ago

On October 2, 1967 a not-so-little kid was born. This chunkster, weighing in at 8lbs 8oz was named Martha Farago Lazar. Fast forward 40 years and now Martha isn't so chunky for her frame. Probably better not to have so many rolls at this point. I can't quite believe I'm 40. I vividly remember when my mother turned 40. She was laughing and crying the whole day. It freaked me out as a kid. I don't really feel like doing either of those things. Mostly I feel sort of meh.

What feels really wonderful is that Neil has organized a small get-together in our backyard. Wine and cake. Yum. And we have a bunch of friends coming. My friend Simone flew in from Germany to celebrate my birthday. That has given me enough of a warm and fuzzy feeling to last me all winter long. Thanks everyone for making this gal feel celebrated.