More good times to celebrate the end of school year

Here in B-town we continue to find little ways to celebrate the end of the school year - our 2nd here! unbelievable! - and of course food & being outdoors are two ways we do that...

Here is Gemma with Melody, a colleague of Jim's who came for dinner a couple of weeks ago. She is originally from Bloemfontein, South Africa, and has spent the year at IU on a fellowship, finishing up her dissertation. It was wonderful to get to know her a bit this year (and hear a lovely South African accent!) and perhaps we will connect again in the future, in the southern hemisphere next time.

We went out to breakfast at one of B-town's favorites, The Village Deli. Once you've had their pancakes, you will hunger for them again and again, and we've been waiting all semester to go back! (And now that the students are gone for the summer, downtown places are much quieter.)

A peek at the menu: we ordered a pancake and the spinach scramble, and shared both plates. Even still, the pancake was so HUGE, we didn't finish it. So light...fluffy...loaded with refined flour and empty calories...oh wait, this was a special treat, we're not going to think about that. SO, so yummy. We think their recipe adds more eggs than traditional pancakes, which is what makes them so delicious and cake-like.

This was Gemma's first meal eaten out, though we brought it from home of course - pears.

Yes, that is the pancake in the front of the photo. Yes, it is on a plate (barely).

Here's a glimpse at one of Gemma's new favorite activities - standing. She loves to stand at the couch or a low table or windowsill, bouncing and blabbing and banging. She's still working on pulling herself up to standing, though she can pull up on us and then wants to launch in every direction, walking around the house, holding on to our hands. We are getting the hint that she is going to be an energetic child...


And Sunday afternoon at the park! Yay for summer weather and free hours to just hang out!! In just a few days, Jim leaves for Thailand, where he will be for about a month with a small group of IU doctoral students, doing advising/consulting work at various universities in Bangkok. I (Jul) am not looking forward to being apart, but it will hopefully be a terrific experience for Jim, and meanwhile Gemma and I will be going out to Seattle to see family for part of the time. And that we are looking forward to!