Do I Know These Kids?

As you can see, the Team Sabo dress-up bin is loaded for bear, full of sartorial splendor and outfits for any make and model of child. Take, for example, this bottom photo of a boy we'll call "Abram." At least I know him as Abram. When he's not a cross between Jack Sparrow and a Jedi warrior. We can certainly appreciate the imagination that goes along with donning, in Abram's case, random clothes and paraphernalia and murses and pulling it off. At least I guess he pulls it off. What's important is that Abram thinks he's pulling it off and seems pretty intent on conquering Courthouse Square or whatever adventure he's going to tackle. At least he's dressed for success. We also note that Madeline really pulls off that white dress look, eh?

It's Only June, Right?

Last night I had a nightmare. It was a very vivid dream. I dreamed that it was the end of September, the mornings were crisp, cool weather was in my future ... it was awful. I remember thinking, `Wait, I haven't had summer!' I want to sweat! I haven't enjoyed my little garden! I haven't barbecued ribs in the blazing heat while sweating profusely! The torture of reliving my dream is almost too much to write about ... what would it like to be without summer? Oh, that's right. I'd live in my hometown of Bend. Didn't it snow there last week? Eeech. So I woke up this morning and hustled out to the kitchen where I took a good long look at the calendar and to my pleasant surprise discovered it's still only June 7th. I have plenty of time to drop 5 lbs. sweating through a rib barbecue. The Wiffle ball season is still young so I have time to drop my ERA below the price of a steak dinner. The little cantaloupe plants abloom in my raised bed will grow luscious little melon treats. Oh, the joy of it!

I snapped a couple of photos of our little raised bed garden back on June 3rd and I'll update the progress through the summer. As you can see, things are looking good, as Olivia will attest with her delightful little garden smile. Last night we had one of those Virginia rainstorms complete with falling tree limbs -- Julie and I were out to dinner with some friends and saw an entire beech tree drop across the street in a vacant lot -- and surely an inch of rain or so. The garden appreciates the rain. We should be eating green beans by the end of the week so we're excited about that. I'm sure my dad's green beans in Bend, Ore., are about ready as well. Oh, wait. Today it's supposed to be slightly warmer in Bend than Anchorage, Alaska. The beans may have to wait. Was it last year my sister's garden in Bend got frosted out on June 20th? Sheesh. Where's global warming when you need it, right Sis?

Yes, We're Still Blogging

It came to our attention that it has been like 5 weeks since we filed a blog post. We apologize. So for our friends out in Oregon, we interrupt the constant rains to bring you up to date on the Sabo family with some random recent photos. As you can see from the photo right up there, it's sunny, warm and the pool is open here in Virginia. Taylor is working on his tan, as are his sisters, so you won't have to wear shades to look at our handy dandy blog. Fortunately it's been so warm lately -- upper 80s, chance of thunderstorms again today -- that it shouldn't take long for Taylor to look a lot less white and you can put the shades away when perusing the 12 kids blog. In gardening news, we're a couple of weeks from harvesting our first batch of green beans from the raised bed in the back yard and the peas have been tasty. The tomatoes are stretching out nicely and we're looking forward to some heirlooms here in a month or two & for some tasty salsa. I can spy little bell peppers on the pepper plants so that's very encouraging. We apologize for lack of news on the blog. We have been extraordinarily busy here at Team Sabo headquarters. May was an absolute blur and I was alarmed to learn it's already June. We had 3 birthdays in May -- Brenton and Madeline on May 1 and Claire on May 17 -- and Taylor hit 18 on April 29. For his birthday he decided to take the whole family bowling. Showing what a hospitable, kind husband I am, I let my beautiful wife beat me in bowling. What a wonderful husband I am! (Editor's note: If I remember correctly, I caught you clapping when I bowled a gutter ball. How is that wonderful? Author's reply: Well, um, my love, I think actually I was, well, technically I wasn't clapping in the sense of applauding a sudden downturn in your bowling fortunes. It was actually a form of encouragement in the sense of trying to encourage you to overcome this sudden little blip in your bowling success because clearly you're a tremendous natural bowler with extraordinary bowling talent. My love.)

Anyway, Taylor prevailed in the bowling tournament although Eli had a nice showing, even if he had the bumpers. (Editor's note: Which you could have used. Author's reply: Cheap shot! I'll have you know I beat Ezra!) For Claire's birthday she decided to have a slumber party and invited something like 9 of her friends to spend the night. I had to get a permit from the county to operate my house as a hotel for the night because we surpassed the local housing capacity ordinances. I'm telling you, things can get crazy around here. On Memorial Day the whole family except for Claire went to Busch Gardens to ride roller coasters and such. It was in the low 90s, as humid as a sauna ... sounds like fun, eh? The kids had a blast and I kept my lunch down so all in all it was a grand day. Basically, we survived. We took 10 kids and came home with 10 kids and had only a couple of relatively minor fits from tired little kids to deal with in the closing minutes of our time at Busch Gardens. Finally, in closing, we pledge to write more blog posts.