Teatime

This afternoon some of our local moms who have daughters that are graduating, hosted a tea to honor all of the lovely ladies who will be donning caps and gowns this coming Friday.


Each girl invited her mom, or her "BFA mom" to the mother-daughter tea. Many of them are boarding at BFA and most of their moms have not yet arrived for graduation. They will all be coming in this week.
I was very honored when Alanna invited me to be her mom for the day. We enjoyed a very special and memorable afternoon together. I love you, Alanna, and I am going to miss you terribly! (Her mom and dad arrive from Slovakia on Wednesday)

BFA Spring Party

We had a beautiful clear evening for BFA's "last hoorah" of the year before grad. Tyler helped with organizing the party because he serves on the student council. Their team did a fantastic job and the evening was a huge success. The theme centered around Vikings.

Five-legged races by grade. Here is Tyler racing with four other members of his class. The staff also had a team.

Tug-of-war between grades. It ended rather abruptly when the junior and senior class were competing because the rope broke!!


Truck-pulling contest. Again this was by grade with the high school staff and residence staff competing as well. Tim and his team are seen in this shot!










Ye-Eun (who does not like getting her picture taken!) will not be returning to BFA in the fall and we are going to miss her!

Student council member and senior class president with his Viking hat!

The Master Artist

Here is a sampling of what is blooming around us these days - I am once again amazed by God's creativity and magnificent design.

The fascinating world of asparagus

Asparagus is a very popular vegetable where we live and is grown in our area at this time of year. White (blanched) asparagus is produced in the absence of sunlight, and that is what is most common where we live. We can also buy green asparagus, but white is the favored.
If you are out driving, like Luke and I were this afternoon, you are bound to see fields with long rows, covered with heavy white plastic that is black on the inside. This blocks the sun as well as heats up on the inside! On a warm day the asparagus can grow 2-3 inches per day!
Growing white asparagus is an intensive process and it takes at least 3 years until the first harvest. I learned this just today - the next time I eat asparagus (hopefully soon!) I will appreciate it even more! My favorite asparagus dish is cream of asparagus soup!
Most restaurants have asparagus or "spargel" as it is called in German, on the menu right now.




This afternoon I went to an asparagus field and lifted the white plastic to check out what was underneath. I quickly took a picture. I did not want to linger for fear of getting yelled at!!