Bee Hives and Gymnastics

I'm on a roll, folks. I've now downloaded pictures from our camera and iPad and am going to post as much as I can while the Internet is strong. We've had some adventures at the new house ... two weeks ago I found myself in a house full of plumbers, electricians and bee experts. Poor Enzo was going crazy with all the new people on his turf. No one ever comes alone - there's always at least 2-3 helpers for each expert plumber or electrician - and nothing is ever accomplished in just a day. Lest you think it's a way to get paid more, they are not paid by the hour, but rather by the job. So there is no incentive to take 3 days to do something one American mom might think could be done in an hour or two. But, the good news is there is no longer a live wire hanging down the outside wall of the house. Another bright spot is we have ceiling fans in 3 bedrooms. And in a matter of just 2 weeks, we have no more water leaks and 3 new bathroom faucets and a kitchen sink faucet. Tomorrow's agenda is a new voltage regulator for the laundry machine. So back to the bee experts ... we noticed when we moved in to the house that there were some bees high up in a palm tree. And as the months passed, the bee population started increasing substantially. For the most part it didn't bother us, as they were rarely down at ground level and usually quite high up by the roof. For some reason in November, they started descending in large numbers so we contacted a gardener who contacted a friend and next thing you know, the gardener and his bee expert colleague came to check out the situation. They determined that there was a large hive underneath a few roof tiles (the bees had made holes in the concrete to start the nest). So the next evening at dusk they returned with straw and matches, climbed up to the roof, and got rid of the hive. After breaking through the tiles, they smoked the queen bee out by lighting the straw and I'm really not sure what else happened, as the kids and I were safely hiding inside. But this is what they cleaned out ... and while some bees made their way to another destination, most met their demise. Please note there were no beekeeper uniforms worn to protect them from stings. He said he was used to them, just part of what he does. Pretty amazing. These hives smelled like burnt honey and we kept a few small pieces for the kids to show their classmates.

The kids have started gymnastics lessons and are loving it. There is lots of equipment and they are learning new tricks quickly.

And lastly, Max's middle school soccer season is now over ... he'll start track and field in January. This was a team picture taken by another mom at one of their local tournaments - not sure why there weren't more smiles (are they all giving the adolescent "enough with the pictures mom" look?) because they were a great team who had lots of fun together and won most of their games. He's already looking forward to next season.