What Hasn't Happened

Hi, this is Summer. Sorry it’s been so long since we’ve written. We had some problems with our internet, and then things got really busy for our family, especially Blakeney. Life has been going pretty well for us in the meantime. We’ve settled into our new school, and we’re making new friends. It didn’t take long before we were back into our activities, either.

Here’s what hasn’t happened, though. Marigold hasn’t gone home. In a way, that’s a good thing. No… I shouldn’t even say “in a way.” It’s been wonderful having her here and getting to know her. She gets along really well with all of us, and she fits right in. It seems like she belongs here. Sometimes it’s hard to remember she’s a guest.

And that’s the weird part. We thought she was just coming for a visit, but she’s been here for three months. No explanation, no estimated time of departure, and apparently her parents aren’t concerned.

When she first got here, she didn’t bother about calling home. Finally, the adults insisted she had to give them a phone number so they could talk to her parents; we’re all happy to have her here, but Inna pointed out that we could get in major trouble if we kept her here and her parents didn’t know where she was. Marigold procrastinated as long as she could get away with it, but finally she gave Blakeney a number.

Every time one of the adults tried calling, the phone on the other end would just ring and ring. No one ever picked up, and it never went to voicemail. For a few days, they thought they were just calling at inconvenient times, but as more time went by and there was never an answer, the adults started to get worried again. Marigold just shrugged and said that clearly her folks weren’t stressed about the situation. But obviously, Blakeney, Inna, Maia, and Gia weren’t convinced.

School started. We knew Marigold was supposed to be homeschooled this year, and she said her parents would be fine with her just going to school with me. The grownups just exchanged a look. Homeschooling is one thing – several of the kids in our family are homeschooled – but generally the parents would want to have some input in terms of what their kid was learning. Homeschooling is very different from the kid just going to some random school, know what I mean?

Finally, the adults decided that they just weren’t going to get anything out of Marigold, and they were going to have to get some answers themselves. It was awkward going behind her back, but how else were we ever going to figure out what’s going on?

While the rest of the girls in our family were in school, Blakeney, Inna, Kirsten, and Bree – they had the day off – drove up to Ontario. They figured that if they couldn’t get Marigold’s parents on the phone, they would have to go to the address and talk to them in person. When they got to Toronto, they had no problem finding where Marigold had told us she lived… but there was no house there.

It wasn’t like that time we went to visit Cécile and Marie-Grace, and found the house they’d been living in had just been burned down. This was a vacant lot. There had been nothing standing there for a long time. There were just a few foundation stones overgrown with waist-high weeds. There was no way Marigold and her parents had been living in a house here as of August.

Bree wondered if maybe they were homeless, and they’d been living in the lot but Marigold was too embarrassed to say anything about that part. There was no sign of anyone camping there, either, but we figured maybe they’d already moved on. We asked around, but everyone in the neighbourhood told us that no one had been staying in the vacant lot for years, homeless or otherwise. So that didn’t turn out to be it, either.

After that trip to Ontario, we’re even more confused than we were before. We’re not quite sure what to do. If this were a normal situation, we would have called the police a long time ago and let them sort it out… but as you recall, we aren’t normal. Marigold is one of the fairy folk. She still hasn’t admitted that, but we can tell. Involving the human police isn’t likely to help.

We’re not sure if we should confront Marigold – she’ll probably just make more excuses if we tell her what we found. I’m not sure how to find out more if she won’t tell us. I hate having to be suspicious of my own twin. The truth is, though, I don’t really know her all that well, even though we’re biological sisters.

We’re happy to have her here. As long as she wants to stay, she can. We’re worried about her, though. We need to figure out what’s going on.

Love,

Summer

Being a Better Sister

Hi, this is Summer again. I read Kiwi's post about the green-eyed monster. (It is green-eyed, not green-haired, Kiwi. Tabitha is right.) At first, I felt offended. How could she say those things about me?

But then... I thought about it more. I realized she was kind of right. Okay, maybe a lot right.

I never intentionally ignored Kiwi. The fact is, though, I did abruptly start spending a lot less time with her. I stopped wanting to go anywhere with her, because I was afraid I would get an e-mail from Marigold while I was gone if I left the house for too long. I stopped focusing as much on her when she was talking, because I was too busy thinking about my own stuff.

Is it understandable that I did that? Yes, I think it is. Tabitha is right - this is all new to me, and it's a big deal. When we have something that is a new big deal, it's pretty normal to obsess a little.

Something being normal and understandable doesn't make it the right thing to do, though. It wasn't right to ignore Kiwi, even if I'm excited about Marigold. It's not fair to make my whole life about one sister, and act like the other sisters don't matter. Even if I never felt that way in my heart (which I never did) it was still wrong to make Kiwi feel that I didn't care.

This afternoon, I found Kiwi in the living room doing a jigsaw puzzle all alone. I could tell that she was trying to act mad at me, but I think that for real she was just sad.

"Let's go to the park, Kiwi," I suggested.

Kiwi looked at me sceptically. "What if Marigold e-mails you while we're gone?" she asked.

I took a deep breath, smiled a genuine smile, and said, "It can wait till we get back."

I did apologize to Kiwi at the park, and she accepted it very graciously. By that point, the tension was already gone, though. The ice broke when I said I wanted to spend time with her. When she saw that I still cared.

I'm still really excited to get to know Marigold. I learned a really important lesson, though. You shouldn't take for granted the sisters you already have, because they're worth a whole lot!

Love,
Summer

The Green-Haired Monster

You were probably expecting another post from Summer, right? Well, this isn't Summer. It's Kiwi. But the post is still about Summer's twin. You know, Marigold.

I'm really happy for Summer. Really. But I'm feeling a little bit jealous, too. Okay, a lot jealous.

You see, I've always been Summer's special sister. Of course, Summer loves all her sisters equally, and so do I. It's not about loving more. Summer and I have been through a lot together, though. We lived in the foster home together before we met anyone else from the family. We promised that we'd always be together. We both turn into cats - most people don't turn into cats - so we shared that too. 

We've always had a special bond.

I'm afraid we aren't going to have a special bond anymore, though, because Summer has a new special sister. Having a twin is way better than having me, isn't it?

I haven't been in a very good mood about this. I've been trying to act excited for Summer, but it hurts that I'm not special sister number one anymore. When I was getting ready to go to gymnastics this afternoon, I saw Summer reading that letter again. I passed her, and she didn't even notice me. That made me even madder. So I went into the kitchen, slammed down my gymnastics bag, and announced to whoever was listening - which happened to be Tabitha - that, "Fruits are way better than flowers! At least you can eat fruit! Flowers just sit there!"

Tabitha stared at me like she didn't know what I was talking about. She probably didn't. You might have needed to be inside my brain to know I was saying that kiwis are better than marigolds. 

"What's going on?" Tabitha asked.

I sighed, and said, "I have the green-haired monster!"

Tabitha blinked. "The what?"

"You know, jealousy!" I told her.

Tabitha laughed. "That's called the green-eyed monster, not the green-haired one. And why are you jealous?"

"Because I'm not Summer's special sister anymore. She has Marigold and she doesn't need me anymore. She probably doesn't even like me! She probably barely remembers me!" I was getting worked up, but I didn't care.

Tabitha shook her head, and said, "Summer would never forget you, Kiwi. She loves you. And you'll always be her first special sister, even if Marigold is her special sister too. Summer is just excited because the whole thing with Marigold is so new. She'll get used to having Marigold in her life, and she'll start spending more time with you again."

I hope so. But the green-haired monster... or green-eyed, or whatever... is telling me that I'm not as good as Marigold.

Love,

Kiwi

Two letters, and life changes

Hi, this is Summer. (I guess you could tell that from the picture anyway, huh?) Well, I got huge news today. I'm still really shocked, and I'm not sure how to process it.

Last year, on my birthday, I decided that I wanted to find out about my biological family. Maia wrote to the Toronto Children's Aid Society, which is the group that placed me for foster care and adoption, to see if we could get any information about them. I did get some, which is better than knowing nothing at all, but I was a little bit bummed that I have to wait till I turn eighteen to get my full identifying details.

I had pretty much just accepted that I won't be able to make much progress on my search until I'm an adult. So I was really surprised when another letter came from the Children's Aid Society in the mail today. I didn't think I'd be hearing from them again for a few years. I wondered if there had been some mistake, or if they'd found something else non-identifying that they could give me right away.

In my haste to open the envelope, I ripped it too hard and all the contents ended up on the floor. The first sheet I picked up was written by hand, and the writing looked like someone about my age rather than an adult. That seemed even weirder. Why would I be getting a letter from another kid through the agency that had placed me for adoption?

Once my initial moment of confusion had passed, I realized there was a printed covering letter in the envelope too, so I decided to read that first because it seemed like it was probably supposed to explain the handwritten letter. I flipped it over... and got the shock of my life.

The covering letter started with an apology. It turns out that I hadn't been placed for adoption by the Children's Aid Society itself - which I had just assumed - but by another group doing contract work for them at the time. That group had made a pretty serious mistake. I had to read the next line a few times before I could comprehend it.

I was not an only child in my biological family.

I have a twin.

This was totally shocking to me. I had no idea.

I figured that I might have biological brothers or sisters out there, because my first parents weren't all that old and they likely had more children after they lost custody of me, whether they stayed together or ended up with other partners. I was prepared to find out someday that I had siblings or half-siblings.

I wasn't prepared to find out that I already had a sister that I shared the womb with. In movies, it seems like twins have this magical connection to each other, but I never felt that. I never felt anyone who was that close was out there and missing from my life. I was totally blindsided by the news.

Twins aren't supposed to be separated for adoption. Even at the time, that was very much against policy. We should have been placed together. The letter went on to say that they're still investigating how it happened, whether it was a clerical error or whether my twin was already living somewhere else when I was removed from the home... and I'm sure that with time, I'll start to care about that. For right now, I can't even begin to deal with how it happened. I'm just trying to process that this is going on at all.

The other letter, the one that was handwritten, is from my twin sister. You don't have to be eighteen to know your biological siblings like you do to find out about your biological parents. I  haven't read my twin's letter yet. I want to, and I will soon.

I'm just trying to deal with the fact this is even happening. It's totally unbelievable! I wonder if she's very much like me...

Love,
Summer

An Agglomeration of News

Hi everyone, this is Summer! We're back from our trip. We had a wonderful time visiting Hungary, Croatia, and Italy. Our first stop was Budapest, then we took the train to Zagreb. From Zagreb we rode on a bus to Rijeka, then drove a rental car to Otok Krk (which means Krk Island.) We spent a few days at the beach on the Adriatic, then took another bus from Rijeka to Trieste, Italy, via Slovenia, then a train from Trieste to Venice. It was an amazing two weeks!

We plan to do a post that's just about our trip, including lots of photos, but Blakeney took loads and loads of pictures and we haven't had time to get them all uploaded, sorted by place, and captioned if necessary. When we do, we'll be happy to share it.

For now, though, we have some major news to share. I'm going to tell the small news first, though, to keep you in suspense about the big news for a minute or two more. ;-)

The small news is, I decided to enter the Little Miss Playthings contest! When it was first suggested to me, I thought it was some kind of beauty contest, and I didn't think that was my thing at all. It turns out, though, that it's actually a photo contest, with different challenges each week. It actually sounds pretty artistic and creative, and I think it'll be fun! I'm the contestant, but all my sisters are helping me.

Please go to Bean's site, here, to vote on the rounds. You don't have to vote for me, mind you. There are a lot of amazing photographers who have entered, and it's not a big deal to me if I win or not. I'm just looking forward to the challenge of it. A contest isn't any fun without voters, though, so please don't forget to choose your favourite photo each week for the next few weeks to come!

So yeah, that's the small news.

Here's the big piece...

While we were in Italy, Maia proposed to Gia, and Gia said yes. So we're going to have a wedding! We're all super excited and happy for them. They're a great couple, and I think they'll have many, many joyous years together. We're all eager to help them celebrate!

We missed you guys, but we had an amazing trip. Still, it's always nice to be home again.

Love,
Summer

P.S. I did my first photo shoot for LMPT today. I want my actual entry to be a surprise, but here are a couple of extra shots that aren't going to be entered into the contest. The other person in the photos is, of course, my sister Kiwi.

Departure, Arrival, and Lots of Animals

 

Hi, this is Summer... writing to you from sunny Florida! :-)

Saturday morning was leaving-home-time. On Friday, the temperature in our part of Newfoundland was hovering right at the freezing point. Ice was forming and then melting a little and falling and shattering. It sounded like little explosions were going off all over the place. We worried this might be a problem for our plane taking off. By Saturday morning, though, things were better. It was dismal, with a little bit of rain right on the borderline of freezing, but we got to the airport and in the air without a problem.

Oh, wait, I should backtrack a minute, because there are two things I bet you're wondering:

1.) How were the vampires going to handle Florida?

Well, we got some last minute good news about that. Marie-Grace and Tabitha have their necklaces now that protect them from being harmed by the rays of the sun, but Clare and Cécile were just planning to hole up in the condo during the day, shut out the light, and make do.

Friday's mail brought a surprise, though - another package from our mysterious sender in New Orleans. Unlike the other two parcels, which had been addressed to a specific sister, this one was addressed to the whole family care of Blakeney. Clare and Cécile kind of eyed each other, wondering who would get the necklace... and trying to be charitable by wishing each other good luck.

As it turned out, there wasn't a necklace in the package, and they were both lucky! :-)

We all crowded around to see what was in the box. It was an old-fashioned looking brown bottle, with a thick liquid sloshing around in it. We were confused about what it was, but fortunately there were directions, written in black ink and the same handwriting as before.

It said, "Vampire 'Sunscreen.' Drinking three drops protects for six hours. Mind your time and don't cut it close."

Obviously, this was a huge leap of faith - but our mysterious friend had come through for us in the past, so we decided to try it and hope for the best. It worked, and we're all enjoying the Florida sunshine. Our vampires are safe... at least as long as the bottle lasts. If there's still any left when we get home, Cécile and Clare will continue to use it sparingly to try to preserve it.

So that answers that question.

2.) What about Gia?

Honestly, we were all kind of wondering that. Before everything that happened, we were planning for Gia to come along on our trip, but after it all went down, we weren't sure what the deal was anymore. We were nervous to even ask Maia, because we didn't want to bring up a bad subject. We figured we'd just wait and see. 

Apparently, Gia took the wait and see route, too. On Saturday morning, she showed up at the house with a little suitcase clutched in her hands. Her knuckles were white where she was gripping the handle so hard. She looked nervous to the point of terrified, like a prisoner waiting for a verdict. I felt so bad for her in that moment that I just wanted to hug her. 

Maia didn't actually say anything. She just took Gia's suitcase and put it in the car. Obviously meaning: she still wanted Gia to go. Gia breathed a huge sigh of relief... and frankly, so did the rest of us.

From that moment, things have been easier. Pretty much back to normal, even. Gia seemed relaxed again, for the first time since she spilled her secret. I think she feels even better than she did before, because she can be honest now.

Since we've all been here in the condo together, I've realized that Gia has nightmares. Really bad ones. I think they're called night terrors. I can't really blame her for what she did anymore - now that I've realized The Elders hurt her worse than they ever hurt us, how could I?

I'm glad the family is back to being whole again. Because, yeah, even though it's nothing official, Gia feels like family to me. The way things are again - all of us together, happy - seems like how things should be.

So anyway, back to what I was saying before:

Travel was uneventful, and by Saturday evening we had landed in Florida. We were hungry and tired, but excited and glad to be there. It was amazing to be able to shed our winter coats and long-sleeve layers.

Sunday was a pretty slow day, since we'd just had a long day of travel. Some of us went to church with Blakeney's grandparents, then we went out for lunch and then went to a local symphony group's performance of (allegedly) Irish and Scottish music. The orchestra did a nice job and we liked the show. Then in the evening, we swam in the pool.

Monday we went to the beach! It was so fun. We playing in the sand and swam in the ocean. The water had fish in it, and they came right up to swim around our feet. Then in the evening after supper we went for a walk. It was neat to see palm trees and watch the squirrels, very different from home.

Today we drove to Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. It was so totally awesome! (Inky, if you're reading this, the park made us think of you. I think you would have loved it!) It's a park where they have all kinds of wild animals from the local area. These animals weren't captured to be exhibits, but were there because for some reason they would not be able to survive in the wild. Most were injured in some way, and although they've gotten better, they wouldn't be able to move fast enough to hunt or avoid predators. A few others imprinted on humans when they were babies and wouldn't be able to fend for themselves.

One pair of birds we saw was really sweet because the original bird was brought there after it got too badly hurt to be released into the wild, and a wild bird became its mate while it was living in the park; that other bird stays at the park now by choice to be with the one who can't fly away.

The only animal they have that isn't native to Florida is one random hippo. He was there before the current park. There used to be a park of exotic animals on that land, and he was part of that. When the new park started, he got to stay. He was really interesting to see, too. We got to watch him eat his supper, which was hay and several melons.

The other animals we saw were wolves, foxes, otters, manatees, alligators, bears, a bobcat, a cougar, some snakes and turtles, and a bunch of birds and fish. They have this neat building where you can look at the fish from underwater through glass.

Kaya and Charissa told us lots of cool facts about the animals. Kaya is part of a special environmental science school program, so she knows all about these things, and Charissa just loves animals and has read a lot about them.

Bree discovered she isn't as afraid of bears as she thought she was, now that she's seen them sleepy and sluggish. The bear fear started when, shortly after she moved in with the Greens, Bree read on a website that if you go out in the woods in Newfoundland, basically bears are just going to come and murder you. Which is totally not true. Although we have been hiking and camping dozens of times since then and have not seen one single bear, Bree keeps looking over her shoulder for bear attacks. I think she may have gotten over it somewhat today, when she saw a bear sleeping and said it was "kind of cute and not murderous at all," which for Bree is major progress.

We all joked about taking Gia to see the wolves and foxes because they are her "cousins," and she actually laughed. It's such a relief to be able to laugh with Gia. We can joke again because we've forgiven her and she knows it, and because she's getting more accustomed to the werewolf thing. The truth is, though, she clearly did feel some kinship to the wolves - and seeing how beautiful they were seems like maybe it helped her adapt to what she is now. I can understand how she felt. Maia, Kiwi, and I felt the same kinship with the big cats, since we're feline shapeshifters.

After visiting the park, we had supper and then swam in the pool again. And that brings us up to the present moment! So there's our Florida update so far.

I wonder what will happen next? :-)

Love,
Summer

P.S. We haven't forgotten about the Versatile Blogger thing. (Three people tagged us - wow, thanks!) We'll do our best to get it posted soon. We just wanted to update you guys on our vacation first as we planned, before we lost track of what we wanted to tell you about all the cool stuff we've done. We won't forget we need to do that, though, don't worry. ;-) ~S

Christmas Tagged

Not the kind on packages! ;-) Our friends at Bolton Girls Travel Journal tagged us, and this is our response. We don't all have the same answers, and we couldn't decide on one person to answer for all of us, so we're going to do this in sort of interview style. (The line spacing got a little messed up, and we can't figure out why, sorry!) Not everyone answered every question, because that would get pretty long, but all of us chimed in on a few.


1) What is your favorite part of the holiday season?


Evelyn: Presents!

Fiona: Caroling!

Josefina: Midnight Christmas Eve mass.

Bree: Spending time with family and friends.

Kirsten: Um... probably also presents.

Felicity: Wow, that's mature, Kir.


2) Who do you celebrate Christmas with?


Bree: Well, it's going to be different for some of us this year than last year. I'm still deciding if I'm going to New York State with Blakeney or staying here.

Josefina: Evelyn, Kaya, Kirsten, Felicity, Molly, Charissa, and I are each going to visit with some of our biological relatives in different parts of the United States.

Summer: The rest of us - me, Kiwi, Tabitha, Fiona, and Clare - will be here with Inna and Maia. We'll all have fun holiday stories to exchange when we're together again!


3) What is your favorite gift you have ever received?


Molly: Paints!

Kirsten: You get those every year.

Molly: So? It's still my favourite.

Felicity: I got a really lovely piece of heirloom china once. That was pretty neat.

Evelyn: My most favourite toy horse was a Christmas gift.


4) What are your favorite Christmas Carols?

Kaya: Silent Night.

Molly: Deck the Halls.

Tabitha: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen... it's a little creepy and dark, but I like it.

Evelyn: Jingle Bells.

Josefina: A La Ru... it reminds me of my mother and grandmother.


5) What is your favorite Christmas food?

Summer: Cranberry sauce.

Kirsten: Turkey.

Charissa: Sweet potatoes.

Clare: Blood. Sorry, sorry - but I'm still a vampire on holidays!


6) Can you sleep on Christmas Eve?


Evelyn: Not very well, and I wake up early.

Charissa: Yeah, but I lie awake for awhile first.

Molly: I could probably sleep through a train running over me, so yes, I sleep like a log, just like every night.


7) When do you wake up on Christmas morning?


Evelyn: When the sun comes up.

Fiona: Eight o'clock.

Felicity: That sounds early... I'll say nine o'clock.

Molly: Late. Long after everyone is waiting and has attempted to wake me up several times.


8) What is your most memorable memory?


Clare: One time I thought my grandmother forgot about Christmas, because we didn't really do much to get ready. I bought her a present, but I didn't think I was getting anything since we didn't have much money that year. When I woke up on Christmas morning, the whole house was decorated, and there were presents under the tree. She wanted to surprise me by doing it like they did when she was a little girl.

Summer: Last year in Ontario we had a Christmas parade thing with the horses at the stable, and we dressed the horses in things like antlers and wreaths, and wore Santa hats.

Kirsten: I was born on Christmas Day.

Felicity: That's not really a memory, since you don't remember it.

Kirsten: Whatever. It was a big deal for me, okay?


9) What are you Christmas traditions?

Kirsten: Going to church on Christmas Eve. Some of us go to the Anglican one.

Josefina: I go to Roman Catholic mass. Also I make fish soup for supper.

Kiwi: We open presents and then have pancakes for breakfast.

Kaya: Being in Nutcracker, and singing songs around the piano on Christmas.

Felicity: Baking Christmas cookies to take to friends.

Clare: Going caroling.


10) Do you have a real tree or an artificial tree?


Kaya: Real.

Bree: Artificial. Lots of people in my genetic family are allergic to evergreen.

Kiwi: Whatever our cat won't tear down, I guess?


So those are our answers. It's hard to know who to tag for this one, because we don't know who does celebrate Christmas and who doesn't... but if we tag you and no one in your household celebrates it, you can talk about your own favourite holiday instead. (Or just not answer.) Have fun!

Tagging:
Sabine
Aurora and Friends
Inky
Rebecca, Summer, and Friends
Sarah Annaliese

Anyone else who wants to answer - consider yourself tagged too! :-)

Recovery

Hi, this is Kaya.

Well, life goes on. Even after something really scary, like the accident with Kiwi and Tabitha.

Kiwi is feeling better today. She's still really sore, and her cheek and nose are really swollen. She's still having trouble with her eye. Surgery is looking like a certainty. Kiwi is taking pain meds, though, and using ice, so she seems pretty cheerful. Especially when we watched Labyrinth with her.

Tabitha feels really, really awful. We all feel bad when we see her, because she looks so dejected. She keeps apologizing to Kiwi - even though Kiwi forgave her - and seems surprised Kiwi even still wants to see her. All day, Tabitha has been doing her best to make Kiwi feel better. Once the sun set she even went in the kitchen and baked cookies for her, even though she couldn't taste any of it herself. We didn't even know Tabitha could cook; we've never seen her do anything around the house. I think she's really trying to turn over a new leaf... and find some humanity. We all wish her well.

For the rest of us, things are kind of back to normal again.

Felicity and Josefina are preparing for the French language oral exams they have every semester. They spend a lot of time chatting away to each other, and the rest of us sort of understand.

Fiona and I are thinking a lot about Nutcracker for ballet - we find out our roles on Monday. I'm pretty sure I'll get something because pretty much all the pointe students are in it. There aren't as many of us, and we have more experience, so I'll probably get cast. I hope it's something good! Fiona isn't sure if she'll get a role, because there are a lot more kids in her age group, and most of her class has studied longer than she has. She also thinks her teacher doesn't like her. She's not sure she'll even be in the show. I think she will, though. She's a good dancer and she works hard. Day after tomorrow, we'll find out!

And yet as always lately, our life is a balance between the mundane and the weird. Day-to-day, it's pretty normal for us. We live just like many other kids our age.  There are some shadows hanging over us. Some scary things still unresolved.

1.) We don't know where the bad feral vampires that kidnapped Kiwi and are trying to kill Clare are. After the last incident, Inna tried to track them down, but couldn't find them. They're still out there. That is worrisome.

2.) The vampire hunters who also wanted Clare dead got kicked out of Canada and aren't supposed to come back. They were after Tabitha when we found her in Pennsylvania, though, so they have even more reason to want to get to us if they figure out where she is. What if they hear about what happened to Kiwi and think Tabitha is an urgent danger? What if they sneak across the border and come back?

3.) The people who keep threatening Inna. We don't know who the are. Whether they're more vampires, or humans, or what. We do know Inna is scared of them... and Inna isn't scared of much, not even ordinary bad vampires. Whatever has her spooked has to be really bad.

So that's life. Kiwi is recovering. I guess we're all recovering - Kiwi was the only one who got hurt, but it was really scary and upsetting for all of us. Tabitha is still trying to get over her guilt. Yeah, we're all still getting better. But I think we're going to be okay.

Love,
Kaya

Accidents Happen

Hi, this is Summer.

As the title of the post says, accidents happen. With vampires around, accidents are even more likely. Unfortunately, we had an accident with Tabitha, and people are pretty stressed out about it.

I should start out by saying that in the time since we posted last (and sorry it's been so long - this is a busy time for us at school) Tabitha, our new vampire, had kind of plateaued. At first, she was just totally feral like an animal, but as she got used to living here she settled down a little. She didn't have to be tied up anymore. Obviously she was struggling a lot - especially over the blood craving thing - but she was able to carry on brief conversations with us, and at one point we felt comfortable enough that Inna and Clare took her to the woods to run around for awhile, and it went fine.

But then... it was like Tabitha decided this was good enough. She had Clare to feed her when she needed to eat. She had a safe place to live. She had company and conversation when she felt like it, and she could make us go away by acting crazy when she didn't. She knew we'd take her out of the city so she could stretch her legs if she behaved well. But that was it. That's not much of a life. Not compared to what she could have.

We were hoping she could finish school, like Clare is doing with her homeschool lessons, and maybe go on to university someday. That she could get under control enough to go outside besides the woods or the yard. That she could maybe even make some human friends someday. That sort of thing. We were hoping she could basically be a normal young woman, with the occasional vampire oddness to work around.

Tabitha didn't seem all that interested. Because living like a human is hard work for a vampire, and living like a monster, or at best an animal, is not difficult. Tabitha had found a sort of comfortable (for her, not for anyone else...) midpoint, and she seemed content to stay there - which worried us.

I think that may have changed with the accident tonight, though.

All of us girls were in the Roses' basement, watching TV with Tabitha. We know it's harder for her with that many people, but it seems like she's getting used to it, and she enjoys the company. Kiwi and Evelyn were playing quietly with Ev's toy horses while we watched the show. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but Kiwi banged her arm on the coffee table, and scraped her elbow.

There was a tiny little bit of blood.

We all froze.

Clare ran out of the room and upstairs, which was really smart, because she could potentially have made things a lot worse. But Tabitha took one quick sniff of the air, and totally lost it. She crossed the room in a single leap, and tackled Kiwi. Kiwi squeaked as her head banged on the floor, and tried to get away from Tabitha, but vampires are way stronger than humans. The rest of us yanked Tabitha off Kiwi, even as Kiwi was shifting to her cat form to try to get out from under her. We had to put Tabitha back in the restraints; she wouldn't calm down. Kiwi changed back, and we took her out of the room while Felicity and Inna tried to get Tabitha to stop freaking out.

Kiwi is pretty banged up. She's not going to die or anything, but the doctors said she will probably need surgery. :-(

Tabitha feels totally awful, like she's a terrible vampire. It wasn't really her fault. She's still getting used to this, and it's not easy for her. Kiwi doesn't blame her at all. Tabitha expected she'd get kicked out... or staked. But we still love her, and Kiwi forgives her.

It was really, really scary. I still get the shivers when I think about it. In a way, though, I think it was good. (Not for Kiwi, though - she's seriously been having the worst couple of months!) I think it finally showed Tabitha why we keep trying to get her to do better, and why we can't just let it go. Before, it seemed like she thought we were nagging. Now she knows how dangerous she can be. I don't think she ever realized this before. Tabitha seems really serious about getting herself under better control. I think that'll turn out to be a really good thing.

We'll be here for her.

Love,
Summer

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, blog friends! :-) This is Bree, filling you in on our holiday.

Today was a hard day to concentrate in school. Everyone was pretty excited about the holiday; too bad Halloween didn't fall on a weekend this year. Oh well. We got home and helped the younger girls get into their costumes. Kirsten made them all pinkie swear to bring back enough candy for all of us.

Fiona, Kiwi, Evelyn, Charissa, Molly, Summer, and Kaya went trick-or-treating. Fiona dressed as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Kiwi dressed as a black cat, and Ev was a pumpkin. Molly made a canvas frame for herself and painted on it, so her costume was a pretty good representation of a Van Gogh painting; her outfit was a ton of work, and she kept it pretty secret till it was done. She got a lot of compliments. Kaya dressed as a turtle, with a paper-mâché shell and a green leotard, and Summer was a purple snail with a matching shell. They all looked great! My sisters are so creative. Maia took them out trick-or-treating in the neighbourhood, and they all had a really good time!


Most of the rest of us stayed and handed out candy, which was fun too. We watched TV while we waited, and talked, and enjoyed the costumes the kids wore. We didn't get a huge number of trick-or-treaters, but we had enough to feel like we were in the spirit of things. They started coming about 5:15 p.m., when it was well on the way to dark, and kept going till 8:30 or so. There were a lot of great outfits, and we gave out lots of candy. (But fortunately, we have some leftovers, too!)


Halloween has been tough on our resident vampires. Kind of ironic, in a way, that a holiday with spooky stuff is difficult for them - I mean, people dress up as vampires for their costumes after all! But having hordes of excited, loud, stranger humans coming to our door wasn't exactly easy on the self-control.  During regular times we don't tend to have many people here that they aren't familiar with, or large groups at once. Tabitha was a mess, and even Clare was struggling. They both stayed in the Roses' basement with Inna and tried to stay calm and peaceful. Clare managed calm and peaceful a lot better than Tabitha did, but no one got eaten - or even almost eaten - which we consider a win.


Our pets didn't have a great time either. Gandalf hid under Kiwi's bed, and April alternated between hiding behind the sofa and barking at the front window. They're glad that people have pretty much stopped knocking. Clare didn't appreciate it when Molly pointed out the similarity between pets and vampires.


For most of us, it was a fun holiday. For the others... well, it was at least okay. Halloween is one of my favourite holidays. I like the pretend spookiness and how excited everyone is. I wouldn't want every day to be Halloween, but it's a fun novelty once a year, and I always enjoy it.


Do you like Halloween? Did you go trick-or-treating? What did you dress as? If you stayed in and handed out candy, did you have many people come to your door?


Love,
Bree

Together

"What can't we face if we're together?

What's in this place that we can't weather?"

-Buffy, the musical episode

Hello, blog world! This is Bree.

Well, as it turns out, we were right to be worried about what the weird guy who followed us said. We got home, and told the adults - and Inna totally flipped out. We knew she'd probably be upset that someone had threatened her (and us, too, really) but we didn't expect the level of fear we saw when we broke the news.

Inna immediately announced that she was leaving. That it was too dangerous us if she stayed with us. That was something we weren't okay with, though. We couldn't just send Inna off on her own. We'd miss her - and besides, we're safer together than any single one of us would be alone. Inna was skeptical, so we took a vote. No one voted she should go. We're a family, and she's part of that family. No matter what. 

She continued arguing, but I pointed out that she'd do the same thing for any of us. Inna couldn't really refute that, because we all knew it was true, so she conceded the point. 

There was brief talk of just the Roses going - but again, safety in numbers, and neither Inna nor Maia wanted to put Summer and Kiwi in danger. That's why they came here in the first place. To be safe. Thankfully, we decided the best way to make that happen is for us all to stay together. I'm glad. I don't want to lose anyone from my family.

Speaking of that, Tabitha - our new vampire - is doing a little better. She's been drinking the blood Clare brings her, and she seems maybe a little less crazy now? 

Tabitha actually managed to have a reasonably coherent conversation with me on one of my visits. She told me she liked my shirt (the first time she'd expressed any kind of preference.) Since she seemed to be conversing better than usual, I asked if she had any family we could contact for her. Tabitha said no, and asked where she was. She seemed surprised when I said Canada - I don't think she remembers the trip at all - but she seemed relieved to be far away from the place where things went so badly wrong for her. And, probably more importantly, at least for now she's gotten away from the people who were chasing her there. She asked if we were really going to protect her, and I promised we would... because family doesn't leave each other, and we're stronger when we're together.

Love,

Bree

An Extra Vampire

Multiple choice quiz:

The Greens and the Roses are...

A.) Suicidally insane
B.) Never going to have normal lives
C.) Probably eventually going to need to learn that not everything can be our problem to deal with
D.) Never going to run out of vampires

or

E.) All of the above!

Hi, this is Bree. Summer, Blakeney, and I are back home now, after a fun trip. I can't say it was uneventful, though. Especially not at the end.

The last weekend of our trip, we went down to Pennsylvania to spend time by the creek where our relatives have a little vacation place. We kayaked, went for walks, went wading, and read our books outside. It was a lot of fun.

A day or so in, though, we got a call from Inna, saying she'd heard rumours that the mean vampire hunters we (unfortunately) met here in Canada were hanging around nearby where we were. That was, of course, worrisome news. One thing we weren't quite sure of, though, was whether it had anything to do with us. Were they looking for us? Were they looking for me because I lied to them about where Clare was? But how would they even know where we were? How could they have found us? And yet, it seemed like too much to be just a coincidence.

So of course, we did the only thing we could: we spied on them. What we found out was at first reassuring. They didn't seem to be looking for us. They didn't seem to know we were around. We still didn't know why they were there, though... or why they built a big fire by their camp, like they were issuing a threat to someone rather than lying low. That had to be something we wouldn't like.

Inna called us again; she had figured out why they were there. It wasn't about us, but it wasn't entirely a coincidence either. They were hunting someone. It just wasn't us. Inna had heard from her "contacts" that there was vampire activity nearby. More specifically, a vampire, a red-haired girl... and from the reports of the chaos, Clare and Inna thought this vampire was newly-turned and confused. And now, to further add to her confusion, she had hunters after her, hunters that so far she'd managed to evade successfully. Eventually, though, her luck would run out.

Vampire problems tend to multiply very quickly, or so we're told. But it makes sense, because they can just bite people instead of killing them, and make more vampires. You want to get a lid on this kind of situation while it's still just a small number, if you can. That's what the hunters seemed to be trying to do.

Clare was in the background of the telephone conversation, and said she wanted to talk to Blakeney. It sounded like she was crying. I could only hear one end of the conversation, but Blakeney said, "I know," and then, "We'll take care of it." At the time, I wasn't sure I was going to like what that entailed. Then she got off the phone, and told us we were going to have to deal with the situation. (Actually she sang "I've got a theory we should work this fast/Because it clearly could get serious before it's passed," because if you can quote Buffy, you should quote Buffy. My sisters and I have decided that sometime we're going to try going a whole day speaking entirely in pop culture quotations. But anyway, what she meant was that we were going to deal with the situation.)

It would have been nice if we'd had the whole "team" there. It's easier to handle stuff like crazy vampires as a family. We'd just have to do our best, with Inna and Clare to give consultation on vampires over the phone. It was better than nothing.

I was still nervous, though... especially when we finally found her, after combing the creek and woods for several hours. It's not like I haven't hung around vampires, but I'm used to Clare, and she doesn't really act much different from the rest of us, except in the dietary sense. This girl looked totally out of it. She was crouched like an animal, her hair was tangled, her clothes were filthy and bloody... and she'd obviously already been attacked by something. She was badly hurt. One of her legs looked like it was just about torn off. I think if she'd been human, that alone would have killed her - but she was hanging on, just not very pleasantly. I was kind of scared of her. But I also felt really bad for her. I hoped she was going to be okay. Somehow...

We called for advice. The first suggestion Inna gave us was to try to reason with the vampire girl, and get her to stand down. It didn't work. At all. Summer optimistically refers to this attempt as "the time that at least we didn't get eaten." It ultimately involved a lot of running away. Fortunately she couldn't move fast with that leg.

We got out of range of the teeth - it was a close call, especially for poor Summer - and phoned Inna back. Her next suggestion was to drug the vampire with animal tranquilizers set up in a trap. That... actually worked pretty well. Pretty soon we had a drugged, sleeping vampire. For the first time, she actually looked peaceful, and I realized she had a sweet face when she wasn't snarling. I think she's about the same age as Felicity and Clare.

Shipping a drugged, tied up vampire back to Canada was easier than you might think. We couldn't leave her there. As soon as we left, she'd just break free and start going crazy again, maybe kill someone - and definitely get herself killed, with vampire hunters around. We needed to get her as far away from the scene of the craziness as possible so they wouldn't be able to track her, and someone needs to look after her. We didn't have much choice but to bring her back with us.

While we were sitting in the Toronto airport waiting for our plane, I asked Blakeney if this was what she had in mind when she told Clare we'd take care of it. Blakeney gave me a raised-eyebrow look and said I'd misheard her - she'd said we'd take care of her. Because Clare remembered what it was like to be scared and freshly vampiric, and she was worried. This was the plan all along. Well, not the drugging part - they'd hoped to just buy her a seat - but the general idea of bringing her back. I felt a lot better about that than what I had thought we were going to have to do.

Now she's in the Roses' basement, sleeping it off. She'll still be restrained when she wakes up. Inna said not to expect her to be too coherent. So far we don't even know her name. It may take time before she'll be normal like Clare. We'll just have to take care of her in the meantime, and try to help her.

So we're home... and we have an extra vampire.

Love,
Bree

Super Powers

After a number of weird episodes over several months, and after some testing and experimentation of our own, we have realized something as a family. We all have super powers! :-)

We kind of already knew that. At least, we knew some of us did, and our readers probably suspected it was all of us. Just recently, we found out what Felicity's was when we rescued Kiwi. For a long time, we thought Charissa and Evelyn didn't have any either... until we remembered some things that happened a long time ago. Very early on in our blogging times, Charissa just disappeared one day, but claimed she was there all along. We finally figured out why - she can turn invisible! At first it just happened when she was feeling shy or wished she was somewhere else, but she's started learning to control it. Also, remember when Evelyn broke her arm? And remember how she healed very fast from it? Well, we realized - after many skinned knees and elbows that repaired faster than normally possible - that her power is healing! We were pretty amazed; that's a great power, and we thought she had none!

While making all these discoveries, we've been testing and practicing, and we're starting to be able to use our abilities more consistently. This is a good thing, given how much crazy we seem to be dealing with lately!

For those who need a rundown, here are our special gifts...

The Greens:


Kirsten - Shattering things
Bree - Speed
Felicity - Influencing people with her voice
Clare - Being a vampire (surely that's enough!)
Josefina - Making fire
Molly - Creating ice
Kaya - Feeling other people's emotions
Charissa - Invisibility
Fiona - Telekinesis
Evelyn - Healing


The Roses:


Maia - Turning into a cat
Inna - ??? (She's very mysterious about it. She has suggested "fashion," "being Slavic," "having an accent," and "crazy driving" as what her power might be, but we're pretty sure she actually has a real one but is keeping it secret for some reason.)
Summer - Cat
Kiwi - Also cat

So... that's us! We're special, and strange, but mostly life is still just regular and normal. Only with more vampires, shapeshifters, and strange happenings than most people experience.

Love,
The Greens and The Roses

More about Letters

Hello. This is Kaya. :-)

Summer isn't the only one who got a letter this week... or the only one who sent one recently.

I got a letter from my biological sister, Rosa. She lives with relatives back in Idaho. It was a happy letter, not a lot of serious emotional stuff. She turned eight recently, and she was telling me about her birthday party and her school. Rosa even drew me a picture of her with her dog, which was really cute and made me smile.

It also made me miss her even more than usual, though. I sometimes wish I could be both places - or even better, that she could come here and live with me. I know that would be hard for her. It's a big change, and she's a lot younger than I am, so she wouldn't comprehend it as easily. Rosa is probably happier where she is. I know she misses me, though... and I miss her too. I think about her a lot. It's hard when you can't be with all of your family.

Evelyn has two sisters she doesn't live with, too. One of hers is older than her, and one is younger. I know she misses them, and feels the same way.

At least we can write, phone, and e-mail, though. It's good that technology can help us stay in touch. If I lived this far from Rosa 100 years ago, I'd most likely just never have contact with her again. I'm glad we can at least still be in each other's lives. That's the bright side.

Now, about my sent letter. I joined a penpal program! I know, it sounds very retro. Everyone uses e-mail and online message boards, now, to talk to people all over the world. We have blog friends who comment regularly from several different countries. Still, there's something to be said for getting paper mail. It's really fun to open the mailbox and get a letter.

I'm still waiting to find out who my penpal will be. I asked to be matched with a girl approximately my age who lives in The North. I know we seem pretty "north" ourselves - and we sure feel that way! - but actually there's quite a lot of area to the north of us also, where people live. Very sturdy, determined people; sometimes we have to be pretty sturdy and determined to live even where we do.

My pen pal will probably live in Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, or Nunatsiavut. I am hoping (and it is very likely) that she will be from a First Nations tribe or band. ("First Nations" is the term usually used in Canada to refer to native/aboriginal people.) I think it would be really neat to learn about her culture, and I can tell her about the history and some of the traditions of my tribe, too.

Love,
Kaya

Three of Us Are Ten

Hi, this is Charissa, Fiona, and Kiwi. Yes, all of us. We're writing this post together.

One thing that has been cool for us about being neighbours and then family is that all three of us are the same age. We're all ten. We love all of (both of) our families, but the three of us have developed a special bond because we're the same number of years old, and in the same grade.

Today we realized we could give ourselves special nicknames that all rhyme. Charissa is C, Kiwi is Ki, and Fiona is Fi. Pretty fun, huh?

It's almost like being triplets, only we didn't know each other until this year. Plus we look nothing alike. It's going to be fun when all three of us are in the same class, once school starts. The other kids are probably going to be pretty curious about us. Maybe we should wear matching outfits on the first day or something?

Do you have any siblings close in age? Do you have any fun nicknames for each other?

Love,
C, Fi, and Ki

P.S. Kiwi says it's going to be weird at school because the teachers all call her Caroline. That will take some getting used to! Sometimes the rest of us forget that Kiwi is a nickname, since she goes by it pretty much all the time.

Decision Time... Finally

Hi, this is Clare. I finally made a decision today. I'm going to let the family adopt me, and I'm going to be their official sister.

I know it probably seems weird that it took me so long to decide that. I've always liked them. They've always been nice to me. I've always wished I was a sister, not just a long-term guest. It was hard to say that, though.

For one thing, it's been awhile since I've been able to rely on other people. When my grandmother died and my family was arguing over who was going to be stuck with me, I kind of felt like I was never really going to be wanted. Even when the Greens said they wanted me to stay, it was hard to believe.

Also, I was worried bad things would happen to them because of me. I was worried they'd get hurt. I thought it would be better for me to run away so they didn't have to deal with my problems. I figured they'd eventually decide they'd had enough and kick me out or leave me for the bad vampires to find, so I should just cut my losses and make my own way before they could turn their backs on me.

When we got the threatening letter the other day, the family kept talking about what "we" were going to do. It was just assumed that I was staying, and they were going to protect me. It finally sank in, I guess. They already saw me as part of the family. I just had to decide what to do about it.

So... I decided I'm staying. I'm going to be an adopted Green. Finally. :-)

Love,
Clare

Back on Track

Hey everyone - sorry for the delay in posting. We've been having a busy week. Here's a brief catch up on what's been going on...

On Monday, Evelyn, Charissa, Fiona, and Kiwi got back from camp. They had a really wonderful time, and brought back lots of fun stories, craft projects, and massive piles of dirty laundry. The girls made some new friends, and had loads of great experiences. They can't wait to go back next year!

The rest of our summer activities are finished up now too. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot. Those of us who were not at sleep-away camp went camping and hiking in one of the provincial parks for two nights with Inna, Maia, and Summer last week, before the other girls got home. It was really fun too. We're glad to have everyone back together now, though.

Wednesday was Regatta Day, when the whole city closes down for boat races and we all go down to the lake to... well, in theory to watch. In reality, we go to eat, play carnival games, and hang out with friends. Our city's regatta is the oldest documented annual sporting event in North America. We went down for the afternoon. Even Clare got to come along because it was really overcast. We ate at our favourite food stall we get lunch at every year - the one run by the Hindu temple, where they serve awesome Indian food as a fundraiser. Then we played games, won some prizes, and walked around. (It turns out Bree is really talented at carnival games, which she had never mentioned the extent of before. Who knew! Bree is a woman of mystery, apparently.) We ate mooseburgers, chips/fries, and cotton candy for supper. It was a really good time all around.

Today Summer had another horse show, so we all went to cheer for her. It was raining hard, so some of the events got canceled and some got moved indoors for safety reasons, but Summer won a blue ribbon and a red one. Summer badly wants her own horse, but so far she's always just shown school horses. Maybe someday! Evelyn will start taking riding lessons soon too, so before long we'll probably be going to two people's horse shows.

I think that's the main news for now. Good to "see" our blog friends again, and sorry we've been too busy to write! We're back on track to blog regularly again now, so you'll be seeing more of us. :-)

Love,
The Green Girls

Six Months

This is the six month anniversary of our blog! Wow, can you believe that? A lot has changed in that time:

1.) There are two new sisters in the family, Bree and Fiona.

2.) Our neighbours became friends, then more like family. We found out they have some secrets, but we love them in spite of it.

3.) We met Clare, learned that vampires are real, and gained her as another honourary family member.

4.) We learned that we have powers we didn't even know existed.

5.) We got a dog!

There's one more thing, too, and it's related to Point #2 above. Lately we've been thinking how hard it'll be if we ever move, or our neighbours do. We'd really miss them. So we've decided (including our guardian and the adult sisters next door) that we're going to to keep being a big family. We're not just going to go our separate ways. We've all sort of adopted each other anyway - and now we've put it in words and made a decision. We're really happy!

Here's to six months making great blog friends! And here's to many more!

Love,
The Green Girls

Quiet House, Thinking Thoughts

Hi, this is Clare. :-)

Taryn suggested that I spend some of my wasted daytime hours blogging, and although I wasn't sure I'd have that much to say, I've given in to the peer pressure, and I'm going to try.

The house is really quiet without Evelyn, Charissa, and Fiona. It's sort of amazing how much chaos those three can create - I think it's just their age. Is it weird that I like the quiet, but I still miss them? I think the other girls do too, on both counts. You get used to having all the family there.

For that matter, it's strange not to have Kiwi here. I think I see almost as much of her, Summer, Inna, and Maia, as the people who actually live in this house. Even though they sleep next door, it's more like one big family during waking hours.

It feels like... I'm part of the family now, too. I didn't expect that. I'm really attached to them. I'm worried I won't be able to leave. Sometimes I think about asking them to adopt me. Then I remember how much harder I make things for them. It's silly to fantasize about it.

Today, I've been kind of philosophical, I guess. I've been thinking about good and evil. More specifically, which I am. I don't think I'm particularly good. Does being a vampire mean I'm automatically evil, though? Can a "creature of the night" still be good? Is what I am just bad, or does it depend on my actions? What if in the future, I never do terrible things? Am I still evil, because I'm a vampire? I feel bad that I have to drink blood. But is it any worse than a cheeseburger? Most people eat animals... just in a different way than I do.

I've also been thinking about the people I... you know... killed. It's hard to even type that. Yeah, the other vampires made me, but it's still my fault, isn't it? That must mean I'm evil after all. But the family here is so nice to me. Why would good people want to keep me around, if I'm evil? Maybe if I start doing good deeds, I could atone for my past or something. (Like Angel from Buffy - have I been watching too much television?)

Yeah. Thinking a lot, today. A quiet house can do that to you.

Love,
Clare

A Temporary Goodbye

Don't worry, it's not Clare saying bye, and it's not permanent.

(Hi, this is Bree, by the way.)

Today we said goodbye to Evelyn, Charissa, Fiona, and Kiwi for two whole weeks! They're going to sleep-away camp about an hour away from the city. They're going to be hiking, swimming, learning about nature, doing crafts, sitting around the campfire... the usual camp stuff. They also each get to choose an area to focus on learning about while they're there. The camp calls it a "major," like at a university. Evelyn is going to be taking horseback riding for her major. Fiona and Kiwi are doing drama. Charissa is doing sports and athletics.

It sounds like they're going to have a fantastic time! They were really excited... but a tiny bit nervous too. Especially Evelyn, I think, since she's the youngest and she hasn't really been away from home much. I think once they get there, they'll have so much fun they're going to forget they were ever worried or homesick.

We the older kids are staying in the city for now. Me and Kirsten have these two weeks off from driver's ed for "vacation." Kirsten is going to be doing a Model UN seminar, which she's taking so seriously it's a little absurd. You would think her success or failure was really going to make or break world politics, the way she's acting. Meanwhile, Felicity, Summer, and I are taking a writing course at the local public library, and Josefina has three more weeks left in her photography course that's co-sponsored between the library and the museum. Molly is going to the same art program she goes to every year, but she says she learns different things every time. Kaya has been taking dance workshops over the course of the summer so far, but for the next ten days she's taking time off from ballet to attend an environmental science day program with Parks Canada.

Clare can't go along on any of our activities, of course, due to vampire sunburn concerns - but she's doing a lot of reading and learning yoga. She seems pretty content, although it's too bad her life is so restricted. We try to spend as much time with her in the evenings as we can.

So far our summer has been pretty cold and grey. Yeah, we live in Northern Canada, but the other girls tell me it's usually warmer and sunnier than this in July. (It's my first summer here.) Things finally warmed up a couple of weeks ago, although it has been pretty inconsistent and there have been as many chilly days as summery ones.

Still, we're hoping to do some weekend camping trips between now and when school starts. We can't spend our entire summer in the city, after all, right?

Love,
Bree