My parents are here, it's wonderful to see them. Their plane landed at 4.00 pm, but customs took a while so we were home at 6.30 pm. Leo was very shy in the beginning, hiding behind Sasha, but Adrian was ready to start talking right away.

Mieke read a book, Kom uit die kraan!. They didn't remember it from last year and didn't quite get the story yet, but they quickly warmed up and dinner was fun with lots of talking.

Nora left for Bulgaria today -- all by herself. She is flying as an unaccompanied minor for the first time, a big step for all of us.

I brought her to the airport today and after check-in we went to the gate together. When we spoke to the service agent there Nora said, when asked, "I'm six... and a half".

She wasn't scared at all, just a little excited. When boarding started, she was the very first person on the plane. When the steward took her, she smiled and ran back at me for one more hug, and then she left.

The flight had a bit of a delay due to weather, so I waited a while at the gate until the flight departed. She'll arrive in Frankfurt in a few hours, and then in Bulgaria around 8.00 am EST tomorrow.

We're cleaning out the basement and so we're selling our old baby gear. It makes us a little nostalgic, but it's also nice to clean up and get more space in the house.

The double stroller went to a family with two kids who are consolidating strollers. One of the high chairs went to a family who already had one of the model but wanted one at their aunt's as well. The "baby cage" went to a lady who'll use it for her small dog. The running stroller we sold to a lady who turned out to be a co-worker.

The car seats are more difficult to sell, though we just sold the oldest one (Nora's green one).

Nora's teacher, Ms Leslie, shared a wonderful collection of photo's of Nora from the past three years. It was so nice to see her working on all these projects.

Today I fixed a few of the mesh screens in our house. Leo and Adrian had a period where they liked to poke their tiny fingers through the mesh, and several bedroom windows and downstairs windows were damaged.

I watched a explanation on YouTube and in the late afternoon went to Home Depot to pick up the equipment.

On my way home from Home Depot I saw a car from Screen Mobile, a commercial service for restoring screens. No need to call them.

It wasn't hard to do, and it's nice to no longer have these ugly holes in the window screens.

We went to the County again, the third time in three months, to give feedback for a revision of the Transportation Master Plan.

There are positive developments in County policy, and it's good to come out and support the good cause.

We're taking care of 5 chicks this weekend -- Stella, a larger chick, and four recently hatched chicks. It's been really nice to have them in the house, very cozy.

It has been raining for several days in a row, and yesterday when it cleared up we went to the Bluemont creek so see it after all the rain. As expected, the water level was high and it was fun to watch.

Nora asked: "Kun je in dat water zwemmen?" and I explained no, it's not for swimming because of the current ("Er staat een flinke stroming.").

The next day over breakfast, we were talking about this again and Leo told Sasha that the water wasn't for swimming because има кабел -- there's a cable. Later he told me "er was een kabel".

It took us a while to figure out, but Leo translated "stroming" into "stroom" which goes through a cable (кабел)...

For the first time, I made it to a pitstop on Bike to Work Day. The event ends at 9.00 am, and at 8.45 am I was in Ballston.

This week the County started working on the first phase of the new sidewalk at Johnson and 13th Street. In the median of Kirkwood there'll be a new bio-retention element, which is what they've started on.

Per an email from the County: "The NC street improvement element is currently at 75% design review comments, and will likely be ready for a neighborhood final design meeting by early 2019."