Pictures from Patrick's B-day (make sure you check out that post)

For some reason these pictures didn't make it on the last post so here they are. Sorry.

Patrick turns 30

The Big 3 0 !! Patrick had a big birthday last Sunday. We started celebrating early by getting him some running shoes for his birthday present. He is quite the active person and loves to run, bike, ect.

Since his birthday fell on a Sunday we couldn't do much on his actual birthday but just hang out at home, well we did go to church. For dinner I had marinaded some chicken and vegtables to bbq. And they were good. We sat up the table outside and ate dinner outside which the girls loved.

Yes, that it is a cake on the bbq !! Patrick saw the recipe in one of his many bbq books and so he made it all from scratch and cooked it on the bbq. It is quite impressive and very good.

In the backyard there is a snowball tree. I am not sure the official name for it but it has a ball of white flowers on it so we call it the snowball tree. So we had a snowball fight. It was so much fun. We all were laughing and throwing the balls of flowers at each other.

We finished up the celebration by going to Mimi's Cafe for his birthday breakfast. Happy birthday to you my love.

Our afternoon at the beach

This is my version of " Our wonderful day at the beach". The sun was shining, it was the perfect temperature. The water was warm and quite inviting. Everyone was in a wonderful mood, and last but not least is that everyone was sporting their great tans and wonderful bodies !!

Why - what a great day !! Wait - we need a rewind. Okay, Okay - wishful thinking I know. Here is what really happened. It was , after all, the middle of May. So I could have been a little bit warmer. ( But hey, who's complaning !! I am at the beach for crying out loud. ) I was so excited to take Maddie to the beach for the first time. Since she loves to play in the sand at home and loves any water she can find. She was in a horrible mood ( teething !! - need I say more). She at first did not want to go near the water but reluctantly went towards it, only to find out that it was freezing cold and so she retreated as fast as she could and crying so loud everyone around heard her !! Oh well, there is always a next time right !! She hated the sand, as the picture says it all. Well enough of the bad news.

Katelyn on the other hand loved the beach. She was so cute playing with the waves. She would stand on the beach and wait for the waves to come in and then run as fast as she could try to try to outrun the water. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't and she would get wet. She loved the water - didn't mind getting wet. She loved the sand, she even let Rob's friend bury her legs !! She went wave jumping with Rob(my brother) and did not want to leave.

Patrick had a wonderful time. Rob took him surfing for the very first time. He caught some good waves and even got up on his knees. Which I guess was pretty good from what I heard from the guys. He also went out in the water and body surfed or whatever you want to call it.

As far as myself, I was in heaven with the view I had, and safe on the beach bathing in the warm sun. With my family there, there was no other place I would have rather been. We all had a wonderful time.

P.S. The answer to the question from the last post is (going from left to right and the top down). Maddie was the first and the fourth photos. And Katelyn are the second and third pictures.

Who's Who ?

I was looking through the pictures from our recent trip to the beach. I noticed that some of the pictures looked similar to our last beach trip two years ago. There are a few similarities, #1. A baby girl. #2. The same swim suit. #3. The same water shoes. #4. The same clothes on mommy and daddy ! So I though it might be fun to show you the pictures from the beach. Both this year and two years ago. Try to guess who is who and I will post the answers in a few days and also include some more pictures and let you about our day at the beach.

Mickey and Friends adventure

I am back !! The reason I haven't blogged lately is that we have been to busy meeting Mickey and all his friends. We went down to California from Rob's(my brother) graduation from USC (yes - we are very proud). So now he is officially a Rocket Scientist. We finally made it to the hotel late Wed. night after driving all around town trying to find the hotel. The girls woke up and were literally bouncing off the walls. Or should I say the beds !! The next morning we met Rob, my cousin Megan(she is going to school down there), and Megan's mom (who was visiting at the time) at Disneyland. This first picture was in front of California Adventure. For those of you who haven't been there, California is spelled out in huge letters in front of the gate to get in. We had so much fun at Disneyland, Katelyn is still talking about it. Katelyn was so excited to meet Mickey but I think that Minnie was her favorite. As you can see when she met minnie she was so excited she was just grinning from ear to ear. I think that her most favorite thing about Disneyland was the Disney playhouse show. For those of you not familiar with the Disney channel on t.v., in the morning they have the playhouse disney that has a bunch of different shows including Katelyn's favorite - Little Einstein's. In California Adventure they have a live show that features most of the characters from the channel. I got a call (I was at the hotel with Maddie - she was napping) from Patrick telling me about the show and how Katelyn was literally speechless. She loved it and couldn't stop saying that she met Hanny Manny(another character) and that she saw Rocket. Maddies favorite was the dumbo ride. She absolutely loved it. She kept pointing to the ride every time we would go by as to say I want to go again. The next fun thing that I loved doing and is a must have when going to disneyland is to get Mickey ears. We had so much each trying on the different hats in the Mad Hatter shop. The girls still love to put their "ears on". Well I should rap up. But I just have to say that I loved everything about out trip and can't wait to go back.

Gardening/Yardwork 101

The weather has finally decided to cooperate and be spring like and with the good weather comes yard work. I have done a minimal amount of yard work over the years. I have learned a few things these past few weeks about yard work. These are my findings that I would like to share with you all.

1. It is much more work that I had originally thought.

2. I don't think my body
will ever be the same.

3. I will forever be a hunchback.

4. Weeds are much more resistant to being pulled out of the ground than I had anticipated. Which means alot more work for me.

5. It is alot more time consuming than I though. Funny me, thinking I could go out and get alot done in a short amount of time. Ha Ha, jokes on me.

6. And lastly, it is so great to see the end result. The beautiful flowers blooming and all the weeds in the trash can !!

It was a family afair this particular day as we all helped to clean up the yard. The girls love to be outdoors and they love to help dig,rake, and put the weeds in the pile. So after a hard days work, followed a bath and a picnic lunch.

Who is responsible ?

May 1 - Alright which one of you is responsible
for this horrible, white, cold stuff that keeps showing up every week or more ? I know someone out there is praying for snow and I think it is time to stop !! Don't make me come and find you !! I am so done with winter. The snow, cold, and wind, all of it. Plus the tulips need the warmth to survive. Come on do it for the tulips !! Bring on Spring. Say it with me now - Bring on Spring, Bring on Spring. That was good.

Come on Spring where are you ? Today you are far far away. Come back please !! We love the spring. The birds chirping, the flowers blooming, the nice weather. Not to hot, not to cold. Oh well - I guess will we will have to deal with the snow. Although not happily.