May 30, My mom's birthday and watching Katie

I got Katie this Dora chair at a yard sale for $1
She and David played in the water, but she was tired and cranky all morning!

Mary got her this Pluto that barks and flips. She liked it.

the lattice

I worked my butt off today!

We haven't added the lattice to the top yet. We're going to do that tomorrow.

I'm exhausted! Debbie, Jorge, and I built a patio today and painted it. It took so long. I went with brown because I really don't like the green on the house and eventually, in a year or more, I hope to be able to paint the rest of the house brown and get rid of the yellow and green. We haven't put the lattice up yet, but we will staple that down tomorrow.

David was home from Maryland, for Memorial Day weekend, so Heather and Katie were gone all day and I had the day to myself. I wanted to go to the beach, but I'm glad I got this done instead.

The lumber and hardware was only $110.00, the paint was $40, and the lattice was $45, so all together, we were able to do this for under $200.

It's nothing fancy, just a nice place to sit and relax. I'll probably put Katie's pool under there so she can play in it without dragging grass into the pool. I am trying to figure out ways to keep all the mulberries from taking over the grass. I had so many weeds this year, because of the mulberries. I added the concrete to cut down on the watering, and added the pergola to cut down on the mulberries that drop and stick like glue to your shoes, and get drug into the house.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?

I am so beat. I cut my tree down today. Not all of it of course, but more than I wanted to. I love the tree, but during this time of year, it drops mulberries all over the ground, which become sticky and sweet, and gets embedded into the grass, and brings swarms of flies and ants.

I cut lots of branches and lost most of my shade. I'm kind of sad about that, but I can't have the mulberries all over the place.

Tomorrow I will have to spend the day sawing all the large branches into small ones, and then trying to get them tied into bundles for the trash.

It's so much work!

So this is what I'm up against:

All these tree branches have to be put into a small trash can. Waste Management only allows one yard trash can per week--and there are as many on the side of the house.
Flies all over the roses

Mulberry stains all over the concrete

Swarms of flies nesting on the lattice. GROSS!

New Driveway

Omar finished the concrete today. It looks a million times better than it did. It was so bad before!!

He added the mailbox, which makes a huge difference.
This is the only photo I have of my old driveway.

The new one. It's still drying.

The backyard cement.

Before.

I want to build a small pergola here.

Mother's Day 2009 - Seal Beach, California

**click pictures to enlarge**

Today was Mother's Day. Heather got me an Ipod charger for my car, to charge and play my songs. I've been wanting one, so THANKS HEATHER!

We went to Seal Beach for the day. We took David too.

David and Katie loved the water. They ran right in it. It was a little colder than I was hoping for, but they still went right in. At least it wasn't so hot that they got burned.
Katie had trouble balancing in the waves. David had trouble not bumping into her and making her fall.
Katie running.

You can see the excitement in her face.

She thought it felt weird when the waves would pull back and dig her feet into the sand.

They kept running back and forth, letting the waves catch them.

Heather, staying dry.

Katie loved the water.

Heather and Katie walking down the street. I looked at one for sale today. It was $4,500,000.00 Much more than I thought they were going for. There goes my dream.

David wanted to take a picture in front of these beautiful flowers. He picked one for his mom, but lost it.

I tried to get Katie to take a picture with the flowers too, but she didn't do so well.

He chased the seagull away.

Heather, with her mother's day flowers from Ruby's.

We went to Ruby's to eat lunch. David had a cheeseburger and Katie had chicken. David like Katie's chicken better. The waitress didn't bring the kids anything to drink, which I thought was kind of rude, since they are little people too, and were thirsty from the water.

After lunch they had dessert. She threw her cherry on the table.

They were pretty melted so they ended up eating them with a straw.

Katie walking down the pier. She took sooooooooo long to walk.

I told David to hold the flower and say "I love you" and "Happy Mother's Day" to his mom. At that same time, he noticed the sparkles in the ocean and wanted to know what they were. I told him it was the reflection from the sun, dancing on the water. He wouldn't take his eyes off the sparkles long enough to take the picture.

At the playground

Katie liked playing with the sand.

She thought it was fun to let it slide through her fingers.

Summer is official

This morning, Mary and I went to yard sales. I got Katie 8 new books for 50 cents each. It was a $75 value. I was going to buy a couple of the books at Walmart for $9.99, so getting them for 50 cents was a steal. Especially, since they were in brand new condition.

After I came home, I had to babysit Katie while Heather went to her Saturday class. She was in a bad mood so I put her to bed for about 45 minutes. When she woke up, she was in a much better mood.

We read her new books and she went in the pool. Her top fell in the pool before I could get it on her, so she wouldn't let me put it on her once it was wet. I got the pool last year for $20 from a yard sale. This is her second year using it and it's still in great shape. The slide was included. It will probably be another year before she really takes to it. For some reason, Step 2 has discontinued the slide, which is a shame, because it's really a nice size for kids. It was originally a couple hundred dollars.

Afterwards she played with her Thomas the Tank Engine that I got her for $1. You push the head down and it takes off on it's own. She liked that a lot. We also drew with chalk, then she ate pizza and cherry juice.

Heather picked her up at 2:30. Getting Dora wet.

Getting used to the water.

Dora went swimming too.

Going down the slide

Reading her books.

Getting her books ready. We read them about 5 times each.

Playing in the pool

Oops..Splashed in her face. She liked drinking water out of the hose She probably drank a quart.

Here she is, playing with Thomas. She would send it to me and I would send it back to her.

She tried to get risky here. I wonder what goes through kids' minds. LOL. For some reason, she laid down so Thomas could run her over.