The view from here

My view on the way back from the pool.   She was very proud today to ride her big bike...prior to this she had been riding a tiny bike. Her feet barely touch the ground on this one, so starts and stops are a little dicey.

The view from here

I'm hoping to catch up with at least some pictures over the next few days. We've had a busy busy busy couple weeks. The last week of school is INSANE with school stuff, followed by the build up to Parker's birthday and birthday party. Oh and any minute now the major remodel will begin and I have a CAD job to be done somewhere in my free time. Should be an interesting summer!
Parker is loving the pool, luckily, since its already awfully baking hot here and it's not even July. I can somewhat read a magazine by poolside this year...Parker mainly bobs around in the shallow end and chatters endlessly so she's easy to keep track of.

patio planter

It turned out really pretty this year. The Mandevilla is going crazy and will hopefully have blooms all along the top of the trellis. I also added a scented begonia this year (the light green) and it adds a pretty texture.

Fashion pics

This is another thing I should probably try to stay ahead of....Parker's fashion choice of the day. In all of these, she's not just grabbing stuff out of her dark closet and putting them on....she's putting a lot of though into each piece.

Out to dinner outfit: striped shirt, plaid skirt, tie-dye leggings, and suede boots (in 90 deg weather). Luckily we went to a family restaurant at 5:30 on a weekend, so we weren't the only on there with an oddly dressed kid.

School outfit: favorite jeans, floral skirt, and striped tank top. I was too late to get the argyle sweater in the picture too.

Another dinner out outfit: This wouldn't be so strange except that it was hot outside. The scarf is new and she's really loving it. If there's such thing as a lightweight summer boot, I need to find out what it is. Do they make flip flop boots? That would be ideal.

First harvest

Here is the first garden harvest. a zucchini, a squash and a radish. We picked them after swim lessons this evening, hence the wet hair and swimsuit coverup. They probably could have gone another day, but I'm trying to stay ahead of the production.

Busy busy weeks lately. It is for kids and parents and teachers this time of year. We had an event at the school last night until 8, another thing tomorrow at 8am and swimming lessons after school for the next week and a half. So if you don't hear much from us until June 5th, you'll know why.

Bike ride before dinner

Swiss chard

Too pretty to eat.

Face painting at the race

Race result: she ran the whole 1k...12 min pace.

Parker first race

Shopping with the cat

Today at school was "Dress like your favorite character from a book" day. Parker was totally thrilled to be able to wear a tale and ears to school for the whole day. She LOVES wearing this tale for some reason. It gives her a little extra pep in her step and a little extra attitude. She was Boris from Mama Cat Has Three Kittens. After school we had to do a little shopping and even though she came home first, she chose to keep the costume on....although she switched out her shoes for boots.

Quick pic

The costume is cute...but the non-stop meowing is getting old.

Pic for Paula

Here's my prototype. Are you SURE your shirts are 100% cotton? All I can find at HobbyLobby is 50/50.

Fashion quick pic

Parker's outfit choice today:  her soccer uniform from when she was 3, and suede boots.

Garden grows

"a caterpillar! Another caterpillar! They must like blackberries!"

I don't have much time for writing, but I want to get this picture posted quickly before it changes again. My squash and zucchini plants seem to double in size every day. I love the beginning of spring when everything in the garden grows and grows.....before heat or bugs or multi-day rains happen.

I have 4 tomato plants, swiss chard, asparagus, blackberries, eggplant, radishes, 2 varieties of squash, a zucchini, a jalapeno and 3 each of experimental varieties of beans and cucumbers. Way more than we can consume, but I be shocked if it all makes it. I also have about 1,000 serrano plants that reseeded themselves from last year. i'm hoping the beans and cukes like growing up the bamboo teepees, but if not I just enjoy seeing them out there.

And in other neighborhood news, we got this email yesterday:

FYI----a full-grown bobcat was in our backyard Thursday morning from 7AM until
crows scared him off.

I expect that sort of thing in this area, but not from 3 doors down!

Quick pic

9 is enough

About a week ago, Parker decided that instead of dragging around 1 or 2 stuffed animals, she'd pick 9 of her favorites to carry with her to bed and back. It was quite a production, getting all nine arranged in her arms without dropping anyone...so I found her a bag to help her situation. I really though she'd get over it in a couple days, but no, a week later she was still hauling these guys up and down the stairs every morning and evening. The roll call was really impressive. She'd wake up in the morning and realize that someone was missing....and sure enough, Bunny was stretched out on the couch, enjoying some alone time. I chose the hard road of not helping her with her packing and hauling, no matter what the degree of drama she produced (Bob may have been more of an enabler). I kept thinking that Octomom's mom had this similar situation at one point and wimped out and helped. Well, I'm happy to report that this morning, since she wasn't going to get any of my assistance, she'd culled the herd to a reasonable manageable 5 favorites. Maybe in a week we'll be back down to two.

Homework before gymnastics

mobile blogging

Yay! I've figure out how to send pictures and short blog posts from my phone! Now I don't have to drag my camera around everywhere and maybe I can keep you guys a little more up to date on stuff we're doing. Maybe I won't get any more snarky comments about my blogging slowness. And no Emily, even though Parker can read and write now, she does not have her own blog. As far as I know. :-)

Testing photo

Parker doing cartwheels at the arts festival.

Testing phone

Testing phone