New toys...

I finally cleaned the "coat" closet (located at the entrance of our house). It had been our "black hole" for a while, and I found 2 new toys (bought about a year or more ago). One was letters, numbers, and math signs. The other one was a cloth book. So, I waited until Mike was here so he could open them with Ari. She was so excited, she was waiting patiently for daddy to open them.

Future Garden of America? Well, she does not mind getting dirt on her hands....I can't say the same about food!
Ari and flowers. She goes around telling me "bowwer" (flower) and the color of each of them. I like that she does not mind been outside so gives me time to fix some stuff that I need to do in the garden.
Nice smile. She loves to run and play around. We were playing "Tag.."

Her favorite ball, we played soccer with it (since she can kick it better than catch it). This also reminds me two things that she finds hilarious right now. One, when you put her on her car seat, she likes it when you say "click ,click" when you are putting the seat belt. Two, she made a really smelly poop when she was sick, and I went "ewe", and she laughed so hard. Now, she goes ewe herself and laughs a lot.

Well, here are my seedlings (tomatoes) that I just transferred. Don't know, it does not look promising... at least, I tried. I'll see what happens.

Here is the clematis with all the flowers opened! I wonder how many will give next year. First year was 1, second year were 3, this year are 15!

A rose is born! I guess the plants are liking the spot were I planted them since they are staring to give us new buds (flowers and/or leaves). That makes me happy :)

Here is a picture of my iris dutch in full bloom, it will last about 1-2 weeks more, then we will wait until next year.

I had said no more planting -no bushes, trees, etc..- only flowers, annuals, and a few vegetables. But, I could not pass 2 bushes more (really good sale). A red azalea, and in honor of Star Trek... A Vulcan! That is the name of this rhododendron.

Anyone knows the name of this plant? It has white flowers during June, the purple color on top and green on the bottom?

I looked at this picture and realized how marked the seasons are here. Just not long ago, there was no green at all...

In honor of Evelyn, I took a picture of our bat house (we have 2). There were put there by the previous owner. Like the bat sign?

I guess we will be having new neighbors. The female robin has been nesting now!

And this picture is for Tiffany, I rearrange my pantry. Ari helped too. She helped to take the things out, and put the ones in the bottom in. How nice of her.

New neighbor.

Trying to let Arianna eat by herself. Some days she does better than others. Well, practice makes everyone perfect or close to it anyway. :)

Do you know what kind of bird is this? The one looking at me...

I took a picture of this beautiful peony (at Arianna's grandparent's house). I think this is the one called Sherbet Peony.

And finally, we seem to have a new neighbor in our yard. We had bunnies, lots of squirrels, birds, opossum, etc.... but I'd never seen a raccoon in our yard. My neighbor Chris had said that there was one somewhere in the back of our houses (we have a small lot with grass and trees) and he thought it lived in a neighbor's garage. But, I never saw it so close. Must have been so hungry that he came all the way to the patio door (literally one step from it) in the middle of the day! (Well, having a garbage bag that we had just put on the deck since we were getting ready to leave I am sure it helped)

Help nature and other events.

I wanted to start the blog entry with this picture that I took a few days ago. This poor squirrel got stuck in a milk's ring (most likely). Let's remember to cut those things that can injure animals, kids, etc. It does not take too long. I wish I could help this poor squirrel, but he runs just by me opening the door and I am not sure how I could hold him to do it. Plus, I have not seen him since then :(

Into nicer things... This is a banana bread that I started from scratch. My third try. Mike thinks this is the best one so far (my second attempt was not very good)...

More pictures of the yard... I love this honeysuckle, last year it got some type of disease in the leaves and I thought it may died, but it looks great so far. I love the orange of the flowers the most.

I don't even remember if I planted this one or it was here, but I like the poms poms look of its flowers. I guess Ari and I like purple more than I thought.

Another shot of the purple lupine, as you can see it has bloomed more in the top.


Can you see the bi-color in this clematis? I am going to try to buy two more, a red one and a bright all purple. :)

One of my favorite flower/bush, hydrangea. I bought this one without any blooms and I thought it will be pink, here looks more like a light blue/purple/white. It will be nice next to the one that I know it is pink.

Mike finally found a ring to substitute the one he got married with. This year when we go for our renewal of vows, we will ask the reverend to bless the ring :)

Ari wants to help more in the chores around the house, I know I better take advantage of that while it lasts... but here she is helping take the garbage to the front door (then I take it to the curve).

I took these two pictures that follow with Ron in mind... Does the bus look familiar to you? Ari plays with it quite often.


I took these pictures yesterday, she was feeling better, but still had some fever. I noticed that she had something in her t-shirt and I asked her, what do you have in there? She said a K. I looked and yes, it was one of her letters. (Is around her belly button).


She loves the cats (a bit too much), but I like this picture. She always goes to Misty the most because she puts up with her more... And I am happy to say that the fever is gone :).