Birdies!

Here are two new birds that we saw recently (the last one was today). Can someone tell me their names?

Random Fall things...

Fall is here sadly (and not) because each season offers you something to be happy about, but in the sadly part I won't have my flowers until next year. Anyway, we went out for a very short time to play ball (Arianna loves to do that whether it is cold or not)
and I took a few pictures for you to enjoy with us :)



This was a different weekend, the temperatures go up and down - just crazy so no need for coat.

And now we have about 4 woodpeckers, they enjoy the suet that I leave by my window and I enjoy taking pictures of them.

Legos and more...

Yesterday my sister came by with some McDonald's for lunch. Kids played for awhile and they left around 5ish since they needed to go to church. I made a batch of Sugar Lime Cookies, I guess I would find out later if they like them or not.


We noticed that Arianna was not playing with her toys as much. I guess some of them are for "younger" kids, gosh. So, we went to Toy's R us to buy some new blocks. She has been stacking everything that she sees. Mike found this lego duplos that were a huge hit with our baby.

Daddy made a hat for Arianna, I think she likes it.


Or she just likes to destroy the hat... that was fast. Anyway papa and daughter were having a great time :)


I like this picture of Betsy, she had just "attacked" the new cat... no more cats, no more cats. We have Jack already! Poor kitty.

My tomato that I put in the hanging basket (backwards) is going great so far. It grew twice as much already and I see some of the yellow flowers!

These are the seedling that I started a few months ago, I guess I still have hope to get some vegetables. I had given up on them, they looked so fragile. They are proving me wrong so far. We'll see.

The last rhododendron that I put in my square garden is doing great. I guess it liked the spot because new growth is coming everywhere. I am a happy gardener.


Here are my Black Eyed Susan - finally opened. Can you see my purple Cornflower as well in the background?

My Blushing Bride Hydrangea is given flowers again. I think is part of the Endless Summer collection. They are kind of a very pale pink flower. Nice.


This pepper is not doing that great. I gave it some food and water and I will hope it takes, but look at the cilantro and basil. Those are going strong.

Now these peppers are doing great, can you see my green pepper and the jalapenos?


And my tomatoes that I have in pots have some tomatoes coming! Few more weeks and I can do a salad!

Here is my first Calla Lily. It is the first time that I planted this flower from bulbs on the last day of May. Love the color.

Now, this is the Chicken Hawk that has been eating my poor mourning doves, squirrels, etc... I know, I know, it is Nature's cycle. I mean I think this bird is beautiful, but just don't get your food off my garden please.

This is the couple that lives in our yard. Somewhere in the back. They mate for life. Isn't that amazing?

After been outside for awhile, we came in for some snacks. Arianna ate his yogurt. I love the profile in this picture :)

I caught you mommy. No more pictures I am trying to eat here!

A busy weekend!

Hi, birdie. Here is a new female woodpecker. She is so cute :) Look the face that she is giving me.


Arianna and her blanket. Yeah, like I had posted before, this is a new thing. Thank God, she likes many blankets. She uses it to lay down on it, to put on her hair (like in this picture), to put her stuff animals to sleep, for me to take a nap, etc... So many functions...


Mike was feeding her some yogurt, but I found this old sunglasses (She hated them before), but this time she played with them for awhile.

Hey, blue don't eat my Sugar Lime Cookies!! I'll try to post the recipe later since I had someone asking about it. They are really good and fresh. If we can only get some sunny days consistently.

So here is a semi-before of our first floor - living room/ play area. We are always trying to figure out the best possible space and organization for Arianna to use all her toys/books, etc... So, in this picture we had brought down an old entertainment center that we used to use before we moved to this house and since we needed a corner entertainment it sat for two years in one of our bedrooms. But now, it will hold some of Arianna's things.


Here is Arianna's Corner! We arranged her books in the top 2 shelves. She has a lot of books, and she "reads" almost half of them daily. It is really cute when she is reading and making up stories, now if we can only understand all the things that she is saying.


In the bottom shelf, we have three boxes with mostly stuffed animals, tea set, letters, and numbers. Top shelf, lots of blocks and cups. She also has her table with puzzles, her clock, and her notebooks to draw (I hide the crayons, otherwise we would have lots of art work in our walls. Although, she is nice most of the time, and does not do it, why tempt faith, right? I think she approves of the new space :)

We had been working in a kind of big project -Our basement. I finally packed all of our stuff and moved to the laundry area (we are doing half of the basement into a family room). Here is a picture of the carpet that Tony ripped from our floors. Who knows how long it sat, but it was pretty disgusting in some areas. I was so surprised at how quickly he was able to do it, so much that he ended up helping me paint- well, he painted while I help with the taping! Thanks Tony.

Here is a picture of the walls with tape waiting to get a makeover.


Our floors, they used to have some type of tile. They were few pieces left under the gray carpet, so what you see is the glue. We were debating whether to try to take the glue or not, but the floors were in very good shape, and they had put carpet over it without doing it, so we did and looks great. After all, the reason we ended attacking our basement is because we had a small leak into it when one of the bathroom's sewer backed up.

Overall picture of our basement when you come down from the stairs. It is an old house, but we like it. We used to have a huge house in a new subdivision, now we have the opposite ;)

Here you see the walls are painted! It is called fuzzy peach. How tropical (the name).

Here is Jack! Everyone that follows Facebook nows that a kitty showed up to our patio doors, lived on or under our deck for about a week, and finally we could not let him outside. It was raining horribly and the poor thing was trying to stay dry by standing next to out patio door. I guess there is about 4-5 in. of coverage where the rain does not hit. It was awful seeing him there, so I figured that if I brought my carrier (that I used for the other kitties we have) and he went in, I will put him on the basement. And he did. So, we took him to vet next day. He had a microchip, they called the people, left messages and after 2 weeks, no repply. Tried to see if anyone wanted a kitty, no one could. So, he is the other reason we are working on the family room so we can go there. We are going to try an introduction with Betsy and Misty, but I figured the basement is better than outside.

Beautiful saucer eyes!


Me working on the carpet. We got up, ate something quick and contine working until we were done!


Mike working on the carpet with Jack inspecting our progress. Such an efficient boss!


You get the idea, the wall color with the new brown carpet. Very warm and cozy. Now, we need a nice couch for the TV, games, and movies. I will take more pictures once we cleaned all the empty boxes and we organize where the bookcases will go, etc...


Mike and Arianna happy that we had finished the carpet. Now, we just need some dinner! (Oh yeah, Ari was very helpful and played around with the empty boxes, the good thing was that we were able to keep working while she was downstair with us.)

A brake. Blanket and some Noggin videos. She loves Laurie Berkman's songs from Jack's Music Show.


In the crafty side, I finished a baby blanket for a friend. I liked it except that this time one side was a bit more big - still made with love. So, I think it works, and I would keep working on getting better.


We had bought this doll at the thrift store while looking for some artsy stuff, but she did not have any clothing. I decided to crochet this dress for her with the leftover yarn from the blanket. Ari loved it. She kept saying "mommy, doll has dress. Good dress". :)

Events ...1 (Father's Day...)

A past blog entry I had said that I had someone stealing my bulbs and seeds... the other day I finally saw who was the culprit! But, as much as sometimes I roll my eyes, and sigh... then I don't feel as bad when I see that this poor guys had worse things to worry than me. Just check the next picture.

It is a Chicken Hawk, and for what I was reading their favorite food are squirrels. Thank Goodness my thief was able to hide. (I know nature's cycle, I just don't want to see it so close and personal).


Here is another bird visiting my yard... first I thought it was a Purple Finch, but I am not 100% sure.


On Father's Day, we went to Ann's house where she kindly hosted the event. We bought her a nice piece of art from Etsy, and we found a cool frame at Michael's. Here are my 2 sweeties holding the final product the night before.

And here is Ann, after Mike gave it to her :) We are glad that she liked it!


Grandpa opening his presents with the help of his lovable granddaughter.

Before going to Ann's house, for father's Day Breakfast , we had a nice omelet, some yummy pancakes, and a hot cup of tea!

And in Ezri's update. She is doing wonderfully. Ann and her had bonded really nicely, and she loves to have the entire house to herself. Nice big, airy windows, and a nice hallway to go from one side to the other.

Here is a picture of my next amigurumi that I made for a friend. It is a small scale turtle. What do you think?

The other day Arianna was drawing with her crayons when she saw an empty bottle, what is a girl to do, but to try to stuff every single crayon in there.

Of course, after she figure out a way to get them out (by rocking the bottle hard) she kept doing this activity for quite some time. Laughing all through. Then, she realized that her hands were "dirty" and started saying, "Oh, no. Oh, no." And went back to business.


Here Ron, in honor of your Krispy kream Donuts. She looks so cute.

Ari's favorite thing lately is to sneak and play with our laptop. I found a site from Noggin - Jack's Musical Show where they have lots of musical videos. She dances a lot to it, so I let her sit for awhile.



New thing - Holding a blanket. Thank God does not have to be one in particular. So, we have about 4-5 blankets going around between the 1st and 2nd floors, and the car.