Happy Birthday Phoenix!

Today is Phoenix's birthday and we celebrated with some Boston Market and a nice cake. I will post a few pictures later of that. Meanwhile, here is a picture that I took recently from him. Enjoy!

(This picture was taken at Scarlett's party!)

Happy Father's Day!

Today, I tried to let Mike sleep in, but when I was coming down with Arianna, she started to say : "Oh, Papa. Oh, no. Papa. Oh, no". So, Mike got up and came down with us. Then, Arianna sat down with him, with their usual routine of daddy reading some books to her in the morning :)
Here to a wonderful daddy! Happy Father's Day! (Happy Father's Day to all daddies as well!)

Purple...it is.

Mom: Ari, you need socks... (Ari is walking to her room to get them- I am behind her).
She gets distracted by a toy. I get to the drawer first. She follows fast once she sees me opening the drawer. I pick a pair of pink socks. Ari takes at the same time a pair of purple socks.

Ari: purple socks

Mom: We need pink. Purple does not match what you are wearing. (I take the purple socks from her and put them back, while giving her the pink socks.

Ari: No. (Picks the purple socks again. Does not take the pink ones from my hand)

Mom: How about beige?

Ari: No.

Mom: White?

Ari: No.

Mom: Brown?

Ari: No. Mama. Purple. Purple.

Mom: Purple... it is.

One determine baby...toddler. Well, I was not going to argue for socks :)

Ari and a straw bottle

Arianna decided to give it a try for good. She is switching to bottles with straw... It has been about 2 weeks now, and she can drink with no problem. She just pointed to it, I figure I give it a try, showed her how and that was pretty much it. Although, I think pretty soon, she is going to move into an "adult cup". Gosh!


My day lilies and Asiatic lilies are coming now...

I found this very tiny bird. It likes to eat from my honeysuckle, but it not a hummingbird...

A pound and the quest for a nice bench...

Here is my prep work for Cincinnati Chilli, it is very easy to do and has a lot of favor, but it is not spicy. If you are interested, I can send you the recipe :)

Mike and I did this pound cake yesterday. It needs quite a bit of mixing, and the problem with my hand, I need someone to help me. So, it was nice to work together. I did the frosting today, it is a Brown Sugar Frosting. Very yummy. (The picture does not show how good it is, food photography is an art in itself, that is for sure).

We'd been having a new visitor to our house. It is a brown tabby cat (male). We are not sure if it is a stray or someone's cat, but it is outside quite often and seems hungry all the time. Can you see Betsy in the other side of the door?

Over the weekend, we went to IKEA and had a nice time. Arianna likes to see in a chair (no high chairs anymore). They want to grow so quickly. And the sad part is that they do.

We bought her a new rug at IKEA. She loves it, and I love that when she has a rug, all her mess (or mostly) gets confined in one area. Betsy approves of the rug too.

This was a lazy Sunday picture. We were doing breakfast and she was dancing and singing in the kitchen with us. I took a video of that. I'll try to see if I can post it later.

When we went to Petco last time, Arianna would not let go of "Blue". She thinks it is blue from the child series "Blue's Clues". So, what is a parent to do. Ok, so I could say no, and leave, but she seldom likes something this much (at least for now). So, in the basket went and into the car.

Do you know this bird? I'd been trying to find out. It hangs out with another greckel, but they look so different.

I had not seen the Cardinal for a while, but here it is. Love his singing and color.

When I bought this hydrangea, it had no flowers so when I saw this beautiful blue/purplish color I was very happy. They have this huge cluster of flowers and the plant has about 8 of them. Very beautiful.

This is my hidden rose. Whomever planted it, had to be at least 5-7 years ago. They did not account for the two bushes around the rose, now they are so big that the only way you can see it is by ducking really low. But, I am afraid of moving it, roses can be very temperamental.

And here is the square garden in the back part of the yard. Now, the only thing for this summer is to find a nice bench to go with it. To be able to sit and read a book, or just relax. So, the quest for the perfect bench is on.

Ari is helping mom by getting wet while I pour some water in my seeds and bulbs (hopefully I'll get some color on my garden). She loves to get wet. Maybe I should buy her a small pool. In this picture, she is telling me a story about cheese...

Her new favorite place... playing with some gravel.

Changing channels

I was changing channels and stopped in the Top 20 (music videos) and Pink was on. Arianna left her toy and started dancing to this song... good luck, Mike!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddZPrJ8ROto

Who is the culprit?

I wonder, wonder, who is eating some of my bulbs??? Well, this is just one possibility since rabbits, squirrels, opossums, etc... live around our house as well. I will see what makes it. Then, what does not I will try again with some sort of mesh to protect them. I know I could plant more daffodils, ornamental onions, etc.. (they don't like it) but I prefer tulips, dahlias, peonies, etc. So, I am hoping that at least 50% will make it... cross fingers. [ANY idea to protect them? Let me know]

Well, this is still adorable. First, I thought she had killed something and was carrying it somewhere, then it turned out that she is a mommy.