Face Lift

I gave the deck a much needed face lift. It has taken me a couple of weeks to get the time and  weather to get it all finished. Here it is...

No before picture just after. Trust me the before was not pretty.

We enjoyed it tonight by eating dinner outside.

Play Ball

The girls are playing baseball again this year. I'm not sure how fond they are of it. I get mixed reviews,  but they are playing. They are pretty entertaining to watch out there.

Chloe up at bat.

Alexa at bat.

Chloe was put in as catcher for part of the game.

She did pretty well unless the ball was coming- then she ducked out of the way.

Chloe posing on third base while she waits for a chance to run home.

Alexa grew tired of waiting while she was suppose to be covering third base and decided to plant seeds.

Then she just gave up and used the base as a seat cushion.

Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday. This weekend the girls said they wanted to make me a cake again this year. Yesterday after we got home from Alexa's dance class theyw ent to work. They did most of it on their own. A combination of LAexa's love of cooking and Chloe's reading ability (to read the directions). I abandonded the kitchen (somewhat) while they worked. Although I did poke my camera around the corner while they were working to capture their efforts. Here they are discussing how to add eggs. The conversation went something like this:

Chloe, "It says we need three aggs."
Alexa, "I'm not very good at adding the eggs."
Chloe, "Me either."
Alexa, "Well, here it goes."

This morning, after I left for work, they decorated. Here is what they presented me after dinner.

I can't explain the sticker on Chloe's head, but she wouldn't remove it.

A bumblebee cake.

Mother's Day Gardening

It's Mother's Day and we did what seem to do every year... we gardened. After a trip to gather supplies we started our first job, building a fence for the garden. See these little guys...

Last year our strawberries grew some lovely little berries and SOMEONE kept eating them. Let's not discuss what they did to the corn. So we constructed...

Tah Dah a fence that we hope will keep the little bugger out. We also planted  our raspberry bushes that we hope will be happy along the fence for years to come.

We added lots of other things too but the photographer got busy digging holes for the blueberry bushes and fixing the flower boxes to get the photos.

Spring Time

The girls got to work planting flower gardens today.

I then gave them the task of painting some flower pots, an idea I got while reading one of my sister's gardening books.

They were happy to work on the task. We are hoping to give our deck a major face lift this summer and placing lots of potted flowers and herbs all around it are part of the plan.

Arizona Vacation Part 11

Did you hang in through the whole thing? What a good sport. Here we are. We have arrived at Friday. Our final day in Phoenix. We did take it rather easy and just did a nice walk around the preserve to hunt for bunnies and other animals. We found fish in the canal.

Bunnies and lots of birds.

And we even met some horses.

Then we had to head back to say good-bye to our beloved Lego creations

and our family. Who were wonderful hosts as always. See why we were so sad to leave?

Arizona Vacation Part 10

A trip to Tucson to the Sonoran Desert Museum on Thursday.

And for the grand finale... baby prarie dogs. Who could resist?