April 2025

I can't believe the year is 1/3 over already! April was pretty busy for us.

It started out with the Literary Women Festival in Long Beach. I went with a few ladies from bridge. I enjoyed all the author talks except one, the one I was most looking forward to, Mama Love. Still a very nice day.

So we did say yes to the quail business and Mia ordered her coop. She and Anna put it together and Mia cleared out some plants to make room for it in the side yard.

Anna and I volunteered to fill Easter eggs and hand out Easter baskets at the Joint Forces Training Base to military kids. The Rossmoor Women's Club made all the baskets the week before. 

Spring photos! I normally don't do the Spring photos but Anna's fall photo made her look like a linebacker. This picture is much better.

Mia had a lacrosse game on her birthday and Anna was leaving the next day for D.C. Anna would also be gone over Easter. So we decided to celebrate Easter and Mia's birthday with the four us on the Saturday before. Such a fun day!

They woke up and searched for their Easter baskets.

They needed a few hints but they found them!

Next, Mia opened her birthday presents.

Then they played a couple of Pokemon games with the new cards from their baskets.

Time for an Easter egg hunt!

After dinner out, we came home and sang Happy Birthday to Mia. So glad we decided to celebrate this way.

This squirrel has been trying to get into the bird feeder for weeks. It finally figured it out. 😠

And Anna is off for D.C., Philadelphia and New York City!

She had a great time and slept for almost twenty four hours when she got home, with a virus no less. Apparently almost everybody came home sick. 

Meanwhile, Beth and fam made it out for Easter weekend. On Saturday we colored eggs...

...or literally "colored" eggs.

Then Chase, Mia and Oliver opened their birthday gifts.

Dan made his famous vegan chocolate cake and we sang to Paige, Oliver, Chase and Mia!

And before everyone headed home they decided to include Anna in the celebration somehow by taking a photo next to her promotion sign in our yard.

The next day was Easter and Paige and Kinga wore matching dresses!

We had another Easter egg hunt!

But the celebrating was not over yet. Mia had a birthday party with her friends the next day. Just a few of them went out for sushi first.

I love the teenage parties, zero planning, just vote on what everyone wants to do. So the first thing they did was blow up balloons and write messages or drew pictures on them.

Next they went down to the park and hung out a while. Some girls went home after that. But there was still a bunch left!

After an hour or two of hide and seek, three of the girls spent the night and then it was a wrap. Wait, one friend stayed the whole next day as well. 🤣

I took a photo of the eight grade panoramic picture. There's a lot of glare but Anna is in the front row on the left.

Twice a year Mia has to cook for her Japanese class. Her friend Micheal came over to do it with her this time. They made seared salmon sushi.

One more month of school left and we will have two high schoolers...again. 🤣

 

March 2025

We had quite a bit of rain in March which has lead to a really beautifully April! But let's go back to that rainy month.

The first weekend of March we watched Becky's kids while she and Arek went to Vegas.  This citrus juice is so popular with everyone except Anna and Mia! 

We took them to conveyor belt sushi for some subprime sushi at prime prices. We swore again we wouldn't go there for a long long time. Spoiler alert: April is Mia's birthday month.

Mia has been planning and  waiting to start her own business raising quail.  We told her she had to research it all and come to us with a presentation. After an hour we asked for an intermission. she won the right to raise quail.

And for this month's birding happenings, lesser goldfinch have a good old time in the fountain every afternoon. They are tiny and very yellow and cute.

Mia randomly asked me to make her pancakes out of Anna's anime cookbook one Saturday morning. After perusing the recipe, I asked (told, cajoled, threatened) her for some help.  There were two separate toppings plus whip cream. Not a very healthy breakfast but good for mother daughter bonding time!

Two hours later, we completed this work of art. It was delicious!

 When I picked Anna up from school one Friday her foot was so swollen! I asked her what had happened and she said, "Oh, didn't I tell you I got stung by a bee."  I asked, "When?"  "Last night," she replied.

So she rested all weekend in bed with doses of Benadryl and went to school again on Monday. And then...before school even started...outside her classroom door...she brushed something off her pants and you guessed it...got stung by another bee! Although she wasn't sure if the bee actually stung her or left the stinger on her pants. It felt just like getting stung those long four days ago though. So I rushed up to the school and gave her Benadryl and took her home for monitoring. There was just a little bit of swelling in the finger. Thank goodness she didn't wait almost 24 hours to tell us this time.

John invited Dan and Sean to a weekend golf trounament in Palm Desert. So I went up and spent the night with Dar. We went out for Mexican food and played many games of Boggle. It was so relaxing. Jillian stayed with the girls. They love her!

Sometimes it looks like an aviary outside our window.

Happy Spring everyone!

February 2025

Dan and I started off February by going for an early Valentine's dinner at The Heritage, of which I forgot to take a single picture! I'm really out of the habit lately.

Kinga and I are still going to the library every Thursday. 

She loves the toys there and the computer singing nursery rhymes to her. 

She never wants to read the books until we get home. 

If you don't like photos of adorable two year olds you might want to skip this post.

Try as she might she doesn't have the strength to make that popper pop.

We took the girls out for the usual IHOP breakfast for dinner on Valentine's Day. 

They are playing a game against each other waiting for our food.

Normally, there's no phones at dinner, but we made an exception.

And another photo fail. Becky took me to the Rosebowl Flea Market followed by lunch. 

It was a fun Christmas present but we both forgot to take any photos.

Afterward she wanted to go to Temple City and see if she remembered Dar's house.

We spent a lot of good times there in the late 80's and early 90's.

I also drove by where my Aunt Helen lived until 1975. 

I spent a lot of time there babysitting my cousins who were barely older than me. lol

We took a photo when we got home!

She loves her new doctor kit.

Mia's LaCrosse picture as an official goalie this year.

The girls have a week off in February called Ski Week.

This year we decided to get an airbnb in Big Bear with neighbors and let the kids go snowboarding.

We started out the trip with a night out at a Mexican restaurant.

The girls made a strange cake when we got home.

No one told them about using the high altitude recipe so it didn't come out too well.

The next day was snowboarding day. 

They had a blast! Everyone loved it.

We took pictures like this of all the rented snowboards and skis. 

We should have taken pictures of the poles! 

"Sorry, these aren't our poles," says the lady behind the counter.

Well, she wasn't that nice. She didn't say sorry.

We were outnumbered by teenagers 7 to 4, but they were really great. Zero issues.

Day 2 was spaghetti night!

The next day was supposed to be a tubing day but the girls wanted to go thrift shopping instead.

How to say they are growing up without saying they are growing up.

I brought my juicer and 4 huge bags of oranges from Costco. It was fun for all the kids except mine. 

Mine want nothing to do with it. lol

We went to Oliver's last game with his current team.

Anna had her second performance of the year.

Here she is as April's brain. I love that students wrote all the scenes.

I enjoy golfing once a month with a few ladies from the Rossmoor Women's Club.

On a rainy Thursday it's time for an indoor playground!

She is pretty fearless.

Looking forward to spring next month!