Traveling south

Friday afternoon, our family left home to begin a long journey to Disneyland. Our first stop was actually in the opposite direction of our eventual destination, but we had to make the stop to visit Amelia and Diana's grandma and grandpa.

Heading straight south from grandma and grandpa's house to...well...grandma and grandpa's house we passed over the Golden Gate Bridge. Michael couldn't believe that this was only my second trip over the Golden Gate. Truthfully, I'm not 100% confident that this wasn't my first trip. I am certain that I have never driven up into the hills beside the Golden Gate and experienced the beautiful views the bridge and the city have to offer.

Good, though chilly weather has followed us down the coast to Morro Bay. Amelia couldn't wait to visit the beach (as usual) and was willing to skip dinner so that she could start collecting rocks and shells on the beach.

As Amelia walked the beach she stopped from time to time to pick up little treasures she found. She often trotted up to mommy with an excited, "Look what I found, mommy!" and after showing me her new prized rock she would dump the rock into her beach pail.

After a few minutes Mike and I began to suspect that Amelia's pail was getting heavy from all of the rocks it contained, but when we asked if her bucket was heavy she would say, "No," and insist that she carry the pail herself. Diana also helped to collect rocks, sometimes toddling hurriedly after Amelia and stretching her arm out to its full length so she could drop a rock into the yellow pail.

Tomorrow, the family continues on to Disneyland. In fact, our hope is to get there early enough to visit the park. I'm very eager to see how much Diana will enjoy Disneyland. Amelia says that she wants to get back on the Flying Dumbos first thing when we get to Disneyland. Diana says she doesn't want to ride on Dumbo, but I suspect she'll change her mind when we're there.

Lisa

Another Lisa who's no farmer

Let me tell you about my year as a farmer, thus far.

Last year, as some of you know, I tried to grow tomato plants from seeds. The seeds sprouted quickly and I became extremely excited and optimistic. But shortly after growing their first two tiny leaves the sprouts died, and I felt sad.

I did feel a bit consoled when I heard that tomatoes are especially hard to grow from seed. This year I decided to start a couple of easy squash plants from seed and plant a small tomato vine that a professional had already nurtured through it's difficult first weeks.

I sat my squash seeds in mulch pots right in front of my kitchen sink. Because this is where mommy spends much of her "quality time" I thought there was no way the little seedlings could be neglected. After waiting more than a month, I finally made up my mind that my little pots of dirt were never going to amount to anything and gave them up.

The worst story of my farm failures is the story of my poor tomato plant. The tomato I chose was one guaranteed to do well in a pot. My thought was, "If the plant does well in a pot and doesn't grow terribly big, maybe it won't need a tomato basket." The plant grew and grew and soon it had flowers. Eventually, the flowers became tiny tomatoes and those tomatoes grew and grew weighing down the little plant, which soon reminded me of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.

Yesterday I looked for a tomato basket at Target, but all the baskets they had were at least four foot tall. I wasn't sure my 12 inch plant needed such a big scaffold and decided to wait. Then, this morning, I saw my tomato plant lying near the ground. I picked it up and gently leaned the plant against a pillar in the backyard vowing to buy a tomato cage that same afternoon. Within a few minutes, the wind blew the plant over a second time; I sat it up again.

All of this took place with under the watchful eyes of my daughters, who were very interested in my small, green tomatoes. Then all of the sudden, my tomato plant fell over completely, snapping off at the base. The poor thing looked like it had been attacked by a tiny beaver.

Feeling terrible about my plant I pretended to weep and complained about the tomatoes that would never ripen. Amelia, who felt bad for me, picked the plant back up, put it in the pot, and said, "It's okay. See, there's nothing to worry about." Her optimism is certainly one of her sweetest and most endearing traits.
On a positive note, most of my flowers are doing very well. The tulip trees look a little brown, but I think they're suffering from our recent heat wave. My gardenia looks very bad, but it's hard to give up on a gardenia. A full-grown gardenia is so beautiful and so fragrant I hate to think it will fail in my garden.

Looking for heartier plants I made up my mind to buy a hydrangea. These flowers remind me of my grandmothers' homes in the San Joaquin valley. If they can take the summer heat of the valley, then surely they can handle the heat here. (Keep your fingers crossed.)

So the bottom line is that if we all had to subsist on whatever food I could grow, we'd be a hungry family. Too bad you can't live off flowers.

Lisa

Growing up too fast

It's amazing how quickly the girls are growing up. One day Amelia's a toddler and the next she's wearing make-up.

It looks pretty obvious that Amelia has a different complexion than her mother - either that or she hasn't learned the fine art of blending quite yet.

Diana, who was only a baby yesterday is now helping her mom with tasks around the house.

Here we see Diana helping her mom re-caulk a bathtub.

But while the girls feel ready to take on adult-like tasks, they don't always get everything right. When I stepped away this afternoon, leaving Amelia in charge of filling our new swimming pool, Diana somehow got a hold of the hose and took over her sister's job. Her only mistake was in forgetting to change into swim clothes of some kind before entering the pool.

Still, it's great that the girls are so eager to help mommy.

Lisa

Amelia's b-day

Before I forget to do so, let me tell you about Amelia's birthday. Prior to the big day, mommy wrapped all of Amelia's gifts and stacked them neatly in the family room - surrounded by balloons. My theory was that brown boxes from amazon.comwouldn't attract anywhere near the attention that the wrapped packages would, so I wanted to leave the boxes unadorned until the last possible minute.

The girls and I got up early so we could drive to the airport to get "uncle Mike." While Amelia was messing around and dragging her feet (as usual), I helped Diana downstairs. Once Diana had reached the living room I turned my attention back to Amelia. As I called to Amelia upstairs I heard the familiar sound of gift wrap being torn. I barely reached Diana in time to stop her from opening her sister's gifts.

Driving to the airport to get Mike was fun. Diana became a bit grouchy toward the end of the drive, but Amelia loves going to the airport any time and for any reason. Mommy and Amelia were very happy to see uncle Mike again, and Diana took to him immediately.

On our way home, after a brief stop at my old college, "uncle Mike" asked Amelia what she wanted for dinner. He may have coaxed Amelia a bit, but her response was "Texas Roadhouse!" The last time we ate at Texas Roadhouse Amelia was eager to dance with the waitstaff, so this time we requested they play "Cotton Eyed Joe," so she could dance along with them. Of course, with all of the attention (and because I had my camera at the ready) Amelia was too shy to dance.

The staff sang "Happy Birthday to You!" at our table and gave Amelia a special ice cream sundae with four spoons.

As a cute sidenote, when uncle Mike briefly left our table during dinner, Diana fussed and cried almost as much as she does when mommy leaves.

Once we got home, we opened gifts and ate cupcakes. Amelia and Diana were so full at this point that they barely touched their cake. (Though Diana didn't eat a whole lot of cake, she did make a big, big mess.) Amelia and Diana opened Amelia's gifts together, and it's possible that Diana didn't know that this wasn't her special day as well. Amelia loved all of her gifts and frequently said, "Oh, I love this!"

Since her birthday, Amelia has enjoyed being four. We've been having a lot of fun with uncle Mike, and I wish he could stay past this coming Tuesday.

Lisa

Happy 4th birthday!

Happy birthday to Princess Amelia who turns four today!

(As you can tell by her clothing, Amelia's birthday was full of wonderful treats. I will try to tell you all about it tomorrow.)

Lisa

And a fan of frappuccinos

Recently, Diana has been taking her naps in Amelia's bed. And tonight Diana asked to go to sleep in Amelia's bed at the end of the day. This wasn't the first time she had asked, but each night I say, "No" because I know that the sisters will play and keep each other awake until all hours of the night.

So tonight we decided it was time to take the side off of Diana's crib and convert it into a toddler bed. As soon as we turned Diana's bed into a "big girl" bed she climbed right in. She bounced and smiled like this was one of the best days of her life.

And Diana's such a good girl that we haven't seen her poke her head out of her room once.

As for the frappuccinos, I think Diana's hooked. I usually give her the very last sips in my cup, which are made up almost entirely of whipped cream.

Hmm, maybe it isn't the frappuccino she wants at all...

Lisa