Summertime!

There are bonuses to having a grandma, who's house is in an HOA.  

 She gave us a copy of her pool key, so we can go whenever we want.  

We're loving it!

Just some random cute photos of the girls

 14 months already!

 She LOVES these little baby dolls.  She carries them around, makes them cry, gives kisses, and wraps them in napkins for blankets.  It's really cute!

 She's getting sooo big!

Poor Banana Girl had some puffy pink eye at this time.

Another Visit from Grandma

Grandma Lynda came back for another visit in May.

 We played her easter bunny game,

 tried Not to get her sick with our pink eye and stomach bug (she got the latter), 

 went on grandma/granddaughter dates,

 including the swimming pool (a favorite)

 and McDonald's

 and sleepovers at Grandma's,

 and personal ballet shows in the living room,

 and Princess M's Spring Recital for ballet.

Princess M had two dances in the recital.  I did get them on video, but once again, I can't get them to upload into blogger.  Anyone know how to compress a video so it will upload?

Field Day

 One of Princess M's last days of school was field day.  I went for about an hour of it and got to watch her compete in the hoola hoop contest.  

 She did fairly well and made the first cuts to the semi-finals.  

She came home with two ribbons: second place in the ball waddle, and something else I'll have to update later.  ;)

Getting Creative

I ran across a tutorial on u tube for "water marbling" your fingernails.  

Tried it.  Loved it! 

  I couldn't stop looking at them all week.  And since they are a thinner coat than usual, they lasted all week too.  This photo was taken a week after I painted them.  I'm hooked!

May is graduation month here.  I got commissioned to make a graduation cake based on the Dr. Seuss book "Oh, the places you'll go."  I haven't made a cake in years, so I really had fun with it.  

I made my first topsy turvy cake, and had some fun with fondant.  (There was a little yellow guy flying his balloon on the other side of this cake, that didn't show up in the photo.)

I tried to make the inside as fun as the outside too.  The bottom layer was a yellow and pink checkerboard (strawberry lemonade flavored).  The middle layer was this rainbow cake (almond cake batter with raspberry frosting); it was by far my favorite.  And the top was a Boston cream filled chocolate cake.  

Thank you Maryle for the wonderful recipes!

Spring in the Desert

May is one of the prettiest months here in Sierra Vista.  All the desert plants go into bloom.  

Here is the tree I planted when we first bought this house (when we lived here before), that has now grown bigger than the house itself.  It was in gorgeously arrayed in these purple trumpet-like flowers!

And all of my rose bushes were out in full bloom this month!

Both of my large cacti in the front yard were in bloom at the same time too, but I can't find my picture of it.  Bummer.  

Wow, it's been a while!

Found a few pictures I missed in April:

Grandma Lynda came to visit for a few days. 

Princess M got to go see the ballet "Thumbelina" with her Kindergarten class.  She and I got to go straight from there to visit Uncle Wayne and Aunt Sue for a baby shower in Tempe.  We had a nice trip together.