Best baby-sitter in town!

I had my friend's girl as a baby-sitter this afternoon while I was at work. I have never hired a baby-sitter with a theme! A theme!! The theme was "fishing". She brought: a movie "Ponyo" as an entertainment; stuff to make jellyfish (paper plates and tissue papers - genius!) for the craft time; and "fishing theme snack" - long pretzel rods with spoonful of peanut butter to "fish" the fish-shaped cheese crackers! When I showed up at the door, they were playing "Go Fishin' " game. Wow!! I was just amazed. Kids LOVED it. They had such a fun time! Thanks, MJ!

Healing power of camping

Last weekend, we went camping to heal my exhausted soul. We went to my favorite beach and just floated in the warm water. The sun, the wave, the sand....it was so relaxing. Something about me born and raised in a fisherman town, whenever I'm down I crave the sound of waves. I can just sit at beach doing absolutely nothing, nothing but watching and listening to the waves, for a very long time. At night, after kids went to bed, my husband and I just sat by camp fire and talked. Under clear starry sky in the woods, with back ground sound of campfire popping, we admired the beauty of the fire. With slight breeze, there was no mosquitoes to be annoying us. Just perfect. Then I realized that I was surrounded by all the 4 elements, Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. Hmmm.....interesting.
Of course, kids love it, including baby K. There is nothing better than roasted marshmallow over campfire, early morning fishing trip with Daddy, and playing at the beach without caring about what time it is. No TV. No computer. No phone. Just us. We needed it. And, most of all, I needed it.

Backyard Jungle

My backyard vegetable garden looked like this a few weeks ago....

Now, it looks like this....

Tomato Jungle!! And I'm loving it!
My first trial of cantaloupe plants have a lot of flowers.

Beautiful Peas!

First harvest

Just cute, aren't they? Oh, they were so yummy, too!

Hello, beautiful.

The look of it, the smell of it, and the taste of it, you are just beautiful. Sorry, your twin sister disappeared pretty quickly at dinner table, and later as a bed time snack. I'm sure you miss her, but don't worry, you'll soon join her, in our stomachs. It's part of the deal you signed up; we have to eat you. So, here is the proof you were here. You look beautiful! Oh, I won't forget your grand entrance to this world from the oven. It was just gorgeous. The butter on the top helped you really glow, literally.
So, PBJ, or turkey club? Or maybe just good-ol'-bread-and-butter? A glass of chocolate milk might make a good compliment. Yeah, that sounds good. Let's do that.

Playing hard

We had such fun days with cousins last week. One day, we went to LEGO exhibit (pics below). The next day, we went to a beach (no pics).

We saw amazing stuff

and cool stuff made with LEGO blocks

and we played with regular sized LEGO blocks

and gigantic LEGO blocks

and had a lots and lots of fun time with cousins. After many many hours of playing, J was so sad that he played with his cousins only till 5 pm, not 9 pm (he is learning how to read clock). Um, did I mention that we'd been playing since 11 am?

But yesterday, after he played with his friends all day till almost 9 pm (one family in the afternoon, and the other in the evening as we were invited to a dinner), he said, "It was such a fun day. I had a lot of fun with my friends. Thank you, Mama." I'm glad he was finally satisfied. Whew! But does he really wants to play till 9 pm? Maybe that's why he has to come out of bed at 10 pm saying "I'm hungry." Playing hard, eating good, and life is good for a 5-year-old. Happy Summer time!