Cheese!

Jac and Donovan are in that phase 

where “cheese” means make a ridiculous face

or refuse to look at the camera at all. 

They look so hot and sweaty. (And not an electronic device in sight!)

Leo: “Smile for grandma, so we can go play, or I will haunt you for all your days.” 😂

Fortunately Leo is willing to sneak up 

and grab some action shots for me.

Plotting world domination

Also - new glasses are here! So excited.

Sad Pinky

Joy of joys, Jac has pink eye. 

Dear Leo and GG you made me mad and now you have a very very very very very very mage mad Jaclyn.

And is supposed to take eye drops 4 times a day. Want to guess how cooperative she is with that plan?? 

Oops I spelled mega wrong

Leo and I combined efforts this morning and got one drop in one eye before giving up. Jac is not a fun or cooperative patient. 

The bigger the O the more I hate you. (We sent back: the bigger the O the more we looooooove you. 😂)

She is also a phone-less patient. When bribes didn’t work (candy bars and online game tokens) we fell back on taking her phone away. 

She didn’t give in tho - the girl is stubborn! She stormed off to the upstairs bedroom and tossed angry notes down to me and Leo. 

GG you can not give me a hug until you give me my phone back

I haven’t laughed that hard in awhile (Jac ended up laughing too). 

And then I made her go to the park and play. 

Such a mean grandma. 

Pj’s and flip flops 

Wonder what she’ll do without her phone tomorrow….

Graduation #3 Celebration

With Leo’s middle school ceremony on Thursday, 

we are now done with graduation season.

Arrow marks the spot, er graduate

The ceremony was a bit chaotic - too many people, very under-powered sound system - 

but Leo is happy to have “walked”. Now, on to high school!

Today was Jac’s last day of third grade. 

Since she’s the last to finish her school year, 

we decided to celebrate with a trip to Sky Zone,

 the local trampoline park. 

After 2 hours, they were happy, sweaty and exhausted. Success! 

The three youngest now have memberships to the park - a monthly pass is the same price as a one time ticket, what a deal! - 

so we can take them back as often as we/they want. Sure beats sitting on their phones/iDevices all day!

Flowers and Magic

Mary and I took a flower arranging workshop on Sunday 

at the same local shop 

where we did the Christmas wreath (here) 

and decoupage flower pot (here). 

So fun!

The instructor, a florist at another local shop, 

brought all the tools and materials we needed -

all we had to do was have fun. 

And it was a great opportunity to do two more of my favorite things - take fancy flower photos and play with the new AI filters on my phone. 

I was very impressed it was able to cleanly remove the pink gloves on the table

Used to be, you could only do this kind of clean-up/removal magic with high-end, very expensive computer software. 

Now anyone can do it with the gadget in our pockets. Incredible! 

A Boy and Some Turtles

Best news first (for me anyway) - after almost 8 months I finally got a cataract-corrected prescription and was able to order new eyeglasses! (My old glasses haven’t helped much since my first surgery in October.)

It’ll be another week before they’re ready but (fingers crossed) I’ll soon be able to see clearly again. So excited. 

 The Commons at Calabasas

Had lunch with a favorite niece on Friday 

and did I take any pictures of her, or of us together? Nope!

But I got some great shots of turtles while sitting in the sun, waiting for Breanne to arrive (she had the longer drive plus icky LA traffic…)

 Outlets for an iPad charging station!!, more kitchen outlets, a switch and outdoor light by our bedroom window (to see what creatures are wandering the back yard at night), and a whole-house surge protector. 

Also on Friday, we had some long planned, much anticipated electrical work done. Donovan was a bit put out that we had to be outside for sooooooooooo long. 

“Plees can you go in to the haoos so I can sit down”

So he wrote all about it on the driveway. 😂😂 I love this so much. 

 “How much longer plees can you tell me”

He often asks me how to spell words he wants to type in his games, but this is the first time he’s sat down to write on his own, without wanting help (at least at our house). We were both giggling at his messages. 

And the reason we were out there sooooooo long? The new camera over garage is just barely too far out to connect to our WiFi. The electrician and I both tried repeatedly but nothing worked. 

So our 7-year-old mesh wifi system is also getting replaced, thanks to Gary’s stepson, Thomas, who has a degree in IT and helped me choose a new system. I love that kid young man. 💕  

Graduation #2

Today was Leia’s high school graduation ceremony. 

So happy for her but how did we get here so fast??

Her class was only 70 strong 

and the very nice ceremony went quickly, 

which was fortunate 

since it kept spitting rain at us in the bleachers. 

But it cleared up in time to get some nice family pics afterward. 

I’m going to miss her so much when she leaves this fall to join her brother, Miles, at Arizona State.