thursday's agenda

Today was nice. Beautiful weather. Good company. Great memories.

It started with a nice walk this morning. Serena and I walked Julia to school. It was nice and relaxing and Serena walked the entire way without crying for me to carry her. Yes, that was nice.

Then I ran some errands and visited Serena's school for a Mother's Day event. She made me some sweet gifts and sang some sweet tunes.






Next, we took my mom out for lunch. Very nice.

Once we got home the girls and I headed to the harbor for a quiet afternoon walk.



Hugs




Homework and now dinnertime that James is cooking. Pierogies, spinach, and potato pancakes, yum!

After that we are off to dance practice.

Such a serene, easy, stress free day. I wish they were all like this.

3

Three years of laughter.
Three years of sweetness.
Three years of wonderful memories.

Happy 3rd Birthday Serena!

"tea" party

Who does not love watching two little cousins having a tea party?

Big hats and fancy dresses are a must unless you are a one year old then no clothes will do as long as a tutu and sparkly necklaces are worn.



Fresh fruit and cheese bites to be eaten with toothpicks and triangle sandwiches are enough to make anyone happy.



I drank water from those same cups and saucers when I was a kid. So sweet. Thanks grandma.

Summer

To see the summer sky
by Emily Dickinson

To see the Summer Sky Is Poetry,
though never in a Book it lie -- True Poems flee --

I love that poem.

I love summer, too. When Julia was away for the day, Serena and I went out to play. We met our friends at the beach on this wonderful summer day. June gloom is gone and the sky is blue. Just wonderful and true.

Serena loves to swim. There are periods where she still shows a a face of fear, but she has made it over a hump and is progressing. Here are some recent videos of Serena with her instructor Andrew.

At the end of each swim class Serena gets to go down the fun water slide.



Here is a picture of Serena from about 3 months ago in her fashionable swim suit.

Serena in the closet

This weekend and last we had the luxury of not having too many agenda items which is part keeping it simple and part saving money. Other than church and Julia's soccer we had no other plans. It has been awesome! When we are all at home it is anything but easy since you still need to find things for the girls to do when they are done entertaining themselves. Yesterday, Julia decided to pack for Big Bear mountain. She pulled out every toy in her bedroom and placed them in the living room in her own version of organization. Serena in the mean time moved Julia's items to where she wanted them to go. Julia did not approve. Today, James took Julia to visit his dad and brother and went to play at "pirate" park. Serena and I were left to our own devices. I cleaned a little, read a little, did a bit of homework, cut out paper dolls, made a CD and did some other random things. Serena was playing in her bedroom with Turbo. I setup a game for her and me to play and called her to come. She did not. So of course, I went looking for her. I found her in a random spot, in my closet, sitting on my safe. She was pulling the hangers and clothes off and walking through our closet from one side to the other. Super funny, but a bit messy. I am glad though she found something fun to do.

Serena Vida?

I am starting this blog to jot down my thoughts and keep a log of all the happenings in my familys life. I used to write in my kids baby books, but that has seemed to stopped since my time is limited. Time will tell whether I keep this up or not. I tend to start a hobby only to overdo it and stop after a while. I am always on my PC since I pay our bills online and attend school online, so why not do a blog online. It is not like I have the time either. With work full-time, school full-time, soccer (for me) on Thursdays', soccer and school for Julia, church, friends, family, why not add another thing on top of it.

Here is the ironic part, James and I have been trying to come up with ways to simplify our hectic lives. So here I am adding one more thing for me to do. I guess there could be worse things and this does only take a few minutes of my time. Serena Vida? I chose to call my blog site Serena Vida after my youngest daughter. In Latin Serena means serene, calm and in Latin vida means life. So going along with my theme of simplifying it all 'Serene Life' it will be.

Serena - 'Calm, serene'