A Really, REALLY cold day at the beach

The forecast said 67 degrees at the beach (the high was 82 for our house). I think the reality was more like 50-something! Brrr! The girls still managed to have a lot of fun, even though they did NOT strip down to their bikinis and run into the water like maniacs.

Yesterday was a big day. We drove over to meet F., Mom's new beau, and some of his immediate family. We had a lovely time meeting them - they were very nice people and F. was a very sweet and charming gentleman. He treated my mother like a queen and with such gentleness and tenderness... I was really touched by the kind gestures he made towards her on several occasions (and to me, too - he held doors open, he offered to help carry my bags, etc.). I hope they will make each other very happy. =) We are a little worried that Mom's messiness will make him crazy (he is impressively neat! I love it!), but at least he knows already she is messy.

Mom bought a couple of new kites for the girls. They were really attractive (I only buy $1 kites for the girls, knowing that they will destroy them) - a blue bird and a colorful butterfly. The blue bird kept listing to its left - regardless of how many people tried to fly it, it was a no go. We'll have to figure out how to balance the weight and make it fly.

The butterfly kite, though I had to repair (=sew) part of the wing before even trying to fly it, flew absolutely beautifully.

Here's DaddyDude, staring in amazement at the butterfly kite in flight, while the girls stuff their faces with snacks after a big lunch. =)

Here's Miss Mika flying the kite. You can see how overcast the day was... it was really cold!

Miss Marika agreed to take our picture. We are freezing and laughing here, because we were trying to coach Marika on how to NOT cut off people's heads and feet while taking a picture. The camera she was holding kept moving slowly to the right, left, up, down... but she did manage to take this picture.

Mom and F. will come to visit us on June 1st, so that gives me a little over 2 weeks to completely weed the yard! Ah, but it's time. You know it's a jungle out there when even a guinea pig isn't willing to trapse through the back planter. I also need to put in a new garden... although our grape tomato plant from last spring is still flowering and producing a lot of tomatoes.

Fun, fun, fun!

I was in the mood for a mellow afternoon, so I made some straw beads and let the girls go crazy. It seemed to work well, so I'll be bringing a bucket of them to the Sunday soccer game, so the girls and their friends can bead away...

Later, we went outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. I practiced taking more pictures with the macro lens... it's too bad there weren't more insects outside! Can you tell I'm trying to be artsy?

Mika assembled the one kit that was flyable (long story - we must have had 10+ kites, but the girls got them all tangled up and Daddy Dude threw most of them away. I salvaged what I could, but most of them were missing the crossbar... looks like I have to go buy a couple more...) and enjoyed running back and forth... back and forth... back and forth...

Then our neighbor brought her new puppy (Jilly) over to play with the girls and say hello to Daisy. The two animals actually met a week or so ago. Daisy shows no fear of the dog (which seems odd to me - she ducks for cover whenever she hears a bird call) and Jilly wanted to play with her. But... I think we'll keep Daisy in the laundry basket for now... =)

And then, of course, there was the cheerleading show on the sidewalk...