Where have the butterflies gone?

My mom finally gave in and let me have a pedicure. Well, sorta.  It's one of those easy to apply ones that are like stickers.  We went to the store and there were so many styles and patterns to choose from.  I picked the ones with butterflies.  I think they are pretty cool.  Thanks, mommy!

Daddy and Maya Project

 My daddy and I have been working on a project during our spare time for weeks now.

 It has lots of little parts.

 When he's not available, he would leave me instructions so I could continue to build parts of it.

 It takes patience and lots of hours to build a...

...motorized ferris wheel!  

 And we're done!

 Now I'm going to let passengers on. They've been very patient.

 Here's Hello Kitty.

And Sully from Monster's Inc.
Would you like to get on?

At the Playhouse

My cousin Kayla and I went to see a participation musical recently.  It was held at a little theater called Sierra Madre Playhouse in a little town called Sierra Madre.  The musical was about Cinderella.  It was pretty cool because all the kids got to participate as mice who helps Cinderella.  I was mouse number #14 and Kayla #15.  I think.  There were a lot of us.

Announcement: "The prince invites everyone to the ball." As the hairy, dude-ish, step sisters fought about what to wear, we, the mice, were busy thinking of ideas how Cinderella can attend the ball, too. Then poof!  Her fairy godmother appeared and grants her wish. 

Here's her in her blue dress and pumpkin carriage on her way to the ball.

 In the meantime, the prince has started the party already and danced with all the lovely ladies.  I didn't want to dance with him though.  I was kinda shy.

 Then Cinderella arrived!  And she and the prince danced the whole night away until midnight.

Fast forward, the prince found her through the glass slipper fitting and had a cool time together after that.  It was an enjoyable musical.  I like that Cinderella wrote her own songs and she could also play the guitar.

http://www.sierramadreplayhouse.org/FairyTaleTheatre.html

Support your local theater.

My Office

Notepad...check.

Pencil...check

Books...check

Milk...check

Animal crackers...check

It's 8:30pm and I quietly sit at my desk writing random cryptic notes in my notebook.

Swimming Lessons

I started my swimming lessons.  Our teacher's name is Ben.  He's really patient with us.  We have a lot of fun.

French Macarons

A branch of the 'lette Macaron store opened close to us.  

We picked up several flavors to try.  I like the raspberry (the fuschia one) and the vanilla (the cream colored one).  My mom likes the lemon (yellow) and the passion fruit (orange).  She also likes the chocolate and coffee flavored one.

Aren't they cute?

Almost there

Our veggie patch is starting to bear veggies and fruit.  There are a bunch of baby tomatoes growing.

 There are also a bunch of strawberries. Here's how one's looking right now.

 Eggplants are growing too and so are carrots and some lettuce.

My mom's especially excited about this one.  She's been trying to grow string beans, bush beans, green beans...really any kind of beans.  She hasn't been successful last growing season so she's trying again.

Well, looks like we have one string bean growing...or two.  Congrats, mom.

Charlie's 5th

Our dog Charlie is 5 years old today (36 years in dog years per a vet chart).

My parents got him when I was still in my mommy's tummy. He had all their attention.

His paws don't look like this anymore.

Oh. That's what happened to this plant.

At the beach with his friend Cali.

He looks like a predator here.

But really, he's just a ham of a dog who loves to fart.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUDDY!

Beetle Dialogue

June Bug: "Argh! I've fallen and I can't get up." (wiggle, wiggle, wiggle)

Little Girl: "No worries. I'll help you."

Little Girl: "There you go, little bug.  You feel better?"

 June Bug: "Yes, thank you.  I make a nice bug ring, don't I?

Little Girl: "Sure, you do."

 June Bug: "I need to go now. My mom's waiting for me."

Little Girl: "Alright, June bug I'll let you go.  Just don't come near my mom.  She's not very fond of bugs."

June Bug: "Okay. I'll keep that in mind."

* Smiles*

My mom recently read this article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bloom/how-to-talk-to-little-gir_b_882510.html
and in the process of getting the book, Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World .
She couldn't agree more.
If you have a little girl, you might want to read them.  It just so happens that the girl in the article is also named Maya. Tee-hee.

Happy July 4th to you!

 Watching fireworks from our backyard.

 Invisible Maya carrying a fire streak.

 Awww.

 Mini fireworks in the backyard.

 Pretty.

Light show by uncle.

The family perch.

We hope you had a wonderful and safe 4th.

Big Trees Trail

On our last day here, we went to the Giant Forest Museum and saw the General Sherman Tree.  The General Sherman Tree is a Giant Sequoia and is the largest tree in the world by wood volume (not height).  It weighs about 10 blue whales and about the length of a football field. It's believed to be about 2,300 to 2,700 years old.  It's amazing how something so large like that came from a humble little seed.

 Here's me and mommy walking along the path.

 

 Here's one of the "smaller' trees.

 Doing a cute pose.

This is me in 2008 sitting in the same rock area. 

 Here's my "I'm not so sure about this tree trunk" look.

 A bear taking a picture of us from a cave.

It's beautiful here.  Come visit.


http://www.nps.gov/seki/index.htm