Where the Heck is Mom?

May 18

I moved some furniture around so I could put this handsome bunch of stalk from the flower market, from Susie, from yesterday, here by the window. They look so lovely and smell so spicy sweet.

My dinos at the Promenade, Spring! and the boys and girls want to play.

May 17

I had So Much Fun today and Susie treated all day long! Thank you Susie for a perfect Medicare Year Birthday Fete.

We got going crazy early to check out the flower markets downtown where you find huge warehouses packed with blooms of every description.

And on the street, El Big Happy. Gotta love a place called El Big Happy.

ss.

From the flower markets we walked to the hip and trendy The Standard Hotel for breakfast. This is their crazy cool dining room...

...and this is their crazy cool restroom, ladies to the right, gentlemen to the left.

Don't miss the punchline of this photo. You'll know it when you see it.

Then we walked to the Central Library and saw a most entertaining display of old maps of LA...

...followed by a stop-off at the Japanese American Museum so Susie could see the origami exhibit, and then we had a late afternoon tea at their Tea Room, Chado, which we totally enjoyed.

Wow, so much fun!

May 16

Dinner with the boys, always a pleasure!

May 15

The story of our walk: Lilly and the sunflower forest.

I asked Lilly if she wanted to get a book for us to read and she went directly to the floor of her closet and retrieved the vegan cupcake cookbook she had stashed there and wanted me to read her this recipe. Really.

So I asked her if she would like it if we made those cupcakes. Whooo, NOW, she would like it if we made those cupcakes NOW.

On a side note, I didn't have my little flash and used the built-in instead this picture being a nice reminder of how much better the other one is with the nasty shadows.

We waited for Kaitlin to get home and she helped us. YUM!

(Jen)

May 13

Some Mother's Day FUN at the Japanese Garden/Sewage Reclamation Plant in Balboa Park.

Angela, her mom Liz, and the grandgirls Kaitlin and Lilly...

...awww, with Darryl.

Liz and Gary, happy today!

(Liz took the picture of G&L)

The garden here is a great field trip - you are strolling, enjoying, admiring, and then you think, hmmm, I wonder, what's that smell? So you can easily walk just over the bridge to be amazed at the 'reclamation' facility which generates all this water and more.

Lona and Hartley and their friends came too. YAY!

Too bad Windy didn't make it because then we three sisters could have done picture-picture in a silly pose, making a spectacle of ourselves in public in honor of our mother. It's only fun when we're all together.

May 12

Beach volleyball is so hard.

I went with Muriel for a walk down there with the volleyballers and then we strolled around the Farmer's Market.

May 11

Sharon and I walked eight times around the big track on the outside lanes at Pepperdine. Next time we're going to do ten...

Then we had a good lunch at the Reel Inn on PCH. It's no bargain here, but fun and tasty.

May 10

A view from the parking lot of the Empress Pavilion where I went with Marsha for dim sum.

Another one.

That's right, my valley girl friend Marsha who doesn't eat onions, doesn't eat food with 'too many colors', doesn't eat food with 'too many ingredients' chose for us to go to dim sum. Where they serve chicken feet.

I could see why from what she ordered - there are several plain things and she knew all of them.

May 9

I don't know why this came into my mind but I got the idea to study up on Eisenhower. In my childhood I thought my father was like him for no reason but looks, and that my father was both bossy and bland. I was young and they were old.

I've watched an Eisenhower biopic and WWII fiction and an interesting documentary from 1945 put out by the War Department that has that newsreel-propaganda feel.

May 8

Oh you crowd of adorableness.

from the left around: Chloe, Lillian, Melanie, Dalila, Finn, Sophie, Kaitlin, Lilly

Kaitlin at her soccer game...

...and with UK Coach Josh.

May 7

L&H apartment vacancy photo day. We got a lot done and ate lunch in the car at the jetty watching the pelicans dive for fish.

May 6

I went with the cousins today to the Japanese American Museum in Little Tokyo to see their big origami show. The origami was amazing, awesome, we were gaga.

May 5

Ole! I had the gang over this afternoon for tacos in the back yard and then a walk to the park. We had FUN!

I was on the other side here teetering and tottering while Angela took this great shot.

ak.

Look what Angela can do!

dk.

May 4

Ahhh home sweet home.

A new paint job on the little shops under the bridge. Walk walk walk!

May 2

Even though I was a little travel-buzzed I quick took the chance to stop by to see the kids for a few hours and have you eVer seen a more wonderful Welcome Home banner? or two more precious children? I have not!

ak.

At the school play yard...

...and out for a walk where we ran into some other neighborhood kids also out for a walk.

May 1

Home from a fanTASTic month in the land of aloha.

If you're of a mind to catch up here's: magnificent Kauai at The House, with a break for some Maui WOWie and a weekend with the fam in Honolulu.

Click HERE and all the pictures in this chapter will get big.