May

My very first Mosaic! Thank you Sue from The Quince Tree for all your help!

Lesson Learned

I learned a few valuable lessons yesterday and I've been mulling them over ever since. I wasted quite a long time writing my post only to press the wrong button and have everything disappear into thin air never to be seen again. I was so upset and no matter what I did I couldn't make it come back. I had spent two hours of my time with nothing to show for it. So I had to start all over again..... and I didn't put quite as much detail into it as I wanted because I was very frustrated to say the least and had lots of other things that I needed to get accomplished beside sitting at my computer all day.

 

       1.      Don't wait so long in between each post (even if I'm super busy).
       2.      Do not try to cram a whole months worth of posts into one. (it takes way too long!).
       3.      Don't forget to add things that you wanted to post, like important photo's that might lead 

                into another post.

       4.      Press the SAVE button thingy at the top now and again. (Yes, important must do NOW.)
       5.      Don't try to delete the photo's in your download file because...................................      

                 YOU LOOSE THE ENTIRE POST!!!!!!!!

Yes, that's what happened yesterday morning!  :(

I have well and truly learned my lesson. Thanks for joining me this morning. 

P.S. I didn't have to start all over again. I'm one very happy camper.

May Madness

I know, as the saying goes, it should be March Madness or as 'Mad as a March Hare'!

But, May has been a very mad and crazy month! I've had very few days to relax and when I did 

I was so exhausted I just veged!

May 9th was Miss A's Senior High School Cabaret Concert with Choir. 

Yes Miss A can sing! Quite well I might add! 

One day if she gives me her permission I might post one of her songs on here.

She sang a solo that she wrote and composed.  It was beautiful.

A Medley of Bye Bye Birdie! They did a great job as they have done every year!

Our seniors singing their last farewell. 

It is quite sad to think that this was the last time that we will see Miss A perform on her 

High School Stage. Their Choir teacher is a wonderful lady 

and will be missed by both students and parents.

May 13th was Mother's Day!

 I will never understand how the U.K. celebrate's mothers day in March and the U.S. celebrate's in May, while father's day is in June in both countries and on the same day! Oh well, I had a wonderful day with my family. We actually celebrated on saturday 12th as that's when everyone was available. We also got to Skype with my Lovely Mum in Wales. My Mum looks forward to her USA Mother's Day each year, she says she gets to celebrate it twice. :D

Look at my beautiful flower arrangement?

 I just adore the red gerber daisies against the while calla lilies.

The girls made panini's for lunch and we ate outside in the sunshine.

I was quite spoiled that day!

May 14th was Choir Banquet. 

It was a Hawaiian Luau theme with lots of lovely decorations,

 shells and leis. 

Did I mention that over the course of the month I had 7 teenage girls come to make a video of the pictures of the school year events. Stress, Stress, Stress, as some of the kids were 30 minutes late finishing up the video. But it was well worth it and all the choir kids enjoyed it.

Some of the treasures Miss A came away with from the Banquet.

 May 23rd Graduation Day finally arrives. 

Dress and Gown and all her awards are ready and waiting.

Lots of ropes and tassels we are so incredibly proud of our baby girl.

The ceremony was at our local baseball stadium.

Miss A and some of the choir kids sang the National Anthem. 

My photo didn't come out very well, but you get the idea.

 The procession starts.

Turning of the tassels.

YAY! FINALLY GRADUATES!

May 26th a visit to LACMA (Los Angeles County Mesuem of Art).

Miss R is a graduate of Art and loves this place. She will be going to live with her grandparents in Wales come August so was her last chance to visit.

After our visit to LACMA we had family and friends over to celebrate Miss A's Graduation. 

We are SO PROUD OF OUR GRADUATE!

The very next day, yes I know I'm glutton for punishment we had a baby shower for my friends daughter.

She had a very sweet baby boy.

 Look at those tiny feet.

There was lots of other things that happened in-between all the craziness of May. But I will save that for another post as this is the 2nd time I've tried to post this and accidentally lost it all once. I will be sure not to do that again. 

Thanks for joining me and taking a look at My Mad May!

More Celebrations

May 5th 

Today we celebrated my 3rd Daughter's Birthday, she turned 23 yrs old on May 6th. For her birthday celebrations she wanted to go hiking.  Dad made sure it was a reasonable hike that we could all do as we're not exactly the fittest parents anymore. :D  Here we are all ready for our hike! Tennie shoes and cameras at the ready and of course water bottles.  I got lots of comments like..."really Mom, you're taking photo's of our shoes." Haha! It doesn't bother me though!

Our hike was to Switzer Falls, in the Los Angeles National Forest. As long as we've lived here we've never heard of this place before. I think you will agree with me, it's quite beautiful!

The start of our Hike, over a very picturesque bridge.

More comments about me taking odd photo's, this time of a heart shaped rock. 

The trail to the bottom of the falls was quite a hike none of us were prepared for and in the heat of the day too. Look at that view though! It was quite beautiful! But very hot out of the shade of the trees. It was close to 90º's and around noon when we reached this particular spot. So we made the decision to go back down a short distance and take a look at the top of the falls as we could see some people from the ridge below us. The flowers at the top of the ridge were so pretty I just had to pause to take a few pictures.

 At the top of the falls, there was another drop a little further on and we could just see the top of it, but the girls wanted to get closer and scrambled over the rocks to get a closer look, much to Dad's dismay, who felt it necessary to go after them. Even though they are all adults. It made me laugh at just how protective their Dad is. Birthday girl, Miss H., has always been a dare devil. We've had to have eyes in the back of our heads with her over the years. :-)

We found these random stoves in a small clearing. there were three of them and looked so cute and old fashioned. I just had to take some photo's. We thought it could be a campsite for three tents. It reminded me of something out of the great depression when people were forced to move across country to find work and were camping out in the woods to save money.

We had a lovely day out and really enjoyed ourselves. Lots of stone hopping and a few wet feet, but lots and lots of fun. If we go again we will have to take a picnic with us. There were lots of spots that we could have had a picnic at.  We were so hungry (we worked up a really good appetite) that we stopped at Mc Donald's on the way home for much needed sustenance. We were all so exhausted when we got back, we ALL took naps before we met up with Birthday girls boyfriend and our oldest daughter's (Mrs J) husband.

These were our treasures from the hike. I haven't seen acorns in a very long time. I love the varied colors and love the way they look on my dining table. So rich.

We went out to dinner all 8 of us to an Italian Restaurant that lets you draw on their butcher paper table cloths. It was fun. This is one of the many drawings that was made in between courses.  Lots or artistic hands.

Afterwards we went back to the house for ice cream cake and birthday presents. One of her many gifts was an 8mm projector and an old Laurel and Hardy movie that we found on craigslist. Miss H was a very happy girl and played with her projector until she figured it out. Movie night soon I hope.