Wet Wednesday's.

Wet Wednesday's at the Long Beach Yacht Club is just fun.  Good BBQ, good friends, and always a great view.  We celebrated these two lovelies birthday's. 

Happy Birthday Maria and Roxanne!

Generally this place is packed on Wednesdays, but our official summer hasn't quite arrived.  And so...

Roxie's baby.  Bianca in charge of pictures snagged a selfie- ha! Beautiful!

Racers in....

Where's Kali? Oh. She said she didn't get this memo.  NOT. haha. 

"Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope."  Maya Angelou

With respect and admiration for one of my favorite author's, Rest in peace  Ms. Angelou, you shining star.  Rest in PEACE. 

Happy Friday kids.  Have fun and be safe.

Just relax, and be ready.  Because June is tapping on our shoulders.  And we all know what June holds right?

Graduations, and lots and lots of celebrating!

xoxo

Leese

She is.

A bold, yet soft girl.

She's strong.

She's beautiful.

She's witty, yet tender.

She was born with a full head of black crazy hair.

I  had her fast, and I had her natural.

She cried alot, and she cried fierce.

She wore bows with all of her outfits.  Because she had no choice.

She treated others the way they treated her.  She still does.

She loves animals.  And she loves her family.

She's a true person. Loyal to the core.

She will never falter her word.  What she promises to do, she will.

She's tall, and very strong.

She has the most beautiful eye brows I've seen.

She's close to her Mom, yet can slice through her soul with a tongue that is easily sharpened.  Thank you hormones.

She's worked hard, very hard for where she is, and where she's headed.

She sucked her thumb longer than she'd ever want me to mention.

She's messy, yet surprisingly sweet in cleaning for me when I am overwhelmed.

She loves candles, and she loves all things cozy.

She's loyal to her friends, and especially to her boyfriend.

She doesn't cry, but when she does, watch the hell out.

She laughs with me over crazy awkward things.  A look across the room at eachother can change everything.

I am so happy to call her mine.

Kali, you make Dad and I extremely proud.  I know you don't like for us to bring up baby things, or little girl things, but just the other day we saw a picture of you while Dad made that slide show, and our eyes met with amazement.  I mean, really....where did the days go?  The book in this life flying by.
Part of us wants to slow the clock down to hold you again.  Or watch you from the side lines.  To watch you run into the waves, or jump from the boat.  Yet, the other part of us is standing back.  Cheering you on for the next chapters.  For your next endeavors.  For your young adult hood.  Watching you figure it out.  Rooting, and guiding you as you do. 

Happy Sweet Birthday my beautiful girl.  We love you.  More than you will probably ever know.
Until you are a Mama. 

Good things to come....

Peace and love to you all.  Kiss the sweet little cheeks of your babies, because soon, those kisses turn into hugs. Standing face to face.  All too fast. 


xoxo

Proud Mama Lisa

Celebrations for our littlest.

It all basically started for us on Tuesday.  Jetting away from our office like two little sneaky mice.
Just a day or two for ourselves, knowing the fun zone would soon be in front of us. 

Catching some river water in our toes, and soon moving on....

The few things I needed was a day to clean.  A day to shop to fill that fridge. A day to decorate. And a day to put some sun on my ever so white legs.   My little prayer as I laid on my towel in our quiet back yard was "Just get these babies here safely".....The first time they would venture on their own. No parents.  Their own trucks.  Navigating down that long highway together....On a holiday weekend....

They soon would roll in. And we'd pack up for Pirates Cove on Friday.  

Captain Daddy.

These dudes...

A wonderful group of kids.

Mad Jake.

Mac Dut

Fried Pickles first? Yes please!

Our delivered surprise was yet another new phone.  The latest and greatest...delivered with lunch on the platter. ha!

Perfect seating.  

At the perfect place.  A little tradition or sorts.

 Love birds.

 As we pulled away Kali could only watch those luminous clouds. Me too.

But we made it back home....perfectly fine.  Soon, Bill and I would be preparing to BBQ Burgers for the munchkins.

Morning would peek at us sooner than later. 

I'd prepare a breakfast buffet, and we'd head back out on the boat.

Her happy place.

The Channel- Memorial Day 2014-  Interesting enough, this absolutely did nothing for this group. Kind of shock and awe, but wanting a more simple spot. 

So off to our little cove we'd go.

Where we saved dragon flies. 

After rescuing him from the water, and drying his wings out....he'd soon fly back off....

And she was a happy camper....

It's interesting looking at these smiles.  The pictures.  These kids.  Within months they will all span out to different colleges.  Long Beach, Santa Barbara, San Marcos, Central Coast, to Texas.

This is a grin of one tired mama.

We'd get home, clean up and end up here. Party of 16 please!

Bill made the CUTEST slide show of Kali.  From baby to now.  As she opened gifts it played.

The thing that was so cute to me were the many thoughtful gifts.  "Thoughtful", meaning each little thing she really wanted, whether it was these vans, or the little accessories she loves.  The makeup that Mackenzie bought her and labeled each one with "how-to's" attached.  I mean, just soooo cute!

The little teal Tiffany box appeared......

A necklace with his initials to adorn her little neck.  ha.

Gio....Gio....Gio....you are such a loving thoughtful soul.

The highlight of some parts of their day was playing cards.  Spoons to be exact.  Talk about laughter rolling through their souls.

And this game we have outside.  Where Darren and Gio would. not. give. up.  Competitiveness flows through their blood.

Someone is stoked on a house full. ha!

The weather was PERFECT.  Highs in the low 100's-

We had no drama.  We had no issues.  These kids were everything a hostess would want. 

They helped.  They loved. They smiled and laughed hard.  The time we spent together will be one we will never forget.  The moments of boating, sunshine, breakfasts', lunches and dinners.  All together.  We did it. Chapter Eighteen never looked and felt so good.  I am proud of them.  The friendships she's made on her journey through young adult hood has made us proud.


I can't wait to see how these next chapters unfold.


I received notes from their parents.  Money donations (Thank you Susie you little sugar you...it read "boat gas money") notes from Shelly, along with dough and an amazing bottle of vino- Notes and more donations from Mac/Cindy- Notes that I have stashed away in our little scrap book.
Text messages from Darren's Mom along with more dough, thanking us for our hospitality.  That he had an amazing time.
Many thank you's from Gianni who is our little rock, as always.

Hugs and lots of love from Kali.

Happy Humpday kids.  My little girl turns 18 tomorrow, and I can't begin to tell you how weird that sounds.

I mean, EIGHTEEN?!

Big love,

Lisa

ps. Now I'm off to the mall with all that dough we received.  hahaha! juuuuust kidding!

I have tons more pictures.  Too many to post.  But many to keep in our folders to look back on someday.

Excuse any spelling or grammar errors.  I am still trying to clear my desk, and answer the many questions I receive on the daily at my desk.

Is it Friday yet??