Memorial Day Flowers

Today was a beautiful day, so we decided to go to the Botanic Gardens to see what is blooming. Since it was Memorial Day, Marina wore her American Flag t-shirt.

We started our day at the Children's Garden. The big draw was the wading stream. Most of the children were there. Marina spent quite a while climbing around and playing in the water. Once she was done with that, we moved on. She found a general store to play in. She spent a long time sweeping it out. She said, "I feel like Cinderella, only in a Mexican grill." (It was sponsored by a local restaurant!)

We headed over to the main gardens. Marina wanted to see the sundial, so we stopped by there, but the time didn't seem to be quite right. Our next stop was the lilac garden. We missed the full blossoming of the lilac trees, but there were still some left for us to smell.

By this time the heat was slowing us down. We went through the tropical gardens, Marina's favorite, before we left.

Family Birthday Fun

We invited our family over for Marina's birthday dinner. Marina was excited about it all week. Last night I made her a Merida birthday cake. She couldn't wait to have the figurines to play with. She even tried helping with the cake. She piped some of the grass on and helped me with the sprinkles.

Before everyone came over, Marina helped clean up the house. She vacuumed the whole house and picked up her toys. I was so proud of her!

Brian and Emily arrived first and they thrilled Marina by asking her to be the flower girl in their wedding. She's been asking them if they need a flower girl for a long time, so she was happy to accept.

As each member of our family showed up, Marina hugged them and told them how happy she was to see them.While everyone was finishing up dinner, Marina and Cameron went outside to play with bubbles. The came inside when it was time for cake.

After singing "Happy Birthday" and passing out the cake, Marina was anxious to open her presents.She received quite a few nice gifts.

Marina and Cameron went into the basement and played for a while. I was impressed that when they came up the basement wasn’t a mess! Marina hugged everyone as they left and thanked them for coming. She had a fun evening.

Cleaning Queen

I needed to clean the carpet in the basement today. Marina wanted to help. So, I showed her how the vacuum cleaner worked and she started cleaning the carpet. When I showed her the attachment hose, she got really excited and she used that everywhere.

Once the basement was done, she wanted to do the stairs. I had to help her move the cleaner up the stairs. Then she vacuumed the living room. But she wasn't satisfied with that. So I moved all the furniture so she could clean there as well. It's been a while since my carpets have been so clean! She says she wants to vacuum all the time. I have no problem with that.

Cleaning up

So, I've been working with Marina on picking up after herself. Not an easy task. But a princess can't be a slob. Lately I've been feeling like a broken record that no one is listening to. Then I opened the refrigerator and saw this:

I don't know if it's my constant nagging or the fact that sometimes her food sits out for too long before she decides to eat it. But this is progress, isn't it?