Lilian is Two

Opening nana's brag book once again....Little Lilian just turned two. Little gem was potty trained 2 weeks before her birthday. Basically she watched the older kids and decided she was ready. Now that's what you call easy potty training.
Big sister Lynsie 4 1/2yrs is the "drama queen" while Lilian is the "firecracker". Lynsie says she is "Monkey see" and Lilian is "monkey do"....

Below are the latest pics of Lilian. Wonderful photography!

we call her the "flower picker". She can pick a full bouquet before you notice what just happened.

 

and we can't leave out a recent pic of Lynsie!

Cherub plant stand

This re-purpose project has been hanging around since last summer...I picked this heavy lamp base up at a church parking lot sale last June and it didn't take me long to get it cleaned up and painted. But the hold up was how to attach the saucer to the top. I thought a big glob of "Goop" glue would do it. Nope, that was not strong enough. So I had to call on the other half, my sweet hubby to bail me out. Well as things sometimes go, this was a project waaaayyyyy down his list.

Before pics

So there it sat on the patio all winter. So by the time spring arrived, it needed to be painted again. One day the other half got a wild hair and decided to get this completed for me. I had used a texture paint, but he went over the top with an off white then a shading of pink...hummm. I think he forgot that I wanted to use it for a plant stand....he filled it with water and  proudly announced he had finished my "bird bath". Not wanting to make a big deal out of my intended purpose, I will leave it in the garden (where I already have 2 more birdbaths--this makes 3) and maybe in a month move it and put that big plant on it:) Bless his heart for helping me complete it, I am certainly not complaining!

clouds of blossoms

ahh, I must say I have entered the time of year when I am in my best element. I love late spring and summer. After growing up in the Pac Northwest you truly appreciate dry sunny days after a long wet and rainy winter. And that is the reason it pretty much stays green all summer too.
Yesterday we had a lovely 80f day and my little lollipop crabapple tree has popped into full bloom. It sits at the corner of my cottage garden and closely follows the tulips for bloom time. At the moment is not only loaded with white blossoms with a heavenly fragrance, it is loaded with the buzz of honey bees. I snapped these pics hoping to capture the bees hard at work....but they seemed to move on faster than I.

This tree actually gets its leaves first then the blossoms

in the pic above I did capture one bee....can you find him...

 After blooming, tiny crabapples form, and hang like upside down "lollipops". This will be a real treat for the birds, they completely clean the tree by fall.