wow, where have I been loyal blog readers

so much is going on and I need to catch you up

first last month

a friend's daughter got married on the beach in St. Petersburg

actually they got married here on the lawn, the hotel was on the beach

it was lovely, everything was well thought out

the music was good

steel drum for before

and great band after for dancing

the hourdourves wonderful

and the dinner excellent

oh and of course the young couple were adorable

as were her parent's

a great evening with my dates!

 

then a couple weeks later

we celebrated Beth's 28th Birthday

with a bar-b-que in a nice shady state park

complete with presents

and big bubbles

 

then 2 weeks later we celebrated Em's 10th birthday

this is the picture when we got to the park in the rain

before we moved the party to their house

and things starting looking up

we had games

this one is a good one, we use to play it at her mom's parties

there are 2 teams competing

the object is to take a balloon, run to the little chairs

sit down on the balloon until it pops

jump up and tag the next person on your team

who then does the same thing

first team to pop all their balloons wins

I wish I had gotten a photo of their faces when the balloon pops

they had a 3 legged race

it is a wonder no one hurt themselves

(do only grandma's think of things like that?)

and of course a pinata

run by the boys

picking up the spoils

she got so many nice gifts

and handmade cards

we all agreed, it was an awesome party

 

wait, there's more

Miss Em in a school chorus concert

that's her right in the first row, center of photo

they sang, The Star Spangled Banner and We Celebrate America

they also sang, Free at Last, an African American spiritual,

A Song of Peace and the last one was Adios Amigos

kind of covers it

Em and her good friend Carla

still more

there was a science fair at Em's school

there she is in front of her project

here was her "question"

then she and her mom built a solar oven and collected data

are you still with me, good

because this is the best photo yet

Em getting 2 awards at school

one for being on the honor roll

the other for something called Think Win Win

we are SO proud of her

carrots from their garden

so stay tuned

this is shaping up to be a great summer

next up Kayaking the Estero River

and at Kayaking with the kids at Indian Mound Park for Mother's Day

then we will be almost caught up......

one of my very favorite authors died yesterday

Carlos Fuentes

some of his books are amazing and wonderful

these are my favorites

The Orange Tree, Burnt Water, The Years With Laura Diaz

(he is best known for The Old Gringo

because it was made into an American movie, though it was a great book too)

he was not just a novelist, he was an intellectual in the public arena

he explored the relationship between the ancient fathers and mothers of modern Mexico

the Spanish, the Indians and the Mestizo's

his writing included political as well as literary commentary

he was creative about where Mexico had been

and vocal about where it should be going

he said, "The imagination exists and social commentary exists.

They are not at war with each other."

it is a shame my Spanish will never be good enough

for me to read him in the language he wrote in

but happy to be able to read him at all

he has been a great inspiration in my thinking and writing

I love Mexico and he has tempered my understanding of her

and he is muy guapo, no?

caliente!

view from the bridge

Saturdays Super Moon

as people were calling it

we wanted to find a place to see it rise

we went to the bridge that goes out to the beach

highest point around

Florida - is flat, flat, flat

we got there a few minutes too late to see it come up

(that's the fishing pier next to the bridge)

the sunset on the other side was nice too

it gave the moon a nice color

 a nice glow on the water

that only got better

oh and did I mention it was still 80 degrees

with a nice breeze off the Gulf

why do people say they don't like Florida....