Monday, April 18, 2011

Winter or Spring?

Last weekend we planted our Sugar Snap Peas in the garden.  We were barefoot and playing with the water table.  The sun was warm and bright.

This weekend, it snowed.  Not enough to stick, but snowflakes were in the air and it was sooooo cold!  Enough already.  We had to turn our furnace back on!

The grass we planted did so well and the girls loved to watch it grow every couple days.  Each shell is full with tall green grass.  It makes me wonder whether one could plant vegetable seeds in egg shells as indoor starts and transplant later.  Are egg shells good for plants?  I would imagine you could just crush the shells slightly before putting them right into the ground.  Maybe next year I'll try it.

 Trying to plant the peas.  One little helper helped, the other one didn't.  Guess which one is which...
 And then there was one...
We planted 4 rows.  One of the rows contains the seeds I saved from our "crop" last year.  If they turn out well, I will save all of our seeds for next year.  It's a little intimidating.
 Boothe has graduated to a big girl swing.  And does very well.  I'm much more scared that she will fall off than she is.  But even I'm not too concerned as the swings are very low to the ground.

 And of course Boothe can't just like to swing.  She has to love laying back and scaring me half to death.
So since last weekend, we have some tiny pea sprouts.  Yesterday I noticed them mostly around the outer edge of the garden which gets the most sun.  Hope this crazy weather doesn't effect the little seedlings.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Magnolia the artist

I'm impressed.  Wish I could hang it on my fridge.  Saddest part is that it had to be erased since it was drawn on a magna-doodle.  She is definitely in a coloring, drawing, writing phase.  Always has her pail of crayons and stack of coloring books.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Spring is in the Air

Although we have had terrible weather so far this spring (cold, gloomy and rainy), there have been a few sunny days when we have been able to get outside for a bit.  Yesterday it was actually 80 degrees here and very hot and humid.  We were outside all afternoon and the girls were getting soaked by their water table.  These pictures are from a day last week when we went for a little walk around the block.  We had to cut it short after Boothe peed her pants and I had to awkwardly carry here home trying not to get too wet myself.

 It hasn't been a good year for flowers.  Apart from this day, our crocus bloomed and died without us being able to enjoy then.  My daffodils aren't looking so great either and time will only tell how the hyacinths do.
 Boothe collected  all the sticks she could carry.

We slept last night with our windows opened and the ceiling fan on...bliss.  The perfect temperature.  Then to add to this nice sleep, it thunder stormed which is so relaxing especially when falling asleep.  And to top off this great night of sleeping conditions, both of the girls slept until 7am without waking up once during the night.  I woke up this morning so rested, so thankful and ready to tackle my to-do list.  Here's to a good  night sleep and a productive day!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Lawrence Welk

I'm not sure what you all do on Saturday nights, but nothing could more fun or exciting than watching reruns of the Lawrence Welk show on PBS.  We discovered it one night a couple months ago and have been watching every Saturday night since.  The girls like to dress up and dance and love to watch the dancers and especially the tap dancer.  I have grown to actually look forward to watching it together.  We are making memories and that's the best part of it!





Monday, April 4, 2011

Eggs

Our life has been revolving around eggs these days.  First my parent's chickens started laying and these days they get 5-7 eggs/day from 7 layers.  Scrambled eggs have become almost a daily staple at either breakfast or lunch.  We all love them so I don't think we will grow tired of them anytime soon.  This picture is of their very first egg that one of their hens laid about 6 weeks ago.  They begin smaller and as the hens begin laying more and more they eventually get bigger.
 
Boothe holding the egg which she proceeded to accidentally crack minutes later.  Our fault...we gave a 1 year old an egg!

Once it was cracked we had to eat it! ha  Maybe it was no accident that Boothe cracked it...she does love to eat eggs.
Onto other egg news.  This Easter/spring we decided to take advantage of all of the egg shells we now had and plant grass in them.  This is just the beginning of the process with the dirt and seeds in the shells, but in a couple weeks they should look like this on my friend, Leah's beautiful blog.
I have also been knitting Easter Eggs for the girls to hang.  They are so fun and quick to do!  I am using the pattern from Little Cotton Rabbits.  It's fun coming up with different patterns and color combinations to try.  Magnolia has even decided on the color combos she would like me to make.  These are the Easter/pastel colors I have been using minus the blue which somehow didn't make the picture.
And here is how they have turned out:
And now that I have several done, I need to find a branch to use as a make shift tree to hang them from.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Welcome, Jonah

I know I said that I would be posting last night, but Dan was on the computer working so I didn't get the chance.  But on a better note, yesterday, my cousin, Michelle, had her sweet baby.  Jonah Thomas entered the world late last night and weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces.  We are so excited for Michelle and Greg and their first child, Jonah!

In honor of her delivery and his birth, I decided to post pictures from her baby shower a few weeks ago.
 After the showers that she had, she was all set for baby.  Lots of nice things!  We got her a plentiful supply of cloth diapers and a baby food maker.  I don't know who is more excited for her to use them, me or her!
 Magnolia and Boothe were great little helpers unwrapping gifts.  Sometimes even before Shell could read the card, they had the gift ripped open and were ready for the next.
 The 2 pregnant ladies.  Both expecting boys, although Jonah is now here.  Brooke's baby, Raife, will arrive late July!  Lots of boys this year.
 The Grandma-to-be and the Mommy-to-be.
And just for good measure, a little bit of Boothe.  Pure feistiness all wrapped up in the tightest hugs, biggest kisses and sweetest smiles!

Friday, April 1, 2011

I'm Back

It's April and after a 3 week hiatus and an even longer time of neglect, I'm back to blogging.  There are several reasons for my lack of posts.  Mostly I just needed a break.  I've had a lot of committments lately and something just had to give.  Also since January, we have been sick a lot, tired a lot and we have had so many cloudy days that I have not been taking many pictures at all.  I prefer natural light so when it's not available, I'm not much in the mood for taking photos.  We also got an iPad for Christmas and most of my computer time has been spent on that and I haven't figured out how to upload and edit photos and post to the blog from the iPad.

But, alas, spring is here and even though it's been rather chilly outside, the sun is shining and spirits are up!  Time to get back on the blogging bandwagon.

I'll be back tomorrow with a more substantial post as it is 11pm and I'm off to bed!