Garden Photos

Here are the pictures I promised. The front side of the garden has white, red and green onions, sugar snap peas. The middle has cilantro, basil, broccoli and lettuce. The back has zucchini and tomatoes.

A great visit

For those of you who don't know, I grew up in an awesome neighborhood in Vienna, Virginia - just outside of Washington, DC. When I was in 3rd grade a new family moved in across the street and a couple of houses down. This family had 2 girls - the same age as my sister and I. We became quick friends and remain that way today.

Well today Christine and her mom (Mrs. Canaga - I could never call her anything else) stopped by on their way to Bloomington, IL. They flew in to Chicago and drove out to see us in the 'burbs before heading south. We only had a few hours but had a great visit catching up. Dallas was even able to come home from work for lunch so he got to visit with them as well. Of course, G was his typical self. He even put in his CD from VBS and did a "show" for us. That was a first. I was surprised he wanted to do that in front of two virtual strangers but he did. Mrs. Canaga took some pictures but I didn't so I have nothing to go along with this post! Oh well!

Cathi

Garden update

I know I need a picture or two with this post but I just haven't taken one yet. The garden is doing awesome! We have been enjoying lettuce, green onions, basil, and cilantro for the past 2 weeks and as of yesterday we harvested our first jalapeno for some yummy salsa I made. We are about 3-5 days out on harvesting a zucchini and the tomato plants look great. It will be another month or so before we have some ripe, red tomatoes. We can't wait.

It has been an awesome project for Griffin and I. We had friends over last night and they were already telling us how we'll need to expand the garden next year to make it bigger and grow even more things!

Flying a kite

Griffin got a kite for a giveaway at a friend's birthday party a couple of weeks ago. Who knew that a kite from the dollar store could fly so well. I think this was the 3rd or 4th time that Dallas and Griffin have flown that thing. I decided to tag along with them since it was a beautiful day out and I never pass up the opportunity to take a walk.

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of a kite flying in the sky when you don't have an SLR? Well, it's nearly impossible. As you can see by this photo, it's not even in focus. All the other shots I had were of perfect blue sky or the very tail of the kite.

Notice Dallas with his eyes in the sky. Never take your eyes off your kite, you know!

I am off to the dollar store tomorrow to pick up a few more of these. We are having so much fun with it I think I need some extras on hand. It can't last forever.

Carrots

Griffin is 5 years and 4 months old. We have never been ones to "force" him to eat things. He does pretty good about getting dairy products, fruits, meats and carbs. It's those darn veggies that have given us troubles. He will not eat them. So casually I decided that he was going to have to try them at dinner time with us. Last night we had garden fresh green beans. He was given 2. It took about 20 minutes but he did eat them and it wasn't a huge production. Tonight we had steamed baby carrots. He had to eat 2 of them.

Here is how it transpired.

He had to have water and milk to help with the swallowing! But he was smart and took a bite of pork tenderloin (which he loved) and put it on the fork with the carrot. He chewed it up and was done with it.

It was funny because he said, "I like green beans better than carrots." So I bet if I give him beans tomorrow he's eat them since they aren't those nasty carrots!

Cathi

PS. Notice the ceiling fans in the 1st picture. I finally found 2 I like and just got them today. It's only 60 degrees outside right now so I guess I don't need to worry about having them up yet!!

Happy Birthday Aunt Barbara!

We love you and are sorry we can't spend the day with you!

Love, Cathi, Dallas and Griffin

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my sweet husband and to my dad! How blessed an I to have such an amazing dad and to have a husband who is such an amazing dad as well! I hope you both have a great day and thank you for being such a blessing in my life!! I love you both!

T-Ball

Well t-ball season is underway. This would be our first experience with this sport. Who knew 5 year olds could play a game of t-ball for an hour and a half?! Not me! But they do! It is so fun to see them out there whacking the ball off the T and trying their darnedest to get to first base. Griffin's attention span is for about 3 innings. After that, he's toast. His coaches have taken to bribing him, "just stand up and get thru this inning and snack is on it's way!" He tends to sit down in the outfield and check out the grass. I'm sure you know that in t-ball the ball NEVER makes it to the outfield.

Our friend, Peder, is coaching the kids and he's doing a great job! He makes it so much fun for them. I am thankful for that!

I think we can already tell that baseball won't be Griffin's sport of choice. I am glad to have him exposed to all different sports and let him pick which one he likes the best!

A long overdue update

Where does the time go? We spent 4 days last week in The Wisconsin Dells at The Wilderness Lodge Resort. It is an awesome place for kids and adults. There are 3 outdoor water park areas and 3 indoor areas. You will never find yourself bored at a place like this!

An unfortunate thing that happened while we were there was Lake Delton disappeared. It was amazing to know that just hours before we heard about it, the lake was full. We went right over to see it and it was GONE. Just mud, muck, and a mess! There is a water skiing show that goes on daily in the lake and all that was left was the 2 metal ski jumps in the middle of the lake. Several houses were lost and a road was taken out. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The area had 8.5 inches of rain in 24 hours. We were able to hit an arcade, shop and go to the movies - Kung Fu Panda to avoid the rains.

Griffin's favorite thing, by far, to do at the water park was this rope/rock obstacle course thingy. He must have done it 50 times. He started out needing Dallas' help to maneuver over the course but after 20 times or so, he could do it himself and he was proud of that!

Kindergarten

This little rascal will be attending full-day Kindergarten in the Fall. We just received notice that, through a lottery, Griffin was accepted. We are very excited about this opportunity. I look forward to watching him grow and excel as he journeys on this new adventure!

Cathi