Absence makes the heart grow fonder

     One of the best parts of summer break is that my kids love being outside, well they did.  Mini me still loves it, but my 11 going on 17 year old is just as happy in her room with all her electronic devices.  I try and make sure we get some time outdoors each day when the weather permits, and the hubs is always taking them to museums and such during the day so we are keeping both their minds and bodies active.  Trouble with that is it keeps me away from the pc, which keeps me away from here and I must say, I have missed this little blog of mine.  I MUST try harder to make time for it and all of you.

     With my oldest being all full of pre-teen angst, I am finding it harder and harder to find activities that both kids will enjoy.  Nine times out of ten the big one wants to either not do anything or only do it if a friend comes along.  :(  Take today for instance, for Father's Day we got Dadoo a family membership to the historical society...museum, outdoor old timey town...her question, what time do I have to get up to do this?  Little one is excited to go anywhere (most of the time)...if we have just gotten all of the littlest pet shops set up its a harder sell.

So my question to you...what kind of fun activities do you plan for your family and the kiddos?

Here are a few pics from when mini me and I conquered the zoo a few weeks ago for Mommy-(youngest) Daughter day!

enjoying our picnic lunch

monkeying around

having a roarsome good time

 

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

I think that if I had known how hard it would be to get a good garden going, I would have done a little more research before jumping in to get my hands dirty.  It has been AWESOME so far, but due to unseasonably cold weather for late May, it has been a tough road to hoe (get it...hoe hahaa gardening humor there).

Anyways, we literally went from having our AC on one day last week to flipping the furnace on the next.  It has made for a panicked little gardener on my end.  This week with the craziness has been a full force family effort on the garden.  My hubby made tent topper like frames for our raised bed and got plastic sheeting to cover from the frost warning...oh yes, the frost warning issued the day after we hit 91*.  My big girl and my hubby made sure to get the plastic off a day later when the sun finally reemerged and the temp started its SLOW ascend again. 

my sweet garden boxes with there weather protection



Once the weather started to break (again), we were able to uncover and see how we were doing.  My mini me is having some luck with her potted strawberries, there aren't an abundance of berries yet, but she gets a couple every few days so far.  We noticed yesterday too that there is some little critter that has sampled our berries. :)

 

one of the strawberry pots

up close of the "fruit of our labor" (in progress)

showing off her freshly picked berries!  Ready to eat!

 

 

This whole process has been so educational for all of us, and it actually has my girls EXCITED about trying more veggies.  They want to sample their hard work, which to me is a miracle!  Don't get me wrong, mini me has always been good about trying things....but to have the 11 year old willing to try squash and kale...I am just beside myself.  This could open so many doors to better eating for all of us!

 

our broccoli patch

the broccoli and mint

herbs and red and orange peppers, also 1 snacking pepper plant

zucchini, squash and peas

various lettuce plants, kale, collards, Brussel sprouts and spinach

green peppers and various tomatoes

 

 

 

Do you do any gardening?  What are your fav veggies or fruits to grow and what tips do you have?

 





 

 



Busy hands are happy (but exhausted) hands

enjoying the flowers on the viburnum that FINALLY came this year

It has been a crazy few weeks in our world.  We have had two out of town soccer tournaments, Mothers Day, recital prep and rehearsals, garden beginnings, house/cat sitting and our usual day to day.  I love when the weather gets nice, but it seems like everything explodes all at once when that happens and we need time to re-adjust our time tables and loads.

Where to begin in the wide world of updates.  As you can see from the pic above, we have been enjoying spring.  As a kid my parents had (well the still have) a viburnum tree that I just loved, so when my hubby and I bought our house (8 years ago) my parents bought us one.  This is the first year that we have actually gotten flowers on it which makes he have high hopes for our gardening aspirations this year! 

Along with our beautiful flowers, I think I mentioned before that my hubby was building me a few raised garden beds so we could try our hand at growing our own veggies, and as of this mornings report we have sprouts!  We planted a few starters that were already going, but added some squash, zucchini and peas that we are starting from seeds and the hubs and the mini me texted this morning to report sprout sightings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So here are my fabulous garden beds, along with mini me and the neighbor in the play area and Violet the neighbors dog.  This is pre-planting.  So far we have planted lots of herbs, zucchini, 2 types of squash, peas, spinach, brussel sprouts, 2 types of lettuce, kale, broccoli and a few strawberries.  We have tomatoes and peppers started in pots.  I am hoping the soil is warm enough this weekend to get the tomatoes and peppers in the ground.  The pepper plants look great like they are ready to go!

With veggies on our minds, but not yet in our grasp, we took our first trip to the farmers market as well.  LOVE the farmers market!  We opted for the smaller one closer to our house and got some great finds...spearmint honey amongst them.  What fun would the market be without cute stuff for the kids, seeing this makes me love broccoli just that much more.

 

 To round out the past few weeks we have had soccer tournaments

 

found a nest of baby birds in our honeysuckle

 

had our first ever dance pictures with the mini

had our last day of pre-school (tears), and thanks to pinterest I have a new tradition started to surprise my girl with when she graduates from high school

and we are getting ready for our first recital...more fun pics of that to come next week after the big event.  dress rehearsal was last night and was SO much fun!

So those are the past few weeks in my world and why I have been absent from the page.  I do want to discuss my thoughts on this whole Abercrombie and Fitch craziness and why I will never shop their stores again...but that upsets me and I want this to be a happy post!

What have you been up to the past few weeks?