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?

Garden Fairies

I love when the weather finally breaks!  This week has been absolutely gorgeous!  Mid 70's, sunny, slight breeze...you can't ask for much better then that, and in Northeast Ohio this kind of perfection doesn't last long, so we have been taking advantage of it.

I know I was all stoked last week about the free week at the fancy gym, but I have not gone once!  Instead I am rushing home to "work out" in our yard.  WE have been busy mowing, weeding, turning soil, cleaning out beds, and building raised boxes.  Not quite the cardio I had planned, but even better since I am home in the sunshine ands fresh air working with the fam!

Mini me has been a HUGE help in this endeavor.  She has been finding worms, raking, reporting our errors :).  Every open flower is exciting, every worm a new discovery...I love seeing it all through her eyes.

Now, my hubby and I have never been very green in the thumb department but wanted to try our hands at a few veggies.  This has now expanded to veggies, herbs and possibly even some fruit.  We are building 4 raised beds, plus we did some rearranging in the play area to allow for more bed space there, plus we have a bed on the side of the garage that needs some more cleaning up...this could be quite a crop we end up with.  We have some starter tomato plants from a friend, the neighbor has promised to bring starters of kale and bell peppers...I'm excited!  We have been very busy little Garden Fairies as my wee one has been saying!

Last summer we started going to the open market much more regularly...I am hoping that we can go less and enjoy the fruits of our labors more this year (pardon the pun).  I have been doing lots of research online about how to enrich the soil and stop bug-a-boos, I'm hoping it all works. I am taking it as a good sign that my viburnum, that we've had for a few years now and has never bloomed flowers, finally has nice little bundles of fragrant blossoms...fingers crossed.  Keep them crossed for EVERYTHING!

 

Do you do your own gardens?  What tips do you have for us beginners?!?!

 



Pedals and Petals

   
     Another shockingly beautiful day!  My original plan when I woke up yesterday was to skip the morning gym sessions and just workout last night after the kids were in bed, a nice Pilate's session or maybe even some yoga.  It was gorgeous out though, so when the girls wanted to go outside and not come back in, how could I refuse them?!?!  The 10 year old busted out her bike start and went riding with 2 of the neighbor kids, which became 3 then 5.  They finally ended up in a heated badminton tournament in my front yard.  Once the hubs was home, I took my little mini me and we hit the streets for our own bike ride. 
     Last year I bought a bike trailer to go with the beautiful new bike my fam got me for Mother's Day.  I was sad last year that the little one didn't seem to like it as much as I had hoped she would.  Well that seems to have all changed.  She hops up into the trailer now with whatever toy of choice (last night was a balloon) and we set off on our pedaling expedition.  I love this time with her.  We are getting some quality Mom and daughter time, enjoying the great outdoors and I get the added bonus of a workout with her seeing the importance of exercise.  It's a win-win!

     After our bike ride, we set to seeing what flowers had started to blossom around our house.  The honeysuckle vines are starting ton get green and climb, can't WAIT to see how they look once they really get going on the pergola.  The viburnum to sprouting little leaves, the hydrangea that we added at the end of the season has gotten lots of growth started on it and the crowning jewel for the 2c year old, the daffodils.  The daffodils are not only up but wide open next to the crocuses, and she loves them.  There was one that had fallen to the side (I think maybe from a badminton mishap) so I let her reach in and pick it.  We had to race it inside to Dadoo to be placed in a glass of water.  I love seeing her explore and discover new things. 
     I am so blessed to have the family I do, and the opportunity to share so many experiences with them.  Here's to spring!