Flowers!!!

Deep purple lilac...close to blooming
My other lilac in full bloom...smells heavenly!
Pink primroses
Rosemary bush
Pink azalea bush out front
??? Some sort of bluebell looking flower
Yes, I know, it's a dandelion, but it looked so pretty! And we have lots in our yard!
???Another one I don't know, but it sure is pretty
Pansies

I was outside this afternoon and decided to play around with the camera and took some pictures of all the different flowers from around the yard. I had so much fun!! Just thought I'd share some with you!

Letter K week

This week we have been focusing on the letter "K" and things that begin with that letter. On Monday the weather was mostly decent so we took advantage of that and played outside and practiced kicking a ball and the boys showed me some of their "karate" moves.LOL Tuesday we talked about kings, read a few stories and rhymes about kings and made kingly crowns. Today we made kaleidoscopes and did some science experiments with light and learned about the difference between transparent, opaque, and translucent. I know those are kind of big words for preschoolers, but we had great fun predicting if the flashlight would shine through an object or be blocked by it. We also made time for some shadow play. The rest of this week we'll have a Bible story and learn about kites. Fun!

Pics of the corn

Garden Update

Corn is growing!!! Yes, on Saturday when I was out watering the garden I discoverd little shoots of corn peeking up through the dirt. Some of them are already nearing an inch tall! It is so wonderful when things start sprouting and growing...a sign of the good things to come. This morning I also noticed some of my kale starting to sprout as well. So far, nothing else, but hopefully it won't be long, and hopefully all of my seeds are good.

Garden records

This part is mainly for my benefit just so I can keep track of what has gone in, and when, and how it's growing and what our harvest is. I don't have any spare notebooks laying around, so figured this would work for now.

4/18/09

Plants put in:

2 tomatoes in bed/1 tomato in hanging grower
4 chili peppers

Seeds planted:
Box #1
8 squares corn

Box #2
1 square Spanish yellow onions
1 square green onions
1 sqaure chives
1 sqaure basil
2 squares cantaloupe

Box #3
4 squares green beans

Box #4
2 squares cucumbers
2 squares peas

4/19/09

Seeds planted:
Box #3
4 squares carrots

Box #4
3 squares lettuce
3 squares romaine
2 squares spinach
2 squares chard
2 squares kale

The garden is planted!

Saturday and Sunday we were able to get out and get some seeds and plants for the garden. I've got everything in and still have a few squares left to put something in. I'm thinking some herbs or maybe broccoli...we'll see. I'm soooo excited!!! We've got tomatoes, 4 different kinds of chili peppers, carrots, peas, green beans, two different kinds of lettuce, spinach, chard, corn and kale. I'm also going to put in 4 bell peppers as soon as I can find some. And I'm thinking about a couple more tomato plants so we'll have enough to can some. Next to the beds I'm going to put a couple hills of zucchini and squash...they take up so much room that I didn't want them in my beds as there wouldn't be room for much else. We're also hoping to find some of those hanging growers for strawberries, and I'm considering putting in a couple blueberry bushes out front as part of the landscape. I've so got gardening fever!!! LOL

Sandbox...

Hannah loves her new sandbox! She has already had so much fun with it just since we built it Wednesday. Yesterday we went to the Dollar Tree and got some sand toys to play with. Summer is going to be lots of fun!!!

Dirt!

Matt had the day off on Wednesday and he made good use of his time. We were able to get two loads of dirt to fill our garden boxes, plus he also got a load of sand and built a sandbox for Hannah. So now we have garden boxes with dirt, ready for planting!!! Yay!!! Just have to find the time to plant them now. I'm so excited!!! This weekend should be very nice so I'm hoping to have time to get out and get my hands in the dirt and get our garden growing. We are using the square foot gardening method from the book Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. We should be able to grow lots of food in our four boxes. Plus, I'm hoping to make some window boxes for growing herbs and such. It is so great to have our own place that we can do whatever we want with. God is good!!!

Easter 2009

Our pretty princess all dressed up for Easter. She LOVED her hat we found at the Dollar Store and was so proud to wear it. So cute!!! I love her so much!!! (It was hard to get her to stand still, so these aren't the greatest pictures)

Garden in progress!

Saturday the weather was mostly decent and we had the time to get outside and get our garden boxes built. After doing some reading in Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, I decided we needed about 4 4x4 foot raised beds to grow what we would need for our family. I'm also hoping things grow well enough that we'll have plenty to freeze and can. We ran out of time to get dirt for the beds since Matt had to go to work, but he is taking Wednesday off so we are hoping to get it then and get stuff growing. I'm am just itching to get out there and put my hands in the soil and plant seeds and begin the journey of growing our own produce! We are trying to become as self-sufficient as one can be living in the city. As our garden and yard continues to evolve we will post updates. I love to be able to share what we are doing!

Good thing they're washable!

Friday I shared the Easter story with the kiddos and then was having them make a card that they could give to someone to share the good news that Jesus is ALIVE!! Since we use crayons quite a bit I thought it would be fun to let them use markers to decorate their cards, along with some rubber stamps and stickers. We had lots of fun and they did a great job decorating their cards. The boys finished a few minutes before Hannah and got down to go play. I started cleaning up some of the stuff and turned my back on Hannah for a minute. Then I heard "Mommy! Mommy!". I turned to look and she was proudly coloring with a BLACK marker on her arm and hands!!! Oh, joy!!! I kindly told her that we need to color on the paper and not ourselves and she said "okay", but then wanted to get the marker off of her hands. Well, they are washable so thankfully it did wash off...some of it anyway. The rest had to wait till bath time. She was kind of bothered by it at first and kept saying "Mommy, wash hands." Then soon got used to it. Maybe next time she won't draw on herself....nah, I am sure it will happen again! LOL Oh, it is so fun to have kids!!!!

More fun than a puppy!!!

Hannah chasing James' laser pointer...so fun!!!