Happy Birthday, Hannah!

My little princess is growing up!!! Friday was her 2nd birthday. We didn't do anything too big and exciting since Daddy had the flu, and Grandma and Grandpa couldn't make it up, but we still had a wonderful day! I made cupcakes in the morning that we shared at snack time with the two boys that I take care of. They were yummy and healthy pineapple/carrot cupcakes from my Rodale Natural Foods Cookbook. Hannah loves pineapple, so she enjoyed them quite a bit. We sang to her and she got to blow out candles. Then we had some play time at home before going to the park for a picnic. Hannah LOVES the park...that's all she talks about now is "swing and slide". I'm glad more nice weather is coming, so we'll be able to go more often. The rest of the afternoon she played with Bubba and we spent most of the time outside. Then we went and got Little Ceasar's Pizza for dinner (I know, I know...not the healthiest choice! I WAS going to make homemade pizza, but ran out of time because we were enjoying being outside so much). Hannah calls Little Ceasar the "Pizza Guy". And the nice lady at the pizza store gave her a "Pizza Guy" bracelet. After pizza we played outside some more then came in and had angel food cake with fresh strawberries, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Yum! She enjoyed blowing out the candles so much that she wanted to do it three more times!!! Then she opened a couple of presents and we got jammies on and read her new story that Mommy got for her. After that it was off to dreamland...what a good day! As Hannah said all day long..."Hannah's happy day".
Yum! Strawberries!
Blowing out her candles.
Cute little fingers holding her cupcake.
She looks a little concerned...hmmm...maybe she's not sure about Mama's healthy cupcakes.
Yummy frosting!

Random garden pictures

The other day when I was out with the camera I took some pictures of the few things that are growing in the garden. Unfortunately there isn't very much...I ended up having to replant a majority of seeds because either I planted them too deep last time or the birds ate them or who knows! That was a little frustrating, but hopefully this time it will work. Above is a picture of one of the little kale sprouts. So cute!
This one is hard to see, but it is swiss chard.
One of my hot chili pepper plants. Can't wait to make salsa and other sauces with them!
One of the cucumber plants.
Just trying to be creative with the camera...the bean seeds...had to replant ALL of the beans!

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!!!