A few fun times this week...

Blake and his best friend James at Spencer Dixon's birthday party at Baxter's Bunch wearing their google eyes.  These were a big hit!

Delaney liked to "drive" all the trucks at Everything Trucks with Come-See-Me this year...no one was scared of the horns this year, yay!!!

It's spring!  We are so excited about the yard turning green, flowers coming up, blooms on the trees and most of all planting the garden.  I didn't get a picture of them helping to plant the garden and pick out the veggies at the Farmer's Exchange, but they sure had fun with it!  

This is their "watching TV" stare.  They currently get to watch one show if they are dressed and finished with their fruit at breakfast in time before school in the mornings and if they take a good nap sometimes in the afternoon they get one show.  They like Calliou (D favorite), George, The Bernstein Bears, Arthur, and sometime Sesame Street, mainly Elmo and the faires though. 

Our new grapevine

Gardening was a challenge this summer since I wasn’t in town during the prime time to weed and train the plants, so our summer garden didn’t do great, but we do have a few tomatoes, had a good many cucumbers, a bunch  of jalapeños and a couple bell peppers, but not enough.

We had to start over on our grapevine this year.  It takes 3 years to produce fruit you can eat and we are finally there at the other house and we moved away, of course we haven’t sold it yet though so we will still be able to eat some.  We got strawberries from that yard this year, but the blueberries were found by the birds before I could get over there to enjoy them.  There are a bunch of grapes growing on it now, I can’t wait for them to get ripe.

We had our new trellis put in for our two vines I planted last fall this week.  They are going to be so happy to have so much room to grow and produce their fruit.  The kids enjoyed watching it be installed.  Kevin did too, he was glad to not do the digging this time.

Flowers from my garden at the old house

Unfortunately the old house hasn’t sold yet, but fortunately we are able to enjoy the beauty it grew this year.  I took a lot of time two years ago to plant lots of bulbs and last year I was at the beach when they bloomed and the Lily’s never even bloomed.  This year I went by and there they were!  I got to see them with my own eyes, finally!  The strawberries are much bigger this year and putting out lots of fruit.  The grape vine is going wild, there will be so many grapes this year, I want the house to sell, but I might have to put in the contract that I get to come pick a few grapes, it takes 3 years for it to produce and it is finally going to this year!  The blueberries are not quite ready yet either, but there are lots of little ones on it.

 

 

 

 

So I cut some of them and brought them home to enjoy.  .

The new backyard

The porch is going to be the most used room in the new house, we have already spent hours on it.

During our 5th trip to Lowe’s this week the kids picked out some flowers to plant in the new yard, we’ll have to wait til the threat of frost is over, but they are pretty on the porch.

The deck usually has the basketball goal on it, but is also well used, I even took a little nap on it already, waiting on the grill to fire up.  The hummingbird feeder is up and ready for the birds, along with the 5 bird feeders my parents left for us, the kids are loving watching them already.  The back yard has a swing set already in it, a bridge, and lots of beautiful flowers and plants.  I added my grape vines, since I have to start from scratch and new blueberry bushes, which I don’t think made it, a few months ago, I can’t wait til year 3 again for them to start to produce.  I planted a new tree last year in my old yard that I loved and took forever to find, I just saw this one today and it’s the same kind, just bigger!  It doesn’t weep, but it’s the deep purple color I love.  Under the tree is where my cat, Snickers, was buried 7 years ago.  This backyard was also the location for our wedding pictures 7 years ago, what memories and how neat to live here now with those. 

The sandbox is full of sand now, Delaney was SUPER excited and the seeds are bought, ready to be planted in the new garden.

Garden and yard update

The beginning of June, I thought we'd have veggies before we left for the beach for the summer, but as we were leaving on June 17, I only found a few full size carrots, 2 small onions,  a banana pepper, and a jalapeno.  Everything is going to ripen while I am away, Kevin will be able to get it, but I really wanted the kids to help.

The grapevine has little small grapes on it about 2 cm in diameter right now, I wonder it we'll have them before the birds get to them.

 Flowers are growing under the bird feeders, Delaney of course LOVES them! I Planted about 50 bulbs this spring to bloom in the late summer/fall.  One flower was in bloom when we left, I didn't get a shot if it, but here are a few of the greens.


We use our yard for everything, pool time, basketball, family get togethers, neighbor get togethers, gardening, running, baseball, slides, sandbox time, etc.  We love our backyard!

The blueberries are here!!!  We picked about 6 so far and they tasted great right off the vine!  We don't put anything on them keeping them organic and safe to eat that way.  Yum!

A messy dinner

Tonight Delaney refused to eat, I was trying to feed her because she had on a nice outfit.  The first bite she hit out of my hand and it went on it, we took it off, I tried again, she is turning her head, refusing to eat, but then pointing at it wanting it.  I gave it to her and she dug in as happy as can be.  Blake will still let me feed him if I let him, Delaney doesn't like it.

 We said our prayer...

 She had to be reminded to close her eyes, she really did try...

 And then finished the meal.  We went straight to the sink, I have a great picture of her naked head to toe covered in ABC's.  Blake was finding letters she dropped on her and the floor.  It was funny.

Notice in the back the garden inside is started over.  We are growing flowers this time.  Below is a picture of Blake eating and loving I might add, the carrots he helped pick and prepare from the outside garden.

Strawberries

We got strawberries from the garden finally.  Unfortunately 90 degree weather makes them "done", so I think these are the only ones we will have.

 

A few garden updates before we leave for a week, I sure hope everything makes it a week without us.

Garden and yard update

 The blueberry bushes have flowers on them, we'll have fruit this year, hooray!  Now, if the mosquitoes will just stay away!

 The grapevine is starting to turn green.  Clark Weeks, a man at church that knows everything about anything, helped me prune it this year, after I already pruned it too much.  Know I know exactly how to make it grow the best.  I wish my granddaddy was here to help me with it, but Mr. Weeks is great to have to help.  He told me about how each year the vine starts to green within a week or two of Easter.  He was right, here it goes!

 I think the frost has gotten to the tomato plant and hot peppers.  A cat dug up my squash seeds, so the garden isn't doing too well right now.  After I return from the beach next week I'm going to do some replanting.

 We planted a new tree in place of the overgrown Leland that we took up last fall.  This is a beautiful purple tree.  I have been told it's a Weeping Red Maple and a Cherry Tree.  Not sure what is right, but it's beautiful!

The hybrid strawberries seem to be getting a little bigger, just waiting on them to start to spread.