In case you wanted more :)

Family Photo Shoot

We had a great time with our photographer. If you're in the area and want to check out her work, let me know!

Veggies

I'm eagerly anticipating some homegrown goodness out of our garden. The plants are mostly smaller than my pinky finger at this point, so I hope I have patience. As I was running through Costco today, this magazine caught my eye
and I've spent the last 30 minutes reading it, and it's really good. I've decided that it's time to step my gardening knowledge up a bit, from no informal education to at least a little. For example, I knew that it would have been smart to sow my carrot seeds with sand to get them spaced more, and this magazine confirmed it. I also wish I had known that I was supposed to pinch off my strawberry blossoms for 6 weeks after planting them, to yield many more red delicious nuggets in June. Doh!

I dream of growing so much produce that I could have my own weekend farm stand, or just give it freely to the food banks (do they take perishables these days?) or my neighbors. I am expecting 8 heirloom tomato plants this week from a fancy schmancy farm. I placed my order in January, and I was seriously almost too late. They have names like Carmello, Goose Creek, Green Zebra, Fireworks and Mirabell and all I have to say is that they better not disappoint. I better have a lot of tomatos to give away or that was a daggum waste oh funds... I just saw the ad for gallon tomato plans 4 for $10 at our grocery store. Ah well, let's just say I'll be saving those seeds in hopes of a free rebirth next year. Oh, that will be sweet.

Happy gardening :)

Batter up!

It was 6pm. Wind-down (after a huge amp up!) time at our house starts now. Our neighbor happened to see the boys looking at him through the window while he hit balls off his tee. He capitalized on the audience and pulled his tee over in front of the window. Soon the boys were perched on our top step. They thought that it was h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s when he missed the ball or hit the whole tee over. He did not. Laughter ensued anyway. Often. It doesn't take much to entertain these two clowns.

The Ball Popper

I caved. I bought a noisy toy. I have something against battery-powered noisy toys, but the boys loved this at our neighbors, so I finally got them one. We've had it since Saturday, and it's almost out of batteries. Of course. I guess it's time to invest in some D rechargeables.

zoo!

The penguins are back! They could have watched them swim back and forth the whole morning.

The boys always love to *sleep* in the African hut. It does look comfy, to be honest, and it's always just about nap time. Maybe one of these days we'll actually nap in there. Hmmm...that's a possibility.

And of course, there's the daily choke hug. This time Torin is stuck on a very hollowed out stool. Sorry, bud--he loves you much.

Already!?!

Goose Egg

Doesn't this just make you want to cry? Poor baby was running full speed and slipped/tripped on the slippery floor and ran head into the metal chair leg, the chair I was sitting in, and instantly he had a huge bump. It grew and grew. Fortunately we were at a routine Dr. visit for Torin and the Dr. said he probably hit a main artery(!) that runs through his forehead, but not to worry about it. Ummm...okay. I'll take your word for it, Doc. I took these photos about an hour afterwards, and it had already gone down by about half. He was a trooper, but told me it made him feel sad. I guess you can tell...

Celebrating

Mmmmm...yum. I love to host celebrations, and there's little I like celebrating more than babies and my sister. Last weekend I hosted my sister's baby shower. Her baby girl is due in just a few weeks, and we can't wait to meet her! I think one of the reason I love to host showers it the opportunity to make pretty party food. Though hosting is stressful for the hours leading up to the event (cleaning, cooking, cleaning some more), once the party-goers arrive and everyone is enjoying themselves and gobbling up food, it's so worth it.

We also put together a colorful piece of wall art for the baby's room. Everyone made a flower out of fabric and I'm going to mount them on the canvas. It's really cute.

Green Thumb

I love this time of year. There is so much possibility with the advent of spring around here. One of my favorite things about this season is gardening. After the withering and death of so many plants over the winter, to see new buds on the hydrangeas, hostas poking out of the ground, peonies barreling forth, and the nurseries finally full of color makes me so happy.

Ashen and I have been busy planting some annuals here and there to add a little more color. He loves working in the garden, and I'm happy to have him. I remember my mom letting me plants a bazillion marigolds in our front yard when I was young (not quite as young as Ash), and I remember the pride of watching them grow over the summer. I hope my boys have an appreciation (if not a love) of gardening as I find it so primal to who we are as humans to plant and tend and harvest. It brings me such satisfaction to watch things I've planted grow.

Our veggie garden is growing too. Almost all the seeds we planted are up and we're hoping for a bounty throughout the summer. I'm a little nervous because this is the first year we've planted almost exclusively with seeds (for variety and to save $$). So far, so good. The seedlings are definitely more fragile this early in the season, though.

Torin also loves being outside, but usually busies himself with digging in the empty raised bed (waiting for that order of heirloom tomatoe plants...mmmm), or digging in the not empty raised bed...grrr. I'm just glad we have space for gardens here and that our soil is darn good= less effort from me!

Oh, and can you see the almost finished exterior behind us!? Here's to hoping we get that done soon :)

I love the look of concentration on his face. Gosh, I love this kid.

Cheese Daddy

Ashen exclaimed, "Look mom, it's CHEESE DADDY!" I couldn't agree more. (click on photo to enlarge for full effect).

His newest love...

Quite the Pair

If I could turn back time...

My biggest regrets:

• Taking him to a salon
• Letting a woman (at a kid's hair place no less), who ignored my child, cut his hair
• Not getting the heck out when she didn't get what "cut two inches" and "kinda long" meant
• Not spelling out the words "leave some curls"
• Allowing her to cut his hair "like a boy"
• Not taking a loc from his first haircut, before she swept them into the bin with the rest of the week's hair
• ETA: I also regret not listening to the countless mom's I know who have had similarly bad salon experiences. Now I understand.

Sure, it's "just hair" but that hair had a place in my heart, in my soul. Strange, I didn't even realize it until it was gone. It's left me with a pit in my stomach. Of course, he's darling. It's just different and my Goldilocks is gone. The jury is out on whether those curls will reappear with the new growth...the baby fine hair is certainly gone.

I'm going to go and cry now. Feel free to join me.