Happy Spring Break

We are all super excited to get Spring Break started today!  I have a feeling that with all the beautiful weather that we have lots of outdoor activities in our future for the next 10 days.   What are your Spring Break plans?

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Here’s a little something green brought to you by Dallin:

Nothing signifies springtime better than a baby caterpillar!  Forget about the flowers – bring on the worms!

We have Germination!

The lettuce and spinach are coming up nicely – only a few more weeks and we’ll be picking those for salad -

The beans are coming through with a vengeance, we’re going to have to do quite a bit of “thinning” on those rows because so many came up!

We have little corn stalks making their debut -

And the tiny, tiniest of carrot tops are even beginning to peak through -

It is crazy how excited I am about this!  I’m just glad the seeds actually worked!  Now we’ll have to see if we can keep them alive long enough to actually grow a few veggies :)

So sweet…..or not….

We were riding in the car not too long ago, and I hear a sweet little two year old voice start to sing,

“lead me, guide me, walk beside me”

My heart just wanted to melt.

But then he continued on,

“Help me find the Mater the Greater”

Followed by an evil little giggle.

Honestly, I don’t know about this child sometimes.

It’s Tow-Dallin

My boys love Cars!  So I guess it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Dallin came up with a way to pretend that he was Tow Mater!

Now I just have to hope they don’t decide to do any dare devil tricks like Mater the Greater!!!!

The River Dogs

Baseball season has officially begun!  Last weekend found us out at the ballpark for opening ceremonies Friday night and their first game on Saturday night.

 

 

 

Getting ready to run out on the field for opening ceremonies.

 

 

 

Our fantastic coaches.

 

 

Running the bases.  We’re not exactly sure why Dallin chose number 27.  It really has no significance that we can think of.  Apparently he just likes that number :)

 

 

 

 

Hanging out on the field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first game Dallin made contact with the ball, but was tagged out at first.  It truly was a spectacular loss.  Something like 18 to 3.  Or it could have been more.  I kind of lost track.  Let’s just say our team has a long long way to go.  But I’m sure we’ll see lots and lots of improvement by the end of the season.

 

 

I am very proud of my little River Dog.

 

 

P.S.  I was completely justified at being scared of the baseball schedule.  It is insane – just this week alone we will have spent 3 evenings and 1 Saturday morning out at the ballpark.  We may have to set up a permanent camp there.

Let’s play ball!

Good times with the Cat in the Hat

Thing 1, Thing 2, ….. Thing 16, Thing 17, Thing 18.  It is a wild and crazy classroom with that many “things” in it!

But my favorite things there that day were this thing and that thing:

Don’t you just love Dr. Seuss!

Art and Cousins

My mother is an artist.  She has an amazing talent with paints of all kinds – oil, acrylic, watercolor – all gorgeous.  So it should come as no surprise that is has now become a tradition that my kids expect when we go for a visit that they get to have a painting session while there.  And this painting session was extra special because Emily (or as Layton calls her “My Emiwy”)  and Sarah got to join in too!

I have always want to be able to create beautiful pieces of artwork like my mother.  Unfortunately, I lack the talent to do so.  One thing that having an artist as a mother has taught me though, is that you don’t have to be an artist to appreciate good artwork.  So while I can’t create it, I am glad to have been instilled with a deep appreciate of art and what it takes to create it.  If you have never watched an artist at work, it is an amazing thing to see how each stroke of the brush comes together to create the whole.   I think that creating beautiful things is one way that people show their affinity to being like unto God – for isn’t He the greatest creator of all.  I am grateful everyday to be able look around me and appreciate His artwork, from the sweet faces of my children to the flowers that are beginning to bloom this spring to the ever changing beauty of the sky and everything else in between. 

We’re feeling very green…

This weekend we decided it was time to start our garden again.  I’ll have to admit, we’re like the least successful gardeners ever.  The only thing we’re really been successful at growing seem to be herbs – and WEEDS!  Last year I think we ended up with only a handful of vegetables after having invested quite a bit of money in buying plants.

So this year we decided that for the most part we were going to try planting almost everything from seeds.  That way, if we don’t grow anything we will have only spent a few dollars on seed packets.  Luckily Aunt Becky has offered to give us some tomato and pepper plants because those you can’t just set the seeds out in the garden, you have to start the seeds inside (which again, is something that we have tried and failed at!).

We also decided that since previous years were not that successful that we would try a slightly different method of gardening called square foot gardening.  This method really packs the plants into every available space.  We only have two little 4 feet by 6 feet garden beds for planting so this seemed like a good approach.  Here is what we have planned:

I am really excited about the spinach and lettuce.  We’ll be planting 1 new row of spinach and 1 new row of lettuce each week so that our harvest (if we have one) comes in at slightly different times.  We’re planning on harvesting them as little baby plants for some yummy salads.  And hopefully add in some baby carrots and we’ll be eating salad at it’s best!

So it doesn’t look like much yet

But we’re hoping with a little loving care by us and especially our kids

that by next week we’ll be seeing a few plants shoot up from the ground from the seeds we planted!

And to hopefully make our garden even more successful, we decided to invest in a composter.  I am so excited about it.  I feel like a true tree hugger now.

Honestly though for years it has irritated me how much of our kitchen waste just goes down the disposal or out with the trash.  Now I feel like all of our watermelon rinds, strawberry tops, orange peels and so many other things will finally fulfill their purpose in life!

We’ve only added some dry leaves and a handful of food so far, but we’re hoping that very soon we’ve have some nice rich humus building up in there to fertilize our garden with!

Yay for being green!

Knee Socks

I’ve already mentioned Mandy’s most interesting sense of style.  Well it just keeps getting better.  One morning last week she came bouncing out of her room in short sleeves and knee length skinny pants and I told her that it was a little chilly that morning and that she needed to put on some warmer clothes.  Rather than change her clothes, Mandy decided to accessorize instead.  She slipped on a hoody and the best part – added a pair of knee socks:

Lets get a close up of those socks for posterity:

Nathan and I laughed so hard (trying to hide it from Mandy that we were laughing at her) that we just didn’t have the heart to make her change.  So again she went to school just as she was.  I hope the teachers there don’t think that we are crazy!