Catch-up Post

We have been really busy lately. Here are a few things we have been up to:

Cleaning the garage--yeah, two cars actually parked in the three car garage. (look - you can actually see the floor all the way across the garage!)
This was kind of motivated by the previous week's hail storm. Nate called to warn me about the hail and see if I could get the car in the garage. So the kids and I shuffled the stuff around and piled it on one side so that I could squeeze my car in. Barely made it in when the hail hit. Nate was driving his car home. It wasn't so lucky.

We got a replacement parakeet--Coco (short for coconut). Suddenly the kids are interested in the parakeets again.

Went camping with a bunch of people from church. The kids have been asking to go fishing for a while, so we went fishing while we were there. We caught a couple bass. And ate it for brunch.

Lots more to post. But it will have to wait for tomorrow.

Mango is gone

Toby's pet parakeet, Mango, died last night. She was a good bird. Banana (Toby's other parakeet) is a little lonely now. Toby's a little sad. I think this is the first time we've had to deal with a death. (goldfish and hermit crabs don't really count.)

Betsy's Diner

I really wanted to do a prank for April Fool's Day. But I'm not great at thinking up pranks. Instead, I created my own dinner menu for a mystery restaurant.
On the menu, there are only numbers. Circle 5 on the left, 8 on the right. No words, just numbers.Then you wait and see what you get. The numbers corresponded to my list of plates, cups, utensils, and food. I had my list in alphabetical order to mix it up. My geeky boys (and husband) picked their numbers by choosing a pattern: prime numbers, fibonacci numbers, or some other mathematical thing. Hazel circled everything.

Some diners got plates, some got cookie sheets, racks, or cutting boards, or some combination thereof.Some got a drinking glass, some measuring cups or jars.And some got utensils, others got oversized eating implements, or they nothing and had to use their fingers of just lean over and eat off the plate/cookie sheet!Then for the food:

Not everyone got all the parts of the dinner. Only a couple people got dessert. We had fajitas. Only 2 people got tortillas, some didn't get any chicken. Some people got 2 or 3 drinks, some got none.
Once the food was served, everyone came up with different solutions to their dining challenges: Nate got all the parts for a fajita, but no tortilla. So he made little fajita appetizers. Toby traded the food he didn't like for something he needed. Some just made do.
It was a lot of fun. Very silly. I think we might do this again.

Wait till your father gets home!

This is what Aspen brought home from school today:How did this happen? She's never behaved like this before. I could believe it from one of the boys. But Aspen?

Nate believed it too!!!

lions and tigers and BEARS

Our ward's cub pack had it's Blue and Gold Banquet last week. Isaac received his bear badge. I gave the mother's pin to Nate -because he is the one who did everything with Isaac this year (I did it all when he was a wolf). One of the traditions they do here for bears is to send the scout into a den (teepee) and he comes out a bear. Kind of cute. Only have one more year of cub scouting left! Where did all that time go? He'll be a Boy Scout before I know it.

Hail!!

We had a big hail storm come through town a couple days ago. Nate called to suggestion that I clean out the garage really fast so that I could get my car in the garage. So I gathered all of my lovely and obedient children and we moved stuff around until at least one car (mine) coud get inside. Nate's car has been through previous hailstorm/damage and so his was not a priority. Thankfully, he got home safe and without a cracked windsheild. There was the size of golfballs and tennis balls in some other areas. It's pretty loud. We finished right as it started to rain. Made sure to gather everyone away from the windows that were facing the storm. Only a few of our windows have been replace with safety tempured glass (due to real golf balls and bad golfers). But it was over fast. And even though the ward cancelled all activities for the night, we enjoyed a nice evening at home.

Sadly, the large hail decimated half of my tomato plants. I don't think they are going to be able to recover. So yesterday I replaced them.

Planting time

I love gardening. We have had a couple gardens in past houses that we've owned. But we have missed having one here at this house. So, after 5 years, we finally built one.

Because our house sits on a nice bed of clay, we opted for some raised beds to garden in.
Isaac helped me construct the bed frames. We made 5 frames: 3- 8'X12' beds, 2- 4'X4' beds. Isaac is pretty handy with the power tools.

I ordered some good garden mix and a couple bales of peat moss.

Then I put the kids to work shoveling and raking, while I pushed the very heavy wheelbarrow full of dirt to the back yard.

We mixed it with the peat moss and the planted our seeds.We started some pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, beets, carrots, radishes, onions, broccoli, jalepeno, bell peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, beans, peas, lettuce, spinach, cilantro, dill, oregano, thyme, basil, chives, and tomatoes. We even squeezed in a few marigolds to protect the tomatoes.

We check every day to see what has popped up and sprouted over night. (The radishes were first, of course). Most of the other seeds have germinated and pushed up through the soil. Kind of waiting on the peppers and broccoli. Anyday now!

This experience has convinced me that I need more opportunities for my children to do manual labor (nothing beats it for convincing a kid that school is the place to be for a good future!) And nothing beats real work to wear the kids out. We all slept well that night.