Back in May, as I was reading around the blogosphere , I saw that many people were working on their square foot gardens.  Initially I didn’t think much about it.   After all, I do not have a green thumb.  My husband does and he does a little garden in the backyard every summer.  However, his garden doesn’t produce a lot and after reading about how plants really need at least 6 hours of sunlight, I knew the shade was the problem.    The problem with our yard is that it is surrounded by trees and while we get some sunlight throughout the day, no one place gets dedicated sun for that long.

But as I thought some more, I realized our side yard actually gets decent sun.  I never considered it for gardening because the soil is terrible there, but the beauty of square foot gardening is that create a raised bed and put good soil in it – it doesn’t matter what the underlying soil is like.

So, I got the bug and bugged my hubs to make me a box.   Instead of a 4′x4′ box, we did a 8′x2′ rectangle.    We lined the bottom with cardboard to serve as a weed barrier.

Soo.. how does your garden grow?  And what have you planted this summer?

This weekend was super busy, I will attempt to record it all before I forget everything.

So, we decided to have another yard sale.  We had one last year over Memorial Weekend and we got rid of so much stuff then, I wondered if we’d have enough junk to host another sale, but surprise surprise, we did!   I stressed over the weather as the chance of thundershowers was pretty good.  We did have rain the night before, but praise the Lord, Saturday was rain-free.   And thankfully my signs held up.

We had a great turnout — pretty much a steady stream from 7:30 – 9:30 and good bursts of activity right up until 11:30 when I began to run out of steam.   I let hubs hold down the fort while I ran around the neighborhood yanking signs and we were done by 12:30.    We counted up our total and I was thrilled to discover we cleared $300 (not counting the kids’ profit, which they banked).   Not a bad haul at all!

I was even less sentimental about my leftovers this year and took nearly everything to a local thrift store.  It felt so good to have it all of the house.

Once we finished up our yard sale, I was ready to turn my attention to the evening — it was our anniversary and we had a hot date planned!  More on that later…

We purchased a big boy bed for Adam last month, but the transition from the crib to the bed was slow-going.   I finally thought he was ready to move out of the crib, but it was hard to seal the deal cuz I kept waiting on dear hubby to take it apart and the window of time that was a viable option was so limited, we could never make it happen.

Finally, it occurred to me that I was man enough for the job.  Yesterday, Adam had his PDO program and Wendy was home sick from school.  Since we were homebound, I decided to tackle the crib.  Go me, I got it taken apart all by myself!  (just don’t ask me to put it back together by myself).

I vacuumed up the room and put the play kitchen back in and got everything looking spiffy before we picked him up.   When we came home, he was excited about his room, but it seemed to take a while to realize the crib was gone.   Finally, as he was getting put in bed for his nap, he started asking, “Kib is?”  I told him the crib was broken and gone.   He seemed okay with that explanation.

However, today’s nap time did not go as smoothly.  After much playing and crying, I eventually checked on him and discovered he was asleep.

I guess it takes time to break in the big boy bed.

Wendy & Sam wanted to watch different videos.  I told them they had to agree, or work out a compromise or they got to watch nothing.  Wendy opens the negotiation that SHE should pick today’s video and then Sam would get to pick for two weeks.  I suggested she might want to make a different deal, but Sam quickly agreed.  He even demonstrated that he knew how long two weeks was by telling her he meant not this Sunday but then another Sunday.   I suspect Wendy borrowed on her future figuring that we would all forget the terms of the deal (it’s happened before).  But to ensure the law was upheld, we all signed a contract, which I taped next to the TV.

We’ll see if she regrets her commitment in the days to come.   The irony of it all is that the video she chose  was a Thomas video, one that Sam was happy to watch.  Sigh

It seems that May has been a busy month.  A few activities have gone unchronicled, so I want to mention them before they are completely obsolete.

May Fair

The first is the elementary school’s May Fair, which was held the first Saturday in May.   It’s a big money maker for the school’s PTA and is promoted heavily.   So, everyday of that week, W kept telling me, “I can’t WAIT for the May Fair!”  She was so excited, even though she really didn’t have much of a clue about it.

The fair was full of carnival-esque games and activities and food.  EVERYTHING cost $, so we made the kids spend their own money on tickets.  They each spent $3 which bought them 6 tickets which didn’t go very far.   But it was good practice in decision making.   Wendy blew thru her wad pretty quick and sweet-talked her dad into shelling out more tickets for her.  Sam couldn’t decide what to spend his tickets on and actually had some leftover at the end of the day.  It was a hot hot day.  Here’s the photos:

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Despite living in a dense suburban neighborhood a few minutes from our nation’s capital, there is nature to be found.   In fact, our local rabbit population is thriving.  We often see them in our yard or our neighbor’s yards, but didn’t know how thriving the population was until we discovered baby rabbits in our backyard.   We “discovered” them when Wendy accidentally stepped on one — they were hiding under some pulled up weeds she walked on.   I ran inside to get my camera and forgot to tell the kids “no touch” until I got back.  They had already petted them.   I took a few pictures and then removed the kids and the dog from the yard for a while, in hopes that momma rabbit would return to her brood.   Later I went back to check on them and the bunnies were no longer there.   I hoped they had moved on to greener pastures, but alas, I later still I found one lil bunny dead in another part of our yard.  I’m holding out hope the others are doing okay, but as Mike reminded me, “If they didn’t, don’t worry, there’ll be more.”

Mother’s Day

Last Sunday was a beautiful day to celebrate.  We spent the afternoon at my dad’s house, where Mike, Dad, and brother Bear put together a delicious meal of grilled chicken and yummy sides.  The kids had a blast riding bikes up and down Grandad’s quiet cul-de-sac and I enjoyed doing nothing.  It was a nice way to pass the day.

The Dentist

The big kids had their biannual dentist visit last week and once again did great.   The practice we go to does a pretty good job – so far we’ve had great hygienists, which makes all the difference in the world.  Sam has teeth just like his Daddy and got a clean bill of health.   Wendy’s mouth seems more similar to mine and she had two cavities :(   She was a trooper tho and didn’t complain.   Wendy still hasn’t lost any of her baby teeth, which she is bummed about, but was excited to learn that she has a 6 year molar coming in.   Hopefully when those adult teeth do come in, we can take better care of them!  She listens carefully to the dentist tho and has been gungho to floss since her appointment.  If I can remember to remind her, she’ll probably do alright.

This is Wendy, post appointment.  She wanted to show off her new toothbrush and prize (a ring), but I wanted to show off her outfit.   She has a unique fashion sense and I generally don’t interfere.  She loves dresses and skirts and lots of pink!   She has a sweet personality and her love of life shines through in all she does … and wears.

Sam loves to learn how to do new things and loves to help in the kitchen.  I confess, I’m not always eager to have the kids underfoot, but Mike has been great about teaching them.  Sam and Wendy learned to crack eggs at a young age — I’m pretty sure he had Sam doing it by age 3.   Occasionally they get shell in the batter, but overall, they do a great job!

Anywho, one night Daddy was slated to work late and I declared a breakfast for dinner menu.  But I realized I had my hands full with waffle making and  making eggs, so I asked Sam if he wanted to learn how to make scrambled eggs.

He did a great job!  He was very careful and aware of what was hot on the stove (and I closely supervised).  The eggs were yummy, and I suspect they were all the more delicious because he made them himself.  He was so proud to tell his Daddy when Mike surprised us and showed up in time for dinner after all.

Look who learned how to flex his muscles?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Today, at dinner, Wendy was self-serving herself some black beans.  As she started to wander off with a heaping bowl and no spoon in sight, I warned, “You better get yourself a spoon or I’ll cut your fingers off!”  (Eating with the fingers is a big pet peeve of mine).

She replied, oh so casually, “If you do that, how will I pick up my toys?”

Touche.

This week’s You Capture theme is “Fresh“.   I didn’t have anything in mind, but as we were tooling around the backyard this evening – hubs was grilling up steaks and the kids were playing in the dirt — I knew I wanted to capture the spring flowers in our backyard before they withered away.   Here are my FRESH captures:

Thanks for stopping by!

My little one has been under the weather.  He’s been running a fever for several days now and although he is otherwise generally happy, it has started to wear him out.    Yesterday he lay down on the dirty digusting kitchen rug in front of the oven and drifted off to sleep.  At 11 in the morning.  Poor baby.

He had his two ever-present comforts close at hand: his thumb, and his Lammie.

See more You Capture moments from this week at Kidnapped By Suburbia (temporary host of You Capture, which normally lives at I Should Be Folding Laundry).