A Green Thumb?

I am not sure if I have a green thumb or not, but this summer will certainly help me determine if I do!  You see, I have always wanted to have a garden, but have never done it.  In NH we really didn’t have a good spot for it… it was too shaded!  Then in coming to IA we didn’t want to dig up our rental property to have a garden.  Now that we are in our own home, I have had the perfect spot to have a garden… but it has been occupied by hostas…. and I mean MEGA HOSTAS!!!  I really wanted to remove them and get them in another location at the front of the house so they would be seen, but there were too many things that had to be done first – more on that in an upcoming post!  Now that THAT work is done, I was able to get the garden that I wanted. 

We just have a few plants, but we think it will be a great thing for all of us!  It has been fun to see the seeds sprout and the flowers make their way on the plants!

Here are the pepper plants… there are 2 green pepper plants, one red pepper plant and one jalapeno plant. 

Here are the sprouts from the green bean seeds.. you can almost watch them grow!!  In the back are the cucumbers… we just got seeds so they will take some time to grow… but they are already sprouting!

Here are the zucchini and yellow squash plants… we are getting ready to see some flowers on them any day!  I am already getting excited to make zucchini bread (with chocolate chips, of course) and some yummy stir fry!!!

Here is the whole thing… not much, but it is something to us!

FYI… gardening really makes me think of my Gramps and Nanna!  They have always had a garden and I can remember going to their house in the summer and helping to pick things!  There is nothing like Grampa’s green beans, corn, and cucumbers!  It was always fun to be up there and pick the beetles off of the raspberries or pull on a carrot to see how they were coming along!  I miss those days… wish I lived closer to them!  Here is one last set of pictures… of Grace!  We got to have her participate in the garden experience at Great Grampa’s several years ago… I still remember how she picked and then ate EVERY raspberry she saw!  I am not sure ANY made it into the container!  (Reminds me of Blueberries for Sal!) 

Here are just a few of the garden boxes we had in NH… we had some GREAT beans… not much else, though!

What will we get from the garden this year…. hopefully lots of great produce AND PICTURES/MEMORIES!

“Hairy” fun!

The girls have been practicing doing their own hair… and Grace is getting really good at making pony tails, but the really fun part of styling hair is putting on the finishing touches – the barrettes, the clips, the bows, etc.  They are unable to put these into their own hair so they are practicing on each other.  They don’t finish with their subject until they empty the accessory container… all thirty something of them! Yes, that is a TON!

Lately the girls have been using ANY willing target – including ME and Josiah!  Thanks, Siah, for being a good sport!  Your sisters are thankful!  (BTW.. I let them use me if they will brush my hair when they are done!!!!!)

Anything you can do, I can do better…

Hannah LOVES to imitate Grace… anything she does, Hannah believes that she can do it and do it better than her sister!  BUT she is only four and there are times that we have to bring her back to reality!  :) 

Last week I found an adorable leotard while out at a yard sale.  I brought it home, washed it and then gave it to Hannah.  SHE WAS DELIGHTED!  She wanted to put it on to model it for all of us and then she HAD to get pictures like Grace did outside in her outfit.  So I took the willing model outside and got a few good shots… what a cutie! 

She is excited for the day when she is finally old enough to do gymnastics!! 

Gymnastics Queen!

Grace is a little perfectionist... she is always trying and trying until she gets things right.  She wanted to read... and she was reading lickety split!  She wanted to write her name.... she was writing it letter perfect by the afternoon!  She is just a hard worker and VERY... yes, VERY determined!  Gymnastics has given her an even greater list of things that she wants to accomplish... and this video will show that.  She started a new class 2 weeks ago and they introduced her to a walk-over... which is a bridge and then she kicks out of it to stand up.  Well... our little gymnastics queen has been trying it and trying it until... NOW SHE CAN DO IT!!  We are very proud of her and she wanted to share this with the world... so..... here she is!!!!!

 

Father’s Day.. in pictures

 

 

I wonder what he is thinking….

Do you ever wonder what your kids are thinking?  Do you wish there was a print out right on their little forehead?  I do… OFTEN!!  BUT since I think I know my little ones pretty well, I think I may know what they are thinking….

Like after I found Caleb had climbed up the step ladder to look into the sink the other day.  I KNOW he was proud of himself… “Look, momma!  Look what I did!  See how tall I am!  See how I can get into the sink!”

So cute… how could I resist getting pictures of this little man?

He did all of this with a cracker in his hand… and it wasn’t crushed! 

Going in circles

Grace has always been a climber, a jumper, a swinger, a hanger…one who loves to be on the move.  Now don’t get me wrong… she also LOVES to read and would do that whenever she can, but there is something about a couch, an open space of rug, a tree or a playground that gets her going and she must tumble, climb, hang, swing, jump, and be going in circles!  That and her LOVE of the Olympics last summer encouraged us to sign her up for gymnastics this winter.  She started in February and was already in love with it before she set her foot in the door.  She KNEW that she would LOVE it and wanted to be the next Gabby Douglas… the Olympic gymnast who trains here in Des Moines! 

She did great in her first class and the teacher was amazed that Grace had never taken a class before!  She hadn’t – it was just all of those times in the living room, the playground and bouncy houses!  After only being in classes (once a week for a hour each week) for a few months they asked her to be on a team… what an honor!  WHAT A COST!!!  She would need a part time job just to pay for it… and the leotard and the travel and the meets… oh my!

SO… when we got her report card at the end of May, she passed her SPINEL class with flying colors and they encouraged her to step up to the TANZANITE class.  It meets on Thursday nights at 5:00 instead of the class that she was in at 6:00.  It worked for our family so she changed to that class last week!

I wanted to get her something special for this achievement, so I “sparklified” her leotard with her name… SHE LOVES IT!!!!  She loves sparkles – like her Nanna – so it was a great choice for her special reward! 

Check out these fun pictures I took right before class last week:

Olympics in 2016?  I don’t think so… but she loves it and it is a fun part of our homeschooling curriculum!  :)