Knock Knock...

Lady @ grocery store: "Hi cutie, what are you going to be for Halloween?"
Dylan: "An ELEPHANT!"
Lady: "Wow! What does an elephant sound like?"
Dylan: "A poopy diaper!"

...I walked away from that one with a red face!

Wordless Wednesday

Proof.

Fall is here and most of the leaves have fell off of the tree inside our gate. It's pretty easy to see how tall our tomato plant is now. The tops of the plants are still producing tomatoes, but they're all dying from the bottom up.

July 4, 2010

We celebrated Independence Day by going to Tom Brown Park, where the city puts on a fireworks show. They were scheduled to start at 9:30, so we arrived at 7:30 hoping that the children could enjoy some time in one of the many bouncy houses. Unfortunately we learned that 7:30 is the time they start shutting all of the activities down.

We started wandering around looking for something to keep the children busy. Luckily we stumbled upon a fenced in tennis court with a few balls inside. We spent the two hours throwing balls and running around.

Finally it was time to watch the fireworks. We decided to sit close to the tennis court, even though most everyone else was seated far away. Nathan, Caitlin, and Dylan ran around pretending that glow sticks were swords and challenging other small children to duels until the first "boom." It turned out that we had the best spot! We could see everything perfectly! The children counted the fireworks and shouted with each change of color.

It was a very fun night... until we decided that the children needed baths before bed. Now THAT was an adventure!

Memorial Day Weekend

We did the usual for Memorial Day Weekend. Grilled! Nathan and I prepared the kebobs. He noted that they could be put together using a pattern (onion, pepper, steak, repeat) and had a ball. We forgot to purchase tomatoes, but it won't be long until we have our own. I stacked another 54" tomato cage on top of the other and the plant looks eager to grow above that. Shortly after I reported not seeing any actual tomatoes, there they were! They're growing rapidly, too.

Caitlin and Dylan spent the time running around outdoors and beating trees with sticks. I wasn't sure when we'd get around to assaulting mother nature, so I'm glad the children took on that task. Thank heavens for family!

Container Gardening

One of the perks of living in the South is the jump we can get on gardening. Instead of planting on Mother's Day, we were able to observe some of the first blooms on our vegetable plants.

This is our first shot at container gardening, and so far so good! We went to Home Depot during a BOGO sale and came away with eight plants for the price of four. We bought two kinds of tomato plants, "Sweet 100 cherry" and "Patio container tomato". We expected the patio container to thrive, but the results from the cherry tomato have been amazing! We've NEVER had a tomato plant this tall. Both of the cherry tomato plants have grown above their 54" tomato cages!

We also have two sweet banana pepper plants that have many blooms. Unfortunately white flies seem incredibly attracted to these and the basil (boxwood and sweet), so they've been sprayed with a soap/water mixture a few times to get rid of the little pests. It takes care of the problem, but they seem to come back. Looks like we'll be spraying all of the plants weekly from here on out to ensure their survival.

The children have been left in charge of watering. Caitlin and Dylan water during the weekdays after we drop Nathan off at school. Nathan takes care of the plants during the weekend when the youngest two are asleep. They're always very eager to do their plant chores. Hopefully it continues!

Wrestling Tournament

Nathan took second place at The King of the Jungle Tournament on Saturday, May 22. His first match was intense, and he lost by points. The second ended with Nathan pinning the competition. The third was a pretty good match-up. The boys practice together regularly and already knew the others strengths and weaknesses. Nathan won the last match by a single point.