snack time, smiles {and six teeth.}

Repeat after me.

"I do hereby take full responsibility for, release and hold harmless the writer of this blog, from any and all liability, claims, demands or causes of action that I may hereafter have, arising out of my participation in the following post."  

Interpretation:  "I won't blame Faith because this post could quite possibly lead to me wanting to have a/another baby....a cute little girl one." 

 Told ya.  

Kinder Gardens Entry {Week 7.}

 

 "Gardening is the art that uses flower and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas" - Elizabeth Murry

Go check out the contest @ The Inadvertent Farmer!
{Just click on the KinderGardens button at the top of this post.}
For our weekly gardening update...
 
We've harvested our first onions.

And we enjoy them daily.

Our red radishes are ready.
It's "vewwy exciting mommeeeey!!"

We learned that the squash plants that we thought would grow up this lovely home-made trellis are, in fact, not going to vine...

...so we re-purposed our trellis as a "tunnel" for Miles and Ella.  

We're going to try to train sweet potato vines up both sides.  And we also found another variety of squash that MIGHT vine.  So we threw them in the ground too.  

Guess we'll see...

Happily, even though those squash plants aren't going to grow up the trellis, 

they are so healthy!  

We've got a gazillion teeny-tiny-baby-squash!

Please start sharing your squash recipes now.
There's gonna be enough of this stuff to feed an army!

I FINALLY got the flower beds weeded.  Goodness!!  That was a labor of love!
I planted tons of FREE flower starts from my friends' gardens.
And mulched.

I actually did the mulching at about 10:15 pm one evening...
with my Jeep's headlights shining on me.
Miles held a flashlight in the darkest corners so I could see.

This month, we've had tornadoes, hail and lots of rain...

...but things seem to be hanging in there.  

In fact, they're really flourishing....

Some of our first sunflower sprouts lost their leaves to the hail. 

We've got a few troopers though...

May I just say....
I CAN'T WAIT to eat a TOMATO. 

We've got a new box ready for pumpkins and butternut squash.

Our okra is taking off.

 Do you have any idea how FUN this gardening stuff is? 
I'm really crazy about it.
And so are these guys...

 

 {Read more about Miles' shopping adventure HERE.}

{Read about Ella's dirt adventures HERE.}

getting dirty {and lovin' it.}

I remember the first time Miles really played in the dirt.

I was planting flowers at our house in Pauls Valley and he dug right in to a bucket of dirt.  

It was such a fun day.  

He has so much fun in our garden now.  

Morning and evening, we're out checking on it, planting new things, watering...

And while Ella's not really big enough to be helpful, she certainly has a good time when we're out there.

Enter a bucket of dirt.  

You're gonna need to just NOT think about the fact that I'm taking pictures instead of saving her from the taste of dirt.

Eventually, she kinda liked it.  

Must be an acquired taste....like coffee (a taste for which I never have acquired). 

Oh, the joy!

I'm so thankful for the time I spend with my kids in our garden.  

I take lots of pictures...

both digital and mental images.  

I want to always remember the times when I tended the garden with them at my feet.  

monday morning {shopping in the garden.}

A little glimpse of an early Monday morning spent shopping in the garden...

Pay no mind to the fact that I'm in my pj's, Ella's in a diaper and Miles doesn't have any pants on...

My mom got the shopping cart at a garage sale for $5.  

Back to the house...

Ready for lunch.

pac-man's birthday {& blueberry muffins.}

Today, if you go to Google and click "Insert Coin", you can play pac-mac all day.  

This is what I will be doing.  

It's pac-man's 30th birthday.  I had no idea we were the same age.  

On Ella's birthday, she got homemade blueberry muffins...

I wonder what pac-man got?  

Kinder Gardens Entry {Week 6.}

Miles LOVES watermelon.

I took these last summer as he devoured a 4th of July watermelon.  Pure joy.  

So we definitely wanted to try some watermelons in our garden spot.  

We mounded mound mounded (can't decide if it's a word) up some dirt....(this whole sentence should be struck)

We planted some seeds...

We watered them in...

(please pay no attention to the red socks that are being worn with the sandals...i can't explain it)

We put up an expandable fence that we found in the neighbors old barn (he said we could have it)...

We've had hail, tornados, and gully-washing rains that have sent our temporary fencing across the yard, ripped Cookie Monster off his stake and sent him flying...

But this week...

We have watermelon sprouts!!

PS - Don't worry about Cookie Monster.  He was located after the storm and returned to his proper location so that he may proclaim to all the world where our new little watermelon sprouts reside.