Our "Garden"

(This is also posted on my cooking blog.)

Last summer Will and I attempted to grow a tomato plant and zucchini plant on our back patio. I failed. They were both growing really well for awhile, but I think I started them too late, and it just got too hot for them to thrive and produce anything. So this year I decided to get an earlier start. I was at Target recently when they had plants on sale, so I got a zucchini plant and a strawberry plant. I was going to get a tomato plant but then saw the strawberry ones and figured that would be better since my kiddos love strawberries.

Will and I planted them a couple weeks ago, and so far so good!! The zucchini plant doesn't seem to be growing a whole lot but it does have blossoms on it, so I take that as a good sign. The strawberry plant is doing pretty amazing! I'd say we've gotten at least eight strawberries off it so far! Considering most things I try to grow end up dead not long after I plant them, I think eight strawberries is pretty spectacular.

Here are some pics of our patio garden...

The plant! See how it's thriving? (Never mind the size of it when I bought it...you don't need to know everything...)


My helpers


Our first crop!


Mmmm...the fruit of our labors...

Two Face's Disciples

This was too funny, I had to write it down immediately so I didn't forget it. While I was eating my lunch Will was "reading" me a Batman book. He was telling me who all the villains are and describing the scene on each page. He got to the page with Two Face and his henchmen.

"Mom, that's Two Face and those [pointing at the henchmen] are his disciples."

I totally cracked up.

Drowning in baby clothes

I'm finally getting around to boxing up baby clothes and giving them away. John's cousin's wife is pregnant with a boy, so I'm going to send some to them, see if my friends want to go through them for their kids, and then I'm not sure what to do with the rest. Probably donate them somewhere.

Anyway, it's been literally months since I've boxed up clothes that are too small for Miles. I've just been shoving them in his closet. I finally pulled them out today so I can start going through them to send off to John's cousin. I could not believe how many there were!! I tossed them all out in the hallway along with the boxes in Miles' closet that already had some clothes in them, so I can sort through everything.



I really should have put something next to the pile so you could get a real appreciation for how much is there. It's completely nuts I tell you!!

Picnic

I picked Will up from preschool last Thursday and he asked if we could have a picnic for lunch. It was a gorgeous day, and I thought that was a great idea!! We ate lunch on the boys' picnic table in our backyard.

Zoo

A few weeks ago both boys came down with pink eye. I ended up getting it a week later. Unfortunately, the day I woke up with it was the day Will's best friend Connor was supposed to come spend the day at our house. Will was devastated to say the least that Connor wasn't going to be here. I offered up a trip to the zoo to make him feel better, and I think it worked. It was a beautiful day and surprisingly for a Friday the zoo wasn't too crowded (we've discovered that Fridays are usually field trip days and can be really packed).



Will with his kettle corn snack:


I thought it was funny that the camel was eating the fencing:

Will's Birthday

I know I have other stuff I need to add to the blog, but I wanted to get pictures from Will's birthday weekend up while I was thinking about it and it's not that far out from it. :) He had a great 4th birthday celebration! His actual birthday was on a Saturday. Thursday he took cupcakes in to preschool to share with his friends there. Friday we had his friend birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I think there were 16 kids there! We just about had the place to ourselves, it was great! Will really liked getting to play all the games and have Chuck E. sing him happy birthday and all that. He also got a special birthday medal and crown! My brother came for the weekend to help us celebrate. Unfortunately Will's actual birthday was rainy, so our plan of going to the train park was dashed. His school was having an open house and had brought in three tons of snow for the kids to play in, so we went by there, and he had a lot of fun throwing snowballs and playing in the snow. We went to lunch at The Yard House, then later went to my aunt and uncle's for his family birthday dinner. He was incredibly spoiled by everyone present-wise and had a fun weekend!!

Here's a link to the album with his birthday pictures:

Will's 4th Birthday

Fiesta Bowl Parade

For the first time ever we went to the Fiesta Bowl Parade. Will was excited because we got to ride "the train" which is really the light rail system in downtown Phoenix. We found a decent spot to watch the parade--I couldn't believe how many people were there! We didn't stay for the whole thing because the boys were getting hungry and tired, but what we saw was cool. John's frustration with parades here is the lack of marching bands. This one had more than other parades we've been to, but there still weren't a lot. I keep telling him he can't expect Mardi Gras caliber parades in a city like Phoenix.



Will said, "Look, it's Baby Jesus!"


Apparently there's a group in Phoenix that dresses up like Star Wars characters for fun. This was definitely the coolest part of the parade that we saw!

Train Park

I guess at least it hasn't been a month since I last updated. That's something, right? Never mind that these pictures I'm about to post were from New Year's Eve. I had planned on posting them last time I updated, but I ran out of time.

John had to work on New Year's Day, so I had planned on taking the kids to Noon Year's Eve at the zoo, and my mom was going to come with us. She came to our house then we drove to the zoo. Madhouse doesn't even begin to describe it. We parked--the furthest away I've ever parked at the zoo--got out the stroller, walked up to the entrance and saw that the line was literally out the proverbial door. There really isn't a door to the zoo, but there is a bridge you walk across to get there, and the line went all the way across that. NUTS!!! Will was really sad, but Gaga and I did not have it in us to fight a crowd like that to play in a little snow and have a pretend toast at noon. So we went to the train park instead, which is one of Will's most favorite places. It was still decorated for Christmas which was neat to see. Next year instead of going to the Polar Express we're just going to the train park!



Waiting in line for the train and Miles in his cute outfit from Aunt Tracie and Uncle Ed:




Playing at the playground after riding the train

The backwards Red Wings fan

When Will was a baby, John's dad sent him an adult size (at least I think it's adult size) Red Wings t-shirt with Steve Yzerman's name and number on the back. Will had a day recently where he went through at least three wardrobe changes throughout the day for whatever reason. I cracked up when he came downstairs in this get-up because he'd obviously been sorting through his "clothes that are too big" drawer to find this shirt (and something else he'd worn earlier). The pants were on backwards, too, by the way. He told me he liked them that way. Whatever...

Christmas Chaos Part 2

After naps on Christmas Day we headed to my mom's for the second part of our celebration. Madness, I tell you, sheer madness! Don't believe me? Here's the tree pre-present opening!



And I don't think I got everything in the frame either. Yikes. Granted there were 13 of us there, which does add up to a lot of stuff, but it's still pretty daunting! My kids made out like bandits, but of course I was too busy trying to help them open presents to actually take pictures of anything they got. Oops. But I did get a couple cute pictures of the boys in their mostly matching Christmas outfits!