Our Garden

 

One of the things that we've been looking forward to doing with our new large yard since we moved in is to grow vegetables. We missed the start of the growing season last year so this spring, way back in March, Frank had a jump on things by building three large cedar planter boxes against the fence on the sunniest side of our house.

We filled them with good dirt and compost (you can see our compost bin in the way back of the picture up there by the bamboo, where we recycle all of our compostable kitchen scraps),

Then we chose vegetables and herbs and planted them mid-March.

Fast forward almost two months and here's what they look like today!

We've got tomatoes (called "Big Boy variety" and already totally living up to their name!), cilantro, basil, rosemary, mint, green peppers, squash, strawberries and lavender.

This tiny sprout will grow up to be a yummy green pepper,

and these are some of the "big boy" tomatoes already ripening on the vine.

In one of the bins I planted flowers, this one is edible, I forget the name but I remember having it on salads at a lovely organic restaurant in Maine ages ago, I think I'll just use it as a cut flower though, I think its so pretty.

I love Cleome, one of my summer favorites, 

In the third bin we started everything from seeds. This will be my cutting garden, hopefully full of flowers blooming in another month or so.

The kids and I had fun choosing our packages of seeds, and we're growing many flowers that I've admired in cutting gardens in the past. I can't wait to have bouquets of fresh flowers in the house, and I've always loved sunflowers so we planted a bunch of those.

 

For now I'm content with the bouquets of herbs and nasturtiums that I've been bringing in. I can't wait to update you as our garden grows!

In Sunshine

Last week we celebrated Carys's 5th Birthday with an afternoon party at our local park. There is the perfect spot with two picnic tables right underneath huge Oak trees and right next to the playground. We set up there as friends arrived.
The children played until the Balloon Lady arrived, she made all sorts of things for the kids out of balloons, basically whatever they could think of,

Crowns for the princesses,

and swords, helmets and sheaths for the older brothers,

They stopped playing with their balloon creations long enough for me to snap a group picture next to my favorite huge tree,

Then we strung up the Pinata, it seems like every year my kids ask for a Pinata at their parties so its become a routine part of their birthdays, this year Carys's Pinata was a cupcake,

Then it was cake time and we sang to the birthday girl, she took that part very seriously,

I usually have a lot of fun making their birthday cakes, but she asked for an ice cream cake that I ordered this year, which ended up being really yummy!

 

Another beautiful celebration of our vibrant girl, we could not have asked for a more perfect day under the trees for her party!~

Our new Tire Swing!

Happy April!

This past weekend we competed a project that we've wanted to do since we moved into our new house 10 months ago, we put up a tire swing for the kids. At a playground the tire swing is always the first thing they go for so I knew they'd love it. Last Saturday we set out to make it, we used these instructions that seemed very clear and straight forward.

First thing, we went to a tire store and asked them for an old tire, when we explained that it was for a tire swing they were happy to let us go out back and choose our tire from the pile of old tires that they were getting rid of.

When we got back excitement was running high! 

We have a few large old trees in our yard, and this Live Oak in the front yard has the perfect limb for our tire swing, far enough away from the tree's trunk that there is no chance of a collision! Frank chose the spot where we'd hang the swing in the crook of a branch.

After a couple of trips back and forth to the hardware store for just the right parts. Then, giving the tire a good scrubbing,

and rinsing,

and some monkeying around.

Frank finally had the tire swing strung up, gave it a daddy test and all looked good,

So away they went, soaring round and round with huge smiles. They love it and for the past few days its been the first thing they want to do in the morning and the last thing they want to do before coming inside in the evening.

Yahoo for handy Daddies with lots of patience!

The other night

We were leaving a party around dusk the other night, when we looked up and noticed that the sky was putting on quite a showy sunset.

To get a better view we walked the two blocks to the beach.

Where we stayed until the colors softened,

into a pink rosy glow that seemed to engulf us all in quiet,

until the moon rose over the dark sea.

Seven and a pirate party

My boy turned seven last Saturday (7!), we celebrated with his class in their school yard with a special ceremony in which he held the globe and walked around a little model of the sun once for each year of his life as I told the story of what he did and how he developed in each year. Quite a sweet ceremony for my mama-heart as I was able to relive all of his milestones in his story.

Last Sunday we had our big blow out party at our house, a Pirate Party! My kids love picking a theme for their birthday and this year Jasper started planning his Pirate party back in the summer. Almost before we knew anyone to invite! Now we feel so thankful that through Jasper's school he has made so many friends so quickly. He really loved his birthday party, and I had fun planning all of the little details...

the banner and snack table,

silly "pirate" names for the snacks,

the pirate ship pinata,

Frank planned a complex scavenger hunt, which the kids did as a group, and really put their energy into!

and then there was the cake, which Jasper art directed and I decorated, we think it turned out well. The story is that boat has crashed on the island but the shark does not want to give up and one of the pirates has spotted the treasure,

What an exciting time we had, such fun, and now as the dust settles I have to get used to the fact that my lovely boy is already seven!!