Hold

At our rehearsal - a moment with mama...

Took the boys hiking at Multnomah Falls - turns out Matthew is a little bit afraid of heights. It's all good, though, if Baba hangs onto him so he can enjoy the view from a safe spot...

It's simply stunning in the Columbia Gorge - damp forests, waterfalls, so much greenery...

Back at home - the garden is taking off! A few sunny days, and this is what we get:

Tomatoes!

Color...

Raspberries...

And NOT from my garden - from my bridal bouquet, in fact. This is green trick...it's soft, fuzzy and super green!

Took the kiddos to Creature Feature at the library this afternoon. They were incredibly patient with all of the totally misbehaving children (and parents!) - the biggest issue was rudeness, as in nobody would sit DOWN so my boys could see. They were also the very last in line to pet the snakes, but were able to have some unrushed time as a result. I'm very proud of those boys for being so kind and respectful, and grateful for their patience.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Just like this...

marigolds and lettuce

sweet peas

first pea

raspberries

big mama and rio

jennifer the duck (with a photobomb by fuzzbutt)

dew in line

bean tee pee

unidentified squash

pole bean tendrils

salad garden: lettuce, arugula, spinach

fuschias

weeds

peonies

strawberries

cucumbers



tiny tomatoes

It Smells In Here

My Mother's Day gift every year is 3 huge lilac trees in full bloom. That means that every time I open the back door, I'm blasted with the heavenly sweet scent of lilacs. The two biggest trees have the tiniest little blossoms - and the strongest smell! I always snip a few branches off to bring the sweet smell inside.

Unfortunately, Mike may be very allergic to these sweet little flowers. I've had to remove them from our highest traffic living areas to see if it helps him out. Darn it.

Matthew is quite the artist...he drew a picture of our entire household. There's so many critters that they got their own page. (I have to admit that I don't think we actually have any live fish left in our algae tank, though.)

The family got nicknames. And notice the two 'babies' he drew and named? Not sure what's going on there - no babies that I know of in our near future! He told me their names were Sabannah (not saVannah) and Jo-Jo. Cute, huh?

Productivity

What a day! I woke up to snuggles from the little one - it was so hard to get out of bed with that sweet little guy nestled in next to me. After I got the kids off to school, I created a homework nest on the couch and dug in for 5 straight hours of homework. I got way ahead and  unloaded a lot of stress by doing so.

Then, I joined Mike outside to finish up the chicken coop. He finished installing the chicken wire, put a roost into the coop and a hook to hang the heat lamp. We'll remove the heat lamp after a few more weeks - they're still just baby chicks with few feathers.

Here's my guy working hard...he's done such an amazing job with this coop!

I took the leftover chicken wire and built myself a potato tower. The idea is that as the greens of the potato plant grow through the soil, you pile dirt on top of it and at the end of the summer when all of the leaves at the top of the tower have turned yellow and wilted, you break open the tower and you have a ton of potatoes to harvest! I can't wait to see how it works out.

Just to the right of the potato tower, I used the newly weeded garden area for my huge plants: zucchini, pumpkins and artichokes. Fingers crossed it all works out!

After some gardening, I decided to move the chickens into their new home. The bathroom was filling with feathers and the ducks just stink. They needed their bigger home. Tonight, we'll put them upstairs and close up the coop with the heat lamp on. They'll be super toasty! We're supposed to have very nice weather this week, so I hope they'll do okay out there!

I snagged a video of the chickens doing their thing in the first several minutes of being out there - and Rio tried to escape! She fly out and started running - I was so worried she'd get through the fence and we'd never see her again. I was quicker, though - and she's tucked in safe and sound. That one is a crazy bird (she was the first to start roosting on her brooder in the bathroom and has never enjoyed being handled - even from day one.)