Gardening Success

I decided this Spring that I would try again with a vegetable garden.  I've never been all that successful with it.  One year I managed to grow potatoes and lettuce and some half grown squash and was a little discouraged so didn't try again for a couple of years.  This year, however, I was determined, and my determination is paying off. We already have carrots, beets, squash, lettuce and pumpkins growing in our little vegetable garden.  Not to mention our strawberries that are flourishing beautifully.  The kids are so anxious every day to run out and see how much their veggies have grown.  It's very exciting!!

Carrots

Pumpkin

Lettuce

Beets

 

Our first yummy strawberry almost ripe enough to eat.

 

We have had a peony plant in our backyard since before we moved in and this year is the first that it has actually blossomed.  It is so gorgeous.  The kids were thrilled to help me cut the pretty white blooms off and make a pretty bouquet for our kitchen table.

 

 

And just because this blog is about our kidlets and not my flowers, here are some pictures of them too.

 

 

 

 

Art Galleries

Walker and Emma discovered some brand new shiny felts in the computer room this week and have spent every possible moment creating works of art that they can put in their "art gallery" in their bedroom.  Typically I'm not too thrilled with the idea of them taping things all over their walls but I can't complain if they are busily using their creative little imaginations.

 

 

 

And while I love their desire to create, I don't love that they usually leave the felts lying around where their baby sister can find them.  This is what she looked like 15 minutes after getting out of the tub tonight. 

 

 

I love having to bathe a child twice in an hour.

 

 

Nine Years and Counting

Today Allan and I are celebrating nine years of marriage.  It's hard to believe that nine years can go by so quickly but you can still feel like you've been with someone forever.  Our "song", when we were first together and anxiously awaiting our wedding day, was "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by The Beach Boys.

Now, after nine years, we have lots of songs.  This one is my latest favorite.

 

A Week of Eli

For weeks I've been meaning to post these pictures from our week with my sister Kelsey's little boy Eli.  Our kids look so forward to any time that they get to spend with their funny little cousin and it is so much fun to see Walker play with a little boy for a change.  Weeks later both Walker and Lillian ask if Eli will be at Grandma's house when we visit there.

 

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of their sweet faces because they were too intent on catching tadpoles in the little ponds by the John Janzen Center.

 

This is possibly my most favorite picture ever!!  I asked her to pet the goat so that I could take the picture and the next thing I knew she was practically riding the thing.

 

We can't wait to get a chance to spend more time with our cute Eli and his soon to be baby sibling in July!!

 

 

Mud

With beautiful weather and active kids there seems to be less and less time to upload pictures and get them onto this blog.  I'm not sure if it's this way for everyone with small children but Spring and Summer time make it almost impossible to keep my house in order.  Between the kids running in and out with grass, mud and leaves stuck to their bare feet or boots and extra hours spent out working in my flower beds instead of inside on the house I just keep falling farther and farther behind.  For now though I am just trying to enjoy the sunshine and thundershowers, that we have had a ton of this week, and am trying not to stress out too much about the inside stuff. 

 

 

The kids' first sprinkler day in our backyard.  Lillian is forever giving Bridgett loves.

 

 

Perhaps this is why our house always seems to be covered in mud and dirt!!

 

 

 

Full Swing Spring

Spring is finally in full swing and we have leaves on the trees and perennials and strawberries coming up all over the yard.  Allan and I started our month with a wonderfully relaxing week in Vegas and St. George Utah while my incredibly generous and long suffering parents watched our three little monkeys.  We were thrilled to come home to beautiful weather and the snow finally melted in our yard.  The kids have spent as much time as possible in the yard.  There's nothing that I love more than dirty, smelly, sweaty kids at the end of the day after hours of playing outside.  Here's a few pictures of said children.

 

Our girls' favorite past time in the backyard is reading books on a blanket.

More clean and handsome than dirty and sweaty.  We got them matching ties in the States.

 

Spring Prep

For weeks the weather has been teasing us into thinking that Spring might be around the corner but it has taken forever.  So a couple of weeks ago I decided to bring Spring all on my own.  For the first time I decided to start seedlings early.  The kids were so excited to use our compact little greenhouse and watch the little pellets grow to 5 times their size.  Then they meticulously opened up each little casing and planted pumpkin, squash, watermelon, beets (for Grandpa), nasturtium, and lavatera (my most favorite flower EVER).

 

 

Emma even made cute little markers so that we could remember which seeds were planted where.

 

And despite the fact that the snow kept flying our little greenhouse looked like this a week later...

 

 

With temperatures finally reaching above zero for several days in a row the last couple of days the snow in our yard is melting and revealing the mess that was left behind when winter hit earlier than expected.  Which is ridiculous given that this is Edmonton, I should always expect that winter will hit earlier than usual.  As the snow slowly recedes further and further up the lawn I am trying to clean up as it goes.  Walker is my diligent little helper every step of the way.  Yesterday he helped me turn this...

 

into this...

 

Now my pretty delphiniums and tiger lilies have lots of room to grow.

 

 

Could I have a more handsome helper?!?!

I love working side by side with my children.  It makes me feel like maybe I'm teaching them to be industrious and self reliant.

 

I also bought this beauty at Walmart yesterday for $13.  Thirteen dollars!!! 

 

 

Hydrangeas are probably my second favorite flower.  Look how pretty!!

 

I'm hoping to plant it and our little greenhouse seedlings in this spot in our yard...

 

 

I know it's ambitious.  But I am determined to get rid of all of the rocks and grass and grow a productive little vegetable garden with a gorgeously blooming hydrangea bush beside it.  Wish me luck!!