Garden update

The garden is pretty much on its own right now. We've gotten a bit of rain the past couple days so I'll be interested to see how the tomato, lettuce and herb plants do.
Last week we got a little rain and the weeds exploded in the flower bed. It took me nearly two hours to pull all the little buggers out!!
When we moved rocks from the back flower bed to the bed by the pond, we accidentally put one over a hosta. We didn't realize it until we saw the leafy green poking from under the rock! So we moved the rock and the hosta was pretty flat. But those things are pretty strong! When we got back from our Memorial weekend away, the hosta looked normal.
C picked up some wood from the farm this weekend, with the idea that he'll build a frame around six of the containers. (I think mostly to hide the green containers. It is a bit of a bright green.) S is excited about having a frame so she can paint on it. Although she really wants to paint the Subway logo on it for some reason. :)

Old School

A couple weekends ago we acquired an old school hot air popcorn popper. It is so cool! Way cooler than microwave popcorn!

My folks had it out when we visited. So of course I was all excited and thought that the girls would get a kick out of it. We fired it up and the girls loved it!

When I was growing up, we used mostly an electric wok to make popcorn. I don't know where this hot air popper was. Probably packed away all these years and rediscovered when my folks finished their kitchen remodel.

I hinted to my folks that it would be a good gift idea for us. But then my mom said we could have it because they don't use it as often. Sweet!

We've used it a couple times since we got it. What is cool is that a huge bag of popcorn kernels is so inexpensive! It's an economical choice and fun to watch and hear. The girls love to get a freshly popped kernel once it hits the bowl. Add some melted butter and yum-o! And I discovered a variety of seasonings so you could kick it up a notch, with stuff like ranch, garlic Parmesan. Yummy!

Zoo pictures

Here are some pictures from our recent trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo. It was a pretty good time, although we did have listening and obeying issues with M.

My favorite picture is of M trying to pet the lion through the glass as he walked right in front of her!

Sadly I realized I did not take a lot of pictures of S.

But we have a family zoo pass, good to 130 zoos in the nation, including the zoo in Green Bay! So I would hope we'll be hitting that zoo more often. If anything, the trips wear the girls out. As seen in the pictures here, the girls were out cold by the time we hit the freeway!

Graduation

S graduated from preschool (again) last week. This is her second time through the four-week program at the local high school. She absolutely loves it! The high school buddies are super to the kids. And the kids learn a lot of fun things.

So last week they had a graduation ceremony and slide show. It was neat to see the pictures of the kids doing crafts, listening to stories, playing and such.

After the ceremony the kids got to eat sugary frosted cupcakes. Thankfully we decided to go to a park afterwards to burn that sugar off!

Next fall/winter, both girls will be participating in the preschool program. M will be a week or two shy of turning 3 (3!!!) but that shouldn't be an issue. And hopefully, with her going through ballet this summer, she will be more likely to sit still and participate and learn.

S will go through the program for sure in the fall/winter since she won't be in K yet. We'll see if she can do the following spring but if not (because of her age or whatnot) that's OK. I plan to continue homeschooling, which will include reading and Spanish and math.

Chicago! Chicago! Chicago!

We are gearing up for our Chicago trip. I am excited to see how the girls will react to the city. I love Chicago. I have fond memories from childhood of going to the city and exploring the museums and walking down Michigan Ave and eating pizza and Chicago hot dogs. Our mom would call us in sick for a "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" Day. She felt our trips to the museums and whatnot were educational. As an adult, I would ride the train in. That was pretty cool! In college, a group of us went to Chicago for a day trip. It was fun but our driver, a friend, was not familiar with the area and we ended up in a very bad section of town. I told him we needed to book it quick! It was pretty intense for my friends.
For our family vacation (our first official family vacation), we've got plans to take the girls to the Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, Sears Tower and Millennium Park.
We've talked some about Chicago (that we are going to a big city, checking out some cool places and riding the trains and buses to get around). The girls are super excited. They like to jump up and down and chant "Chicago! Chicago! Chicago!" It is so cute!
I got some books from the library about the ocean, Beluga whales and sea creatures. S loves them! I can only imagine how she will react when she sees sea creatures in person!
Yesterday I reserved some books about Chicago itself, just to give S a taste of what is to come.
I am excited to share a city I love with the girls. Our trip will be here soon enough but please pray for us: safety and protection, patience, stress-free, health, having a good trip all around.

Gardening Part 2

Today I finished the last of my planting. I bought some more potting soil so I could plant the lettuce seed paper I got recently from Kraft Food and Family magazine and the herb seed paper I'd gotten from Kashi.
The lettuce went into another cat litter container. I did not read up on planting lettuce but I figured this would be an OK container.
The Kashi seed paper went into a hanging planter by the patio door.
So now I wait. And wonder. Will anything take? Will this be a flop? What will I do with so many tomatoes! Do I need tomato food for the tomatoes And herbs? Will the herbs produce some nice flowers, like the chives I have? I'd asked a friend for chives last year because they produced these beautiful purple flowers. The suckers came back this year, which is super! I see the flower buds now so I am excited to see them bloom. And, now that I will potentially have thyme, oregano and basil, well, I can use chives for recipes. :)
Next step in my gardening efforts will be to finish pulling weeds in the back bed. But that may have to wait until next week.

They're in!

The tomato plants are in their containers!!
We are using empty cat litter containers for the pots. Nothing fancy but I look at it as a way to RRR. And it's economical too because we have a ton of them in the basement, thanks to three cats!
They are not 5-gallon containers, as many Web sites recommended, but I am hoping 4-gallon will suffice. Again, I was thinking RRR. I still need to get some stakes or other kind of support for when the plants grow bigger.
The containers contain: a small piece of landscape fabric , mostly so that the patio is not covered with dirt when water seeps out of the holes C drilled into the bottom of the containers; egg shells, which someone recommended to help provide the soil with the calcium needed to prevent some rot bottom something on the ends of the tomatoes (we'll see if it works); top soil, which I filled in nearly halfway; Miracle Grow potting soil; the tomato plant; and then a sprinkling of another kind of potting soil, mostly to add more dirt to the containers because I honestly didn't know how much dirt to put in the containers!
So we'll see what happens! I watered them down and the containers are sitting on the back patio to get the full sun.
As for the oregano plant, that went into a hanging planter that I found in the garage (left by our previous green thumb homeowner). I've hung it in back among one of the beds. That planter includes potting soil and the plant. I have to get more Miracle Grow potting soil, which I will add to the planter.
Also today, I received with my Kraft Food and Family magazine a seed paper that, when planted and cared for, will yield a head of lettuce! Bonus! Now maybe I will have a home-grown salad to enjoy! Yummy!
In case you don't know what seed paper is: it is special paper with seeds embedded. So you just rip the baby up a little, put it in a thin layer of soil and you should have a plant. Pretty cool because the paper is biodegradable so there is no need for fancy packaging.
What is even cooler was on Earth Day we planted some flower seeds in an egg carton. We didn't plant them in time but ultimately we could have planted the seedlings, paper egg carton and all, into the ground!
I also found my seed paper from Kashi, which when planted and cared for will yield basil and thyme. I actually got that a year or two ago but, what the heck, I'll throw it in some dirt and see what happens. Maybe something will come up and I will be on my way to making a super easy and yummy bruschetta as well! My mouth is watering at the thought of it!
So probably needless to say, I am sore from all my gardening work. Back, fingers, toes, knees and probably other parts that I will discover come morning. Because, in addition to planing the tomatoes and oregano (I have to plant the seed paper later because I ran out of Miracle Grow potting soil), I decided to do some much needed weeding.
I don't know if I've said it already but I am not a green thumb, so it is with much bravery that I decided to tackle tomatoes and herbs. But when it comes to weeding, I honestly don't know what is a weed and what isn't. I do know dandelions and prickers but other than that, what is it?? So I think 80 percent of what I pulled today was a weed. Maybe it's more than that but I don't have much confidence in myself.
I still have much more weeding to do: a small corner in the bed by the walkway and most of the bed in the back with the pond. Maybe we'll get some rain tonight and then it will be a little easier to pull stuff out in the next day or two.