Archive for April, 2010

Gardening!!!

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

I have aspirations to garden, but there is a LOT to learn!!!  I finally got my beautiful raised beds filled with fruits and veggies this weekend!  I ordered strawberry plants from an online company, and they arrived Wednesday.  They looked so pitiful, just plants and roots rubber-banded together.  I was a little skeptical but I cut off the roots at three inches and planted as instructed, and now more than half of them look like actual plants!  With leaves, and green stuff!!!  It’s so exciting!!  Then on Sunday I went to Billie’s house.  Billie is Jen’s mother in law, and she has her own greenhouse and was willing to start the seeds that Jen and I ordered and happily shared her own with me! It’s so exciting!  I planted two tomatillos, two basil plants, five tomatoes, six squash, and eight peppers (jalapeno and ancho)  I took a whole flat of squash, and was then informed by my mother that six would feed the entire neighborhood all summer… so I just planted six.  We’ll see, I hope to can things if I get a good harvest!!!

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In more exciting news, some things I planted in the fall are coming up!!! I have actual peaches!  Ok, I have teeny tiny green fuzzy things showing up on my trees, but I feel sure they are peaches and will be peach colored eventually!  And, there are blossoms on my blueberry plants!  So exciting!

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Also, my iris bulbs have put up leaves.  I’m not sure if they’ll bloom this spring, but surely by the fall!  I have finally gotten confirmation that the cute fuzzy leaves I’ve been seeing in my flower beds are indeed larkspur, and my Mom identified another leaf as a hollyhock!

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I’m really enjoying all this fun in the garden!  Maybe next year I’ll understand it better so I can plan first instead of doing it in such a haphazard fashion.  Mom keeps telling me that I’m putting stuff too close together or too close to the house… not taking into account the fact that it will grow bigger than the teeny tiny plant it is now =)  I’ll learn someday I guess!!  Mom taught me how to prune my crepe myrtle today.  It’s actually pretty fun.  I need a saw for the bigger branches though =)

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Serenity is 21 Months… Well, several days ago =)

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Serenity was sick last week so I’m late getting to this post!  And I didn’t take specific pictures, although her Easter pics are fairly close =)

4/6

So many interesting things are happening all the time!  One of my favorite developments is that Serenity is getting even more excited by doing “crafts with Mama!!!”  We have done lots of different projects, including making a suncatcher with tissue paper and contact paper, making sand art using salt shakers to shake the sand onto sticky paper, and doing lots of painting.  Serenity loves to make handprints, and even asked randomly to do this one day so I got out a canvas and some paint and let her go nuts!  She’ll also ask suddenly to “paint blue.”  So I get out my acrylics and let her use a bunch of blues, purples, and whites so she can see what happens when she swirls it around.  The limited color palette is kind of fun because nothing turns brown when she’s playing with it =)  She also asked to paint pink today, so we painted a rock with swirly pinks and yellows, and also made handprints that we’ll turn into a butterfly.  She loves it, and so do I!  Of course, it’s not without drawbacks.  One day we were playing with my watercolors.  Kiley and Ethan were crafting with us too, and they were done with painting long before Serenity.  They needed potty help so I was distracted for one minute, and came back and Serenity had the brush in her mouth.  Ick!  It was mostly just dirty water by that time, very diluted, and it didn’t make her sick or anything, but still.  Painting is going to have to be better supervised for a while.  Although not even that is perfect… one day when we were painting blue Serenity suddenly decided the paintbrush would make a good hairbrush… and so she had blue hair for her bathtime that night.  =)

Sand Painting!

Sand Painting!

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Using Jello to write and draw shapes in =)  Messy, but delicious fun.

Using Jello to write and draw shapes in =) Messy, but delicious fun.

I think that she’s beginning to sing a little!  She used to just fill in the lyrics whenever we stopped singing a song, but now she has the littlest bit of a sing-song sound to it when she does.  It’s cute, her tiny, high pitched little sweet voice.  It’s much higher than her normal speaking voice.  She is definitely learning something in music class, because she’s starting to follow directions a little.  For example, when her teacher bangs her sticks on the ground, Serenity will too, and she’ll sometimes shake her egg on her head.  Little steps, but so interesting and exciting to see!

We built a huge city on our windowsill =)

We built a huge city on our windowsill =)

She still loves playing with rocks, sticks, and dirt.

4/11

Sleep talking =)  Serenity often mumbles as she’s falling asleep, and I usually wish I could understand more of it as it’s so cute and funny.  A few nights ago when she was sick I took her to my bed, and as she was falling asleep, she said, I love you Mama. =) Two times.  And then she started saying B-I-G big!  P-I-G pig!  Sleep spelling and loving Mama. Soooo sweet.

Picking Dandelions =)  She loves her yellow dresses the most I think, they are the most often requested.

Picking Dandelions =) She loves her yellow dresses the most I think, they are the most often requested.

Serenity’s Swingset

Monday, April 12th, 2010

The  big building project of the Spring has been to make an outdoor play structure for Serenity.  My wonderful Dad planned it all and built it with everything we could possibly want, and we have ideas for more things to add as she grows!

First we had to dig deeeeep holes for the big posts.  More than two feet below the ground so they would be below freeze line.  And we had to make sure the posts were perfectly square… which required some manhandling with a crowbar.  Then we poured cement!

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After that we built roof beams and braces on the sides to keep it from swaying when we installed the porch swing.

Or course, Eric immediately climbed on top =)

Or course, Eric immediately climbed on top =)

Dad built the porch swing and stained it a pretty honey color for us!  He added a pole to hold a swing for Serenity on one side, and something else on the other.  Right now, it’s a disc swing, but we might do a tire swing or a regular big person swing.

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There’s a roof now, which we will eventually make a ladder for so that Serenity can have a playhouse up there when she’s bigger. On the back we put in a platform with a slide, climbing wall, and ladder.  She doesn’t really like the climbing wall yet, so we may add something else or change it a bit.  =)

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She loves swinging especially, and climbing her ladder and throwing things down the slide =)  And she’ll sit with Daddy and Mama and swing on our big swing for long cozy intervals =)  We love it!  Thanks so much Dad!!!!