Sunday, May 30, 2010

Yardwork

I spent most of the morning and early afternoon working in the yard. Lots of mowing, weeding, pruning and just puttering around. Also, I cleared out an area in the back part of our yard and Cole and I made 2 more compost piles. I love that he gets as excited about it as I do. We used layers of leaves, pine needles, pinecones, newspaper, shredded cardboard and egg cartons, grass clippings, manure, coffee grounds, banana peels, dryer lint, egg shells, and some other food scraps. Then we covered it with a layer of topsoil and wet it down.
aren't they lovely? {grin}

My rhododendron is in full bloom...SO pretty!

Friday, May 28, 2010

What I'm reading


Best gardening book..EVER. If you're into that sort of thing. I totally am. Had you noticed?

Gardening stuff

Not much time for blogging lately, as I have been hard at work in my flowerbeds and garden. Gardening has always been a great passion of mine...I love the thought of growing my own organic veggies and tending to my flowers and plants. Here is a bit of what I've been upto...

My lilac seedling, which I snuck from the flowerbed of a bank at 5:30am. Oh, the thrill!

Yummy tomatoes and chives

Raspberry bushes
Clematis...just planted this year.
strawberries
"Gracie's rose"....we planted this the year she was born....Cole has one too!
Our peonies...can't wait till they bloom!
Roses, creeping phlox, hostas, and something else I can't remember the name of!?

A view of our deck that Paco built a few years ago
The rocks you see in this picture were literally rolled into our yard from the street by Paco and I last summer, when they were putting in the sewer. We both spent the next few days nursing sore backs!
Rhododendron...this picture was taken a week ago..it's in full bloom now. We actually built our deck around this bush so we didn't have to lose it!
one of our two topsy-turvy tomato planters. We had tremendous success with these last year!
one of 4 planters on the deck
new blueberry bushes waiting to be planted...you need 2 to cross-pollinate!
front porch flowers
fireweed and lobelia in the front flowerbed
Columbine
can you guess what this might be?
red and orange peppers
Since I took these pictures a week ago, our corn has sprouted up 2 inches, the chives are growing strong, and the carrots, radishes and onions and peas are up. I planted several sunflowers for fun so the kids and I can watch them grow, and then harvest the seeds. I also planted african daisy and poppy seeds, taking great care to spread them evenly in little clusters. Then our basset hound came behind me and dug them up. {Grrrr} We shall see where they sprout up!
 Can't wait to watch my yard bloom and grow. How I love gardening!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Cub Scout Camporee

Our family had a great time yesterday at the Scouting Camporee at the Fairgrounds....celebrating 100 years of Scouting. Originally my Dad and stepmom were coming up for the weekend to celebrate Gracie's birthday, and my Dad, Paco and Cole were going to make it a boys' day at Camporee, while us girls did something "girly". Unfortunately, my Dad had to have eye surgery at the last minute, and they were unable to come...so Gracie and I tagged along. I'm so glad we did! We went with several families from our pack, and communicated throughout the days on our walkie-talkies...very fun! Each boy had a "buddy" to stay with throughout the day, and then we all met up for dinner, a show by Giovanni the magician, and a spectacular fireworks display.

We met our group at 12:30pm and didn't get home until 10pm last night. Long day! Totally worth it though...what a great time we all had. There were so many activities we couldn't even get to them all....archery, bb shooting, rock wall climbing, remote control sailboats, live wolves, paintball, rocketbottles, survival school, jumping castles, SWAT team, remote control airplanes, model trains, zip lining....and on and on. The boys were able to earn 2 new patches....and just got to enjoy seeing so many other scouts. Our pack didn't chose to camp out, but there were more tents than I have ever seen in one place!
                                               Making punched tin necklaces with the Scout emblem.
checking out some military jeeps..
Gracie and Smokey
The boys made cool dog tags..with skulls of course.
There were hundreds of tents! This is a fraction of them...
Cole and Rickey, buddies for the day!
Cole, Rickey, Dylan and Cameron ready to dominate at paintball!
Gracie can keep up with the boys!
I'm so glad to see its still cool to love on your sister...even at a cub scout event!
Cole receiving his camporee patch from Mr. Behm, our cubmaster
showing Daddy how to putt
Awesome scuba gear
checking out the S.W.A.T truck
Cool bi-planes
At the end of the evening there were some presentations (including one by the President of the company Paco and I work for)...and then the magic show by Giovanni. (Ask my kids about his marshmallow trick when you see them!). We got a crazy spring storm during his performance. The really funny part was when the giant banner behind him starting blowing apart...you can see what's left of it in the picture. It was just comical. He didn't know what everyone was laughing about until he turned around.
last but not least, was a fireworks display which rivals any that we have ever seen on the 4th of July! Here is a video of the finale!! In the beginning you will see a fireworks sign, that says "100 years".


It was the perfect end to a wonderful day as a family and as a cub scout pack! Scouting has added so much to our life as a family...we are so grateful for it!