Kids in the Garden

I let the kids make their own veggie markers out of paint sticks and the dreaded permanent pen!
Strike a pose! Where does that come from?
Barry was cracking up at this one, he said she is just like Patti at that age. Precious!

Max watering his pumpkin plant, which by the way already has little flowers sprouted.

A boy's gotta love the dirt!

The Garden

Patti dropped the kids off after church and we got right to work on planting their pumpkin plants and sunflower seeds. What good little workers they were. Emma planted hers and then made a beeline to wash her hands, but came right back to do a photo shoot. Max loved every minute of it, he even wanted to wear my pink gardening shoes. He got creative with the watering though, see the neat little circles I make, he thought it was cool to fill them and drag the hose so they all became connected, like little islands. Ok, I let that go, trying to be easy going, until this morning when I went out to fix it. We picked the last of the oranges and then poisoned Lilly again. Yes, she ate the snail bait two days in a row! She had the shakes so bad and was panting and breathing so heavily we all felt sorry for her, even Jess. Who know that to make the bait more attractive to snails they are made with molasses and bran. Who wouldn't want to eat it? She seems fine now, but she isn't out of the woods yet, liver damage is a possibility. Poor girl.

So glad to have some of my plants in the garden and some of the grand kid's pumpkins planted, just need the next batch of kids to come over. Dustin is a little worried that they got a head start on the growing, he's bringing fertilizer!

Fabulous Friday

I found this tucked away under some bushes, cleaned it up and wah lah! Nice find.

Getting started, it doesn't look so nice right now, but it's coming along!

Lucy, enjoying the sunshine.

I started all of these geraniums from pieces I broke off from around town, Emma & Max's school & Mexico.

I decided to take a day and do what ever I wanted to do. But then I realized, I can do that mostly every day! It was such a pretty day, I went right outside to work in the yard. I mowed the yard, planted the flowers I had purchased over the weekend and started the garden. After I do yard work, I always water and wash down the walkways and the drive way. While doing that I realized I had a constant little rainbow with me. You can have it too, take water sprinkles and sunshine, mix together and you get a rainbow, an unexpected blessing, my reward for a little hard work.

Grandma Pat's Birthday

The Family and Pat's friend, Victoria Kadence holding Abby

Heather and Abby

Kadence getting some love.


It was nice to celebrate Grandma Pat's birthday and to know that she is well on

the road to recovery and will be able to celebrate many more birthdays with us.

It's Springtime!

My work is cut out for me
Each kid will get a pot to plant,
the name of these pumpkins are "Big Max"~Our Maxie will like that!

Coral Bells

Rinuculas

Love these, can't remember the whole name, Pents...

Not sure, but pretty and attract butterflies and hummingbirds

Columbine, love these flowers, isn't God amazingly creative?

I love nothing more than to go and get a bunch of pretty plants for my yard. This weekend we out did ourselves and I have lots to do in the garden. Barry and I are going to plant the vegetable garden this week and I will do the flowers in the front yard. It's been a long time since I've had a garden and I am really looking forward to it, especially with the grand kids. I don't think they've ever seen how food grows. Tomorrow night they are all coming over to plant the pumpkin plants and the sunflower seeds we bought for them. I am going to teach them how to grow their own pumpkins. It's going to be fun to see their faces when they come for a visit and see how their little crops are progressing. I will also let them plant some strawberries and radishes, pretty easy and prolific stuff. I want them to have great success~my future garden helpers in my old age! I remember my Nana always said after she'd plant something, "grow, baby, grow" and then she'd pat the dirt. I'll do that too. I think lots of good memories can be made in a bunch of sweet dirt.

Jigsaw Puzzles

Missing Piece

Chewed up piece

Ta Da, as finished as it can be!

I love to work jigsaw puzzles, do you? I do them pretty quickly, but not quick enough to prevent lost and damaged pieces. I would like to glue and frame a few, but with kids and puppies it's not easy to get a complete picture! Oh well, 'joy in the journey" right!

St. Patrick's Day Dinner

The pictures are all out of order, but these are of the kids playing in my yard before dinner.

Emma, I wonder how many times she has had that done to her!
Maxie in the dirt.

Emma and Kadence on the slide.
Emma is like a mini mommy to her.
Dustin teaching Kadence about wishes.

She can't blow hard enough yet and she chases the seeds in the air like bubbles.

Not my real dinner, just a similar picture, the meal I made looked much better!

We had a really nice dinner, the kids said the best ever corned beef I had ever made. It cost more than I had ever paid too! We even tried parsnips. We had green lemonade, choc mint ice cream, rice krispies treats (green sprinkles, of course), green milk, etc. I was one busy leprechaun! It was nice having the family over, we missed Nick and his family, not sure what happened to them.

Break Down

Yep, after another grueling weekend doing landlord work in Laughlin, my van croaked. We were riding along, up hill, fully loaded with work equipment, and my temp gage started to go up. Then I heard pinging, and it went down hill from there. We lost power and had to coast off the freeway to a deserted road, which I was sure we were going to be killed on (too much tv drama watched by me) There was smoke, steam, minor cursing, and AAA. We were towed back to Needles, CA. Barry bought a very expensive bottle of anti-freeze and tried to get us going again. No such luck, the temp spiked again, so we found a decent motel and spent the night. Quite an adventure! Barry got up early to see what and how to fix the problem and I slept in and watched tv till noon, then ate the breakfast he brought up to me. Glad to be a girl! Anyway, we called Dustin who was ready to roll on out to Needles to get us, Brandon too was going to leave work early and come to our rescue. Glad to have grown up sons! In the end, Dustin had a fabulous idea, he added us to his premium AAA and got us a tow to Victorville, which would have cost us $2000.00! We spent a nice night at Brandon and Cheri's house and Barry felt lucky and drove the vehicle home. He put water in the radiator and it didn't overheat. The problem was a crack in the radiator causing water to leak, causing over heating, and then a cracked head gasket. Big ticket item! There goes my new couch! So I am a foot for a week until the van is fixed. Thanks boys for all of your help.

A Wish Come True

Ever have such a dreaded, hard job ahead and wish you could blink your eyes and have it done? Well that's what Dustin did for me. He came in the dark of night and rototillered my garden for me. I am so happy, now all I have to do is buy some plants and put them in. I am going to invite the grand kids over to plant pumpkins and sunflowers. Looking forward to a bumper crop this year. Thanks so much honey!

Barry & Andy's Birthday's & Other Stuff

Nick and Abby
She's a big girl now!
He's a good daddy.

The party, I didn't have candles for Andy or Barry's cakes,

so I used tea lights, probably why everyone is laughing.

Or they are laughing at my ice cream cake, which was melting. Boy was it good though!
Harley and Lily watching Abby.
Barry's birthday cake.

Using match sticks as candles which Emma doesn't seem to like.

Trust me she would have planned better than me.Dustin is a faithful, long distance, motorcycle riding, party goer.

Barry trying on his new hat.

Pound cake with my homemade lemon curd. Note to self: give some away next time, so it doesn't spoil. I was such a hoarder with this yummy stuff.
What a cutie, Emma loves her Papa Abby sucks her thumb, I think it's so cute.
Kadence wearing all of our hospital tags. I love her face,

she is truly the happiest kid I have ever known.

Now everyone is pretty much caught up with what's going on in my life.