I can’t believe that I haven’t been home on a weekend in 5 weeks.  Even though it was all fun stuff (vacation, camping, etc.), I cannot tell you how nice it was to have a weekend at home with nothing big on the agenda.

Friday night we had a BBQ at Megan and Luke’s for Megan’s Mom’s birthday.  It was HOT that night but we still had a blast.

Playing Frisbee!

You can see Lu’s new haircut in these pictures:

There were flowers from Megan’s garden that I arranged. Arranging flowers is not my strong suit but I thought these turned out really nicely.

We had a HUGE salmon!

Everybody enjoying the feast!

Porter’s Gramma and Lucy hanging out:

Fireworks!

And Lu’s reaction!

Porter’s initial reaction:

Lucy continued to love them:

Porter, not so much:

Then we had musical entertainment!

And then last but not least, “cake” for the birthday girl.  Megan got this recipe out Sunset and it was for grilled strawberries and angel food cake.  It was apparently delicious.

On Saturday, Lu and I went to the Farmer’s Market with Lissa and Tessa, then the park and then out to lunch with Shaun at the Crow’s Inn.  He was on the way back from an epic mountain bike ride and liked the restaurant so much that he called us to join him for lunch.  I’m glad we did (but I didn’t get pictures).

On Sunday I attacked the garden or as Shaun lovingly called it, “Chelsea’s Jungle”:

Most of that is weeds!

In the middle of weeding, I took a break to get some pictures of Lu.  She picked out her entire outfit.

It was finally done!

It looks so much better, don’t you think?

Lu and I harvested some veggies-the garden is about to EXPLODE!

Lu LOVED everything that we picked:

Then, later, to beat the 100 degree heat, Daddy and Lu ran through the sprinklers!

What a FUN weekend AT HOME!!!!

A few months ago I sent Shaun some links to camera bags that I’d like for Mother’s Day.  Last week, he emailed me saying that they were out of stock and asked if I wanted anything else.  I told him that I really, truly don’t want anything other than a day with Shaun and Lu, some Lucy artwork, and to not cook.  Yesterday I got all of that and more.  Best Mother’s Day ever!

First, I got to sleep in and then we went to a few local nurseries to get supplies for the garden.  After that we went to 13th Street Pub and Grill for a yummy lunch including a free mimosa and yummy bloody mary.  We then had a (much needed) family nap followed by an afternoon in the garden.  The night ended with a dinner out at the Ram.  We were supposed to go to our friend’s house for Friend Dinner but they had to cancel.  I told Shaun that we could just have leftovers but he said absolutely not and that we were going out.  Okay then!  It really was a nice family day AND my husband built me a trellis for me peas!

Evidently I had a hard time with the focus yesterday

Look at that hand made trellis!

I also got some garden markers:

And Lettuce!

Last weekend we went to a native plant sale and Shaun terraced an area in the backyard for it.  Here’s our native plant garden

And the reason my day was so wonderful!

Happy Earth Day!  Today I’m thankful for our Earth

I’m very excited to start a garden this year.  I hand tilled our little part of earth ALL BY MYSELF!

Here it is about 1/4 of the way done:

And totally done:

Here’s my garden plan:

Okra, peas, peppers, green beans, carrots, kale, lettuce, strawberries, and sunflowers along the back fence-Color coded to the date I need to plant them outside. Tomatoes and cucumbers will be planted in Grow Boxes up on the deck.

The kale is in the ground.

As are the peas.

And the okra and peppers are started inside. I have the seeds for the carrots, green beans and sunflowers. Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and strawberries will be bought after the danger of frost is past (hopefully by May 10th!).

I’m excited to garden this year and to teach Lu that food comes from the earth NOT the store!

It snowed on Saturday night.  Today? It was 71 degrees and sunny! BLISS. Things are starting to bloom, we’re planning our garden, I’ve broken out my flippies.  Life is good!

I’m thankful today for SPRING!!!

Front yard:

The SUN!

The garden is going to run along the whole back fence, as you can see, I’m about 1/4 of the way done tilling.

Yay SPRING!!!!

I have lots of exciting things to talk about!  But first I have to complain about ME.  Lucy woke up last night at 1:30 to eat (I think she must be growing because she ate A LOT yesterday) after I got her back down, I never went back to sleep. WTF?!?!?  That means I got maybe maybe 3 hours of sleep last night.  ARGH.  Oh well.

First I wanted to answer Monica’s question-I know I could have done it in the comments of my post that she commented  on but I’m too lazy so I’ll answer it here-I only keep track of how much milk I pump in my spreadsheet.  She only gets a bottle at daycare.  When we’re home she’s a boob feeder-thank GAWD!  I’ve only ever fed her a bottle once and it was because she was having trouble breathing and was biting me.  She much prefers the boob.

Next-fun stuff!

I planted my garden yesterday:

Tomatoes:

Cucumbers and Bell Peppers:

I should have veggies and tomatoes (aren’t they technically a fruit?) in about 60 days. WHIPPEE!!!

Second-We.Are.Going.To.Hawaii!!!!! WHIPPEE x2! My husband gave me a very good piece of advice about 2 years ago. When I wanted a baby BAD, I bugged and bugged and bugged him about it. He told me “If you stop talking about it, I’ll want a baby faster.” I didn’t say a word from that point on and what do you know? A month later he was ready for a baby. So I pulled the same tactic here and have not mentioned Hawaii for a week or so. Well last night he showed me a picture of a bike with a bike trailer for a kid (we’ve been looking into renting these locally) and he said “Doesn’t that look neat?” and I said “Yeah…we’ve been looking at those for a few days…” and he said “Yes, but this one is in Kauai!” I’m so excited-we’re going in September.

Third-Since we’re going to Hawaii in September we have to look at dates and Lucy’s birthday is in September (on the 22nd to be exact). I don’t want to be in Hawaii for her actual birthday since I’d like her to have a cupcake on her birthday and she’s allergic to both dairy and soy. Which means I’ll need to make her birthday cupcake for her and even though we’ll have a kitchen at the condo where we’re staying, making cupcakes would be difficult. I know a silly reason but a very valid one to me. Additionally, I want Lucy’s birthday party to be close to her birthday and if we went to Hawaii over her birthday that would cancel out the 2 weekends closest to her birthday. Which brings me to my point. You still with me? I’m an super planner person and so I’ve been thinking about Lucy’s first birthday party for quite some time. I’m not alone though because Shaun said to me 2 weeks ago, “wouldn’t the park be a perfect place for Lucy’s birthday party.” My thoughts exactly sir! Her party is going to be Very Hungry Caterpillar themed and then that theme will no longer be an option because I don’t want Lucy or myself to OD on it. I also want to do cupcakes for the party and thought that I would make them in the shape of the caterpillar. Well a foodie friend of mine (who has not heard my plans) just sent me a blogpost to show me this picture:

Other very cute cakes can be seen here.

I doubt I can do the fondant but this was very close to what I was imagining so now I have a blue print!

See? Those were 3 very exciting things!