The garden jungle

I like growing a garden. There is something very satisfying about planting a little seed and seeing a great plant with fruit/veggies grow. This spring was weird in ID. Cooler than normal and off and on with rain. So I have lots of big green leaves in the garden. Our pea plants loved that weather.


This is a pic of the boys with our first really harvest (besides peas and strawberries). We got some zucchini and dug our first potatoes. The potatoes were really fun, like digging for treasure. The boys want to dig them up everyday.


Here is part of the jungle. The first year I have planted pole beans. They grow like crazy. I swear, a few inches in height a day. (Pole beans behind the boys, potatoes in front of the boys.)

It's a jungle out there!! Austin is next to the zucchini. It is going crazy. I'm going to try to grow it vertically this year. We'll see how that goes. Off to the left of the pic is tomato plants in 5 ft cages. They are growing like crazy too. There are green tomatoes on the plant but none have ripened yet. The onions are at the bottom of the pic. Maybe I got carried away with those. Oh well. It's just fun to grow stuff.

Big Boys and Bikes

A few weeks ago, Austin said he wanted to try his bike without training wheels. So Cam took him out to the end of our street. Austin wanted to try on the little hill walkway, not the flat street. Then suddenly, it just clicked. Cam only had to help a few times, then with the momentum of the hill, he was able to figure it out. Way to go!!


This is James doing his "hey mom, see how fast I can go if I lift my feet up". He would really cruise along. Then he drags his flip flops to stop. Surprisingly, he hasn't scraped off his toes yet.

Dad giving Austin some advice.




Then off he goes!

He got it figured out for the flat ground too.

Much better bike learning experience than I remember from my own childhood. We had a loose gravel driveway. I remember crashing A LOT and getting gravel in my knees and palms. This day was much easier than that.

Happy Birthday Cam!

I just wanted to do one of those fun blog world Happy Birthday posts for my hubby. Today he is 30!

Happy Birthday to my best friend and the person who usually knows me better than I know myself. I am a very lucky person to have met you so long ago. You make life fun and happy. You are a great husband and dad.

Happy Birthday! We love you !

Kindergarten or bust!

Austin finished preschool at the end of April. We found out that his lottery number was drawn and so he will get to attend the charter school this fall. He is really excited because his cousins are there. I'm hoping for a good school experience--and a teacher that will continue to challenge him.

Here is Austin and Mimi at his preschool program.

Austin doing a little part for one of the songs they sang. Preschool kids are cute.

Where have I been??

It seems as though the days really drag and yet time flies. Everyday is kinda like the picture, one step at a time.

We have been working on the garden. It is in and growing--we've even gotten some strawberries this year. Although, ants are taking some too. The boys and I had our first peas fresh out of the garden today. Yum!

I've been trying to catch up on a few things around the house.

But mostly, I'm just trying to maintain. It is a full time job just to keep the house semi-clean, clothes on the kids and food on the table.

I had a goal to get the boys scrapbooks caught up before we add another person to the family. So far, I'm not doing so well on that one. At least I got the pictures off my computer and into their respective child's folders so that one day, they could be scrapbooked.

So, I dunno how to answer the question of where I have been.... I've been around just not doing a great job at blogging.

Favorite pic

I love this picture. I love that Austin loves reading/looking at books. He is getting to where he recognizes a lot of words and can sound out some stuff.

James has really grown into loving books too. It really makes me happy that they love to read. Something that they will keep through adulthood.

Weird spring

We have had really weird weather this spring. It has been cold and windy then this week we hit 80+ degrees for a few days. Crazy.

The boys begged me to get out our wading pool---but I think it is way too soon for that. So we compromised, the sprinkler!

Austin is getting really tall. I didn't notice until I looked at this pic. He is getting tall and skinny. I guess they do grow up.

James looks scared in this pic, but he was having a blast.

Easter

I don't have any cute Sunday pics of the boys---their mom wasn't on the ball this year. But they had lots of fun dying Easter eggs. James was amazed by it!

He did have a little collateral damage, but not bad considering...

Another pretty good deal

Austin got a Leap Pad Tag reader for his birthday. The books for it are pretty spendy, about $14 per book.
Fred Meyer had them for buy 2 and get one free. So I bought 3 and used 2 coupons for $5 dollars off. So I got 3 books for $20 dollars. A little early Christmas shopping or something. A lot easier to swallow at 6.60 a book instead of $14.
I didn't post a pic cuz I don't want Austin to see them.

Albertsons sale

Today I went to Albies to do the buy $25 dollars and get $10 for meat and I also wanted to combine it with the Unilever rebate that was in Sunday's paper (buy $40 and get $20 rebate on a ham) So here is how it went...

(This cute little guy was not part of the purchase, but wanted to be in the picture)

So I got all that stuff---the albies total before savings was $115.58

I used coupons on almost everything

got the eggs free by buying lysol wipes (which were on clearance)

got 2 of the $10 dollar back deals since I hit $50 dollars in groceries and bought meat (chicken)

and used one $5 dollar catalina from the cereal sale last week

My grand total paid was...$22.41!

Plus I can mail in my reciept and get up to $20 dollars off a Ham (which we bought from our favorite butcher)

Not bad for a rookie.

My average price per item works out to be .68 cents and that includes tax.

Cam really wanted everyone to see his pickle loaf lunch meat that he slipped into that cart-----not part of the sale but he likes that stuff. YUCK!