Our June Garden

My garden goal for this summer is to find out what exactly I've planted and where. Because when winter comes and it's all gone I forget what's going to pop up and when. So I got my Gardening Journal, put on my long flowing dress, removed my shoes and sat on a blanket in the middle of my yard. In my head I was living in the 17th century, but I didn't have that beautiful of a dress on. And I mapped out our gardens or part of them. Each kid has their own garden, so far I've gotten done Eben's and Opal's. I also took pictures of what the plants look like so I can get excited in Fall of what's to come in Spring.

This is also the first year we've had a vegetable garden. It's the second year trying. Last year they all got eaten a day after I planted my precious seedlings outdoors. I don't know why, but I feel like if I don't do it from seeds, it's cheating. Which is weird, because I'm a self-proclaimed cheater. So far, we have had tons of lettuce, some beans, and it's looks like the broccoli, zucchini and eggplant will do well too. I think I got too late a start on the tomatoes. I should just cheat.

Girl Party and Man Day!

Girl Party was June 5-6th and Man Day was all day June 13th and although we had awesome times...these were the only pictures that even proved we got together! How pathetic is that. And since I'm relying on this blog as my virtual "Notebook" of life, (Because I have the memory of a fly.) I probably won't even remember that these days existed. I'm a visual learner. Pictures. Not words.

So although it looks like all we did was play Guitar Hero and all the guys did was golf, that is not true. We had a great time, all us women, at our girly slumber party. We ate pizza. By the way, here's something I learned - 15 women do not eat 8 pizzas - they eat 2. We played games, made s'mores down at the fire, did pedicures, snacked, had Italian sodas, watched girly movies, and oh yes - talked, some of us until 4 in the am.

Here's my pic of Shannon belting out... a rock song (see I already don't remember) assisted by Christine on the guitar.

As for Man Day. I don't really know. I wasn't allowed to be there. I am not a man. But I know they had a kick in the pants. This is what I learned about Man Day:

-Denny's rocks for breakfast.

-Golf was great. Joe won the great golf hat contest.

-Everyone got "the slow cart" at the go cart races. Al and Chris schooled everyone. But technically, Rich won.

-Matthew fished all day in a cute boat.

-The jet ski sank. Al ran over Matthew's line.

-.08 is a crazy lot of alcohol to be the legal limit for driving home.

-Man Day turned into Boy Party sleep over.

Al and Jeremy - golf posers.

Thanks all you great Girls and Men for joining us. We had a blast!

Summertime!

A nice warm summer. A cool refreshing lake. And a Dada who's ready to jump in whenever you ask. How much more could a kid ask for?

9th Anniversary Surprise!

My hubby is the greatest!!! I've been wanting a new washer and dryer for a while now. 

6 people in the family + a dryer that takes 3 hours to dry one load of clothes = one busy mamma (well, one busy dryer anyway)

So my plan was that I would save up money, from Easter, Mother's Day, our Anniversay, Christmas....until whenever.  I asked Peter if I could just have the money he would spent on presents for me and I would save it to buy a new washer/dryer. He thought this was a bad idea because he likes getting me presents and it made me sound "like a Jr. Higher", but he agreed. 

However, my wonderful hubby ruined my money saving plan. On our 9th Anniversay (May 13th), which happened to be a Biblestudy night, he surprised me! As soon as our whole HFG sat down, Peter was explaining the Great GPS Race, we were picking teams, figuring out the GPS's and then we were off. Peter's race led us on a lovely, rainy tour of Lakewood from Solo Point to the first schoolhouse in Lakewood. Our team won!! And when we got back Peter had Martinelli's and champange and an ice cream cake!  Then he asked me to get the hor'dourves off of the dryer and I screamed when I saw them - My brand new GE, energy effecient,  high capacity washer and dryer. AAAaaaaa! My Pop and he had been installing them while we were off "racing". 

It was a great Anniversary! I love my hubby. 

 Our team at Solo Point: Me, Crystal, Kim, Joe, Travis

Peter explaining how to use the GPS's

Me and the greatest hubby in the world.

Me being surprised

Our team at the last stop - yah, we knew we won.

Passover

Passover was techniquely April 8-15. I wanted to have Passover, but it wasn't coming together. (Actually, I was banned from having it so I didn't become a crazy person.) My parents came up to fix up one of their rentals and stay with us May 11-15 and my mom found a great Jewish law about how if someone in your family comes in contact with a dead body their family is allowed to have Passover a month later. This was perfect! We would actually be following real Passover rules. I tried to be Kosher, but I mainly just wanted our family to be able to experience a Passover meal like Jesus did. 

We had so much fun! It took us all day to set the table on the floor, cook the Kosher Salt Encrusted Prime Rib, and make the Kosher Gateau au Chocolat Cake. The kids loved making the Charoset for the Sedar plates, scroll name tags and Matzoh Buttercrunch. Their favorite things about the actual Passover was eating on the floor, all the grape juice they could drink, washing your hands over and over with the wash basin and the Baytzah (the egg). They did not care for the Karpas (parsley dipped in salt water).

I'm sure our Passover was very different from a real Jewish family's. For one, we kept relating everything to Jesus. Also we used a book about Passover which was written for little kids to understand and led us step by step through the Passover rituals. I hope we are able to do this every year. But Peter is going to have to keep in contact with the DOA's in April, because May was a way less stressful month for Passover.

 

La Conner With The Girls

On May 1st, we took the girls on a special trip to La Conner. We stayed in a great little place called The La Conner Country Inn which came with breakfast! Kivi and I toured the town while Peter and Opie slept. Later we all went out to dinner on the waterfront, took a walk and had many cups of complimentary hot cocoa and cookies. After we put the girls to bed, we snuck away for a romantic dessert, which was actually connected to the hotel, soooo, was it really leaving them? We decided no. Although, we did sneek back to the room about 3 times to make sure they weren't dead. They weren't. I had a piece of chocolate cake and a panne cotta, and half of Peter's panne cotta. It was sooooo good. 

The next morning we had a declicious free breakfast in our room, Kivi and I went to an old mansion/quilt museum and then we headed off to the purpose of the trip: my soon-to-be, cousin-in-law, Carly's wedding shower, for whom Kivi will be a flower girl! However, we realized we had left the directions at home. We waited along the highway for about an hour waving at cars hoping one of them would be my aunt. She never came, but she did finally call us, wondering where we were. And so we made it!

And this is the shower where I unknowingly let my 3 year old daughter drink a glass of spiked punch! 

Oops! Well, the long ride home was quiet.

 

Concert For One