Harvest Time

For a Saturday in October, it really was a beautiful day. We went to my sisters home to help with the potato harvest. They have a big garden and always grow enough potatoes to share with us (and many others), so we wanted to help with picking them.

Some of out kiddos really wanted to be playing with their cousins rather than helping out.

 Some were helpful without much prodding. :)

And one little guy was right in there and stuck it out the whole time. I was proud of him.

Here's the haul. It took less than 2 hours from start of picking to having it stored in the root cellar. We were a great team.

Yesterday, Mr Q & I harvested the carrots from our garden. He was a great helper, yet again.

This little guy has a great work ethic... or maybe he likes spending time with mom. Maybe both. :)

He is scared of worms and spiders. He kept running to the sidewalk & saying, "Mom, I saw a worm. Get it."

I love growing our food.

Garden, Week 1+2

 We planted the garden on Victoria Day this year, May 21, 2012. That's usually the day we aim to plant by and this year we actually got it in. Ta-da!
I took the above pic out the kitchen window on May 27th.

Here's the view on June 4th. Pretty much everything is up, but too tiny to actually see in the picture.
I love watching my yard transform. So exciting!

I pronounce the P in raspberry.

My sister, my mom and I picked raspberries yesterday. A lot of raspberries. We were raised to be gatherers. My grandma taught my mom and she taught us. I love eating jam that I've made from berries I picked. Here's a pic of our harvest.

 Today is Matt's Birthday so we made posters for him while he was at work and hung them on the fence so he would see them when he got home. We are going swimming tonight and having a BBQ to celebrate Matt & his brothers birthday. Hopefully we have a fun time and the weather cooperates!

How Does my Garden Grow?

 I went outside today to snap a few pics of my flowers. They are looking so pretty right now. Most of them have been blooming for a while, but between the rain and the gigantic mosquitoes, I haven't been spending a whole lot of time outside. Hopefully it will be sunny for a few days so I can get the vegetable garden weeded.

Q was making silly faces at the camera today, so I snapped away. Here are a few of my handsome little guy.

 

C is definitely a little mama's girl. She is constantly on the move. It's nice to catch her in a quiet moment every once in a while. Cuddles with my kids are always brief, so I take them when I can get them.

We had a couple of little friends spend the day with us today. The kids rode bikes and blew bubbles in the garage. They also pulled all the cushions off the couches and had a bouncy good time in the living room. Who needs a bouncy house!

They played so nicely together that I just ignored the mess. That's hard for me to do. I'm glad I let them work off some energy, because they completely exhausted themselves! What a bunch of cuties!

Miss Dress-Up

It rained today. Since we were hanging out indoors, the girls played dress-up. There's hardly a day that goes by that they don't play princess or ballerina or supergirl. A rainy day was a good a reason as any. Today A was a cowgirl and C was a princess. Usually A is all decked out with the frilly princess dresses, so I had to snap a pic with her in cowgirl mode. My mother-in-law (the kids call her Nana) kept these play clothes from Matt's childhood. The vest and chaps are the same ones that her daddy wore when he was a little guy! I dug out a pic from his memory book. What a cutie!

Here's one of C riding off into the sunset this afternoon on her trusty sidekick, Steady. In the movie, Beauty and the Beast, there is a scene where Belle is trying to calm her horse, Philippe. She says, over and over, "Woah! Steady boy." Since that day, A has named all horses Steady. This horse swing is no exception. My mom bought the kids this fun swing and we hung it in the basement. Summers here are short and we figured it would get a lot more use if it was indoors. The kids love it.



This weekend was really busy. Matt tilled the garden with a rototiller we borrowed from some friends. Thanks Halls! I spent most of Saturday preparing my planting beds. The last couple of years I have made a Mittleider garden. If you want to learn more, you can check it out here. Matt was out helping build a garage and then helping some friends move, so I had the "help" of all 3 kids in the yard. I was in the garden with a level & a rake trying to get the planting beds level until 11:44pm. It was pitch black outside, but I felt like I accomplished a lot. Now, as soon as it stops raining I'll be able to get it planted.

Here's a pic of my handsome little helper.
After church on Sunday, my mom called to say that she, my dad and my brother were on the way to come visit. What a fantastic surprise! It is always great to spend time with mom and dad (Grandma and Papa.) I often wish we lived closer so that we could spend more time together. It was a fantastic weekend! I am still wiped out.

It's FINALLY spring!!

When Matt and I were married, I had the prettiest tulip bouquet. It was yellow and red combo tulips. We moved into this home in the middle of the summer, so I had no idea which spring flowers the flower beds held. It was so exciting to me when the tulips popped up the next spring and they were these stunning yellow and red tulips, just like my wedding bouquet.

Aren't they stunning!
I love the flower shape of the black centers.
The girls & I had a fun morning watering the flower beds. The little guy was having a nap, so we headed out into the front yard to give the flowers a drink. They took turns watering the flowers while the other girl climbed the Mountain Ash tree out front. I hope they will gain a love for growing things.

Spring comes late in this area, so all my perennials are just starting to pop up. These are how they look as of yesterday, May 18, 2011. Notice I have a tiny little strawberry!!