June Boys...

My Grandparents sent the boys these outfits... they look so cute! All coordinated and stuff!


We spent an evening with our friends the Lanphears and the boys had a blast riding in the jeep and of course riding quads around their track.

Anthony... This pretty much needs no explanation... although this is his surprised face that we are seeing more and more often! Its so funny!


We made little ice cream cones... Anthony had a blast and ate every last morsel! Have i mentioned his obsession with food? well... he is.


Mindy took him on a trip around the pond in the little boat... i think he enjoyed himself.

It got kind of chilly out, so i put his pajamas on under his clothes... thus the funny blue arms! He can be a very silly boy at times! which we love, since he was always so serious and stressed... he can still stress out very quickly, but in general he has chilled out.

The adorable Lanphear kids!

We traded Alex's gas powered quad for David's battery powered... Alex was NOT quite ready for the gas one... can we say dangerous... when he goes too fast for Jerry to run and keep up so he doesn't hit a tree... its too fast! David is however 6 or 7 i think and much more suited for the gas powered quad and too big for this battery one. So it was a perfect swap and between our 2 families we should be able to keep all the kids in the right sized quad! hahaha!

Poor Anthony... his quad's battery is broken, so he just pushes his around. Its so pitiful! However... he can never go too fast for himself... and he can manuver it better than if he was on it... so funny... it makes us laugh. Every once in a while he will get us to push him around on it...


Anthony is getting very good at feeding himself with a spoon and fork... I think that it helps that he is so serious about food! Plus his fine motor skill are way better than Alex's were at this age. (17 months)

ok... this series was an attempt at getting a cute shot of them together... needless to say... they have issues!!!!





You like Anthony's big mosquito bite... right in the middle of his forehead! This is a smile, by the way.


When his hair looks like this in the morning... you know it is time for a hair cut!!!

This is how Anthony likes to walk around... he thinks he is hot stuff... with his hands in his pockets!

Anthony's first real... play trip to the beach (Lake Michigan, of course). He loved it! the water was still a little too cold to really get into, but he liked the sand!







At the end of June the boys and mommy went to pick cherries! It was such a HOT day!!!!! But we picked a whole $37 worth of sweet Cherries! We ended up eating a bunch and then i made cherry butter out of the rest. Just for the record... we use the cherry, peach, and apple butter to sweeten our oatmeal for breakfast... as well as on toast. :)






On the way home from Cherries...




We took all the chairs off the deck to power wash the deck and chairs... this is how i found the boys after a while... I had these cool photos in my head that i could get with this row of chairs, but they only turned out so-so... The boys are still silly...

Grow Grow Grow!!!

Remember the "Potato" post I did a few weeks ago? Well... the potatoes are about done... I have dug most of the beds out already and just have 2 to go! Here are the last 2 pictures of the German Butterball bed... just before i dug them and after i pulled the plants up... there was about 3/4 of a bushel of potatoes in there... we had been snitching potatoes all along since they bloomed... so there was probably at least a full bushel... I have no idea what is normal... I was hoping to get more than that, but maybe that is great... no clue!




Oh dear.... I really hate these tomato worms... They hit us really really bad this year! good grief! I would pick at least 10 off everyday for a couple weeks! a few days i found as many as 30!!!!! Ick!!! And they snap their teeth at you when you take them off!!! The boys enjoy "disposing of them in the stream... dropping them from the bridge...



These are some things i picked one day... We pretty much eat zuchini everyday... although we have about 6 different kinds, so it doesn't get boring... i am about to pick my first "patty pan" or scalloped squash today... i am pretty excited about that... i will of course photograph it before we eat it!


The Corn is nice and tall and we have had a few ears now... very yummy so far... and we have only tasted 2 kinds. True Gold and Stowells Evergreen. We are also growing our first popcorn this year... a variety we picked up in Kazakhstan last year. So that will be fun!



A beautiful purple cabbage that we found in Kazakhstan too. I will be interested to find out if it is variety that we already have on not here in the US.


Some tomatoes in our "Kitchen Garden" The plants are so big around at the base they look like trees! We have 20 kinds here at the house... testing to see what our favorites are! We have 4 from Kazakhstan planted here. We have more Kaz tomatoes planted in the display gardens. I am planning to do a post on just tomatoes sometime... but it will be later, since not all kinds are ready yet!!


Another view of the three beds... That very large plant in the forground is an eggplant! Japanese White Egg... they truely look like eggs! Then we have peppers and then 10 tomatoes in that bed... The second bed has lettuce, Chard, kale and 10 more tomatoes. The final bed has herbs and peas in it... the peas are about done in this picture... i am not pulling them out yet, because i am letting the seeds dry so that i can plant again this summer. I think we will try the peas that we got in Kaz there as well.


These are the new beds we put in. 12 in all... 6 that are 3.5ft x 7 and then 6 that are 3.5ft x 9. so i have 2 rotation sets and then 4 that will be permanent... like rhubarb, asparagus, strawberries and herbs. Since i have taken this picture it has grown A LOT!!! The blue tub is for collecting rainwater...

One rotaion set will contain 1. onions, garlic, beets 2. Tomato family (potatoes, eggplant, pepper) 3. Cabbage Family 4. Carrot Family. Then you just rotate from one bed to another clockwise... it is a 4 year rotation plan!

The other set will have 1. Tomato 2. Corn 3. Beans/Peas 4. Squash/Cukes/Melons

It makes "planning" the garden soooo much easier to have it set up that way!!! As long as you know how much you need to plant! Which I am still experimenting with!

The gardens are growing well, in spite of the COLD summer we have had... we've probably only had a total of two hot-ish weeks this whole summer!!! July was cold, and last night it was in the forties and here it is the end of August!!!! Its still supposed to be at least WARM here! So i think things have grown a little slower than they should... but i am hoping for a warm September at least!