Monday, May 30, 2011

Near Death Experience.

We had a near death experience today. We're all fine, but our fish, Mickey, may be a little worse for the wear.

The kids were all inside, Pearl was doing her piano lesson and I was outside vacumming the car, when I hear Pearl sobbing, and Sam comes outside yelling something. Reluctantly, I go inside to check it out (I hate leaving a job unfinished!). Once I got to the door, I realized there was a real problem, because Sam kept saying "Max killed Pearl's fish!!!" I ran through the house, knowing exactly what happened (he's gotten close to dumping the tank before). I pass Pearl on the piano, asking her "where is he?" but she's too hysterical to answer. I get to her room and find a very guilty looking Max and a fish flopping around on the carpet. "Pearl get me some water, QUICK" Pearl - "BUT I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO FIND ANY!!!!" Luckilly, she had half an old school water bottle on her desk, so I quickly put it and Mickey (yes, I picked the fish up with my hands, gross gross, I love my kids that much!) in the tank and rushed to the kitchen. Amazingly, he recovered nicely, along with the two water snails that share his tank. Pearl says "It's a MIRACLE!!!!" Yes, dear, it's a miracle. Poor fish. He's already been with us for 10 months (which is a record) and if he makes it through this, I'm a believer. She then finished her piano lesson, composing a song about the miracle. Funny kid.

Max seems to be untouched by all the reprimands, though he did keep saying "Mickey, Mickey" and signed sorry to Pearl whenever he was asked to. I don't think his memory is quite long enough to avoid a repeat, I think Mickey will have to find a new (higher) home:)

Five.


Sammy turned 5 this month. Oh, where does the time go? He's sure all sorts of priveleges are his now that he's five... like blow pops, playing on the school playground with the big kids, and he is SO READY for Kindergarten!

Sam loves to be funny... unfortunately, this means a lot of silliness at school and at taekwondo. And, unfortunately, he's still so dang adorable that all the grownups laugh, encouraging him... sigh. Sam can still talk me into things, like last minute trips to the zoo (not the Folsom zoo, Mom, the SACRAMENTO zoo), and he's still such a good big brother to Max, who simply idolizes him. He's a super smart kid, reading everything he can get his hands on. Today, his hands were covered with marker, so I asked him what he was drawing. "Oh, I was just drawing the Crutacious (sp? Sam could probably correct me) Period." Oh. Love, love, love my Sammy boy!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Garden.

I. Love. My. Garden. I know, I'm weird. I should be blogging about all the cute things my kids are doing, and I do have pictures, and plan to do that, but what I really want to share is my beautiful garden.

Since we've had the playground outside right next to the garden, I've been able to spend a few minutes out there every day. Sometimes, it's half an hour, but most of the time it's pull a few weeds, plant a few seeds, harvest a bit, with an occasional 2 hour stint on a Saturday. The thing I love most about it is that it's just so dang cute.

Last night we ate (we being primarily Max and Pearl) our first handful of blueberries! Yum! I have a hard time picturing us EVER growing enough to have some actually make it to the house!
Carrots - they are a most popular vegetable. Every day the kids ask if they can have one... we eat a lot of baby carrots. But that's the point, right? Who cares that I will NEVER be putting carrots in a salad or cooking them... they are just for the kids to eat when they come into the garden.
I love my lettuce. It's so nice that it's not rotting in the fridge, when I'm ready, I just go pick a head and we eat it for dinner. So pretty too!
My strawberry plants are impressive... unfortunately, we haven't eaten a strawberry yet as some animal (maybe a racoon or squirrel) considers it his personal buffet. Sigh. Bird netting is temporary until Jared can figure something out better for me!
Aah, the peas... they're gone now, but we had a glorious several weeks in April eating handfuls of snow peas every time we went into the garden. Lots of salads with just garden lettuce and pea pods, so yummy! But don't try to put regular ranch dressing on, it ruins it. You have to do a homemade vinegarette:)
For the past week or two every time I need an onion, I just run out to the garden and pick one. The time was finally here, and yesterday I pulled one full bed out to cure (they have to be in the sun for 2 weeks to dry out so they'll store better). Saturday, I think that bed will be home to some purple bush beans and beets and MORE CARROTS!
Ok, seriously, if you were a ladybug, wouldn't you want to live here? This bed has garlic with baby lettuce growing up in the middle. My plan is to not buy lettuce any more. We'll see how it goes. I've had months at a time so far, but have to get the trick of planting more seeds even when the current lettuce isn't ready to harvest. I'm learning. The cool thing about the garlic and lettuce is that the lettuce likes the shade from the garlic and the garlic likes to keep it's roots cool, which the lettuce provides. Win Win!
I swear, the tomatoes I started from seed are more beautiful and healthy than the one I bought at Lowes. Totally worth it. This is the first year I've done the red plastic... so far it's been really good because we've had a cold spring and I think it's keeping the tomatoes warm.
I am in love with my cute potatoes. They were part of the winter garden this year, and some plants got frost damage and are suffering from some sort of fungus. About 4 of the yukon gold plants were pretty much gone, so today I thought I'd pull them just to see what we got. I was surprised to get a whole bowlful from 4 dead(ish) plants. Max was having SO MUCH FUN grabbing the potatoes out of the dirt, that we decided to pull 3 red/purple ones too. Amazing! I did potatoes last year, and they were certianly not this big when the plants were still so immature. I guess they really do like winter better, working harder underground than above, which, for potatoes, that's really what you want! Better than growing weeds all winter:)
Ok, my other favorite are the 3 sage plants that overwintered from last year. They were scrawny seedlings when I put them in, and now they're big and beautiful and they smell so good. The other thing I love is that they really attract the good bugs, fat fuzzy bumblebees and lots of ladybugs.

So, if you want to sit and enjoy nature, come on by! We'll let the kids run amuck and sit and drink lemonade and look at the garden:)

Monday, May 23, 2011

Funny kids.

Sam - reading his Spiderman Sticker book... upon seeing Dr. Octopus...
"hey mom, instead of Mister Octopus, it's Dister Octopus!" Pretty good for a 4 year old!

Two days ago Pearl came to my room SOBBING that she just wasn't sure about sharing a room with Sam... (babies are going together once Ruby arrives)... I had to break it to her... living in your own room is pretty much over now. She'll have Sam for a bit, then Ruby until she leaves, then she'll go to college and get a roomate, then she'll get married... life's tough!

Every time Max gets within 2 feet of you with a book, he turns around and backs into your lap... it's slow and painful and pretty funny.

Even though kids are a pain, they make me smile sometimes. I suppose that's worth it!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Cinco de Mayo


Max highly approved of Margaritas and Nachos for dinner. Happy Cinco!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Silly boys.

Max just went from MOMMY! MOMMY! to outright crying, so I went into his crib to check it out. The problem? The silly band that Sam had given him was broken. The solution? A new silly band around his little wrist. When did he get so big? Now he's all tucked in but the silly band arm is out of the blanket so he can stare at it lovingly and show it off if he gets the chance:)

PS I did not know that Sam was giving him silly bands. They are both supposed to be sleeping.

PPS I had to tell Sam to at least read his book more QUIETLY so Max could sleep! Roommates!