The Garden

So this year my sister-in-laws and I decided to do a garden together. We started out planning to do it in Rebecca's backyard because she has the most space for one, but we ended up using some ground that a neighbor from church leases for a small fee. We thought this may work better in case nothing grew and we had just torn up Rebecca's backyard for nothing. So one weekend in early May we went out to start planting. The space that we had to use was much bigger than we planned on, but that was okay we could just use part of it. Also, we had an abundance of different seeds but we soon learned that we had missed the planting time for a few of our seeds. We may try those in the fall, but we shall see how the rest of the summer goes. The first things we put out were watermelon, cantaloupe, yellow squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. We had started tomatoes and peppers inside, but they were not strong enough to transplant yet. Needless to say we did not know what we were doing. We were following a book and even then we were just winging it. The guy whose land we are using(Bud) had said he put down shredded paper in between the plants to help retain moisture and keep weeds from growing as much. Since we didn't have shredded paper we thought maybe sheets would just work. I don't know how much it has done, but it does look funny.

These pictures were after planting the first plants.

The beginning of cantaloupe.

After a couple of weeks we came back and planted the tomatoes and pepper transplants. Bud came out with a huge bag of shredded paper that he put down around the tomatoes. I guess he felt sorry for us with our paper sheets. In the row to the left of the tomatoes we planted carrots, onions, and lettuce. Who knows what we did, but none of that grew. We have since replanted that row with beans and they have come up pretty nicely.

Our first round of watermelon seeds bombed completely. They are the hills on the far left. We replanted with some new seeds and this time they all came up. Two of the cantaloupe hills came up so we let those be. All of the squash, most of the zucchini, and a few cucumbers came up really well. That is the row in the middle.

As we soon realized we had a large amount of land to weed since we spread the garden out so much. We didn't think that through very well. We decided to let the ground we weren't using just go to weed and concentrated on the rows between the plants. That is proving to be quite enough to keep up with.

Cantaloupe getting bigger.

Cucumber and yellow squash

Zucchini

The whole garden coming along pretty well.

Squash blossoms

The new watermelon. It looks like a lot of space, but they are bigger now and already taking up a lot of this and the fruit hasn't even started yet.

The yellow squash and zucchini have been the best so far.

I was so excited to see our first squash.

Kenan likes to help, but mostly he just plays. He is sitting in front of the watermelon and then our tomatoes are in front of him.

This was a fun day. The first zucchini picked.

Holiday World

The first weekend in June we went to Holiday World with Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Angie and Uncle Stephen. It started out a little cool and cloudy in the morning(which was just fine with me) and ended up being a perfect sunny and 80 degree day. Last year Kenan loved Holiday World because he was able to ride a good number of the rides. This year he was just as excited. Easton was a bit upset that he was too little to ride some of the rides that Kenan was able to, but we made it work. Since we had some prego girls with us who couldn't do a lot, Easton had some buddies. The morning consisted of riding rides followed by lunch with the Expressway Dodge group. Angie's dad works there and he was able to get us tickets that included the park and lunch for a great price. After that we spent most of the afternoon in the waterpark. Kenan's favorite part was Monsoon Lagoon. He could have stayed there all day. Angie's parents were nice enough to watch Easton while he took a nap so the rest of us could go on a couple of the big slides. Kenan was tall enough for a couple of them. Finally, we went back in the park and closed it down on a few more rides. We were there from open to close(10 hrs) and we could have done more.

Easton couldn't make it to the end.

Kenan was tall enough for the bumper cars this year.

Easton just had to watch

Easton took a nap for most of the time at the waterpark.

Monsoon Lagoon

New Year's Eve through Kenan's Birthday (end of winter and spring)

So I have decided that I have trouble keeping up with a blog. It is not so much that I don't have time to write in it, but every time I sit down to write I don't have the pictures on the computer or edited that I need to go with the post. Therefore I don't post and then another month goes by before I try again. This has been the longest gap yet, which is why I am covering such a big span of time. Hopefully I can stay caught up a little bit better this summer.

So, back to New Year's Eve. This year we did a family party and went to my brother Jonathan's house for the festivities. Both boys were up at midnight which I know is crazy for most, but Easton did have a nap from 9:30-11:30, he just woke up shortly before midnight because he was not in his own bed. The highlight of the evening was playing rock band with the family.

The 2010 year started off the way the past few winters have with more basketball. Nick's team did better this year than last finishing above 500. This made him a much happier person. The varsity was not as successful, but he still had a fun season. Good thing because it turns out that he is going to North next year so this was his last season coaching at Bosse.

I began another busy season of drama with practices occurring Mon, Thurs, and Friday. This year we did a play called The Curse of the Cobra's Kiss. It was interactive mystery play that I think the kids had a lot of fun with. This was my 7th year as drama coach at St. Wendel. I enjoy it so much, but it has definitely gotten more challenging as the kids have gotten older. I know I have at least one more year in me, but I hope I can do more.

During January and February we had a number of fun snow days with dad, which we love. Kenan had a great time sledding this year. He even went down the big hills by himself.
Easton on the other hand was not a fan of the cold. I tried to get him out for a few pictures, but he wasn't having it.

Both basketball and drama season ended right before spring break. This year we went down to Atlanta for a mini vacation to see Nick's family. The trip included a baseball tournament, Coke museum, Georgia Aquarium, Nashville Zoo, and some outlet shopping. It was a nice break after a busy winter.

April and May have been fairly quiet with just the normal things happening in our lives. Easton has gotten to be such a big boy lately. He wants to do everything his big brother does. I have a feeling he is going to bypass many of the things Kenan played with and did in the hopes of catching up with his big brother. Kenan finished his first year of preschool with flying colors. The only thing that they said he had not mastered and was still working on was "singing, dancing, and verbal responses in group settings," which he obviously gets from his dad. I got the Ns in school for talking to much. I am thinking he will probably never master that because he may always be the shy one in class. I'll take the shy over the obnoxious any day.

This brings us to Kenan's birthday. This year he wanted to do a pirate theme since he had seen Veggie Tales The Pirates who Don't do Anything. It was the first year we invited a couple of friends. The two friends we invited were Jonathan Kelle and Isabelle Ryan. Jonathan was unable to make it, but Kenan was excited that Isabelle was able to come. The rest of our family was at the party as well, which makes for a large gathering. To try and expound on the pirate theme we decided to have a table with costume accessories that people could choose from as they entered. Two years ago I had done a pirate play, so I had a numbered of things to choose from. Nick's job was tattoo artist since we at least made everyone wear a pirate tattoo if nothing else. Most were good sports and got into the festivities. We finished off the party with a few pirates games, presents, and cake. Since some of the presents he got this year included super heroes, he is already planning out his super hero party for next year.