4

My day started at 7:10 am and didn't end till 10 pm. But it was worth every frantic moment because...

...it's not everyday your favorite boy turns 4! I wish I could have taken a photo of his expression when he saw the cake, but when you are the only other person home and you are holding the cake, you just have to burn it in your retina. It was pure joy at seeing exactly what he asked for made. Chocolate cake, chocolate icing with car decorations. (Hands down the best cake I've ever made, 100% homemade.)

We started the day by opening presents from Phil and I.

And eating chocolate cake for breakfast. Breakfast of champions right there!

After breakfast we got ready and made it to gymnastics on time. As soon as that was over, we zoomed to the new hospital, over an hour away, and saw the grandparents. His birthday lunch came from the hospital cafeteria, not what I had in mind, but a small price to pay for his Poppa getting fixed up.

After we left the hospital, we rushed home, grabbed cupcakes, and hurried to the park to meet his favorite little friends.

They had a great time!

Playing on the train, slides, and chasing each other around till red in the face.

His friends got him some awesome gifts. These bubbles smell like fruit, yum!

But I think the best present of all was late in the afternoon, the hospital released Poppa and we were able to eat supper as a family at home! It should be a memorable 4th birthday.

Bacteria

Parents aren't supposed to get sick are they? Especially not sick enough to go to the hospital. For the first time since my Dad was a boy, he has landed in the hospital. We are all hoping it won't take 30 days for him to get out this time. The word is getting around here that he was in the hospital, so I'm going to go ahead and share. He was admitted Thursday afternoon. By Saturday afternoon our hospital felt he needed more care and he was sent to a bigger hospital, which caused us to start to panic. He has 3 different kinds of bacteria in his blood. The doctor thinks it came from an internal organ that is inflamed, like the gallbladder, kidneys ect, but won't know till they do an ultrasound tomorrow. On top of it, his heartbeat is irregular and just sitting on the side of the bed was making his heart beat double what it should. The doctor feels confident that they have caught it all in time and that the heart issue isn't as serious as it first seemed. We've all lost some sleep this week and have gotten behind on what we planned to do, but we are all ok. My Mom is out of town with my Dad, and Matthew and I are taking care of the house and pets. I just wanted to share why we haven't been around much this week. And perhaps next week as well.

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 6

After 3 days of long hours of work (and a little help from others) I managed to rescue the garden. Only about 8 onions got pulled up by mistake.

The beans are growing, along with everything else! The peppers have mini peppers. The lettuce is looking good. So is the basil and sage.

While weeding I found 7 volunteer pear tomato plants!

It's been hot and dry, so we've been watering alot. Mom bought us a big watering can, so now Matthew doesn't have to haul water in strange containers!

I planted rat tail radishes and they are getting huge! The one on the right is as tall as Matthew's tallest sunflower.

Some are crawling up the fence.

They have beautiful delicate purple blooms.

Last weekend I gave up on squash ever growing and ordered more seed (5 varieties) as well as more green beans and my favorite marigold. Yeah, they were faking me out. The very next day the first one popped up. I have 5 pattypan's up, 1 zucchini, and 1 Baby Boo or Jack Be Little. I guess I'll have plenty of seed for next year!

Matthew took time out to haul rocks in his big truck and beautify the front shade garden.

We've found lots of caterpillars (that we did away with), various little beetles, butterflies, and this beauty in the garden. Although things have been munched, we don't seem to have significant damage.

Well, insect damage that is. While Mom was trying to weed the sunflowers, it started to thunder. That's enough to panic Simba, their outside dog. He trampled one of Matthew's sunflowers. That led us to planted more to fill the holes in the line.

Then today we discovered this one has fallen over and that it has a very odd place on the stem. What is it? Anyone know?

This one also has a strange stem. Over all, most of them are doing ok. They grew 6 1/2" this week to top out at 19 1/2".

And finally, Matthew's strawberry plant is doing 10 times better then the ones we bought. I can't wait for these strawberries to ripen! I hope he shares.

Oh and Faith, Matthew wasn't scared by your carrot warning, he laughed!

To see how The Inadvertent Farmer deals with things like slugs, go here. :)

Beating the heat

Boy is it hot. The summer heat has started, but we are finding ways to have fun anyway.

Everyday we've been watering, it's just that hot and dry.

We found a luna moth and had a wonderful time watching it.

Matthew turned off the soggy doggy so the moth would quit getting wet.

The iris are done for the season and the lilies are starting.

The purple clover and the strawberries are intermingling.

What have the rest of you been up to this week?

Salty water

We went to Corpus Christi, to play at the beach, one day of our vacation. Entering town, there was American flags flying from equipment all over.

Some kids are scared of the ocean, but not this boy. He ran right in.


It was extremely windy, bringing big waves, so he needed a little help to stay upright.


While we were driving around we saw the USS Lexington, but we didn't visit it. We had a great time. The biggest thing Matthew had to say about it was that there was salty water that hurt his eyes! But he's ready to go back!

Without further adu...

...RODEO!

It's getting hard to take a photo without the tongue hanging out!

Typical walking in shot.


Just like the big cowboys.

Old glory in the distance.


The crowd was visited by the "Miss Rodeo Universe" and boy was "she" something.


They informed her, she couldn't drive a car, she had to ride a horse.

Oh boy.

Anyone that has photos of Phil when he was young, will instantly recognize this expression. I believe there isn't a shadow of a doubt that he is Phil's son!

Matthew's 5th rodeo (if you count the time he was a week away from being born) was a rip roaring success!

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 5

While one of us was seeing the ocean for the first time (that would be Matthew) and enjoying a week with Daddy... (For those of you that are new, I am married to a man in the Army. He is in a "deployment" position, which means we aren't able to live with him, but we are able to visit!)

...our garden was growing. Lots and lots of grass that is. I have alot of tedious weeding to do. Tedious because I've already pulled up 2 cinnamon basil seedling while trying to free them from the weeds.

After our 12 hour drive back from TX yesterday, I'm still a little tired, so I only got the peppers and the basils freed so far.

Matthew measured his sunflowers and found that they have really grown. They are 13" this week.


Matthew has a thick carpet of carrots! He is very proud of that as well. But after 2 mins of weeding, he was done. Oh well!

A side note about our strawberries. Our strawberry pampering is going well, as I found a sprout today. They made their trip to and fro well. Matthew's strawberries, although they say that they are same kind as the ones Mom and I bought, they have white flowers and are growing faster. Same kind, I think not! The ones in the flower beds have some small strawberries growing.

To hear Kim's exciting news about the author of Sunflower Houses, Sharon Lovejoy, go here.