Memorial Day

For Memorial Day this year, we went to our friends' house about two hours south of us. They blessed with over 10 acres of woods and yard. We have been trying to go down to their house once a month, but it was always during the week when Paul couldn't go... until this time. She graciously opened her property to a camp out with us and another large family we know. 

We towed the camper down on Saturday after the kids' baseball games. and set up camp in her backyard near the woods.  The guys slept in the camper and tents and the gals "roughed it" inside the house. 

Everyone had such a fun time!  Chatting, volleyball, eating, riding the zip line, volleyball, walking in the woods, more volleyball... Her place made an awesome getaway, and how much more fun it was to spend our time with our friends! What a blessing to have such good friends. 

3 families... 23 arrows (Psalm 127:4), and not one casualty.  I don't recall one mishap between anyone for the whole time we were there! Hard to believe with that many personalities, but true.  Everyone found their niche and place in the group... and just enjoyed their time with each other. 

Grace is 8!

My sweet, beautiful Grace just turned eight years old. She has been counting down the days until her birthday for at least a month and a half. Over the past year, grace has really grown to love to read. If she finds a good book, she will just sit and read most of the day. Her most recent read was "The Mysterious Benedict Society" which we've already read together as a family last year sometime, but she wanted to read again...

Grace requested pancakes with sprinkles and donuts for her birthday breakfast. Then later, we met daddy for lunch at a park by his work. It was a gorgeous day (one of the benefits of a May birthday).  Then...

Daddy and Grandma Betty met Grace and I at the mall for her special 8-year-old ear piercing... the real reason that she's been counting down the days. 

Before...

After...

One of my baby carriers

I have two very handy baby carriers... Ellie is one of them...

Ellie is going to make an excellent momma someday. 

 Gotta love big brothers...

We love spring!!

The boys (Seth and Noah) have been begging me to let them now the lawn since the first warm days in April. It's not really the mowing that's so thrilling, it's more about driving something around the yard.  I kept turning them down because, well, at these gas prices, who wants to buy more gas than they have to? Even though it was a little too early to start mowing yet, I gave in and let them pull the younger kids around. We need to get a trailer for our mowers, but for now they used our garden wagon and had a blast. 

Seth driving Nathan & Selah

Ellie and Grace

Mini greenhouses!

I tried something a bit different with my tomato plants this year. I was wanting some plastic milk bottles to make miniature green houses so that I could give my tomato plants an early start. Since we get milk from a local farmer friend in glass bottles, I asked my sweet sister-in-laws and mom-in-law to collect their plastic bottles for me earlier this spring. 

A couple of weeks before the last frost date, we planted the seedlings that we grew (ourselves!!) under fluorescents (first time EVER! And they turned out awesome!).  I had my handy boys cut the bottoms of the milk bottles off and placed them over each of the tomato plants. We put our tomato cages around them to keep the chickens from scratching too much and knocking the bottles off. Then we shoved hay around the outside partly for weather protection and partly just to hold them in place. And here they are...

They look pretty comfy, huh? We kept the lids on for a bit until the weather got warmer during the day. I think I put the lids back on for one of the first cool nights, took them off the next day, then I just left them off and didn't do anything with them. 

Grace, my garden helped is dressed for summer. Who knew it was still going to be such a chilly spring still. A couple weeks after planting (a lil before the last frost date), we cut around the top of each milk bottle to give them room to grow. I didn't want to take them completely off for a little more sheltering for the young plants and also because I didn't want my chickens to scratch them up as they have a tendency to do. One week later, here's how they're doing...

They look great. I think I'll be doing it again next year!