No, No, No.....

The sunflowers are starting to bloom. And they are only about 4.5 feet tall. They are not supposed to bloom until they hit 12 feet! I hope the others grow more so the house can have a roof!

Sunflower House Progress

June 18th

June 21st

So far, so good...

Thursday evening, the girls and I went outside for a bit. I wanted to water my flowers and adjust the stakes on the sunflower house. What ended up happening was the girls and I playing a ton of games I haven't played since I was their age. We played Duck, Duck Goose, Tag, Freeze Tag, Stuck in the Mud (another Tag game), Red Light, Green Light, Mother May I and Simon Says. It was great! I almost wished I had more kids so it would be even more fun!

Pomfret Street Cemetery and Cemetery on Rt. 44

Friday, summer vacation Day 2 was very nice, very nice indeed. Husband surprised me by taking the day off of work (for my birthday), getting up with the kids and making breakfast. We had though about going out to Newport, but by the time we got cleaned up and stuff, I decided I would rather grab a few letterboxing clues and see how many we could get. We only ended up having time for two different locations, but that netted us a total of 8 more stamps! Oddly, both location were in cemeteries, so I spent my 27th birthday traipsing around graveyards. But it was alot of fun! And very relaxing, quiet. The first cemetery had gravestones dating back to 1713! It was amazing to be surrounded by objects so old. And the details inscribed on the stones were amazing! Meenie managed to find every woodchuck hole in the cemetery as she walked around. I really thought the girls would have been bored, but they seemed to really enjoy themselves! After lunch, I was able to just sit and relax. My friend brought over a rose bush she brought for my birthday. It was perfect, I had one space in along my fence close to my other rose bushes and I was just saying to Husband that we needed to get something to put in that spot (we had tomatoes there last year - so I'll need a new space for them now). The girls (and Husband) brought me a GC to Old Navy, 5 books (unfortunately, I've already read 2 and am now working on Wicked - so much for summer reading) and an MP3 player (I am so sick of just listening to kids music - it's about time I had some adult lyrics to listen to! Now to figure out what I want to download. Feel free to post suggestions in the comments section.


Saturday was back to work for Husband. We got up and luckily, both girls had the early soccer games (usually they have different times so we are there forever). Even better was they were playing on adjacent fields, so I could stand on the grass between the fields. Even the drizzle didn't bother us. As the rain started to come down a little more heavily, I was enjoying watching them, Moe was carting around an umbrella much to big (I didn't take my camera out as it would have gotten much to wet) and the girls were enjoying playing. Unfortunately, the games came to an abrupt halt with the arrival of thunder. Those storms lasted 1/2 the morning! The rest of the day was just having fun in the house.

Sunday I actually got to take an hour long bath - alone! Moe played quietly in her crib and Einey and Meenie played quietly down stairs. No fighting, no arguing, nothing! We went to church and then stayed for their family fun day. We were there for almost 3 hours (wow!). The girls played games, bounced in the bounce house, dance and ate lots of food. They even tried to win a cake by doing a "cake walk" (musical chairs). They were given a cake anyway even though they didn't win. I was finally able to get them to leave and then we played outside for most of the rest of the day. The girls played their new games together and I worked in the garden. The sunflowers are now up to Moe's forehead and the other girls shoulders. Pretty soon, it will be high enough to make the roof!



Summer Vacation Days 2 -4:
Kids - Happy
Mom - Relaxed, Happy
House - Lived in, mostly clean

Edited to add pictures

How does your garden grow?

This week in the garden....




And as of June 1, this is the progress on the sunflower house. They are standing between 1 and 2 feet tall.

Planted

I have been spending alot of time in my gardens lately. So much, that I think my hands are going to be dirt colored forever. The girls and I are sporting pretty good tans despite the amount of sunblock applied. A few dozen freeze pops have been consumed. Clementis and Diantus. Sunflowers and Gladioli. Dahlia's and a butterfly mix. Moonflowers and Morning Glories, just to name a few. And of course, I finally got both my Lilac Bush and my Bleeding Heart Bush (actually, my MIL brought me one for mothers day and I brought a pack of 3 bulbs). SO those are in the ground as well.

Today I finally put the sunflowers we started months ago into the ground to form our Sunflower House. I have them staked into the ground, so hopefully they'll survive, I'm not the best at starting things indoors. Just to be on the safe side, I threw some extra seeds down. I have one more wall to plant, but I need to move some wood out of the way first.

And I think (I can't be sure because I didn't see) Meenie planted some Mammoth Sunflowers directly under the swing set. I hope not for our sake. I have thought of planting some morning glories next to the legs on the swing set, but I don't know how much it will climb.

Photo Hunt Saturday - Hobby

This week's theme is hobby. And while I have three specific things I like to do, I find myself lacking the time to actual engage in my hobbies.

The first is scrapbooking. I have been doing this for a few years now and really enjoy it. I have books started but not quite done of the older two girls. I find when I am in the mood to work on them, I don't have the right pictures. Since we went digital, I have lacked printing the pictures. They just sit on a disk.


The second hobby is something I can only do part of the year. It's gardening. I really only started seriously working in the gardens last year. Before that, I would try but never think ahead. I would just go out and buy flats of annuals and plant them. They'd look nice for the season and then the following year, I would start over. Last year we planted veggies. They didn't take well, but we at least got our money's worth. The girls loved picking veggies from the yard (and raspberries) and eating them. This year, we are planning another veggie garden, but are going to give it proper care prior to planting. I have also invested in some perennials to keep coming back year after year. I can't wait to see our garden grow! The seedlings you see are the start of our sunflower house!


My last hobby is sewing. This is new to me and while I enjoy it, I don't have much time to do it. I have been working on summer dresses for the girls. This is the fabric I plan on using.


When we brought our house, we brought it because it has a small room off the master bedroom. This is our hobby room, although Husband's D&D stuff takes up most of the room. The following are pictures of our hobby room.

And lastly, here are some pictures of Husband's hobby. He enjoys painting miniatures.