Catch up!

Hola Senors and Senoritas! This intermittent blogging is now the norm. I have become that person. Se la vie! Am I spelling any of this right?? Well for now, we'll have longer more infrequent posts with a hope that one day I may do more. Since joining the smart phone revolution at Christmas, I am much better at Instagramming--It's quicker and less messy. Ha ha--so find me there if you so desire. Are we smarter by having the smartest of phones? Probably not, seeing that I allowed Peanut to feed Cashew a few bites of his dinner and took a picture with my smart phone before I stopped him. 

Well here's what's you've missed...Aunt Katie came for a visit. We went to the giant wooden slide, ate some good food, went to the bounce house and generally had an excellent time as usual. Ok and this wooden slide is actually a park that a religious group put together. The Mennonites maybe? So there we were. The Mormons next to the Mennonite picnic. There was also this sweet giant merry-go-round there too. It gave us opportunity for some excellent photos.

No not me. But it is one of my favorite pictures of my
good friend Ashley. 

Peanut has become our little resident artist. He is quite focused with a marker, pen, crayon, chalk and especially a paint brush in hand. And he's quite good for a two year old. Maybe I think that just because I'm his Mom. :) It makes me happy to watch. We also tried potty training with this little man. He was asking about the toilet and telling me he was poopy so I thought why not? We gave it two days and didn't have a single in toilet success so we've put it away for now and will try again later. "E" for effort! And speaking of that moniker, Peanut looked up one day and said to Rob, "A for effort daddy". It seems we have a little parrot in the house and a funny one at that. He has also picked up the phrase, "You're killing me". He is so funny. Oh and this is how he shows us things. He holds them up right over the front of his face.

Cashew is 7 months old. This child is a darling. He smiles. A LOT. He is now mobile. He doesn't crawl  in the true sense of the word but can pull drag and roll himself from one side of any room to another. We often find him wedged under the coffee table happy as a clam chewing on a toy. And chewing for a purpose may I add. He is working out tooth #3 and 4. The top ones. He is voraciously eating solid foods now. He has an aversion to most things vegetable and is a vacuum for all things fruit. I am a wee bit perturbed on this front in that, I made him a delicious chicken and vegetable puree that he would not touch, gagging and dry heaving for effect might I add, for a week straight. Then I open a package of store bought chicken and veggies and of course, he downs it. What a stinker.  Everyone else in the house thinks I'm at least a good cook.

This is when Henry said something sounding like "dada"

And speaking of everyone else in the house, we have a full house yet again. Our dear friends, and their two children have moved into our basement since selling their house and will be here till they make the big move early June. Poor them, to be crammed down there and sharing our bathrooms but, we are enjoying every minute. All the kids have a play mate all the time. Us adults do too for that matter. The Dad's don't have to do dishes by themselves at night and the Mom's have been crafting away, and utilizing all the extra hands and eyes for cleaning cooking and child watching. We made a Thanksgiving feast one Sunday just because it sounded delicious and I happened to have a turkey in the freezer. And it was delicious. And adult conversation through the whole day is really great too. Like so great. A full house is a fun house here! We will be so sad to see them go.

So here is one craft we have been going at like mad women. Quiet Books! These are like quiet books on steroids. This is my world map page. Each continent snaps off.  I love every minute of doing it and hope my sewing is sound so that it is not ripped apart. I'll show you the finished project when these pages are, well, done.

And this is what Rob has been working on. Out deck! He's ambitious and staying safe. Don't worry. We will not be falling off of this deck when it's done. No no. We will be having lots and lots of BBQ's and play time out there. I can't wait, especially with the hot weather coming. This basically is our back yard, with the other 3 feet of our personal property going to our garden. 

We have enlarged the square foot garden this year. I think I might be preparing for old age already. I love gardening. I have no idea why. We are have strawberries, green onions, two tomato plants, jalepenos, sweet peppers, cutting flowers, climbing peas, pole beans, radishes carrots, cucumbers and lettuce. I'll keep you posted on the progress and results. Maybe I'll even try canning this year. We have rabbits and stink bugs around these here parts so we'll see if any of my reading pays off on organic pest control.

May I just say I love all the different seasons. The change of seasons floods me with a sea of new memories each time and it fills me with the feeling that something new and wonderful is going to happen to add to that flood for next time. I just love spring with all it's colors and new growth and the sunshine. Oh the sunshine! Running through grass in my bare feet. Wearing flip flops. Flying kites. Mmmm. I just soak it in! We went and visited the cherry blossom festival in DC this year. We live in a really beautiful area.

I think that's enough for now...Next post, NYC trip. Hopefully it will be in the week. Wish me luck!