Tulip Festival

We finally made it over to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival this year! I will definitely not wait until this late in the season again. The tulips were pretty, but many had reached the end of their bloom. The kids still had a great time and we stayed until they shut the place down! :)

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking:

The kids loved the pink tractor this year!

One of my new fave pics!

The kids thought it was funny that they switched! Braids look good on Gage!

Good bye tulips! See you again next year!

Our Summer Garden

We planted our garden last Saturday. If only it were that easy. . .

 We started by taking the tops to our raised beds off. The guy who lived at our house before us built them and they aren't very useful for the things that we plant, and they just get in the way of weeding, so Shaun and Gage removed them.

 

 Then we rototilled, added some nice soil, and rototilled again.

 And then we had a rototilling accident.
Apparently the tops of the beds were holding together all of the sides that had dry-rot. We didn't know that. So when Shaun bumped the side of the box with the rototiller, the side just broke off. He ended up breaking two sides on the first box and one side on the second box. UGH!!! That tripled our work for the day and I texted my sister "It's a SUPER drink day!" (When it is a "drink day" it means we're having a rough time!)

 So on our way to the lumber yard we googled how to build a raised garden bed, looked at a few pictures, bought some supplies and spent our afternoon building this beauty! We are going to rebuild all of the other ones in our yard on a Saturday that we are actually planning it and have time.

 After we finished the box (and fixed the 2nd one) we planted our garden. This year each the two big kids have their own section. They got to choose what they wanted to plant there and they are in charge of watering and weeding it all summer. We'll see how it goes.

Picture #1 - My plants - sugar snap peas, romaine lettuce, cucumber, broccoli, carrots, green beans, watermelons, and pumpkins.

Picture #2 - Maisey's plants - lithodora and aubrieta flowers, sunflowers, and her bean plant from school (with our thorn-less blackberry bush in the background)

Picture #3 - Gage's plants - lily, and two packages of forget me not flowers

And this is what you get when you leave a 5 and 4 year old in charge of your baby! Wet feet, popsicles, and a sleeping baby in a swing!

And then we went swimming and celebrated Cinco de Mayo a day early by picking up some T-Bell!

So even though our day of gardening didn't go exactly as planned, I'm super pleased with how it turned out and am excited to update the rest of our raised beds.

Bike to School Day

Today was bike to school day. We practiced riding to school on Sunday afternoon to see how long it would take us and to see if we'd actually make it. I'm so glad we practiced because as soon as we turned the corner from our cul-de-sec Maisey crashed on her bike, flipped over the handle bars and got all scraped up. (Have i mentioned she's not very good at steering with out her training wheels?) She decided to walk to school instead. So we figured out how long that would take us and went from there. But then yesterday she decided she wanted to ride to school with training wheels. So Shaun put them back on last night and we had a fabulous, worry-free ride to school this morning! She's such a fun kid!

Spring

The other day I mentioned how incredibly awesome our spring has been. I wasn't exaggerating! Unfortunatley the rain is coming in 5 days, so we are going to enjoy these last few days outside.

Here are some pictures from the last week or so:

Enjoying lots of popsicles!

Bike rides to the park

FHE about the first vision

Funny coming from a 4 year old!

Look at that beautiful blue sky!

We love spring jammies!

Miley found a new ride around the neighborhood!

Her first ice cream cone!

Trying the new vacuum out

And last but not least: Some school work! I thought what she wrote was funny.

Here's to the last five nice days for a while!

Gage's Thomas Party

It has now been over a week since Gage's party, but I'm finally getting to posting about it. It was so fun and turned out to be pretty simple! 

A few pre-party pictures:

Sign painted for the garage

Railroad crossing sign on the front door and sidewalk chalk tracks drawn on the path to the front door.

The train cake!!

The table, food train, and diesel fuel!

At the Party:

We spent the first part of the party playing trains, doing train puzzles, reading train books, and watching a Thomas movie.

I read all of the kids a fun train book called "I'm Fast"

Then we headed outside for some fun games:

Red Light, Green Light

Engine, Engine, Caboose (Duck, Duck, Goose)

The Conductor Says (Simon Says)

We then headed back inside for food and gifts. Then we played a Thomas bingo game until their parents came to pick them up.

Blowing out the candles

Ready for some food!

He was very excited about his new toys!

 We sent the guests home with some fun train loot!

I loved seeing how happy he was the whole afternoon! 

That should be what a party is all about!

Friday's Thoughts

* I'm kind of embarrassed to admit the number of times I have asked my 5 year-old for fashion advice this week. But I'm proud that she has been pretty spot on on her advice.

* I am thanking Mother Nature for the incredible spring we have had so far. Seriously, it has been wonderful!

* Shaun and I are going out tonight. We bet on the NCAA basketball tournament, and I won!!!!!! He had to plan out what he thought would be my ideal date. We are going to dinner and shopping. Vacuum and swim suit shopping!!! He's a brave guy!

* We are almost completely done getting our yard ready for the year. We are finishing by rototilling and planting the garden tomorrow.

Happy Friday!!!!