A bountiful harvest

I wasn't sure what to expect, but our garden is doing better than I ever imagined. I've picked three huge buckets of green beans, probably about 20 zucchini and squash, two green peppers, and a few green tomatoes. Kevin makes the best fried green tomatoes ever. I'm trying to keep myself from picking too many green ones so we'll have a few red ones this summer. My pepper plants have more than ten peppers currently growing on them so they're thriving as well. I suppose they just take a bit longer, like the tomatoes.

Warner has enjoyed gardening with me, as much as his two year old attention span will allow. His favorite part is watering, whether it's using the garden hose or a bucket with a cup. Generally he gets more water on him in the process than the garden does. He's picked a few green beans but mostly his "help" comes after the picking is finished. He's gotten quite good at breaking beans, after I snap off the ends for him.
He takes pride in his work.His favorite has to be the zucchini, because it often involves a machine with buttons he gets to push. We've made three loaves of zucchini bread and Warner is officially a pro with the food processor. My favorite part is when we're sitting down to a meal and Warner will spear his vegetables with his fork, look at me, and say: "our garden!".

I haven't done the garden alone - Kevin has helped a ton. This is huge for the man who despises gardening. Thanks dear for agreeing to the garden and smiling along the way.

Twinkle twinkle little star ...

He's a future American Idol. I'm sure of it.

Okay, and now the explanation for the end of the video: I had to bribe him with candy to sing for the camera. Terrible. I know.

Good Morning

Maren is finally sleeping. Oh how I've missed the bliss of sweet, uninterrupted sleep. Well, usually it's uninterrupted. The exception now being when Warner sneaks into bed with us in the middle of the night. I guess beggars can't be choosers.

Anyway, my new favorite Maren-ism is her wake-up routine. She normally starts talking to herself once she's woken up. It starts out quiet but soon turns into loud repetitions of "da-daaa-da-da". If no one comes to get her, she then starts throwing her pacifiers out of the crib. One always ends up between the wall and her crib, making it extra difficult for me to retrieve. The second one invariably ends up on the floor in the middle of her room. I'll listen for the plunk of the pacifiers hitting the ground and then I know she means business. The crying begins until someone comes for her.Warner generally wakes up before Maren, so he will run to get her when he hears her. She gets so excited to see him.We also have two monkeys at our house now instead of just one. Maren has mastered the art of climbing. Step stools are her favorite, but she can also make it to the top of the coffee table. She took four unassisted steps yesterday, so I'm afraid the walking will begin soon. (deep breath) Here we go.

Festival

We went to the Immaculate Heart of Mary summer festival this weekend, at Warner's request, after he saw the rides from the road as we drove by Thursday afternoon. To say it was a hit is an understatement. In fact, after listening to Warner beg to go back all weekend, we returned Sunday afternoon for three more rides. Kevin and I are definitely suckers.
Warner handing over his tickets to get on a ride. He quickly learned how the ticket/ride thing worked and would ask for "more tickets" after he got off a ride.Getting ready to ride the four-wheeler ride.The first time he rode the elephants he wasn't so sure about them. He was high in the air the entire time and his face alternated between looks of extreme concentration and semi-panic. After it was through he decided it was pretty cool and rode them again. He talked most about this ride after we got home, referring to them as "the elephants that go up and down" (while raising and lowering his hands to demonstrate how they work).Maren watched all of the ride excitement from the comfort of her stroller, eating scads of Cheerios and goldfish crackers to keep her happy.Dinner Friday night was a hot dog and a watermelon flavored snow cone. Toddler bliss.Warner shared his snow cone with Maren.
She would make this terrible face after each bite, but kept coming back for more so I suppose it wasn't too bad.

It's been a long while since I've been to a Catholic church festival, but I must say, us Protestants should consider hosting these things. Considering the amount of money our family paid for 30-second rides and overpriced food, I'm thinking these are big fundraisers. I wonder if the money we spent there counts as tithing?

More Lake Fun

We stayed at the lake until Monday and did all of our traditional July 4th things with a few new activities thrown in. The "traditional" things include boating, double barefoot water skiing with yours truly and my dad, eating (a lot), group sing-alongs with my dad playing the guitar (corny but so much fun), card games, etc.

The "new" activity that I was most excited about was the Woodson Bend golf cart parade. Here is the golf cart we decorated:
Most everyone at Woodson Bend owns a golf cart and uses it to get around the property. It's so cute and I just love it. At night a favorite past time is to drive along the cart paths on the golf course for an evening cruise. The golf cart parade is held each July 4th and the categories for decorations are most creative, most unique, and most patriotic. This being the first year we participated, we decided to keep it simple and do the patriotic thing. We didn't win but now we know what the competition is like (there were 50 carts this year) so we'll be prepared for next year.The other new activity was renting a pontoon boat for a day. There were 19 of us in total over the weekend and only one boat - my parents' Malibu - which is an awesome ski boat, but not exactly big enough for the whole crew. So we rented a double-decker pontoon one day that held coolers, food, and kids, while others skiied. The best part was the water slide off the top deck to the water.Warner must have slid down into the lake 50 times.He never did it by himself - an adult would have to go with him - but I was still impressed with his bravery. The drop from the end of the slide to the water was a few feet and it was a steep slide, so I think it was a very "big boy" thing to do.

It's nice to be home after 10 days away but I'm already missing the lake. Thankfully we still have a lot of summer ahead of us.