Nine

It's official. My middle man is now 9.
As usual, we talked about the day he was born, and shared his birth story. It's an especially cool one, as he was born at home (unplanned), on a staircase. He LOVES hearing his birth story! He had 2 friends over on Tuesday for a slumber party, and tomorrow gets to go to another birthday party (for one of the friends that stayed over). Life is good when you are nine.

(I'm scheduling this one to post about the time he was born. We're not sure of the exact time, but this is close enough, and what we decided to put down 'officially')

Floral Friday

There are more new flowers blooming, some of which surprised me!

First, though, we finally have a monarch caterpillar! Unfortunately, the day after I took this photo, it was gone. Hopefully off to find different milkweed and not eaten.

My lavender is blooming. I just planted these in spring (5 plants), and honestly, I wasn't expecting blooms this season. Don't know if I'll get enough to dry, but it sure smells good now. The boys brush the plants every time they walk by because they smell so good.

I think this is some sort of hibiscus (? really I have no clue). It's winter hardy; I bought it last year from the little variety store down the street. It is loaded with buds, these two bloomed first, and each bloom is about 8" across (seriously, these things are big).

The coreopsis has been blooming for a while, I just forgot to take a photo of it.

Those darn asters still haven't bloomed.

10 and lots of 5s

My SIL Julie tagged me with this little meme that's been going around:

10 years ago (August 1998): I had only one child, and he was 2. I also had my 10 year highschool reunion, which was pretty fun! (my 20 year is this November).

5 years ago (August 2003): My dad had died unexpectedly 2 months prior, so I was busy petitioning the court to be appointed executor of the estate, meeting with the lawyer, and cleaning up his house.

5 months ago (March 2008): We took a vacation to visit my MIL in Arizona, and had a wonderful time. There was a big snowstorm the day before we left, so the boys got to build forts and play, then the next day they got to go swimming in the sun!

5 things on my To Do List for tomorrow:

- Calvin has gymnastics camp, need to pack a lunch
- laundry (every day. I use MyChores to schedule my housework duties)
- weed/water the plants
- bake some stuff
- walk the dog

5 bad habits:

- wasting time on the computer
- being lazy
- not putting stuff away when I'm done
- procrastinating
- pack rat tendency

5 places I've lived (in no particular order):

- Scottsdale, AZ
- Des Moines, IA
- Long Beach, CA
- Chicago, IL
- Shorewood, WI

5 things people don't know about me (well, if you just met me):

- I don't like chocolate
- my second child was accidentally born at home, on the stairway
- I am allergic to raw apples
- I don't like driving
- I love popsicles

A Birthday Surprise

Connor's birthday surprise was A Day Out With Thomas! My brother told me about it in March or April, and when I realized that one of the days was Connor's 4th birthday, well, you know I had to get tickets. All Connor knew was that we were doing something very special on his birthday.

Needless to say, when we arrived and he saw what his surprise was, he was THRILLED.

My brother and his family met us there, and Connor was so excited and wouldn't stop talking about all the different trains.

There was a LEGO Thomas to play on.

Thomas himself gave rides to everyone with a ticket.

You bet we had ours!

There were also other trains and engines to look at; we got to play in some sleeper cars, and see trains from long ago.

We even got to play on train tracks!

Tomorrow we'll have a little bit of cake, and on Monday, 3 friends are coming over for Connor's first "kid" birthday party. Wow, turning 4 is pretty cool!

Four!

Four years ago a very special someone was born. FOUR YEARS OLD?!?!

We have a very special day planned, and it's quite the surprise. I can't wait to see his reaction.

(also, how cool is it that I can plan this post to publish at the time he was born?)

Ren Faire

We went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire on Sunday. Calvin dressed up in one of the jester outfits, and we all had a lovely time.

State Fair

Today we went to the WI State Fair, to see my winning entries and eat. A lot.

A rare photo of me and all three of my boys. Connor is going through a phase of not wanting his picture taken. It was a hot, humid day.

My photo of Calvin whittling got 2nd place AND a Staff Favorite ribbon! FINALLY, after 10 years of entering, I've won a fancy ribbon! (My trillium photo didn't get anything, and I should've entered it in the general flower category. It wasn't close-up enough, compared to the winners)

Caleb's jester costume placed 3rd. I also placed 4th for my sweater, and 4th for a skirt.

We watched all the different salespeople demo their wares and ended up with this fancy peeler (from Switzerland, people!) and all the freebies that came with it. Last year we bought a Quick Chopper 2000, and we just love it.

We explored the DNR building, and Connor had a good time looking at the reptiles. I talked with some of the master gardeners, and found yet more plants I'd like to put in my gardens.

Caleb and Calvin went down the big slide. Connor was scared to go.

Cheryl, we had a cream puff! They are still delicious!

It was a long day, and one little boy fell asleep on the way home.

Floral Friday

Now that August is upon us, there isn't much new blooming in the yard. About the only plant that hasn't bloomed yet is the aster.

This is the other milkweed plant I have -- a friend called it a swamp milkweed. It's way taller than me, so I had to hold this bloom down to take a photo. I like how feathery it looks.

The limelight hydrangea we planted amongst the new landscaping started blooming! The flowers start out light green, and gradually turn whiter and whiter.

We are off to the State Fair this morning, so I will find out how my photos did and post a report later. I already know how my sewing and knitting entries did, but I'm making you wait so that I can report it all at once with pictures.

Floral Friday

Here is what is blooming in the yard this week, plus my potted plants that I over-wintered have started up too!

Echinacea. I planted this in front of the firewood pile, so it kinda hides it in the summer, but since they die down to the ground in winter, the wood is quite accessible then.

The scarlett meidiland roses started blooming. So tiny and pretty! Each bloom is about 1" big.

This is Calvin's Irish moss. He is quite the gardener.

More bee balm.

The hibiscus is in full bloom! My mom's neighbors threw this out last summer, and she salvaged it. I over-wintered it, and thought I killed it when it dropped almost all its leaves. It survived!

Here's the plumbago. I over-wintered this one too. Next year I will prune it in late winter. I didn't do anything to it this year, and it's kinda all misshapen.

New Knucks

Try saying that 5 times fast. Calvin lost his blue knucks that I made for him this spring, so I've started another pair. He was asked to join a boys gymnastics team, and practices are 3 days a week, 3 hours each time. It's not worth it to drive back home during practice (it's a 30 minute drive), so I either run some errands (grocery store, target, etc) or I sit and knit. One can get a lot done with 3 hours of uninterrupted knitting time! Yesterday I made this:
(pictured on one of my pretty Japanese painted ferns)

I bet I can get the other one done at tomorrow's practice.

Floral Friday

All the mulch is spread, and now it's just a matter of keeping everything watered. Here's what is blooming in the yard this week:

Scarlett bee balm.

I think this is some sort of sunflower. I need to move it a bit, so it's not overshadowed by my neighbor's tree.

One of the hydrangea bushes started blooming. The flowers start out like this....

....and over the course of a few days, turn to this.

The hollyhock is in full bloom too. Hopefully this will reseed pretty well, I love them!

Notre Dame De Grace

I finished my sweater in time for the Fair!

I must say, I love it. It's frakkin' hot today, too hot to put on for even a photo, so Ms. Belinda is modeling for you all. It's soft, warm, and cozy; I'm going to be living in it this winter.

My Ravelry project page is here. For you non-Rav members:
Notre Dame De Grace, from the Summer 2007 IK
Size 40
The Wool Boutique Merino Solids (by Elle), in olive (2282)
Size 9 needles
shortened sleeves 2.5" (and could've taken another inch off), lengthened body 1.25".

Judging for knitting and sewing is on Friday, hopefully I can make it and see how it fares, along with my other entries.

Floral Friday

Oh my goodness, my garden is sucking the life energy out of me. Ok, it's not that bad, but boy there is still a lot of work to do after getting all these plants in. I've been weeding, raking and smoothing out mounds of dirt, and tomorrow 10 yards of mulch are getting dumped on my driveway. Yeah, we'll be busy.

Anyway, here's what's blooming now:
Every year when we go strawberry picking, Calvin also picks out some plants to put in the yard. Last year he chose these balloon flowers, and 2 of them came back great (the third 1 looks awful).

I got this from a friend thinning out her garden, and she called this a butterfly weed. It's not very big, maybe 8" tall at most.

This milkweed plant is blooming, but we have no caterpillars on any of the plants this year. :(

More stella d'oro lilies. I like how they look against the diablo ninebark in the background.

I think I'm going to be scarce over the summer. State Fair entries are due on Wednesday (I'm not going to get everything done), judging is on Friday, and Calvin was asked to join a boys' gymnastics team. They put him in level 5, so now we have 9 hours of gymnastics a week (plus 1.5 hours of travel time each time!). He loves it, and I'll get lots of knitting done.

Fair Along '08

I've joined the Fair Along '08 blog, where we are all posting about entering our county and state fairs. Come on over and read the many intros from all over the country; it's fun to see everyone's stuff and read about why they started entering. (my intro is here, and you'll see I have a bit of work to do by July 16)

Floral Friday

We are back from our camping trip. The weather was gorgeous, the beach was fun, the mosquitoes were awful. The boys look like they have chicken pox!

Not much new blooming in the garden this week:
The spiderworts started blooming in the front. These get more shade, so don't get as gigantic as my purple ones in the back. I like the light blue color.

This is some foxglove that I got from a friend 2 years ago (oops, it's not. Suzee says it's Penstemon). The bees love it, and yesterday, Calvin counted and said there were 57 of them working on the flowers.

The stella d'oro lilies have started blooming also. I always think they look so nice and cheery.

Landscaping

I used the panoramic setting on the camera, it kinda distorts things, but you can see more. (click on the photos to make them bigger)

Here are the results of our hard work this past week. Over the course of 4 days we planted 4 dogwoods, 4 vibernum, 8 arborvitae, 1 limelight hydrangea, 3 weigela, 1 service berry, 1 river birch, 3 grey owl junipers, 6 diablo ninebark, 3 blue spruce, and 3 staghorn sumac. I also moved 3 roses, dug up and divided various iris and daffodils, moved 2 oriental poppies, and cut the grass. It looks great!



We also moved this big rock. I'm guessing it weighs 250-300 pounds. At first I guessed 200#, but David says it's definitely more. To move this, David built a sledge out of some plywood and 2x4. We used a crowbar as a lever, tied a rope around the rock, had a boy on each side pulling, while David pulled in the middle, and I pushed. We put a broomstick handle underneath the sledge to make it roll, and got it from the back corner of the lot (by the telephone pole) all the way over to the side. If the Egyptians could build the pyramids, and the Incans could do Machu Pichu without horses, we were going to move this rock! Ancient History comes in handy sometimes! If only I got a photo, it was pretty cool.

Now we need to weed a bit more, clean up our dirt mounds and order mulch. But first, I'm going camping to relax. Yeah, really.