Oh how I missed you, Internet

I’ve been out of town for about a week now … on a vacation on a beach in North Carolina. So I apologize about the gap in blogs and the lack of warning, but something tells me I shouldn’t announce to the world when I’m about to leave my house empty and where I’m going. Not that we don’t have very CLOSE, STRONG NEIGHBORS watching our house. And you know some of them even have bebe guns.

Anyway, I’m very happy to be home although it was a lovely, relaxing time. And we did have to take off a day early due to a little storm called Hannah coming for us, but, man I’m glad to be home. And I’m so behind on blog reading. I’m trying to catch up but it seems like I’ve missed so much! One blogger I read had a baby, my sister’s become a runner, the prego bloggers are buying cribs, even a new car … Ah, it’s so good to be back to Internet land. As we got close to home my husband said ” I just can’t wait to see my three monitors and get on the Internet.” I pretty much felt the same way. Even if I just have one small monitor.

Anyway, there’s loads of stuff to put away, and I’m tired. You know I’ll tell you more later though. And of course there are a ton of photos.

Putting my garden to shame

Fortunately my best friend is now in Michigan so I can actually see her more frequently, which is awesome, especially for special occasions like her son’s 2nd birthday party!

So one poopy diaper, a lot of loud jabbering and over 2 hours later we arrived at our destination. Ella loudly jabbered on and on in the backseat until we were about 2 miles from our destination, then finally fell asleep. Shoot. We let her sleep for about 20 minutes with the car doors open as we sat and watched nearby. But then she was ready to go.

The party had a “farm” theme, which was ideal, since they live on a farm. There were chickens (Ella’s favorites), a very, very large garden and a big pond, and lots of land to run around on. Oh yeah, and a neighbor brought over a pony!

In new places it’s always a little nervewracking though to make sure your kid is safe. Two bodies of water, a high deck, stairs with no gate! Ah! Luckily my good husband took over plenty, giving me time to visit with friends.

I think my favorite thing was just walking through Chey’s garden with her. Row after row of cilantro, basil, peppers, squash, brocolli, green beans, potatoes, and … you get the picture. She has grown everything I can nearly think of. She even opened a little vegetable stand to sell her goods at. And no surprise, it’s as cute as can be. With it’s sweet hand painted signs and flowery tablecloth.

I love the whole idea of a garden. I love vegetables. I love the outdoors. I love eating nonprocessed foods. But for some reason I have the hardest time getting myself out there, starting a garden. This year my friendly neighbor (they’re not all bad!) even tilled an area for me. And I still didn’t! Terrible. My sister said it best once when she said “I just always find something better to do.”

Oh well, I at least think I inherited my mom’s love of cooking. I guess I just didn’t get her green thumb …

Take a peek at the photos and check out the darling cupcakes she served too.

How cute are those? The “butter” is laughy taffy. The “kernels” are jelly bellies.

I think she got a taste for hot peppers in New Mexico!

Zoo trips: Help wanted

This weekend was packed full of outdoor summer fun. My sister, mom and SIL took the kids to the zoo on Saturday morning and had a really good time. There were no meltdowns, no overly tired or cranky kids. I think we timed everything and planned everything just right!

We left around 10ish - which was a good thing. By the time we left the zoo at 12:30 it was sweltering hot. But we fit a lot in. Did the logride, the older kids rode ponies - London pointed out her pony’s name was Jeff - let the kids play in a treehouse, hammocks, rode the carousel. I think that may have been the key to the kids’ happiness. They actually got out of  their strollers a lot and did stuff. And snacks of course. And we took their swimsuits to let them cool of in the water fountain at the end.

Afterward we hit Olive Garden. With four tired, hungry kids … but we all ordered immediately and things went pretty well. Grant asked me at the restaurant if my Wii Wii worked and if he could play it. It’s so funny to hear him say that. It’s actually just called at Wii, not a Wii Wii, I tried to tell him.

Anyway, it was a good day. Sara pointed out though that we have a really good ratio. With my mom’s help we have one adult to every child, so when more children come along, it may not be so smooth. So, we’re looking for recruits … maybe we can talk our husbands into going on those trips or bring an extra sibling.

Short and sweet

I don’t really feel like blogging right now, but I do want to mention that I got my new camera - yay! The canon SD750 and I love it. Here are photos from a few days ago … I’ll have to tell you later about the zoo trip and our friend Liam’s farm birthday party.