The summer sun is in full force and our garden is full of green and even some veggies!
Our lettuce and spinach have almost taken over one of our garden boxes, it's growing like weeds! The kids enjoy going outside to pick all the greens for dinner, but we just can't seem to keep up with it all. However, the kids are eating all their greens now and that definitely makes gardening well worth it!
Our potatoes are above ground now and so we just wait for the leaves to turn brown to dig them out. We can't believe how much everything has just grown in the last three weeks.
We have lost a few tomatoes seedlings and ended up running to the nearby garden center to pick some up. However, everything is growing well now. The peas and even the watermelon are taking off. We have a flower on our zucchini plants and a few crimson tomatoes growing on the vines.
A couple new additions, this beautiful grape vine (purple seedless variety) should do well. Ken built this wonderful trellis this week for the vine. It's nice and compact, sitting the corner of our garden. We'll be taking out the rocks and adding more mulch around it. We can't wait to taste the fruit, as we already see grapes growing.
We also planted a cherry tree in our backyard. We know we're taking a risk with the deer, wildlife, and birds in our neighborhood. However, if we can have just a few cherry's we will be happy. We would much prefer to plant edible landscape. For now, the cherry's are doing well and turning red quickly. We have a net on the tree in hopes of deterring some of the birds and we pray we get to have the first taste of cherry's very soon.
The wildlife in our neighborhood also make for fun backyard camping. I wasn't sure the kids or I were ready for the real wilderness, so we ventured into our backyard Memorial Day weekend for a campout. We broke out the marshmellows and grahm crackers, to make smores. Ken set up the tent and
it was almost like real camping.
The fire pit in our backyard was perfect, minus a bit of wind blowing the ashes right in our direction.
The kids didn't quite make it through the night though. Eric was too excited to sleep in the tent, so he and Ken went in fairly early in the evening. Maria & Ella fell asleep quickly, but around 3am Ella had to go potty and the rest is history. She realized how cold it was outside and decided her bed was so much warmer and closer to the bathroom. We all awoke the next morning in our beds. We all had fun though and after a few more backyard camp outs, I think the kids and I will be ready for the real thing.
We are definitely good use out of our backyard lately. The weather has been so warm these past few weeks, I decided we needed something during the day to keep us cool. We found this train table which combines Eric's passion with trains and water and knew it would be perfect. The kids love it and it's so nice to see them playing cooperatively together.
We spent some great time together at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. We had to take care of some maintenance items at our rental house there, as we had new tenants taking possession and so we decided to make a day of it with the kids.
I can't believe that I grew up and lived in Colorado Springs for over ten years and never once visited the zoo. We all loved it! They so many fun exhibits and activities for the kids.
The best part, the kids were allowed to feed the giraffes! They were both surprised at the very long tongues as the giraffe grabbed the crackers out of their hands from over almost a foot away.
. The only downside is the walk to the top of the winding hilltop to see many of the exhibits. Pushing two kids up the hill wasn't easy, even for Ken. We had a bit of a drive back to Parker, so we didn't get to catch all the animals this time. However, we'll definitely be back!
If that wasn't enough excitement, Parker Days (the yearly Parker carnival) was the following weekend. Ella's favorite ride was the dragon roller coaster, which she spotted days before the carnival opened. She couldn't wait to ride it and the thrill of the ride didn't let her down. She would of ridden it the entire day, if she could.
Eric was still quite small for many of the rides, but he was so thrilled to ride the horses on the carousel. He had a great big smile on his face the whole time! He even was moving up and down, like he wanted the horse to go faster. Our little cowboy will be riding ponies like his sister in no time!
Our little boy is growing so fast, I look at pictures from just a year ago and can't believe my eyes. How quick this time has flown. We set up Eric's toddler bed, as we start planning for his second birthday in just a few short months. It was quite surreal to see Ella sitting next to her brother in his new toddler bed. I remember like it was yesterday, we were chasing Ella around the room trying to get her back into her toddler bed.
Well, looks like Eric is definitely taking a page out of Ella's book. We often find him sitting in the rocking chair reading books, instead of sleeping. It's hard to get too upset, as we often struggle during the day to get him to sit still for a book. Any reading he wants to do, we try and encourage. Regardless, it's been a challenge to keep him in his bed at bedtime. Hopefully, the novelty will wear off soon enough.
Ella had her own milestone month. We bought Ella her own big girl bike (with training wheels) and although she has taken a few spills already, she is determined to ride. No matter how bad the fall, she is persistent in her endeavor and quickly jumps back on the next day.
Speaking of growing kids, meet three baby bunnies delivered by Ella's bunny "Glory." Unfortunately, we lost two baby bunnies really early on. Ella has learned early how precious life is, as we had to explain the loss of the babies to her. We are happy to say that we have one little bunny left and he/she seems to be doing well. We'll be finding a wonderful home for him/her about six weeks from now.
We've all decided that we should live on a farm, but for now we are urban farmers. Horses and all! We had a garage sale last weekend and we told the kids that if they helped with the garage sale and we sold enough toys, that we would buy them a horse swing that they kids saw a few weeks back at the nearby "Big R."
Well, the night of the garage sale we headed out to "Big R" and Ken immediately hung it up in the front yard. Ella loves spinning on the horse,
while Eric enjoys swinging.
With the warmer weather, I thought ice skating during the summer might be fun for her. Ella has been dancing around the house and when I asked her if she wanted to go back to doing dance or try ice skating, she voted for ice skating hands down. So, we signed her up for ice skating classes at the nearby rec center. Her first day and she already mastered falling (yes, there is a special way to fall) and of course rising by the end of her first class. :) She's excited to be on the ice and can't wait to be hoping and gliding soon.
We had to take a break to our usual outdoor summer fun weekend, as Ella developed a rather severe reaction to an antibiotic she was taking for an ear infection. Ella awoke Friday morning to a horrible case of hives and the itch to go along with it. I quickly made an appointment for that afternoon and they determined that it was definitely a reaction to the Amoxicillan. Well, how frustrating for any parent to think what they are giving their child will heal them to only cause them more pain and suffering. We spent the weekend dealing with the "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad itch!" In addition to the itch, her feet swelled up that she was in tears and just couldn't bear much walking. We're slowly on the mend and will definitely mark Amoxicillan off our list.
Well, since we couldn't spend the weekend outdoors and Ella needed some cherring up, we decided to spend Saturday the Denver Aquarium. We hadn't been since we moved back and I thought it tied in well with our lessons for this week ("SH" for fish, shell, shark).
The kids had fun, but Ella wasn't too much for walking as her feet were still pretty swollen. Ella had me taking all kinds of pictures for her bunny to see and we'll be going back to look at all the pictures and classifying them all this coming week. Today, she's doing better and looks like the rash is subsiding. Hopefully, she'll be back to her active self in a couple more days.
I apologize for the long blog. I actually had a blog written and was down to the last picture when "poof" it disappeared. My blog had disappeared and so did my will power to get it done. I enjoy writing our blogs and hope the kids will also enjoy reading them some day. However, sometimes I get caught up in our day to day and forget to take these moments to reflect on what we have done. I hope to be better in the coming months about setting aside time to get these blogs done on a more routine basis.
