DVD care according to Maggie

Maggie was watching a DVD today & it kept sticking, so I took it out to see if it was dirty. Maggie said "Mum, just lick it". As I was walking over to the sink, she said "Lick it Mum, it'll get it clean" As I started to wash it she said "or wash it".......

A chip off the old block

Maggie is truly my child. She walked into the kitchen, waved her hand over all Ben's mess on the counter and said "none of this crap is mine...."

Picture this

Ben did a photography camp at the YMCA this week. He said it was his best camp EVER. Here are some of his better photos....

The waiting child

I go walking in the mornings at the weekends before Ben & Maggie get out of bed. Ben has decided that after he gets up, he is going to sit in the driveway until I come home. When he sees me, he comes running down the road to meet me. Yesterday, I asked him how long he had been waiting and he said about 10 minutes. Then I asked him how long he would sit there since he doesn't know how long I will be and he told me he was just going to sit there until I turned up.

Even they have no energy

After a hard day at the YMCA camp, they hardly have the energy to watch TV!!!!
It was 101 today and they spend most of the day outside. Ben went on a field trip to the Magic House, so he escaped the heat for some of the day, but Maggie was playing outside when I picked them up!!!!

look at that shine.....

We bought a new refrigerator last weekend since the one that came with the house started leaking water from the filter (actually has been doing for about 2 years but we couldn't stand it any more). It came yesterday. Is it a sad reflection on our lives that this was a very exciting event for us???!!!! Oh, it's wonderful. We have so much more room now & I can't wait to go to the store at the weekend and fill it up!!!! These are the little things in life that make a family happy....

our visitor....

As Sam took his bike out to ride on Sunday afternoon, he scared a raccoon that was by the garage door and it ran into our garage and wedged itself up behind some boxes in the corner. He didn't tell me about it because he was hoping I'd never notice before he came back, but of course, I decided to get something out of that corner. It scared the **** out of me when it moved!!!! Ben wasn't home, but Maggie got to see it. It was very cute & very scared. Luckily, when Sam moved everything out of its way and moved the boxes back, it ran out of the garage and across the road!!! It was nice that it came to visit, but also nice that it left soon!!!!

Peach picking at Eckert's

We did our first peach picking outing of the season on Sunday. It turned out to be perfect. It rained in the morning and so the weather cooled down a little bit. It also stopped a lot of people from going there because it was really quiet. It was the quickest trip we have taken as there were so many peaches that were absolutely perfect. We picked 42 lbs of them in about 10 minutes Here is Ben holding a perfect specimen straight off the tree
Even though there were so many peaches that could be reached easily, Maggie had to get Sam to lift her up so she could get one from the top of the tree
Ben ate a huge number of them before we left the field. However, we found out that Maggie does not even like peaches at all. I guess we have never noticed that she doesn't eat them before!!!!
She is happy to pose with them though!!!!

Maggie's lost tooth

Maggie lost one of her top teeth yesterday. We were driving home from gymnastics
when she told me that her tooth had come out.
Maggie: Mum will I always have a hole there?
Me: No, Maggie, a new one will grow in
Maggie: No, it won't
Me: Yes, you will because it's the new tooth that pushes out the old one. Everyone gets new teeth
Maggie: Well, I won't because I pulled this one out with this pen

By the time we made it home, she'd already lost it in the car. I think the tooth fairy has only ever had one of Maggie's teeth and that was because the school sent it home in a little box!!!!

Creative decorating

We are in the process of having the glass replaced in the front door because the seal has started to expand and show. Sergey came & took it out on Saturday & now we need to wait until the new glass is made. Sam told the kids that they could draw on the plywood and so Ben immediately got the markers out and went to work on it. His latest kick is to draw pirate ships He drew a T Rex in the other panel. He is also into dinosaurs at the moment, actually he has been for a while. Maggie drew on the other two panels. I think the red thing is a volcano. I'm not sure what the rest is.

Shoe shopping with Maggie

I took Maggie to Target to buy her some new shoes & had the usual scenario. We started off (foolishly) in the girls section. I was horrified that she is dangerously close to having to buy shoes with laces, but for now there are a few with velcro.

Tactic #1. Show Maggie the shoes first.

Me: What about these?

Maggie: uh, No.

Repeat 3-4 times

Tactic #2. Try to catch her off guard.

Me: Put these on

Maggie: (in a very loud & whiny voice) Oooowwwwwww......

Me: What's wrong with these?

Maggie: They hurt me

OK, they went on really easily, there is loads of room in them & she can't specify exactly where the agony is arising

Tactic #3. Capitulate & walk around to see what's in the boy's section.

Me: OK, Maggie, see what you think of these

Maggie: Hey, these fit perfectly

Me: So, you want these?

Maggie: Yes

Another pair of boys shoes for the girl in aisle 13.....

Harry the hibiscus

I bought this hibiscus a few years ago as a tiny annual. I have kept it in a small pot & cut it back quite a bit. It has been flowering like crazy this year & makes my office a little more colourful

bumper crop

We had a huge amount of basil growing on the side of the house, but it was flowering & the new leaves were so small, so I pulled it all up and made a large batch of pesto & salad dressing for the paleo man in my life. I bought some new from Trader Joe's and will try planting it in the same place & hope it's not too hot there for it to grow. I still have another crop at the top of my garden that I can use when we need it. This has been a good year for basil

this is the good news?????

Maggie survived her first week at the YMCA and her first field trip to the Science Center. When I picked her up she said "Mum, do you want to hear the good news or the bad news"
Me: Let's start with the good news
Maggie: Well, I sat on the floor and faced the wall......
No need to give me the bad news Maggie

Garden update

We have had a very hot & dry June this year and my garden is showing the signs of abuse already. It looks so lush and green in the Spring, but it can only sustain that look for so long. The harshest environment is the small patch of dirt on the south side of the house in between the house & the sidewalk. I planted some basil there this year and it has done really well, but it's time to pull it up & plant new now because it has all started flowering & producing very small leaves. I have had my bay tree for 3 or 4 years now. I keep it in a pot because we have to bring it in the garage during the Winter or it would die. It's now just about as tall as I am & I am very proud of it. However, I have to keep in mind that my Dad's 'kitchen bay' that he bought in a 4 inch pot is now a 20 foot tree in their back yard-I miss English growing conditions!!!!

My project for this year was to try to fill in the empty spots in the garden and try to get some tall stuff to grow along the fence. I also decided to experiment & not cut everything back so much as it went over. My plan was to let things grow together so that they could support each other. I have a suspicion that my azaleas will all be dead from lack of light when I cut everything back in the Fall!!!!

On top of the huge number of rabbits and squirrels that we have, we now have a large infestation of Japanese beetles and moles. The moles have become so bad that we had to get someone in to set some traps. Now we have mole traps all over the yard and the moles seem to be happily designing new runs to stay away from them!!!!

This is the part of the garden that always seems to do the best, no matter what is planted there

Another one of this year's experiments is to try to get sweet potato vine to grow down the wall in the corner (came from a suggestion by my friend Prerna who grows it every year). It's taken a while to get going, but a plan is coming together. If I have success, I might expand it next year

I don't have much luck with seeds, but I tried 5 or 6 packets this year & got these few to survive (in the "magic" part of the garden only of course)

This is my new garden at the back of the house that I started last year. I was hoping to plant a bunch of herbs to have near the kitchen door, but most of them are dying because the ground is too wet there. Need to rethink my strategy for next year.

A very wet day

Saturday was a day filled with water. The Summer reading program had a picnic and water games lunchtime meeting. The kids had pizza & soda and then played with water balloons, sponges, beach balls and a backyard wading pool.

Then, we went down to the City Garden for Ben's scout pack meeting. They were celebrating their first year anniversary and so the whole place was packed. the kids spent the next 2 hours in one of the pools there. We left there and the kids went to Kids Night Out at the YMCA. Ben went swimming in the pool 3 times before we picked him up. He was in the water all day and in his swimsuit all day!!! When do kids grow out of wanting to be in water all the time?

Summer reading program

Our library has a Summer reading program where the kids get a small prize for every 10 hours that they read during the Summer. Because Ben & Maggie have been in Summer school & they read every day at Adventure Club, they quickly got up to their 50 hours this Summer. I took them over to the library to claim their prizes. They got to write their names on one of the boards in the library & add a sticker for each set of 10 hours They got a plastic fish, a goodie bag, a bendable pirate and a frog beach ball. They will also be getting trophies with their names on them. Summer school is over and they are now at the YMCA, so now it's up to Mum to get them reading every day. That could be quite a challenge!!!!

This was a great idea

There was an article on SLU's newslink about their Walking to Madrid campaign today. I am determined I'm going to keep walking, even after the whole program is finished. Hope they don't want their pedometer back!!!!