Lady Bugs!

One weekend day when McKenzie and I were doing the grocery shopping we took a quick trip through the garden section to grab something and discovered a pack of lady bug hanging there on a hook.  We didn't think twice, we picked out a pack and brought it home for our garden.  It was amazing how the lady bugs just were crawling all around in the pack not even bothered that they were being sold at a store.  On the last day of school we opened up the lady bugs and set them free.  At first the garden was crawling with them but gradually they all went their separate ways.  

One of our pumpkin or zucchini leaves crawling with the lady bugs.  They were very happy to be out of the package!

  

A broader view, with them crawling over the entire patch of leaves.  They didn't really fly away, just crawled all over exploring the outside world.

Our little nature lover letting lady bugs crawl on her hands and arms.  She loved letting them go in our garden.  We will definitely be looking for another pack next year.

Schools Out For Summer!

McKenzie is officially done with her first year of school - kindergarten is behind her and she's looking forward to a nice long fun summer of fun!  She has grown so much this year, both in terms of getting taller and in growing up.  I can't believe how fast the time went, it seems like just yesterday she was learning to walk.  Before I know it I'll be posting her graduation pictures.

McKenzie was very fortunate this year to have a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Evans, who was so sweet and kind with just the right mix of structure.  Her favorite things from kindergarten were the monkey bars at recess, macaroni day and the science experiments her class did.

Batter Up!

Both the kids played t-ball again this year and had a lot of fun with their teams.  McKenzie's team was allowed to hit without the tee if they could get it in the first six pitches.  She did great and really connected with the ball a few times.  It was fun to watch their skills improve and to see them get into the game.  This year they were on separate teams and that helped to keep them focused and on task.  Baseball is a tough sport for these little guys because they have to stand around and wait so much for it to be there turn.

McKenzie getting ready for the pitch to come in - she kept the other teams on their toes with her left hand batting.

Ben swinging hard to hit a home run for his team.  The last batter of each inning clears the bases so everyone gets a home run every once in a while.

Sweet Six

After McKenzie's birthday bash with her friends we still had her actual birthday to celebrate.  She lucked out on two counts, first that it fell on a weekend and also that Grandma and Grandpa C were in town.  We head a nice morning at home with a special breakfast where I broke out my 'You Are Special Today Plate' and then we headed to a picnic at the beach with Grandma and Grandpa C, Aunt Renee, Uncle Nick, Aunt Kacey, Uncle Eric, Nathan and Kayla.  The sun even showed up to make the day perfect for the beach.

Here was what McKenzie woke up to on her birthday morning.  I loved these beautiful flowers I found this year - so cheerful and bright.  This is one of my favorite traditions for their birthdays - watching them remember it's their birthday when they come downstairs in the morning.

Fun at the park with the cousins - how could McKenzie not enjoy her special day when there was monkey bars to swing on?

Cousin Kayla and McKenzie opening gifts at the park - we celebrated Kayla's birthday too since she is also a June baby.

Two interesting things happened while we were eating lunch, first this airplane went past us on a train - pretty amazing to see this up close.  It was huge and it just glided slowly past the park like it was no big deal.  The second is a funny story about Ben.  He was eating Cheetos and I had a cherry and set my pit on his plate.  He was just eating away when suddenly he screamed 'I lost a tooth!' and we all looked over at him since none of his teeth were loose.  Then he showed me his hand, which contained the cherry pit.  I told him 'Oh, that's not a tooth' and the look of horror on his face was priceless as he said 'What is that???' We all had a good laugh over that.

The whole bunch of us - putting up with my desire to take group pictures using the timer setting on my phone.  This time we lucked out and got some good pictures.  My Grandma C would love to see us all there together.

Tiny hands holding a tiny crab, luckily no one got pinched!

After lunch we explored the park and did some Geocaching, on the way we stopped to take this picture with Grandma and Grandpa C by the lighthouse.  This will probably be Nathan's all time favorite family picture.

All in all it was a great day and a wonderful way to celebrate McKenzie turning six!

Tickled Pink

For McKenzie's sixth birthday she wanted to be pampered with her friends and get their toes and hair done.  This seemed doable but was made into some truly special with the discovery of a kids day spa right down the road from our house at the Country Village.  The spa is called Tickled Pink and boy was it ever pink.  Almost every surface inside was some shade of pink.  The girls loved it and it was a very low key birthday party to host.  McKenzie got to invite six friends from school and then her girl cousins.

They had everything setup up just for little girls to have the time of their lives - with pink slippers and bathrobes, karaoke, costumes and a make your own scented lotion activity. McKenzie loved every second of it!

 Miss McKenzie with her hair all fancy and a birthday girl crown on!

The adorable line up of little feet soaking in warm water and bubbles - so sweet!

Getting ready for their walk down the pink carpet. Trying out accessories and funny mustaches and glasses.

McKenzie walking on the pink carpet - they were dancing up a storm.

More costume fun!  What more could little girls want then to be made beautiful and then get to play dress up and dance.

Oh of course, yes cupcakes can make even the most fun time even better.  McKenzie was very excited for the cupcakes and for her friends to sing Happy Birthday to her.  I wish she could stay little like this forever. Where did the first six years go?

A Celebration of Life

At the end of April Matt's Grandpa Zaremba passed away after a long life filled with family and friends.  It was wonderful that so many of his great grandkids got to meet him and spend time with him.  He found a special place in Ben's heart after Ben got to take several trips over with Matt and Grandpa Z to visit this past year.  Ben refers to him as Old Grandpa and always loved the treasures that he found when visiting him.  Priceless memories and some very special items just perfect for a four year old boy with a big imagination.  His funeral was a very nice celebration of this life filled with family, friends and many stories of his life.

Here's Matt and his little man Ben all dressed up.

McKenzie and Ben loving on cousin Conor.

McKenzie and cousin Claire in their matching dresses looking beautiful.

The legacy continuing with Grandpa and Grandma Z and their grandbabies.

Ready to Awaken The Beast

Each year as I start to plan out my summer vegetable garden I start with such hopes and dreams and neat little rows of plants ready to be nurtured into a crop to feed us throughout the summer and yet by the end of summer I feel I'm battling against a wild gang of beasts all fighting for the same space.  Each year I set out to plant half as much and really give the plant the space they need and this year I hope to stick to my plan.  I've made careful notes about last years garden, the ups, the downs the things that thrived and the things that went wild.

I've started my new venture of potatoes outside the main garden in planting bags because I've heard they are invasive and will always keep coming back.  I am excited for the new adventure but at the same time glad they are isolated outside the garden leaving me more room to plant.

Here's the garden before shot, May 4th, still with the cover of fall leaves we piled on at the end of the season last year.  There are two herbs that wintered over in the garden, both of which we enjoyed during the winter and spring - rosemary and chives.  The leaves are almost broken down and will be great just raked into the soil.  Very few weeds, I love the natural covering leaves give the garden.

Here's the garden shopping list my helper McKenzie wrote up for me.  I did actually bring these with me to the nursery to buy my starts.  I did get a few looks but it was so worth it to have her helping me on this task.

After the trip to the nursery we raked in the leaves and added a bit more new soil and compost and then planted our crops in a very spaced out manner.  Here's our list for this year from left to right:
- Beans with tee-pee
- Zucchini
- Squash
- Pumpkins
- Peas (we added a climbing lattice for them soon after this picture)
- Lettuce
- Kale (my other new experiment for this year)
- Rosemary (existing)
- Chives (existing)
- Thyme
- Sage
- Tomatoes - five plants, 4 sun gold and one black cherry variety

You can also see the potato bags next to the garden.  They had small sprouts of green leaves forming at this point.  Very excited for this years garden to be started.

Close up of my tomato area, I tried very hard to give them enough space this year since last years crop seemed very overwhelming at the end and hard to harvest.  I added their red grow bags after this picture was taken to help them have a  warmer environment to start off in.  

Silly for the Sunshine

Each year as the sun slowly comes back, we have the first beautiful day where the kids deem is warm enough to break out the summer gear.  You never know when this day will appear each year but it always sends a breath of fresh air into our lives and reminds us the beautiful days of summer aren't far behind.  This year that day included a sun hat for both kids, the kiddie pool and of course Popsicles.  We swung open the patio doors, dug out our water toys and sucked up as much sunshine as we could.

 Ben could not find a sun hat of his own so he settled on one of McKenzie's that was blue so that meant it had to be his right?  It's a good thing he was going swimming in the kiddie pools since he was wearing more of his popsicle than he ate.

McKenzie is pretty in pink, such a good sister to share with her brother and not point out that he was wearing a girls sun hat.

Here's our big water feature, just enough to get a little splash of water on the kids and give them the thrill of water fun in the yard.

And of course the beautiful glowing orb in the sky shining down on us with just enough warmth to justify the day of fun.  Summer is officially on it's way!

Lucky for me, this is what a couple of wild hours in the sun got me - a nice quiet afternoon with two kids snoozing while I sat and enjoyed my book in the sun for a bit.   

Pajama Party

We have had slumber parties where McKenzie sleeps over in Ben's room on his bunk bed and we're had slumber parties with our cousins but this year we hit a new milestone and had a slumber party where each of the kids had a friend over from school.  It was a lot of fun and the kids actually got some sleep which was amazing.

McKenzie's friend Braelyn rode the bus home from school with her which was exciting in itself.  To have a friend over all night and for part of Saturday was the best.  Ben's friend Rein came over after school and he barely said goodbye to his Mom before he was off having fun with Ben exploring the backyard.

Here are the boys in the morning watching cartoons with JonesZ who is being a very patient and kind old dog.  Rein's dog Max is a boxer and looks a lot like JonesZ so he got more than his share of love that weekend.

Braelyn and McKenzie snuggled up - they had a lot of fun making some art projects together and playing with bikes and the wagon.  

Sleepover number one was a success but this Mom isn't ready to sign up for a slumber party with more than two extra kids.  Let's hope that is years off and we can enjoy this type of fun with more friends as the years go by.

Peat Bog Parade

In the Spring after being cooped up indoors for months on end we'll use any excuse to get out and enjoy some fresh air.  A brief sun break and the need to get some lunch sent us out on a Sunday afternoon to enjoy a nice walk through the peat bog near our house.  There is a great boardwalk through the bog that is accessible year round and you can walk from one of our favorite parks over to a shopping center with many lunch choices.  There was a new bakery we had been wanting to try out so off we headed on our adventure.

Cheesy smile Ben - trying to get a good smile out of him these days sure is trying.

McKenzie looking like she is on the catwalk modeling instead of just walking along the boardwalk in the peat bog.  

Daddy letting the kids be dare devils and walk on the edge of the boardwalk.  This makes me very nervous because of what happened on one of my first trips to the peat bog.  It was way back in 2002 or so before we had kids and I brought Indy down to the peat bog for a walk.  She was loving running along on the boardwalk and I stopped to read a sign about the bog and she didn't stop but jumped off the boardwalk probably thinking it was just ground but instead she was totally sucked up by the bog and all I saw was bubbles coming up from the oozy mud.  It took long enough that I considered if I was going to jump in to find my dog before I saw her surface.  She was covered in nasty mud from the tip of her nose to the end of her little tail.  Such a mess and scary there for a bit.  So I do worry about the kids falling into the bog because I've seen what can happen.

The whole family shot with giant dark clouds in the background.

Loving this view of my big and little man walking hand in hand after we left the bog.

No idea what the kids have found to eat but I do like the different looks on their faces - not sure either of them is going to eat what McKenzie has in her hand.  The bakery was good and Ben added another food item to his approved list - he now likes croissants.  

View of the bog on our way back across to the car.  Beautiful place to enjoy the big sky and nature year round.

Budding Scientists

The kids are like little scientists who love trying new stuff as much as I love trying out new stuff.  They are always eager to jump into new project with little care that Mommy doesn't really know what the heck she is doing.  I love my vegetable garden and I love to find new types of things I can grow that my family enjoys.  We love making roasted potatoes and so after seeing my friend Gina's potatoes from last year I decided I was diving in.  I agonized over which type to grow, I knew I wanted baby potatoes but had a hard time deciding before I was sort of forced into my choice by my growing constraints.  The variety that was available bulk was the Russian Fingerling and since I decided to do a container and not grow them directly in the garden I had to limit my potato starts.  I bought a growing bag and 5 starter potatoes and a big sack of soil.  To my surprise when I got home and opened the container package I had 2 containers so I could have probably started more potatoes but this will be my learning year I suppose.  I cut up the potatoes so I left an eye on each plant and had the kids bury them in six inches of compost soil in my containers.  Then we waited and watched.  Before too long we had sprouts coming up from our starters.

Facts for next year so I will remember and learn from this years potato adventure:

- Type: Russian Fingerling, 5 cut into approx 16 pieces
- Planting Date: April 20
- Containers: Green pop up potato containers with reach in slot to retrieve potatoes later


Scientist McKenzie ready to see how potatoes grow!

Starter pieces ready for their dirt cover.  Good thing it's rainy now so we know these will get water.  The kids know you need a starter or seed, dirt, water and sun to make things grow.

In go the potatoes!

We also got some nice spring flowers for the backyard while we were at the nursery.  So nice to have some color in the yard this time of year.  Looking forward to everything starting to grow this Spring!

Escaping the Ordinary

Traditions are something I love from the simplest ordinary habits of daily life to the truly special things you look forward to all year round.  Our annual trip to Hat Island in the Spring has become one of my cherished traditions that I look forward to each year and remember fondly in the months between trips.  This year was our second trip to the island to stay at Carrie's parents cabin and I know it won't be the last.  We had a mix of weather for our trip with some sun and some showers and we enjoyed both equally because the showers allowed us to sit back and really relax which is something that is harder to do when the sun is shining and there is miles of beach outside the door.  I think we all needed a restful weekend and that is what we got.  A roaring fire, games and plenty of laughs made for the perfect time.

Weekends spent with friends always allows time to decompress, catch up and for everyone to test out new ideas and recipes from Pinterest.  We had way too much food like we always do when we get together which is amazing since we had to haul everything with us in bags  and boxes onto the boat then into the car on the island.

The ladies are also very willing photography subjects who put up with my endless photo attempts.  This was our tribute to the Island with a symbolic HAT.  Good thing we had just enough people.

Looking good while modeling the finest winter wear available for walking on a beach in April.

Getting our practice in for our years together in the retirement home.  It's so nice to have friends who love to play games as much as I do.

Another good year on the Island...

Last photo shops before heading back to the ferry and our real lives!  Thanks for another amazing trip ladies, already looking forward to next year.