Spring Has Finally Sprung!

Yay, Spring!!! Finally....Spring has sprung around here! We had a fun filled weekend with much picture taking. So here is a glimpse of what we did this past weekend.

These are chives coming up. I have 2 plants of them. Yum! I love to use chives in everything and I cannot wait until they are big enough to use. I decided that I needed a dehydrator to save more of my herbs than I get to use. I'm not sure that will happen this year, though, unless I find one for cheap somewhere.

This is a Peony plant that a friend gave me last year. I wasn't sure it would live through the winter as it was pretty late when I planted it. But I piled up the leaves around it to keep it 'warm' all winter and I am excited to see that it has sprouted. So we'll see if it actually flowers. I think it's white.

You can't beat line dried clothes.

I do believe they get this tongue sticking out in pictures from their Mother. Oh, the things she teaches them!!! It makes it hard to get good pictures of them!!

He's the stud in his spiderman sunglasses!

Cute little goof (tongue sticking out)! I need to get some 4 year pictures taken of him before too long if I can catch him in a good mood or these last two photos just might end up being his 4 year pictures!!

Isn't that pretty? Do you know what that is? That is my beautiful compost that we have been adding to for the past 2 years. This is the first year that I have used it and it smells divine! Is that wrong to say about compost??!! I love the smell of freshly tilled soil from gardens and from farmers in the fields. I didn't have enough to put a couple of inches over my whole garden but I spread out what I had and the hubby tilled it all up and my dirt is nice and dark now. Can't wait to see what we can grow this year!

Lazy cat days. Boots had an exciting weekend, too. I caught him chasing a baby bunny through my garden and I just couldn't stand to let him kill something so cute and fluffy in front of me, so I caught Boots and put him in the house. He got back out a few minutes later!! Then later on, he'd caught a garter snake. He could've killed it for all I cared...I hate snakes. The hubby thought it was dead and was going to come scare me with it (NOT FUNNY!) but it wasn't dead and it slithered away. A  couple of years ago, I was going out to hang laundry barefoot and saw something move just as I was stepping down and ended up side stepping just before I stepped on a garter snake......bleh....gives me the eebie jeebies just thinking about it!! Anyway, Boots is good at catching things so hopefully no mice this year!

V decided he needed some cushion for his trike....a little large I'd say, but whatever works! And E just wanted in the picture!

The kids and I planted potatoes and lettuce this weekend, also. We are trying to grow the potatoes in a couple of new ways that we have come across. My uncle says this works: Put a tire around your potato mound and as the plant grows, add more tires and more dirt so that the potatoes can grow up, then you can just take the tire pile down in the fall and there are all of your potatoes without digging. So we're going to try it on one mound....mainly because I could only find one tire when I planted. The hubby will have to get more for me as the plant grows.

This is the other method that we're trying. I found this online. I dug a very, very shallow dent in the dirt and cut the potatoes into about 1 inch pieces with eyes on each piece and laid them in the dirt, eye facing up. I just barely covered them with dirt and then I mounded up some mulch about 6 inches high on top of them. The idea is the same as with the tires only the potatoes grow in the mulch and are easy to dig out. You're supposed to add more mulch as the plant grows so the pile gets higher and higher. I hope it works because we love fresh potatoes out of the garden.

This is my rhubarb that I planted last year, so I will be able to use some of it this year! I can't wait! We might try making jelly or syrup with it.

And this is the asparagus that I planted last year, also. Most of it's coming back, but it's not getting very thick yet. I don't know much about asparagus, so if any of you know anything, please let me know! I've never even eaten asparagus before! Should I pick it this size anyway or should I leave it and wait?

The black raspberry bush is sprouting little leaves.

The hostas sprouted over night on Saturday night.

This is the first pitcher of sun tea of the year! Mmmmmm! It didn't get as dark as we usually like, but it was good none the less!

The kids have been bugging us for about 3 weeks to get the pool out....ummmmm, no! It's not been THAT warm! Well, Sunday got pretty hot out, which was nice being as it's still April, and they started in on the pool again! I'm not ready to get the pool out in April, so we played with water balloons instead.

Those shorts that V is wearing are 2Ts....he is 4! I think I need to do some more cleaning out of the kids drawers!! But I must say, they were not too tight around his skinny, minnie little waist and butt, they were just a tad too short!

E just likes to throw them at the ground just to see them break, then she laughs and cheers!

R was trying to get herself wet to cool down!

She got an armload more to pop on herself! Yes, it was warm enough for tank top and skirt!

Mmmm, a cool treat!

This guy LOVES, LOVES, LOVES pineapple!

And the lilacs are getting closer to blooming. Oh, the sweet smell of lilacs!

Oh, I am planning on planting a strawberry bed soon so if anyone has any strawberry plants they are willing to share, I would love several. My kids love strawberries, but they are just not the same at the store, as most things are not.

I know there's a lot of pictures here but I haven't posted in awhile so I wanted to share what we've been up to. We've been super busy. R and I have a dance recital coming up in a month, and we have Girl Scouts and Clover Kids and R just started soccer. And that's just one child!! We'll be really busy when the other 2 get involved with things!! Hopefully soon, I'll have V's 4 year pics and R's soccer and dance pics up. I am just ordering group shots from them all and since I'm a photographer as well, I'm doing her individual pics myself....saves a lot of money.

What's going on as I type this: E has been coloring with markers and has it all over her hands, arms and face and the couch has a new blue mark on it. Very funny (except for the couch part)! And V fell asleep in the chair at about 12:30 and is still sleeping at 2:15. It's not unusual for him to fall asleep if he sits still too long, but it's usually not until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon, when I'd really rather he not sleep! He must still be tired from the weekend. Have a great week everyone!

Happy Spring!

Jess