Mid May update...

It seems like we go about our lives and I think, "Oh, that's a good one for the blog." Or I take a picture and think, "The family will love that one." And what happens? I don't do it. I get sidetracked, busy, forgetful and then time marches on and I find I have a camera full of shots to share and lots of stories to tell. Here's our mid-month update.

One week into the garden, and things were growing. Everything had come up. Most surprising was the beans. When I was out watering about 6 days into the garden's life, no beans had poked through. The next day when I went out to water, they were not only through the soil, but about 2" tall!! Everything else is growing well too: the zucchini, yellow squash, radishes, cukes, and tomatoes. We even have one small green tomato growing. Right now the plants are so tiny it's hard to tell they're anything exciting, and not just some weeds. But, I'm excited!!

We also recently became the fortunate receivers of a hand-me-down, almost new canoe. We've been looking to buy one for about a year now, and just hadn't "jumped ship" to purchase one. (If you don't know, they can be quite spendy!) So, one free canoe, two free paddles, four life jackets from Kmart, TONS of sunscreen and bug spray and we were off. We had a great time! We were able to drop the canoe into the creek across the street (off our neighbors' dock) and paddle out to the river. On the way back we tried some new routes through the weeds (and by 'we' I mean B -- it's a good thing he's a pilot and not a navigator!) Came in close contact with a baby crab, heard a blood curdling scream from the kids as said crab crawled toward them, pushed the canoe out of the swamp "pluff" mud, and all in all, had a GREAT time! The only drawback is having to wait until the tide is up to put the canoe in. As we found from our first venture out, canoes full of four people do not do well in the mud!

I've also included some pics from the beginning of the month when we went to a base function with B's squadron. M and C loved playing on the truck and tractor that were there for the set up, and the adults loved watching M dance when the band was warming up.

I think you'll also find a shot of my first attempt at a TOTALLY from-scratch cake. Took about 4 hours, but you can definitely taste the difference. It was an Orange Marmalade cake. YUM-O!

We're getting ready to wind up the month with one graduating from Kindergarten and the other ending his year in 3 year old preschool. Looking forward to summer and all the adventure that brings!!!