Favorite part of the playground

Veggies? No. Dog with opinion? Yes.

I know you've probably all been wondering how our vegetable garden is coming along. I mean, it's almost been one whole month since we planted the seeds. Surely SOMETHING must be growing by now, right??

Yes, some things are growing.



These:

I must be doing something wrong. This is just pathetic.

I'm going to try some Miracle Gro this week because Lord knows these veggies need a miracle.

On another subject, Bella has been extraordinarily vocal lately & despite having known her for almost 11 years, I still haven't figured out her language. When I let her out after this vocal episode she just walked out the door, turned around & stared at me for a little while & then came back to the door. So what did she say to me before she went out?

My best guess?

"Your vegetable garden sucks. Lemme go see it again so I can laugh at you."

Unless it had something to do with the way the light looks like a spaceship beaming down. Maybe she thinks martians are beaming down to take me away & she's trying to protect the family.

Nah, I think the first guess was right.

Out of the mouths . . .

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Yesterday, Sofia called me a young lady.

Ava: Mommy can't be a young lady.

Sofia: Why?

Ava: Because mommy isn't young.

Mommy: What do you mean, Ava?

Ava: Well, you're not young. Your halfway old.

Mommy: Halfway old?

Ava: Yes, Nonni [Grandma] is old & you're halfway old.

Mommy: Oh, I see. Thank you, Ava.

~~ giggles & laughter ~~
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Last night I was sitting next to Sofia & Ava reading stories before bedtime.

Sofia: Mommy, you smell like one of Daddy's toots.

Mommy: Well, I know his toots don't smell like roses, so does that mean I smell bad?

Sofia: Yes.

Mommy: Thank you for being so honest, Sofia.

~~ giggles & laughter ~~
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These are the moments it's really fun to be a mommy of 5 year olds. The giggles and laughter make listening to all the whining well, well, worth it.

Global warming or seasonal confusion?

We had summer in April:

And now we have Christmas in May:

Is this global warming or just seasonal confusion?

Sowing the seeds of love...

We did it. We planted seeds for the first time ever. Truly, I have never planted a garden before. No, really. I never have. Yes, I'm in my 30s. No, I've never planted seeds. Call the garden police.

These are the vegetables the girls & I decided to plant (& one flower chosen by Sofia):

These are the vegetables the girls will eat:

---0---

Ergo, I will probably be eating all the veggies by myself (due to Chef Garry's maddening schedule since they are taking his sous chef away (I know, WTF budget cuts suck and this better not last too long because he certainly won't if this does) . . . On the up side, I should be pretty healthy in body by summer's end . . . in mind, I'm not so sure!

I think we were a little nutty with the choices we made . . . The girls chose the veggies based on the look of them. They usually don't eat any of those & to be honest, I'm not a big fan of green beans myself. I'm hoping they will decide to eat them when they pick the veggies out of the dirt themselves.

So it was fun to plant them in those cute little pods . . . But this brings me to the problem I didn't think of before we planted in these sprout houses . . . I'm going to have to transplant them & we don't have a garden! We have a little flower spot from the previous owners (they had planted bulbs so every year we have some lovely flowers come up), but there's no room for cucumbers & such (and we had a slight fungus problem last year).

Has anyone ever seen anything like that before?

Anyway, so we added the water, planted the seeds . . .

And we already have sprouts . . .

So . . . I better come up with a transplanting plan soon . . .

Big Trucks & Soccer

Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm raising twin girls or twin boys...

Most girls like princesses, fairies, dresses & tea parties.

My girls like big trucks, Batman, Transformers & roughhousing.

Not that I'm complaining. I think it's pretty cool to buck the stereotypes & be your own person.

So one of the things we did last month was go to a Touch a Truck event.

Here's one they liked b/c of the "pokey" rims. I personally find them scary!

Again, they always love the tractors, too.

(And yes, that is a garbage truck behind Sofia. The driver was disappointed that the event was on a dirt lot because he had really wanted to turn the truck on & show how the truck worked -- My girls were disappointed about that, too! They always want to know how things work which is very cool).

There was also a Mickey Mouse Mobile which they thought was awesome, too.

Here are the pictures of one of their soccer games, too. They really love it...I just wish the games were a little later than 8am...

Flat Stanley & an Easter Egg Hunt

Today was the girls' first soccer game! Woo hoooo! They had a great time & scored many goals. U-6 soccer is pretty funny & there are no goalies. They pretty much just chase & kick the ball all over & in & out of the field. In the beginning of the "game" we dropped the ball & everyone just stared at it. But then they all got into it & had a great time. As you can see, I have no pictures b/c I volunteered to be assistant coach (!) and was pretty much running up & down the field with the ball & the kids the whole time. Chef Garry was there, but he was in a 4-hours-of-sleep-induced fog & so we were pretty fortunate that he was there & standing!! He is absolutely an awesome, dedicated & supportive dad.

Soooo...since I don't have pictures of that, I will bring you back to last weekend when we went to an Easter Egg Hunt & brought Flat Stanley to the beach.

Have you heard of Flat Stanley? He was in the news in 2008 b/c a child sent him to President (well, then presidential candidate) Obama & Obama took some time to have fun with Flat Stanley! Anyway, if someone sends you one, you have to dress him up, take him places & write about where he went. Cousin Jack sent us a Flat Stanley & it was quite a homework project! Of course, the first thing we had to do was photocopy Flat Stanley & make him a twin! Then the girls drew clothes on him (including underwear...) & we brought him to the beach (where else would we bring him?!).

We took him (well, them) to one of the beach areas made entirely of shells & Ava & Sofia totally enjoyed that.

They didn't think they were very comfortable lying on shells...so they tried.

They found it uncomfortable, too.

This beach also has huge rocks you can climb on & someone left a very cool rock sculpture on one big rock. (At this point mommy was in charge of holding Flat Stanley & his twin b/c Sofia & Ava wanted to take their favorites up on the high rock).

That weekend we also participated in an Easter Egg Hunt...I let the girls find as many chocolate eggs as they could...BUT...I traded out the chocolate eggs for mnm's...I think it's gross to eat chocolate eggs that people stepped on & dogs might have peed on! But then, sometimes I do lean towards the germaphobe end of the spectrum...

So that was last weekend's adventure...Let's see what this one has in store for us!