Fall Garden

Our spring/summer garden did okay, but we wanted to give a few more plants a try to see if we could have a fall garden.  Who knew this was a thing - I think Scott was holding out on me, I didn't know!

Our tomatoes did well, we were able to keep up with eating what it produced, which is probably for the best.  I always have visions of canning or freezing tomatoes to have in the winter, but Scott reminds me that our garden isn't overly big.  We had squash borers in our spagetti squash, summer squash and zucchini plants so we got a grand total of one summer squash and one spagetti squash.  I think we'll skip squash next year, they take up so much room and we don't have good luck with them.
We enjoyed lotsut of green beans, some peppers, lettuce, spinach, herbs and peppers from our garden.  We still have sweet potatoes growing - we're not too sure about when to harvest those, we've read all about what is recommended, so we'll see how it goes.

Scott pulled out the old green beans to make room for fall green beans.  He had two cute helpers looking for worms and roly polys!


The fall plants we bought from family tree were already ready for their first harvest.  We got some spinach and red chard from the new plants we were planting!


There were lots of roly poly's in the garden that provided a lot of bug watching for the boys.




Scott found this huge caterpillar next to the garden.  We later discovered that this kind of caterpillar was known for eating sweet potato or tomato plants.  We're hoping he was a lone bug and we won't see more like him!


We left the bug container outside when we came in for the evening - you didn't think I would allow him in the house, did you?  Unfortunately, it rained two inches that night so we were counting on finding a floating caterpillar the next morning.  When we got to the bucket, it was filled with water but the caterpillar was missing. It's a mystery - he either climbed out or was taken out by a predator.

Wordless Wednesday #2 - Sharing

Wordless Wednesday - His Phone

Have a good week

It's been busy and I haven't done well keeping up on blogging, but I wanted to share a pic of the boys I took this weekend.  I'm thrilled, they're both smiling and looking at the camera....in the SAME picture.  :)

Ice cream for breakfast?

Ice cream is okay in the morning at the farmers market...right?  We went to the farmers market on Saturday morning and on the way, my mom texted me to say they were going to the market in a bit with their friends who were in town.  We had some time to kill while we waited for them to arrive, so when we walked past the Shatto booth and saw ice cream sandwiches, it was a match made in heaven. :)

Liam and I shared oatmeal raisen with vanilla caramel ice cream.  Delicious!  I didn't get a pic of Scott and Karsten enjoying their Chococolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream because I was too busy enjoying mine and making sure Liam didn't eat it all (or drop it).


Time passed quickly because there are so many people to watch and a band was setting up to play. The boys were excited to see Grandma and Papa, and we enjoyed meeting their friends we had heard so much about.


After they left for their fun day exploring KC, we headed home with our fresh veggies, bread and fruit.  After unloading, we headed to the pool to enjoy one of the last pool weekends this season. I've written before about how Karsten is often timid in the water but we were working hard to make him more comfortable.  Today it was like someone had flipped a switch and he was turning into a little fish.  He wanted to see how long he could hold his breath under water, and he kept trying to swim underwater and surprise us.  We're so proud of his progress and hope we can help him continue to improve!

Rough morning

When Liam woke up this morning, his PJs were wet, his bed was wet and his blankie (key-key) was wet from a diaper that evidently got pushed down.  I got him cleaned up and the bed sheets stripped, then I threw everything in the washing machine, including his blankie.  He saw me pick up the blankie and started to cry.

No amount of soothing or substitutes would work, he wanted his blankie....NOW.  Luckily, the quick wash cycle finished before we had to leave and we took a damp blankie in the car with us and asked Gail to dry it for us.  WHEW - crisis averted.

Pre-K: Off to a great start!

Karsten has been in his Pre-K class for almost three whole weeks now.  They've gotten past the rules and get-to-know you activities, and have jumped right into learning.  They've done refreshers on writing, following directions and practicing letters.  One day, he said 'That crayon is red, r - e -d."  Ummmm, wait...what did you say?  So he repeated it.  He said he didn't learn it at school, and his teacher confirmed they haven't started spelling beyond Yes, or No, so we're not so sure how he learned that.  Don't get me wrong - I am not complaining, I was so proud of him.

He's also been 'reading' Bob books with Scott each evening.  They are books made up with small, three letter words like Sam, sat or Mat.  He's doing a good job recognizing the words!

He is so worn out by the end of the day.  He can turn into a grumpy gus as the evening goes on.  Hopefuly he'll get used to the new routine and our cheerful, sweet Karsten can return!  -

Wordless Wednesday - NO!

Story time

When Liam is ready to tell you a story, he puts his hand up to his mouth and pretends to clear his throat. Then, he'll proceed with his version of the story.  I'm not sure where he picked this up, but it's pretty funny to watch.

Reading

While I finished getting ready this morning, the boys got their books and were reading together.  Liam's choice was The Little Blue Truck, and Karsten chose the first book in his beginners box of BOB books.

BUGS!

I was inside folding laundry while the boys were 'helping' Scott mow the lawn.  Suddenly, Karsten came in and yelled 'MOM, come here I have something to show you!!'.  I went outside and was greeted by a walking stick bug in a container.


They put a leaf in the jar with the walking stick bug because that's what Karsten said he would like to eat.  Once the leaf was in there, they didn't understand why he didn't immediately start eating it.  So, the leaf got dumped out. That walking stick bug had a rough ride but he seemed to weather it well.


Then the boys discovered a beetle (aka June bug) on the front porch - ewww, I hate June bugs.  They fly into you, fly into windows and make a horrible crunching noise when you kill them.  If you could see my face right now, I'm making the disgusted face!


The bettle was added to the bug container along with the walking stick and the boys watched to see what they would do together.  They were doing so good sharing the container and both getting to watch the bugs...then it all went poorly.  Liam wanted to hold the container but Karsten thought he would lose the bugs, then Liam started to tug the container away.  Then we had a lot of crying and whining about who did what. Eventually we were all friends again, but the walking stick was set free in the arguement.  Lucky him!

Exploring

Since we had a free Saturday and the weather wasn't too hot (yet), we set out to explore a park near our house.  There is a big lake with a dam, so we headed toward the dam to see waht it looked like from the top.


We saw all sorts of fun things along the way - lilly pads with flowers, all sorts of dogs walking with their owners, even some giant grasshoppers.


The boys had gotten close to the grasshopper once before and they were convinced they were sneaking up on him this time.  The people walking past got a good laugh watching the boys sneak up then shriek and jump when the grasshopper hopped/flew away.


For some reason I love shots like this where they are walking down an empty trail...bet you already knew that, didn't you?


When we finally made it to the dam, we weren't disappointed.  How cool is this?  I like the black and white pattern they made in the tiers - the whole area was very beautifully designed.


Silly me - I keep trying for pictures of them next to each other.  This time neither of them wanted the other touching him.  Sigh.


I did get Liam to give me a lil smirk.


It seems like it would take so much water for the lake to overflow into the dam - it's hard to imagine.  I would like to see water flowing in to the overflow area (not a technically correct term, I'm sure).


Here's another one of those pictures I like.  Let's call this one 'teamwork'.


There were several play areasalong the path where we stopped and the boys could climb and play. One of them had a big rock on the front where Karsten climbed to the top and said he was king of the world!

Happy Birthday Elam

My birthday twin, Elam, is celebrating his fourth birthday.  How is this possible - I feel like I just met him! Karsten was excited to hear that Elam's party was going to be at a gym, because he has had a great time at the gym birthday parties he's been to.

Scott got there with the boys a little before I did, and when I walked in, this is what the boys were doing.  Liam had just climbed into the center of this ball, probably at his brother's insistence, and Karsten was slowly rolling him.


It didn't take Liam long to figure out that he did not like being rolled around in the ball.  This is him telling Karsten that he wants out...NOW!


Karsten spent quite a bit of time swinging on the rings - he liked to swing over then fall into the foam pit.  I thought it looked like fun.




Liam really wanted to swing like Karsten so Scott tried to help him.  They tried to use just one ring to make it easier to hang on, but he didn't quite have enough strength to hold himself.


Liam's favorite activity was the trampoline, but he didn't want to share it with anyone.  As you can see, he was instructing Karsten to get off.


I was surprised to see how well Karsten did on the balance beam.  He told me that it was just like the one on the playground at his school - but taller.  As he reached the end of the beam, the coach walked by and saw Karsten hesitate about what to do - he said 'you can jump off' and that was all Karsten needed to hop right off.


After the kids had worn themselves out in the gym, everyone went to the party room for cupcakes and presents.  Unfortunately, I don't have pictures to share from this part as I was the official cupcake photographer so Jenn could focus on getting gifts ready.

We headed home with two very worn out boys who had a great time celebrating Elam's birthdasy!

A night at the K

My Uncle Dave and Peg were in town visiting for the weekend, so we all went to a Royal's game on Saturday night.  The Royals are on a winning streak - it's a great time to be a Royal's fan!

We all met for an early dinner at my parents house before the game.  Peg's sister lives in KC, so she and her husband joined us as well.  Apparently it was Nebraska night at the Royals which is why half our group is sporting their Husker colors.

On the way to the game, Peg posted this pic on Facebook and through a comment on her post, we learned that one of my second cousins from Nebraska was at the game as well.


As soon as we got out of the car, Liam say 'Care me daddy, care me!'


We tried to get a family picture before we went into the stadium, but that didn't work out too well.
 

Karsten and Uncle Dave were fast friends!  He was showing Karsten how to be sure to hold onto his ticket so he wouldn't lose it.


It's so cool to see the stadium so packed!  I've been to several games in the past few years when the stadium was half empty.  Go Royals!


Silly pictures while we waited for the game to start!


Scott and his mini-me.


My dad brought his binoculars to the game and they were a HUGE hit with the boys....once they learned which end to look in!






Another selfie - say cheese!


Someone looks a little tired, but we made it all the way to the end and celebrated the Royal's win!  Toward the end of the game, my cousin found us and it was good to see him and his son.  He told us that his parents (my dad's cousin) were at the game as well because they had come on a bus with their church.  Obviously we need to talk to each other more often since we all randomly ended up at the same game.