Ohio Camping

A few weeks ago Kaleb and Aiden took on their second camping adventure in a nearby state park.  It was fun, and EXHAUSTING!!!  Last year was their first time sleeping in a tent and were SO easy going about life in general.  This year, holy smokes, they were crazy busy tornados.

Aiden continued his two month phase of pushing every button on my patience spectrum, which some would say is already much too short.  There were several moments every day I thought about throwing in the towel, packing up and leaving for home.  But, we stayed, the boys had a blast, I got some relaxing hammock time, visited with lots of friends and all was well in the camping world.

Each day I got the boys to nap was a MAJOR success and I was so very thankful, because folks.....lets face it.....I needed them to have that nap much more than they actually needed it.  At just beyond 3.5 years the thought of loosing the late afternoon nap makes the back of the neck hairs stand at attention.

We had another beautiful site, right next to where we camped last year.  It has a perfect path to the bathhouse, and plenty of tiny trails the boys rode their bikes on.  The cicadas were really dying off, but plenty were flying around and Kaleb had a rough first experience.  One landed on his hip and he was frozen in fear, yet sobbing and tears streaming down his sweet cheeks.  As it climbed up his torso we tried to calm him down.  It tried flying away twice and Keith had to keep snatching it out of the air to bring back to show Kman it's a harmless, friendly, fun bug!  He didn't agree to like them until I pet the darn thing and said his wings tickled me.  He laughed and jumped feet first into best friendship with every cicada, dead or alive, that crossed his path the rest of our time there.

An afternoon at the beach, a fun ice-cream social, complete with rainbow sprinkles, a not so fun rainstorm on our last night and way too many mosquito bites later I was never so happy to pack up, come home, do four loads of muddy laundry, shower in a mudless shower and cook in my kitchen.

See ya next year Westbranch.  

Father's Day

I had intentions of sharing our recent camping trip, and when I uploaded pictures I came across some pretty cute Father's Day smiles.

Keith wanted to have his family stop over for a fun BBQ, like last year.  The day was relaxed and happy.  Lots of tasty choices from the grill, oven and slow cooker, then apple pie was a nice change of dessert.

The boys took another rock photo, had a fun time racing each other and went mudding in the woods.  All the Cleveland Dad's had an especially great night watching their basketball team win the championship too.  The following day was crazy around Northeast Ohio, and while the boys and I were going to check out new bicycles at Dicks, we sprung for haircuts to avoid the fan rush for championship gear.

Happy belated Father's Day to all!

Greenbrier Garden

Gardening has progressed quite a bit this month here on Greenbrier Drive.

Last year was pretty difficult, but an excellent first year of experience.  We learned mostly about garden pests (remember the slug wars....ahhh) and how water runoff redirection was badly required.  This Spring we ultimately decided the best way to battle standing water was to build up the bed.  Lots of top soil, peat moss and a double doss of garden soil was added after weeding, tilling and expanding.  Our berries were still coming in nicely, and I was nervous to dig them up, but they seem to be thriving.

I decided to take a break this year from zucchini, summer squash and cucumbers.  Last year was so exciting, then so disappointing.  This year I opted for additional herbs, cherry tomatoes, onions, a few different kinds of peppers and snap peas!  In just 4 days of planting some of our seeds, kale-broccoli-spinach and the snap peas have ALL sprouted!!  It's SO exciting.

AJ planting the snap peas, which will grow on the little white trelis

Look at the tiny little green lines all the way to the left!!!  Sprouts!!!

Later this week the green wire is going to replaced with the same screen we used for the door, and I'll need to figure out a net to keep out the birds, who have already helped themselves to a handful of berries.  The inital height of the garden was too much to take in, but it would have served it's purpose in preventing deer from eating our veggies-like last year.  So netting should help stop them as well since I already had Keith shorten the posts.

Also, I remain on the lookout for slug issues and have a copper plan ready to put into action.

Market Days

The boys and I had a great week leading up to Memorial Day in Pittsburgh.  Jess flew in for a brief visit, but a happy one!  I love the beginning of Spring so much.  The blooms, birds, baby animals and markets!!!!

On our way to PA I pass my favorite market stand right near state lines....and it was finally open for business.  The best asparagus, cherries and strawberries so far of the season.  Seeing all the fresh fruit and veggies hit the stands has me racing to get my garden planted.  First though was Dad's tomato garden!  It was fun to have his dirt under my nails for the first time, and since the boys have been around the past two years to pick his tomatoes, I'm thrilled to have helped from the start.

After we said another sad farewell to Jessica Rose, made another trip to the Home Depot, the boys and I stopped at another local market on our way to Aunt Nan's.  Holy smokes, the honey stand had a neat display of live bees and the boys played with baby goats.  Aunt Nan put AJ to work in kitchen, which was the cutest thing on the planet and cousin Zach introduced the boys to play mobile! 

KMan holding onto PEEP the Pig...he may never let him go

We always have such fun at my Dad's and can't wait to watch more playoff hockey with him next week!!  LETS GO PENS!!!  As you can see above, the boys got some new good luck hats for the FINALS.  

Three cruising guys and their puppy

Thanks to friends and family who came to celebrate Memorial Day with us.  I didn't even know we were having a party, so it was really just tossed together but so much fun!  Today was great to relax and accomplish more planting around the house.  Keith and I finally finished my flower boxes from Mother's Day.  They are SO lovely, and I hope they explode this summer!!!!  Later this week my greenbrier garden will be complete.  We are so close, and the strawberries from last year are already GROWING!!!  

May Flowers

May has been full of happiness, beauty and hockey, lots of hockey!

Everything is currently in bloom and there has been LOTS of planting in the past couple weeks.  May snow showers have come and gone, and summer is around the corner.

The first week of the month my grandparents finally returned from Florida, and we could not be happier to have them home!!!!!! We spent a lovely day visiting with them and the following weekend GiGi came to have a sleepover with us.  I took part in a ginormous county garage sale, and thankfully had help from Grandma.  The day could not have been so successful without her in every way.  If I were to recap the events that took place surrounding the sale you'd think "WHAT A DISASTER" but everyone survived and that is the last time I'll ever involve myself as a seller.  

In between the craziness and busy days leading up to the sale I had a beautiful Mother's Day with family!  We enjoyed a morning donut date at the apple orchard, delicious cook-out in Kent and I spent several hours filling my pots with flowers!  The day was perfect day and my heart FEELS how lucky I am to be surrounded by Kaleb and Aiden's love.

We visited the farm park a couple times to say hello to the ELEVEN new piglets and Kman has been obsessed with pigs since.  A tiny ceramic pig he's named Wilbur rarely leaves his hand, it's lost his back legs more times than I can count, along with it's left ear.  Super glue now travels in my purse!  Walking through IKEA last weekend their soft toy department had a funny selection of pigs set up. Kaleb went NUTS when he saw them and picked one out to bring home.  "Peep" now travels everywhere with him and is happily introduced to anyone willing to meet him.  

Our visit in Pittsburgh last week was so wonderful, I'll upload more stories and photos tomorrow!  Along with Memorial Day goodness!