Our Bountiful Harvest

After all the work of creating our gardens, this is our bountiful harvest. Not sure I'll be gardening next year.

A Little Community Service

Our ward had arranged a service project to help lay mulch on one of our park paths and to pull some weeds along another one. The families with young kids were assigned mulching, so off we went. The project went so well. We were done with the path in about an hour and then the kids were able to play at the park.

I was so impressed by how well everyone figured out what needed to be done and then did it. Everything fell into place and we found our groove quickly. Clark and I were together on one wheelbarrow for a while. Then Clark helped with the raking.

My hard workers...

Such a great line of hard workers!

Kent stayed close to Gigi and "helped" with the wheelbarrow.

The path looks great and we can't wait to check out the park again another day!

Chicago Botanic Gardens

Two weeks ago we went to the Botanic Gardens in Glencoe, IL. This is only my second time there, but they are just wonderful. It is like this little gem tucked away in the big city. The kids hit the ground running. I think they would have played here all day if we didn't make them leave.

One of the coolest things at the Botanic Gardens is the Model Railroad Garden. It's a tour of some of the most popular landmarks in America. Clark is standing in front of the windiest road in San Francisco in the bottom left. Kent poses in front of one of the bridges of Madison County in the top center. Then there's the Corn Palace (pictured middle). I think this was one of the only landmarks that was unheard of to me. Have you heard of it? Have you been there? I think I might have to arrange a trip there some time.

Clark loves the circus and all the animals he can see.

Kent obviously loved the baseball stadiums. This was the only time that he tried to climb over the railing. One of the conductors had to get him down since I was too busy snapping pictures. Oops. I can not believe how much this kid is into sports.

They even have some truly scary exhibits. I mean really, really horrible ones. Like the Butterfly Garden. Kent was fine. Clark...not so much. Here he is in the photo showing to you which butterflies are the most horrible. Which ones he will scream at the most. Which ones he will throw a tantrum and cry and stomp his feet and flail his arms at. There is the worst offender of them all...the monarch. Ooooo the terror.

We all decided to calm down in the Children's Growing Garden. It was a nice place to stop since I was still reeling at Clark and this gave me a chance to calm down. The boys got to search for bugs and squirt water to their hearts' content.

Why Kent...what big eyes you have?!

Day is done. Time for home.

Farmer's Market

It was so nice last week. I didn't even mind the 90 degree temps since there was practically no humidity. Thursday night, My mom suggested going to the village's Farmer's Market. We are so glad we did. Look at those happy faces!

This face would be really happy too, but it's too busy enjoying the sausage.

Fresh cherries

This was one of those moments that just made me so happy. Like really, really happy.

Cherry-licious!

Have a little fun rolling around the water feature. That is until the fun (i.e. mall) police came.

Finish off the night listening to some great Beatles music from the cover band That Cavern Beat.

Twist and Shout...Gigi and Kent cut a rug.

Clark was really embarrassed at first to dance. I let him know that the song was almost over, and then he got up and twisted the night away for at least 20 seconds. But look at that joy! What a FUN night. 

Our Garden

Well...here they are. My square foot gardens. I'm a little skeptical about being able to eat out of my garden. I tried to start with seeds, but I just didn't get around to it, so I finally went and bought starter plants since I was already so late to begin with. At least I was able to buy them BOGO. Maybe sometime this year we'll be able to eat sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, musk melon (why would anyone want to eat anything musk?), Big Boy tomatoes, 2 varieties of squash, head lettuce, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. We're also growing pumpkins.  I'll keep you updated.

My favorite. Yum.

Help me!