Preschool Wrap Up

Wesley's first year of preschool is behind him now. I never thought it would go this fast, I wonder if school is going to go this fast. To wrap up the end of the year his teacher put on a little program for the parents. I'm amazed at how much work she puts into these kids, she's such a great teacher and I'm so happy Wesley is able to grow and learn in her class. He's learned so much this year and I'm thinking next year, his fourth year, is going to be even better.

He got to sing several songs with his class and then do actions to a few songs. It was really cute. He's the little dude second to the right on the first row. This is the 3 year old and 4 year old classes together.

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Weekly Winners: Zoo Addition

I did the annual trek to the zoo last week. Jessica and her clan came too. I love going to the zoo (imagine that!) so I get excited for the yearly trip. I try to instil that excitement into my kids by really pumping it up to them. So all last weekend I was telling them how much fun we were going to have, how they'd get to see some really cool animals and maybe feed some. They seemed excited. Then Monday rolls around and 20 minutes after we get into the zoo Wesley starts with the "I want to go home". *sigh* It was frustrating how much time and effort goes into preparation for these little outings just to hear that phrase repeated ten times in five minutes.

I have to admit that the zoo was an utter madhouse. I believe every school in the area was having their last field trip that day. We were, literally, herded through the buildings like sheep and it wasn't as fun as usual. So I kind of see where poor Wesley was coming from. He's got a little of his Dad in him, that's for sure. It's just disappointing. I finally had to con him into being good by threatening no visit to the zoo gift shop if he kept up with the whining.

Maybe zoo visits will become fun again when the kids are older than 1 and 3 years old.

Got some cute pictures though (even if I was making Wesley smile for them).

Greta thoroughly enjoying the penguins.

Two happy boys in the petting zoo.

Every year the kids get to pose for the camera at this spot.

Feeding Giraffes.

Posing with the Gorillas.

Want some juice?

Free at last

This is one of those blog postings that get labeled with the "things I blog about but shouldn't". Can't say I didn't warn ya.

Now if you missed the exciting story about the vasectomy go here.

Then if you missed the follow up story about the sperm count go here.

So our story continues. Almost exactly nine months have passed since that fateful day that Sean had his "man surgery" and consequently was taken to the hospital via ambulance. Per orders of his doctor he has been returning to the doctors office every two months to make his "man deposit". In most cases it only takes two months (or less) to get a sample that is free of sperm. My husband? It took nine months. Nine months of going: "Ah crap, they must have botched the vasectomy".

This week he dropped off his sample and the nurse called with the all exciting news that there were indeed no swimmers! It was kinda funny how excited she was.

The doctor was going to give it a year and then figure out what had to be done. We are so glad it didn't need to come to that, what with the whole initial experience and all. Never again. So we are officially done with kids. It's nice to know there will be no accidents, no oops, no botched vasectomies. Lord almighty we're free at last!

Weekly Winners

Greta and Aunt Jessica. Greta loves her lap and is always in it.

The goat family has been released into general population, and all is happy.....after the pecking order is established. GoatMan (goat on right) is the King.

Thanks Noni and Papa for the big box / playhouse.

Look at that face! That is a little boy who is in love with his "new" garage sale toys.

Give us food. Now.

Garden 2011

Do you ever read those articles in magazines where they give every day ideas on how to burn calories? Things like vacuuming or mowing the yard that burn as many calories as a work out. Well gardening is always on those lists. I now know why gardening is on those lists. Oh my gosh did I get a work out this past weekend! I got the garden completely planted. Maybe this doesn't sound like a big feat, but it was. You see the garden grew from last year. This year it's 30 X 40 feet. That's 20 rows, each 30 feet long. I planted 500 seeds of corn alone. If each one actually grows and produces an ear of corn we might be a bit overwhelmed. I'm ready to be overwhelmed. Bring it on!

I took last years garden and improved it. For one, I took out all the crops that didn't grow to my satisfaction. I took out all the crops that grew but I never wanted to eat. And I added some new and exciting crops. Last years seeds that didn't return: broccoli, tomatilos, eggplant, okra and cauliflower. This years new and experimental plants: sweet potato, hot peppers, butternut squash, pumpkin, radishes and white cucumbers. Last years winners that are back for more: Sweet corn (trying new varieties of Kandy Korn, and Peaches and Cream), pole beans, carrots (a carnival mix with different colors), onions (red and yellow), zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, watermelon and cantaloupe. And flowers! I planted a whole row of zinnias, nasturtium, marigolds and many many sunflowers (I'm super excited about the sunflower forest for Wesley). If that doesn't bring the pollinators to the garden I'm afraid nothing will.

This year I also did quite a bit of research on plant companions. What are those you ask? It's the task of pairing plants with other plants that help one another out. For instance I planted a row of carrots and onions together. They are beneficial to each other. Same with planting peppers close to tomatoes and beans with corn. I'm trying a suggestion I found online to conquer the squash beetle problem from last year: sow radish seeds among your squash. Supposedly the radish will help deter the blasted beetle. We'll see. It's cheap insurance. Maybe I'll end up liking radishes too.

I've already got beans poking up through the dirt along with corn and squash so it looks like the 2011 garden is off and running.

Estelle

Well we bit the bullet and got a house keeper.

Yep, you read that right. Between the dogs and the kids, this house was in need of a regular deep cleaning that I don't seem to have the time to accomplish. It took awhile to convince Sean but since he doesn't even know where the broom is kept I eventually wore him down. Her name is Estelle and she's cleaned once now and I'm really happy with her work. She's very thorough, even cleaning under the crib.

The best part of Estelle? She tells me when her canister is full.

Estelle is a Roomba 560 vacuuming robot.

I've wanted one for some time now, constantly drooling over them on Amazon. I read all the reviews, weighed my options and savings (along with some Birthday money-thanks all!) and bought one last week. Happy Birthday to me!  It came yesterday, I was so excited. I charged it for 8 hours and it went to work cleaning the floors last night after the kids went to bed. I, for some reason, don't trust my kids around my expensive new toy. I wonder why. Anyhow, I was told by my parents (Roomba owners) to clean the floors before letting it loose for the first time. By cleaning the rugs and sweeping I was preventing myself a huge headache of emptying the canister every 4 minutes. So I swept the rug and hardwood floors and then let Estelle loose to buzz around vacuuming like crazy. Even with my pre-cleaning it still had a stuffed canister after about 20 minutes. It did a great job, I can't wait to erase floor cleaning from my stuffed daily schedule. Thanks Estelle!

a mom

Happy Mother's Day to all the brilliant, loving, witty, beautiful Moms out there. Being a Mom is what I am and what I do. It's my number one job. I can't imagine doing anything else than care for these two tiny little people. They make me laugh, cry, scream and smile all in the span of an hour. It's the best and hardest job I've ever done.....and will ever do.

Being a Mother at this stage in my life means: dealing with flying food at every meal, helping a little boy learn to wipe his own bottom, the constant search for the beloved "Bunky", knock down hugs, helping Greta put on shoes then take off shoes then put on shoes, don't eat that, take that out of your mouth!, putting baby dolls hat on 233 times a day, where did your pants go Greta....please stop taking off your pants, quiet time with just Wesley, shopping with Greta during preschool, pushing both kids on the swing set, planting seeds with Wesley, no more unauthorized viewing of YouTube by Wesley, watching Curious George every morning, seriously why don't you have any pants on?, Wesley taking his sister for a ride on his motorcycle, digging sand out of diapers, ecstatic kids running to Sean when he gets home from work, marco polo, long wagon rides down dirt roads, soaking up every. single. moment.

Happy Mother's Day all!

The making of a mud pie.

Step 1: Use cat water dish to scoop water from horse tank.

Step 2: Carefully take water from horse tank to planter full of dirt.

Step 3: Dump water.

Step 4: Look up to find Mom taking pictures....briefly wonder why she's allowing this to happen.

Step 5: Shrug, then proceed with mixing of dirt and water...making sure to get as much on new sandals as possible.

Step 6: Show Mom what she'll soon have to clean up. Victory!

A New Project

My Hubby is in hog heaven right now. A few weekends ago he got a new project. A car project. He loves car projects! My parents had a massive hail storm come through about a month ago that did a job on pretty much everything on the property. We're talking ping pong to baseball size hail. You know, the scary stuff. The crazy thing here? We live barely five miles from them and thankfully didn't get any of the huge stuff. They are in the process of getting bids on a new roof, garage doors, windows, guttering.....everything. My dad had a few project vehicles outside that got damaged as well and offered Sean one of them. Of course he said he wanted it so now we have a 2000 Focus out in the shop. It wasn't running at the time so it was hauled over on the trailer and pushed into the shop. After a week of tinkering around on it Sean got it running and took Wesley for a test drive. Who knows, it might be Wesley's first car. Sean is looking forward to making it road worthy and eventually making it his daily driver to work. Thanks Dad for the fun new project!