Growing Up

June has been a month of my little ones growing up. I've been teary a lot and I'll admit having a few meltdowns with all the changes going on in this house!
First Ben. This week will be his last week in preschool/child care. I am very happy that we will finally be done with paying for child care for sure. But, I have to admit it also brings a lot of emotion with it. For one it's the end of my baby days. Ben will be off to kindergarten in the fall. I will no longer have that chance to have my "mommy days" with either one. They'll both be in school full time. Being a working mom (outside the home) has always brought a lot of guilt with it. Working 32 hours a week (4days) was a wonderful thing for our family. It made me so happy. I knew I couldn't stay home fulltime, so when Katie was 18 months and I was able to drop down to 4 days I was thrilled. I am so thankful to Jason for taking on that extra burden, it wasn't always easy and we had to be creative at times to make ends meet. I will always be grateful to Jason for that.
BEN WATCHING THE BUNNY OUTSIDE OUR DOOR ONE RAINY MORNING LAST WEEK.

As for Katie, it seems like she has been growing up very fast this last year. I don't know, lots of different things. She is an amazing reader! She has started to read chapter books and she truly loves to read and asks to read. Now that is one thing I NEVER did as a kid! Last week she had her first research project. It was like a book report. She needed to pick a community helper and research their job. She decided on a librarian. Jason's grandmother and his mother were both librarians and she has always played librarian with our books. She asked to interview the librarian at our town library, Mr. Lou Daniels. He knew her great grandmother and I could tell he was tickled pink to sit and talk with Katie. She did a great job! She was very professional asking questions she had written and then writing down his response. I am saving her notes because I was so impressed with her spelling as she wrote quickly. We then used a box to display pictures and some information we found on the first libraries and librarians around the world on the Internet. She googled librarian!
Here are a few pictures of the project.
MOMMY GETTING THE BOXED TAPED UP

KATIE DOING HER RESEARCH


So then my little Pookers, Laura, graduated from college. She did an extended program and got her degree to be a Physicians Assistant! I know, my little Pookers!! I still remember braiding her hair, playing with Millie, her stinky cabbage patch doll, and having her up to college to visit me! It was so cute yesterday watching Katie follow her all around. She couldn't get much closer to Laura unless she taped herself to her! Laura took a breather when Kelly, my niece, got there and Katie went off to play with her. Oh my Pookers. I couldn't be more proud of her!
LAURA, KATIE & KELLY


LAURA AND THE BOYS (Brody & Ben, Liam had a baseball game)


We are all looking forward to our summer break that starts for me and Ben June 19th, Katie June 23rd and Jason June 30th. On the 28th we head to Marcella and Paul's wedding in Western Mass and then we'll go up to the lake for July 4th. I've been planning some mini-stay-cation things for us to do this summer that will be fun. I plan to take advantage of our town beach a lot more this summer and of course hope for some invites to my friend's pools!

Well, that's it for now I hope everyone has a wonderful start to their summer!

My Garden/ My Husband

Yes and No they are slightly related. How you ask....?
Well, I planted a garden this year all by myself. No my father did not help me!!! He was actually pleasantly shocked to see it! I was afraid he'd go into cardiac arrest, but phew, he didn't.
So, I really wanted to be like Caroline and have a garden and have fresh veggies all summer. I was really impressed by her garden last year and a tad jealous that she could walk out her door and WALA! Squash, zucchini, cukes...
Well, you know I get side tracked easily and heavy labor is really not my thing but I decided to sweat and give it a go a few Saturday's ago. Jason bought us a starter kit, like Caroline, and we started my peppers and some flowers indoors. The other stuff, cukes, carrots and lettuce I needed to wait to do outside. Well, so far only my flowers have sprouted. No peppers. Hmmmm....
Anywho, I decided to plant the "stuff" two weekends ago. Gram and Walter had a HUGE garden. I have been able to keep up with the raspberries and the rhubarb (YUCK). Last year I found asparagus (YUMMY) but it was already passed. This year I caught it and it has been delicious! Caroline pointed out scallions and Ben goes and picks them for my salads. Last night he picked it perfectly and the onion bulb was still attached!
Off track again, so I made a rectangle inside the huge garden. There was no way I was going to start big! Plus Jason was still layed up and couldn't help. I have no clue how to use that roto machine so it was up to me, my rake, my shovel and pitch fork. Yes, pitch fork. I broke up the hard dirt with it.
It's not the best looking garden but I think it will work.
I know my Dad is proud of me because he brought me over 2 tomato plants and planted them in my garden! Yeah! If he wasn't he wouldn't have shared. THANK YOU DADDY!!!
Well, the rhubarb plant is ENORMOUS!!! Oh my, I can't keep up. I keep sending it in with Katie to one of Gram's friends who teaches at Katie's school and my parents have taken some. My Dad said I should have a roadside stand and give the lady down the street some competition. Hmmmm, that's a thought. Just let me know if you want any.
If anyone has any ideas on how to prune raspberry bushes or grape vines, please share. I need to google that.

Ok, ready for the big reveal....

My Garden.


Growing something...


Cukes growing! I made that mound! My Dad was very impressed.

The flower garden my Dad made me last year, that I promise to keep up this year. He made it for me and there is NO POISON IVY!!!!

A really pretty flower that I found smooched in another garden.


Oh yeah, you want to know how Jason and the garden are related. Well, first of all Jason is doing GREAT from his surgery. He is back to about 80% and the doctor gave him the all clear! We are so thankful for all of your prayers and support these last few weeks.
Well, while he's been on bed rest, he's been watching A LOT of the Food Network! Good/Bad. He has a new idea....Canning and preserving food! YIKES!!! So he bought a book. He's going to start off small this year and give it a whirl! I'll let you know how that goes. If we start giving out our preserves for gifts you'll know he was successful!

Have a great week!