Tea Party at Mimi's House

The Wren's and their Grandma (that's Mari!) visited on Saturday night and we had some great BBQ! KT and Ella had so much fun together -- they had a tea party, played in the little house, gathered eggs and chased chickens, had a fun ride with Jeff in our donkey, gardened and dug up dirt, raked, and hoed in the bean tee-pee, ran through the grass, and when it got dark they both got flashlights and ran back and forth to the little house. I'm sure they both slept very soundly last night!

We got to know little Addie better last night, too.  What a good little girl she is, she loves her walker and just enjoyed watching her sister have fun on the pavilion. She never cried the entire evening. She seems like a very content little girl. So glad they got to come see us!

KT's Fourth Soccer Game

Celebration this week!  The team made their first goal, thanks to Cameron!!! Go Unicorns!

Garden Bed #11

Final one!! We're done!

• Sunflowers that I started in the hoop house:

             Skyscraper
             Velvet Queen
             White Italian
             Teddy Bear

• Cinderella Pumpkin (saved seeds)
• Porcelain Doll Pumpkin (saved seeds)
• Iran Squash 
• North Faulkland Island Squash
• Thelma Saunders Sweet Potato Squash

Garden Bed #10

Behind the bean tee-pee is bed #10:

• A very small bed of Yukon Gold potatoes that I bought when I thought I'd try potatoes again, but then changed my mind, but put these few potatoes out because I hated to see them go to waste.... you know how it is (a good example of a run-on sentence ha!).
• The rest of KT's Daisy Duck beans!
• Pungo Creek Butcher Corn, from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
• Ghost pumpkin (saved seeds from pumpkin bought at Medina Pumpkin Patch)
• Blue pumpkin (saved seeds from pumpkin bought at Medina Pumpkin Patch)
• Dumpling squash (saved seeds from grocery store buy)
• Chiogga squash (saved seeds from grocery store buy)
• Canada Crookneck (saved seeds from grocery store buy)

Our new wheels!

An Avalon XLE --- I totally love it!

 Color: Cypress Pearl 

 Tri-color interior

Blue tooth, no GPS, leather seats

Happy 3rd Anniversary to JR and Ashley yesterday....

Can you believe its been three years? Amazing how time just flys! This wedding was so much fun.

New wheels rolling our way!

We sold the jeep on Tuesday! Hip hip hooray!
So today we spent a good portion of the afternoon here:

Check back tomorrow when we pick our new purchase up to see what we got! We left it there for window tinting.
I love it!!

Roses are blooming...

This is the Mutabilis rose that we bought at the Rose Emporium in Brenham about three years ago.  My mother always called this one a butterfly rose.  These change colors as they age and there are various stages of age, yellow - peach - soft pink - deep pink. Full blown small roses.

And this next one is the Lemoncello that we put in the same year.  We got this at the local Home Depot, but it's done very well so far. They are bright yellow when they're first blooming and then turn into a soft pale yellow.

One thing does not look like the other....

More peas picked today.  The violet one is called Desiree Dwarf Blauwschokker...and that purple is just gorgeous.  This photo does not do it justice.   After searching everywhere about how to pronounce that word (Blauwschokker) I have still not really found an answer.  It's Dutch, and it translates to "shocking blue." Now that I bet you can't find in the grocery store!

Mom on Wednesday, April 24th

She was more aware today, chattering away to herself.  She smiled a lot and even laughed at something she said a few times.  At least she wasn't sleeping the whole time!

Peas, please!!

We FINALLY have peas! I would have totally missed them, John had to tell me that they were showing up...even though I have been going over the vines, I wasn't seeing any.  Low and behold, they were about 1/2 way up the vine and not on the top where I was looking.

So tonight we had the freshest peas ever!

What I'm Reading --- Wool (the Omnibus, Book 1 - 5)

Whoa! What a story.  I just love a good story that sucks you in and won't leave you alone.  That's what happened when I read this one.
Something very bad happened and everyone is living inside of a huge silo, buried in the earth, 144 stories down.  People are regimented and ruled by the class that lives near the surface where they are able to see through glass domes and sensors.  Different classes of people live in various levels of the silo, farmers somewhere in the middle, weavers, IT people, and the mechanical people living at the bottom.  You are only allowed to marry and have children if you are lucky enough to win a "lottery."  When you die, your body is buried beneath the earth of the farmers level, to feed the roots.
Lawbreakers are doomed to go outside the silo and die in the toxic atmosphere, but only after they have cleaned the sensors and domed windows with wool pads....  and that's where the story begins.
I hated for this book to end.  And I'm waiting breathlessly for Hugh Howey to write more in this series.

Good golly!!!!

Ms. Molly is engaged!!  So excited for her and Marshall....and I truly love the ring! Great choice.

I love weddings!

KT's Third Soccer Game

9 am....
Thankfully it had warmed up some before the game started.  Jeff was the substitute coach today since their regular coach wasn't able to make it.  They almost made a goal today, the closest we've come yet.  They're getting better at it.  Cousin Adrienne came to watch today!

 Waiting on the sidelines...

 Water break!

 Throwing in from the sidelines

Snack time!

KT's Garden...

KT planted her section of the garden today.  She's planted Daisy Duck beans, Jack B Nimble pumpkins, and Glass Gem corn.

 Put one bean in each hole, KT!

 She did a great job at this... (note the little green worm on the stone that marks KT's garden.)

 Poking the little pumpkin seeds down into the dirt.  She's a quick learner.

Water everything in!

After gardening, it was time for a Tea Party....all of KT's friends showed up.  We had Thomas the T-Rex, Eugene, Lamby Pie, Alien and Blankie.  Oh, and Mimi, of course.

My big bowl is re-purposed....

I can't believe its been three years ago that we spent a wonderful 4 day vacation in Brenham, Texas for our anniversary.  On our last day we stopped at a little shop in Round Top and I bought the biggest pottery bowl I've ever seen....I really loved that bowl!  The other day as I was taking a basket of laundry through the kitchen, I accidentally knocked it over and broke it....cry!!!!

Well, it was beyond repair, so I turned it on its side and buried it in the front of the pavilion and planted a variety of succulents spilling from it.  I think it turned out great...but I'll still miss my bowl.

Another darn frost due tonight....

Okay, I'm ready for this to end.  We had to spend an hour covering up all of our tender little plants in the garden for tonight, just in case it freezes, which I'm pretty sure it will.  Sigh.... I'm worried about my fruit trees but there's not much I can do about them. We'll see what the morning brings.

More about the garlic bed....

I pulled one of the varieties of garlic today.  I've been testing the beds by pulling one up every few weeks, and the Maiskij garlic (hardneck, turbin type) are all fully developed, in fact, 4 of the 20 that I pulled up have absolutely exploded into individual bulbs because they were so full! Maybe I waited too long to pull these up?  I have no idea...everything I've read says to plant in fall, and harvest about 240 days later.  Which should be about another month.  But....this one says it's usually an early developer, so I guess now is the right time.
It's all trial and error with me....ha!

I was shipped three heads of garlic and harvested 20...not bad!! I'll save three to plant again this fall.

See how these have exploded outside of their wrappers...is that normal?

Garden Bed #9 is done!

With John's much appreciated help, I was able to plant the entire bed at one time on Thursday morning! Yeah!

Bed #9 consists of:
Tromboncino Squash from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Strawberry Popcorn from Baker Seeds
Dakota Black Popcorn - same
Moon and Stars Watermelon - same
Osh Kirgizia Watermelon - these are saved seeds from last year's crop. These were the best little melons!
Lady Godiva Pumpkin - Sunrise Seeds - these are hulless seeded pumpkins, the seeds can be roasted as is! I searched high and low for this one during the winter, and the package came with exactly 10 seeds.  Hope they come up okay.
Gele Ruezen Pumpkin - Sunrise Seeds - a rare heirloom.
Seminole Pumpkin - Baker Seeds
Amish Pie Pumpkin - seeds I saved from last year's crop.

Growing in the garden!

We have pea blossoms!  There are white and lavender blooms....

And the summer squash are up....

The black cherry tomato in the hoop house is blooming like crazy....

This morning we're having a little rain....I hope it lasts all day!

Chicago!

We started out by having
dinner on the River Walk.

John found out a few months ago that Chicago was coming to San Antonio as part of the KONO concert series.  He's always loved this band, so Tuesday night we went downtown to the Majestic Theater to see them play.  I have to say, we expected them to play for about an hour, and we'd be home by 10 pm....not so.  They really gave the audience a full and complete show, it went on for about 3 hours.  They played all of their hits, saving John's favorite (25 or 6 To 4) for the end.  They were totally amazing!  Several (I think 3) members are from the original band.

Yes, John got the shirt!

Here's a little clip that I recorded on my cell phone:

Mom on Wednesday, April 17