Garden Photos for Lauren

I promised Lauren that I'd put some photos up of the garden, so these are some I took this afternoon. I take no credit for this garden. If it were up to me it would have been long dead by now!

Corn and the super aggressive pole beans

These tomatoes look the farthest along. They are "Black Zebra!" I can't wait to see them ripe!

These are the beds with all the rest of the veggies. The tomato plants are touching the top of the fence in places! The low, bushy plants on the ends are more beans on steroids.

One of the raspberry beds.

This is what the kids were doing while Mike and I watered. I believe Uncle Ryan assembled this tricycle about a year ago. We'll blame him!

Children's Museum

We visited the Children's Museum in Phoenix with my sisters and nieces and nephews and had so much fun. It was just a huge, three story building, just for kids to play in! There were kitchens, ice cream shops, foam noodle forests, giant tents with tubes, an art studio, and a lot more. My kids had a blast, and better yet, they were exhausted when we were done.

Molly checking out the paper mache dragon in front

Colin LOVES dragons!

Amelia arranging flowers outside the pretend grocery store

Claire-bear hanging out on a cool orange couch

Colin crusin' on a sweet trike over to the trike wash

What's more fun than painting with a brush? Painting with two! Just after this photo, Colin stepped on the container of paint and got it on his feet, shoes, shorts, shirt, and arm.

Jack has found his calling- cooking!

Triple Birthday Party

We decided to have a birthday party for all three kids while we were in AZ so we could celebrate with our family. It was really fun! Highlights included: delicious BBQ; huge piles of gifts opened by Amelia, Colin, and their special helpers Molly and Max; goody bags with squirt guns and other obnoxious items; and scrumptious cake! Thanks to all who came and were so generous to my children!

Amelia admiring another large bow.

To my surprise, Colin doens't like birthday hats.

Jack does.

How could he be almost one already!?

Getting ready to blow out the candles. (Molly was already jumping the gun. She and Max were happy to take over Jack's candle.)

Jack wasn't sure if he liked his cake at first, but then he proved that he is my son by wolfing down as much as I'd give him.

Visiting Brian

The kids visited Uncle Brian at the fire station while we were in AZ. He is such a great uncle!

Towel

I recently realized that we never took the requisite "baby in towel" photo of Jack! Since he is rapidly ceasing to be a baby, we quickly took one. He really loves bath time, and especially loves splashing!

Joe's Farm Grill

Sarah, Ryan and I took our kids out to Joe's Farm Grill for breakfast last week. We had a lovely time, and it was early enough that it wasn't scorchingly hot outside. Here's a photo of the kids after breakfast, and and all hopped up on sugar from fresh apple fritters.

Baseball Game

During our Arizona visit, Ginny and Jim took us to see a Diamondbacks game. The kids loved it! They were clapping and cheering, and Amelia loved to yell "CHARGE." Colin's favorite thing to do was look through Jim's binoculars, and it was hard to get him to share them.

Here's Amelia with her foam finger. Jim had one for each of the kids waiting for them when we arrived!

Amelia's dream of eating cotton candy finally came true.

Colin loves wearing sunglasses right now, and was eager to put them on when the sun came through the windows.

Colin with the beloved binoculars.

Peek-a-boo

I was uploading videos tonight and found this cute one from a month ago when Jack first learned to play peek-a-boo. He's getting so big so fast!

Cousins at the Cabin

I've been on a little summer (and blogging) vacation in Arizona for the past little while. We have been having a wonderful time with our family and have lots of photos to post! Our first weekend was spent at my parents new cabin in the forest. The weather was just beautiful and we had a lot of fun together. Amelia and Colin really love being around all of their cousins. When I told them that we have to head back to PA, they both started crying!

Here are all the grand kids together laughing at Max.

The big kids on a morning walk in their jammies

Colin and Max are becoming good buddies

Gardening

We have a garden! Some friends of ours who are gardening experts have decided to collaborate with us on a garden in our back yard (they don't have any sun in theirs), and we are so excited! We built raised beds and things are just starting to sprout. I took these photos a week ago and things have already changed a lot! Unfortunately, we just discovered some very nasty poison ivy growing in the dog run area where most of our vegetable beds are, so we're at war. Mike and his friend just went after it this evening, and they had to wear several layers of clothes and rubber gloves. Our next step involves cardboard and black plastic. We're keeping our fingers crossed that this helps!

These are our raspberry beds which will be filled with raspberry bushes eventually. That large bush behind them is a blackberry bush (we think).

These beds are empty still, waiting to get planted with corn and squash. Most of the leafy foliage you see in the back corner is poison ivy.
These beds have 17 heirloom tomato plants given to us by a horticulturalist friend. There will be all kinds of amazing tomatoes (hopefully) in many different interesting colors, shapes and sizes. The varieties have darling names like "Box Car Willie," "Aunt Ruby," and "Hawaiian Currant." We also have green beans, purple colored beans, watermelon, basil, cucumber, bell peppers, and jalapeno.

I have never grown anything before and am therefore totally clueless, so I'm so happy to be learning all about it from our friends. This has been a great experience so far!

Strawberries

This morning we headed out to pick strawberries at a local farm. The kids loved foraging around, even though ultimately most of the picking was done by me. The strawberries are absolutely fabulous and I wish we'd gotten ten times more!

Graduation Continued

I just realized that although I posted video, I forgot to put up some photos from Amelia's graduation. Here they are!

Here's the graduate thoughtfully reflecting on her achievements.

Amelia and Colin celebrating after

Beach Trip

Yesterday morning Mike and I woke up and decided to take a quick trip to the beach! We drove a couple of hours to Cape May, NJ and spent some time in the sand. The kids loved it, and it was nice to check out some new scenery.

I think Jack needs a new hat!

Wanamaker Organ

A little while back we went to see the Wanamaker Organ, the largest pipe organ in the United States (built in 1911), which is conveniently located inside a Macy's downtown! They have informal concerts every day at noon, so we milled around and listened to it. After a few minutes, I looked at Colin and he was listening to the music and holding this mannequin's hand. I thought it was hilarious.

I know this is a horrible photo, but it was the only one I got of the kids near the organ!

Sibs

The kids have been so great with Jack lately, and it's such a nice thing to experience. I'm sure they'll all be fighting like cats and dogs in a year or two, so I'm glad to document this brief time of tranquility! Amelia likes to pick up either brother every chance she gets, and with Colin this usually results in a pile of laughing children on the floor. With Jack it usually prompts some pained looks in my direction until I come and rescue him. They make a cute group!