Loving the Weather

We are still really enjoying the weather outside.  We have lots of friends over to play.  Here Max and his friend, Asher, are playing.  The boys were so cute to watch and listen to.  They built sandcastles, went on the slide, ran races, and played with the bubble machine.

 

We love that our backyard is against a green belt.  However, we do not always love the wildlife that makes an appearance in our yard.  We found this rat snake tangled in our soccer net a couple weekends ago.  We decided to let animal control free it from the netting.

 

 

 

On our back patio, I grow herbs in big flower pots.  Well this year we had baby birds hatching underneath the herbs in the pots on the back patio.  We counted 3 baby birds, but there possibly were 4.  Kate loved watching the parents fly back and forth to bring the babies food while she sat in her high chair and ate.  She would excitedly exclaim, "BIRD!" every time she saw them.

 

Kate and Max are now doing "helicopters" on the big swings.  They wind themselves up and then spin around and around.  They think it is great fun.

 

We have been harvesting things out of garden the last couple of weeks.  Kate was thrilled to eat a carrot I had recently picked.

We have a ton of salad bowl lettuce, romaine, bibb lettuce, and spinach.  I filled a gallon size ziploc and a spinach container (that I had from Sam's) and it didn't look like I had touched anything in the garden.  It has been delicious.

 

I also thinned out the onions.

 

We finished harvesting all of last years carrots.

 

 My kids love to have "movie night."  Usually Kate will watch the first 15-20 minutes of the show, and then want to play.  I decided to make it more exciting this time, and we threw down all the couch cushions and blankets from the upstairs couches to make a "big big bed."  The kids loved it!  We all fit on there and were able to watch almost all of Finding Nemo together.

The back corner of our yard continues to be a mystery.  We cannot figure out where the water is coming from.  The city tested the water and it had chlorine in it (so it had been treated), but they said it wasn't as significant amount. Rob talked to the supervisor and they agreed to come out again and test the water.  However, the water department waited until it rained before coming out to test it.  We feel that the rainwater diluted any treated water to make the results invalid.  Rob is incredibly frustrated with the water department, but hopefully we can resolve the water issue quickly.  Rob did connect a drain to the French drain.  Sadly, he broke a sprinkler pipe and has not been able to fix it yet.

 

I mentioned in my last post that we had siphon hoses in the "hole" for about 3 weeks.  Well it turns out that this little guy was living in the hose.  I was incredibly disgusted when I unscrewed the hose nozzle and saw these things inside it.  I pounded them out on the steps and saw these salamanders? thrashing about.

My kids continue to grow and bring me joy.  I need to get a picture of them playing on there "bikes."  Max calls his a fire truck, and Kate has a zebra.  They chase each other all around the house.  They also go to the "library" and get books, or go to church meetings.  It is really fun to watch them play so well together.

Springtime Fun

We decided to sign Max up for soccer. He is very young, but he loved coming to my soccer games and kicking around the yard with me so we decided to do it. The first few practices were very emotional for this little one. He wanted me to hold his hand the entire time. Max now tells me how happy soccer makes him! Kate wants to be just like Max- she tries to sit on the ball, run and kick, just like Max. It is really cute. Every practice Max drinks a whole thing of blue Gatorade. He takes his sweet time taking a long drink each time the coach tells the players to "Run really quick to get a drink and come right back!" I am so proud of Max.

My kids love to do crafts. Here they are painting boxes. They were thrilled to get in their paint shirts and just create.

One of the activities we participated in for playgroup last month was cardboard sledding. Max went up and down the hill more than any other kid. He has started asking me every day, "Can we please do playgroup today?"

Max is following in his father's footsteps at an early age. Here he is holding Avery and Annsley's hands as we walk down the riverfront.

Kate is super flexible. Whenever I do yoga, Kate puts me to shame. Max tries really hard to mimic the crazy positions that Kate frequently poses in, and it makes me smile. Here they are doing "downward dog."

The weather has been beautiful, so we have spent a lot of time at the sand table. The kids love to dig and play all day.

Another fun project. I traced Max on butcher paper, and instructed him to color on his clothes, eyes, hair, etc. However, he decided it would be fun to just color and draw all over it. Kate was very excited to join in.

Lunch outside on the picnic table. They are having bread with mashed up avocado, turkey (on the side), cheese, and Go-Gurt. It is the same every day. I have tried to vary it for them, but they both love this lunch.

Rob has been working on a number of projects. He has been mystified by this particular project. During the winter, the area by our back fence flooded. We just thought it had been really rainy or something, but the area never dried out. We started getting "river moss" growing in the grass. So Rob decided he would connect a filter into the French drain that was piped down there. When he started to dig, the whole kept filling up with water. He started to scoop out the water, but it would quickly fill back up again. Long story short, he has set up two hoses as siphons and has been siphoning the water from this 1 foot by 1 foot hole for the last 3 weeks! Each hose siphons a gallon of water a minute. If you do the math (which we have), then you will see we have siphoned at least 60,000 gallons of water! We have called the city, and they have checked the water lines and declared them to be sound. Rob finally called the sewer company today (although the water does not smell), and they are going to come look at it. If you have any other ideas as to what is going on and/or how to fix it, please feel free to give us your 2 cents!

On another note, the garden has been doing really well. We have netting all around it to keep critters/birds out. I labeled the below picture if you are interested to see what cool weather veggies we are growing.

On the side of the house, we are growing berries. Rob bought 4 more blueberry bushes (not pictured) to add to the 4 below. Yum!

We added "real" trellis' for our blackberry and raspberry plants to grow on. We had some fan trellis', but they do not support the canes any longer. Rob was very creative and screwed the wire into the post (rather than use the costly hooks and anchors).

Springtime has been so beautiful here in Arkansas. Kate started singing "Popcorn Popping" while at the store today. I think she loves to see all the trees blossoming and the flowers blooming. My favorite season has always been summer, but since moving here I may be changing my mind.