2012 Backyard Garden

A few weeks before Levi was born, I was looking out the back window of the house at the garden boxes Sam had put in the fall before, and I worried that with a newborn on the way, they would remain bare this growing season. I had a bag of seeds, and all kinds of little starter planters I had hoped to do, but hadn't had the time or energy.  But I decided I should at least try - so I skipped the starter kits, and just took my bag of seeds right to the boxes.  I planted peas, carrots, beets, kale, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, and radishes, and tried to keep it wet for a few weeks, even though the irrigation water and sprinklers weren't on yet.  Part of me thought it wasn't really going to grow at all.  I had been spending all my time and energy on growing Levi, and it seemed like the seeds were taking forever to germinate. Box by box, little tiny green plants began to emerge.  It's been a few years since we had a garden, and I had forgotten how much I love watching the little plants emerge and grow.

 By the time Levi was born, the radishes were ready for harvesting. And the peas were starting to need a trellis to grow on.  A few weeks later, the spinach and kale were big enough for harvesting baby greens for my smoothies.  And the past few weeks we've been enjoying more peas than we can possibly eat.

Our peas got even taller than this  - I think they were close to 6 feet tall.  

 Spending summer evenings out in the backyard eating straight out of the garden is one of my favorite family activities.  I love watching the kids pick and eat as they play.

The other night Noah again complained of being starving right before bed, but proclaimed kale would quell his hunger.  So, out to the garden he went, where he picked and ate several kale leaves, and said he was satisfied.  I welcome a kale snack at bedtime any day!  The pea plants, spinach, and broccoli all got pulled today (it's getting too hot for them) and we've since added onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, and we're trying to get watermelon to grow (our plants keep dying for some reason?) When we went to the farmers market last week, I didn't feel the need to buy any of their produce, because we were either growing it ourselves, or we could go pick it ourselves for much cheaper.

Cherry Picking

We headed out to Ray French Orchard again this year - this time to pick Benton Cherries, which apparently ripen earlier than the Rainier.  The trees were bursting with ripe cherries on this, the first day of picking.

The kids had a blast picking the cherries - Olivia ate most of what she picked, and ended up making a huge mess out of herself, as she was using her fingers to pick the pit out before she ate them.

Noah really LOVED this, and it was hard to get him to stop picking.

He's usually the one that asks me over and over why we are doing an outing, and when it's going to be over, and if we can go home every other minute.  But for cherry picking, he kept exclaiming how much fun he was having, and how he didn't ever want to leave.

Harrison was running around trying to make sure everyone was picking the best, most ripe cherries.  Here's him explaining what you should (left side) and should not (right side) pick.

Levi spent the whole outing asleep in the bjorn.

 Some of my fondest childhood memories involved picking fruits and vegetables with my family, so I'm glad we are able to enjoy that with our family too.

Last day of school

This year has FLOWN!  Poor Noah was home sick on the last 2 days of school.  Harrison had a great last day. Knowing that it would be his last day at this school (the KOG classes are moving to a new school next year), his class went around and got autographs from everyone around the school.  Wasn't too hard to say good-bye since he'll have all the same classmates, and the 3 KOG teachers are staying the same.  It's been kind of a crazy year for him, 2 new teachers, 2 new grades, and going into a new program, but it's been a great year.  He's really grown a lot, and I'm really proud of all he's accomplished.  Next year will be another new adventure, at another new school (this makes it a new school for every year of elementary school for him so far!) 

Here's Harrison on the last day of school:

And, to compare, the first day:

Levi's Blessing

 
We decided to bless Levi the first Sunday in June.  We didn't have any plans for family to come any time soon, and so we figured we'd just do it as soon as I was ready to take him to church.  It was our first real week back - we came for just Sacrament meeting on Mother's day, Sam was out of town the next week (I guess I did go to church that week, but that was kind of a blur with Sam out of town) and then Noah was sick the next week, so Levi and I stayed home.  It made for a bit of a hectic day, with it being my first week back in Primary, but he was a champ and slept almost the whole time (after his blessing, that is.)

Sam gave him a wonderful, thoughtful blessing and we had several members of our ward family who were able to stand in the circle. 

Shortly after we got home from church we had to rush off to Harrison's recital, and since I was at church meetings for my calling all morning, I felt a little sad I didn't get to enjoy a day focused on this sweet little boy.  I managed to shoot a few pictures after church and before the recital, so we have something to remember it by.  He wore the same little blessing outfit that GG (Grandma Grettle, Sam's mom) made for Harrison.  (Funny story - I almost forgot he was getting blessed that day, and was sewing a missing button on his blessing outfit just minutes before we had to leave for church.)

Levi is such a calm, happy boy.  He just loves cooing and smiling at his siblings, who give him constant attention, and he's so content most of the time.  I've really been enjoying and savoring these early weeks with him, and remembering how fun it is to have a baby in the house.  And realizing how different it is to have a baby when you have older children.

Piano Recital 2012

Harrison had his annual piano recital a couple weeks ago.  He performed Hedwig's Theme from a simplified Harry Potter book I got for him a couple months ago.  I'm always amazed at how serious and calm he gets for recitals.  He's really working hard at piano, and it's been fun to see the progress he's been making.  Here's his performance.  I missed the first couple measures, and that squeaky scream in the background is Levi.  The funny part is I didn't even hear him crying while I was taping - not until I got home and watched it!

Electric Sunshine Man

One of the great perks that comes with being in the KOG program in our school district is that the kids do a play every year.  School plays were one of my fondest memories of elementary school, and it seems like they just don't do them as much as they used to.  In our current school, the 2nd graders put on a play each year, but Harrison missed out on that.  But he'll get to do one each year for the last 3 years of he elementary career.

This year they put on a production of "The Electric Sunshine Man," the story of Thomas Edison. Everyone got some kind of part, weather it was a speaking part, solo, or part of a dancing siging number.  Harrison was a "Hobo," and got to dress up, and sing and dance.  At the last minute he also got to play the part of "young Edison" - no lines, but he did get to be up on stage as Edison at one point, which I thought was pretty fun.  And he did a pretty good job at looking ashamed, which is what he was told to do.  I guess Edison wasn't a very "good" little boy.

Sam was out of town for the performance, so I had a hard time documenting the event.  I decided to go to the performance during the school day, and in the evening to increase my chances of getting some good footage.  It was a good thing, because Levi ended up being pretty fussy during the night performance, so even though I had a better seat, I didn't have any hands!

As I was waiting for the performance to start, I had to snap a picture of the audience.  I couldn't not believe this kids hair!  Apparently it's like this (in a huge mo-hock) everyday, and my first thought was - who has that much time to do that every morning?  For a 4th grader, no less! 

And here's Harrison playing "baby Eidson" as he called his part.  I thought it was pretty funny the girl playing his teacher was just barely taller than him:

And here's the dance he was in (Sorry, the audience is in focus, and the performers are blurry. Still getting used to my camera!):

And a shot of him singing in the chorus:

Luckily they performed again the next day at a different school (the school they will be moving to next year), so Sam was able to go see him perform for that.

Harrison had a lot of fun, and it was fun to hear him singing these songs around the house for a few months leading up to the performance.  It will be fun to see what they do next year!

Good Neighbors

We have the best neighbors.  Just tonight, Pete from next door came by and fixed our sprinkler leak, and taught Sam the ins and outs of how to do it himself next time.  A couple weeks ago, he gave all the kids a ride on his motorcycle (Harrison declined. Olivia asked for a second turn.)

It's so nice when you are so far from family, that you have people around you that feel like family.