How we are getting Grace to Texas

Oh, just kidding. Alex wouldn't get in the new suitcase for photos.

NOW what's growing in the garden

Lilies and roses, that's what.

I'm a little intimidated by the roses. I've never had any before, and I've got two at the end of the sidewalk that are totally crapping out on me. But most of the others are just living their lives with no additional help.


Lots of these lilies all over the flower beds. They are probably around 2 feet tall.


These little red tea roses I love. They are on a low rounded bush and there are TONS of them covering it. I tried taking a photo of the bush itself, but didn't it didn't look as fantastic in the picture as it does in person.


We've got some single-petaled pink ones.


And some double-petaled pink ones.


Speaking of pink, I have this alstibe (spirea) blooming in one of the front beds. Unfortunately when these were sprouting I had no idea what they were so I pulled up tons of them. Oh well.


And I saved the best for last (in my opinion). Isn't this just an absolutely gorgeous rose? Right now there are two of these blooms on the bush, with a couple more about to come. This bush is right next to one with all yellow roses, but I missed my chance to get a shot of that one blooming.

He's got super powers, he's no ordinary kid...

Alex is so happy I bought him a Ben 10 t-shirt from Target that he wanted to sleep with it last night. Not IN it, but with it.

A little gardening action

After a week of rain I took advantage of our two sunny weekend days and finally did a little planting. Alex has gotten into helping me pick out plants and dig in the dirt, and it was nice having a little helper (he really likes to pick up the earthworms). Here's a little bit of what we did.

The pots we finally filled up. Looks like I might need to invest in some little clay pot feet - the bricks make it look like my pots have big clown feet. Also need to find the small broom to get rid of the potting soil on the deck and get after those remaining stickers on the pots. Thanks to Mom who helped me pick out a lot of these plants when she was in town a week ago. This is the only "sweet" pose Alex wanted to do for me.


The beginning of Alex's monster/action poses. He wouldn't let me take a picture without being in it.


A good monster/scary pose with the flowers the kids picked out. Grace picked both the gerber daisies while Alex picked out the vinca.


I wanted to get a shot of the pots from the other side and was going to crop out the white-trashy crap underneath the deck, but of course Alex had another pose that I felt like I just needed to share. He would stand perfectly still in these poses until I took the picture.


Our garden we are trying out, at least until the garage is rebuilt at which point it will probably be destroyed. Both kids really helped out with this one. Mainly herbs with a couple tomatoes, a jalapeno and a cucumber. We'll see if it gets enough light back here - hopefully once we get the trees trimmed it will. Note the cheap push-in-the-ground fencing we used with the hopes of keeping Lucy out of the area.


And of course I had to get a shot of our newly-sprouted grass. We were getting discouraged after 4 or 5 days of the seed just laying on the bare dirt, but those two days of sun was just what the yard needed.

Coming soon: I may be living in the Garden State, but I'm a little sad about a few things that won't work up here...

Uh oh

Real Simple magazine sends out a Daily Thought email. Today's quote is "If you can organize your kitchen, you can organize your life." Can I plead that I'm still getting used to my new, smaller kitchen?