True Love

Maddy asked Casey to wear this (incredibly girly) bracelet she made, and positively beamed when he (somewhat reluctantly) agreed to.  I love the contrast of his strong man arms and the dainty sweetness of his little girl's handiwork.
God, I love this man!

First Day of Preschool

Here's my little man on his first day of school!  I am so pleased to have some nice pictures to show you, 'cuz let me tell you, GusGus is NOT a morning person!!  The only thing that saved this little photo shoot was that a "big truck" (his new favorite thing) went roaring by about halfway through (we were downtown at the fountain).  Then he was excited!

 

Cutie!

Walking to Class

A little bit nervous....

Talking to Mrs. Christie

I stuck around long enough to bring in snacks (the parents alternate weeks providing snacks, and we found out yesterday that we got the first week!  Yay?), and to see him playing with blocks.  First thing he did was drag a chair over to start climbing the tables....that BOY!  They caught him, though (I warned them of his monkey-ness). 
So no tears, no fussing--he's a big boy!
 

My big boy!

P.S. He refuses to carry his bookbag.  Oh well. 

The Baby's Bookbag

So my baby starts Preschool tomorrow. *Sniff*  I really wanted to make his bag so I've been researching for a while.  I was inspired by this tutorial, but really I kinda-sorta winged it (which means the seam rippers got a serious workout, and my sweet husband had peanut butter sandwiches for dinner while I toiled away).

I really love the little funny chicken!  Gus LOVES chickens, which is the funniest thing EVER.
 I think it turned out cute!

How Does Our Garden Grow, Pt II.

While for the most our garden was a huge success and tons of fun (and yummy, too!), we had some setbacks. 
First, the dreaded squash vine borers took out my beautiful squash and my zucchini.  I was so, so sad.  I tried to perform the 'surgery' described in this website, but my infestation was just too bad/big.   Next year, I will be trying out some strategies to combat these nasty things, including BT and planting in bales of hay.  (The very interesting man at the feed store swears this is possible....hmmmm.)  BT is a natural virus (?) that only affect grubs, and the hay would of course eliminate the dirt for the grubs eggs to be laid in in the first place.  We'll see.

Next, my lovely cucumber bit the dust!  The vines started dying in weird stages and then the fruit started getting weird, too.

 

 

 

 In this picture (above), you can see this vine dying starting at the left side.  The growing end is still green and lovely!  (Makes me so sad!)

Turns out it was bacterial wilt.  This is basically a 'circulatory' disease, spread by sucking bugs (although I never saw any cucumber beetles).  Basically, the vines' get clogged up inside and die a slow death.  (Ok, I know that's a little dramatic.)  The tell-tale sign is a slimy string when you pull a stem apart.  Gross.

Here's a classic.  Leaves stripped down to it's skelton.  Almost always a caterpillar.

Yep, there he is, the little creep.  Spraying soap on them worked pretty well.  (That and squishing the nasty things!  That was fun!)

My poor mater!  Strangely enough (not really) the hybrid tomatoes did not have caterpillars on them.  We'll be sticing to hybrids next year.  Sorry apocalypse-fearing hippies out there!  My garden is small and my time is precious.  Only things that don't DIE are getting in my dirt!

The tomatoes still did really well, and I am pleased.

These are so yummy!  The plastic container is just one day's picking! (Excuse the weird photo upload.)

But my second batch of cucumbers, planted in late July to avoid the bug-party in June, died as seedlings.  I'm now trying to decide if I should try again or just wait until next year.

Thankful for a Good Week!

All three of my bigguns had a good first week of school (the little'un starts Monday), and we are very thankful.  We wanted to show our gratitude, Corbin-style, which, roughly translated, means: sugar.  These chocolate chip cookies are the most amazing cookies I have ever made.  (Recipe coming soon.  Too sleepy.)  I've shared a jpeg of the cute (if I do say so myself) little thank you card/label, in case you're interested.  You should be able to right click and save it and do whatever you want to it.
I hope everyone has a blessed week!

 

First Day of School!!

Gus's school (3 day preschool) starts Monday, and he is very excited!  I'll post an update after his First Day!

Four kids at four different schools- Heaven help me!!

How Are Our Garden Grows

This year we grew a garden!  Cole gets really into gardening; last year we were living on my dad's property and we worked a 'row' of his big garden, and it's one of his favorite memories.  Here's some pictures of us at the beginning:

 

Right after I took these pictures, I smashed my finger to mush trying to level the blocks.  So the garden took a back burner until my finger stopped throbbing (about 2 weeks!).

Here's the next stage, we planted squash, zucchini, blue lake green beans, tomatoes, and sweet peas. 

Sunflowers

Squash

Sweet Peas

This was an experiment; we wanted to make a sweet pea-teepee.  Our peas never quite got tall enough, though.

Squash and cucumbers

Green Beans

I REALLY wish I had paid attention to the specific variety of each vegetable we planted.  Some varieties are more resistant to diseases, etc., and while we have had a lot of successes in our garden, we've also had some issues.  More about that in a minute.  Here's what it looks like now looked like a few weeks ago:

Maters!!

Our second batch of beans--we thought purple ones would be fun.  They have turned out to be a good example of a variety that does not grow well though.  We'll be sticking to Blue Lakes next year!

Our sunflowers are about 10 feet tall now!