Some Garden Excitement!

We have been super excited about our garden this year, and although I was hoping to do more of a play by play in the season, not having a computer for a month, etc got in the way.  So, here's a little excitement in the back yard

First up, lettuce!  This is the last head of lettuce.  It will be gone soon.  It was so thrilling eating salads made out of lettuce from our garden. 

Then there's this little guy.  It looks like other peppers are about to come, but so far only this one has started to grow.  We received 4 pepper plants for free from a farmer's market so I figure anything we get is good. 

Our bean plant is about 6 feet tall.  It's out of control.  Any advice anyone has about controlling those little vines would be fabulous. Hopefully we'll see more beans and less flowers soon. 

And last but not least...our tomato.  Well, we have 7 tomatoes growing, but only one is turning red.  Granted, I'm hoping we get more than 7 tomatoes (I paid $10 for 2 plants), but seeing that it's actually working is so exciting. I look out of the kitchen window basically every time I'm in there to check on him.  Steve and I are both chomping at the bit to eat him. 

Sorry there's no picture, but Cadance's favorite part of the garden is the pink flower she picked out from Home Depot.  I'm honestly surprised it's still alive.  But, it's growing well.  And, now that Cadance has a small pool in the backyard she pours buckets of water on them because, "they are hungry and need to eat."

On the not so good side we planted 6 watermelon seeds and 8 cucumber seeds and nothing even sprouted.  We have almost an entire 4x4 foot square empty because it was meant for a watermelon plant.  Oh well, we'll try again next year!

When My Parents Came to Visit

Recently my parents came to visit.  One fun day after another.  Cadance was a trooper.  She loved every minute of it.  And, she still ends every day with, "another fun day," repeating what my mom would say to her every night. 

Here are some highlights. 

The Zoo          

Cadance with the flamingos, which I would say is her favorite bird

This orangutan started chewing the plastic coating off of the fence and then spit it at us.  I'm pretty sure she was bored more than mean, and it was pretty funny

Notice the brown pellets of animal food.  Cadance loved throwing "rocks" at all the animals and in the water.

My dad trying to get the peacock to open his feathers, too bad it didn't work.  Cadance called them pecans.

Notice the red cheeks and sweaty hair.  She loved every minute though

So excited to ride the giraffe on the carousel.

   Belle Isle      

Gorgeous view of the James River

Cadance so excited because she knows what's coming

Going for a walk with Grandma

 

Enjoying the current of the water

 The Greek Festival

Loving the dancing

Not so much loving the food

Cheesing it for the camera in the cathedral

Maymont Park

Bubble fun!

 

Always love the flowers

Looking at the waterfall

Enjoying time with Grandma

Thanks for the week mom and dad!  Good food, good adventures, good conversation!                                                               

Princess

This conversation happened today.

While Cadance was wearing two different tutus at the same time.

And while she was running laps around her play room.

C: Princess Cadance
M: You look more like ballerina Cadance
C: No, princess Cadance
M: Oh
C: Mom is not a princess
M: What, I can't be a princess
C: Mom has no skirt
M: I think princesses can wear pants
C: No, I have a skirt (actually a tutu), tutu, and another skirt

6 months ago Cadance hadn't even heard the word princess; she is now apparently an expert

Goose Induced Euphoria

Before I delve into out goose adventure let me first explain that while living in Richmond I have been hard pressed to see ducks.  They just don't seem to live around here.  It's always such an odd thing.  Geese, however, we have plenty of geese.

But geese are much trickier animals to deal with.  Like they can be mean.  So we haven't really gone out to feed the ducks (or geese) mostly in fear of them attacking my daughter.

Well, last Saturday we left pretty early in the morning for a walk around Maymont Park.  Apparently it doesn't open until 10 am so we found ourselves with an hour to kill.  Luckily right next to Maymont is Byrd Park.  So, we drove over and figured we could hang out, get a couple pics, etc.

We parked right next to a grassy field with tons of geese.  And let me tell you they had quite the impression on Cadance.

Can you see the look of excitement on her face.  She was off and chased those poor geese everywhere.  She really wanted to catch one.

Here's a video of her in action.

At some point, you can hear it in the video, the geese kind of went a little crazy.  Some of them actually started heading in her direction and I was kind of afraid they were going to try and chase her away.  But, luckily, they did not revolt in violence.

After the geese adventure we had a lot of fun enjoying a day of fabulous spring weather.  Here are some pictures that we took.

Garden: Part 2

It's official...we're gardening.

It makes me super excited and super nervous at the same time.  What if nothing grows?  What if things grow but it's all really sucky?  

I guess time will tell.  

We currently have 7 of the 32 squares of our garden filled.  2 carrots, 2 lettuce, radishes, onion, and bok choy.  Bok choy?  Bok choy.  It's kind of a curve ball, but my parents sent it in an Easter package and well, why not?  We like bok choy.  

We've even started to see just a little bit of sprouting

Yes, I know it could be a weed as easily as it could be bibb lettuce, but here's to hoping.

In the next coming days I have our first line up of summer crops to plant: tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, squash, and some marigold for color.

Splash Pad

Due to some unusually warm weather last week I took Cadance to a local splash pad to cool off.

You should have seen the look on her face when I pulled out her bathing suit.  It was like Christmas.  "We're going swimming!", she declared.  Not quite swimming, but good enough.

Here is a video of he first approaching the water.

And here she is running around.

Dodging the spray of water

Cadance: Bed Designer

A couple weeks ago Cadance got really into building with blocks.  She's built lots of things, but she went threw this bed phase.

Now don't worry if these things don't seem to resemble beds to you

I don't really understand either

She's obviously some sort of creative genius.

But, I assure you she made it very clear she was going to "make a bed."