Full Bloom

I have never thought of myself as a person with a green thumb.... actually I am one who usually kills a plant dead within the first month!  So when we first talked about setting up our own garden I thought "Sure that will be fun, but it will never last because if I even look at a plant it is usually dead in a week"!  Well here we are 4 years later and Berberena Garden 2012 is in full bloom!  So far everything is blooming and we already have visible Tomatoes, Peppers, Pickles and Cucumbers!  Here are few pics I took tonight while out watering the garden:

 Above: We started Green Beans from Seed.  Colton wanted to plant the entire package (about 25 seeds) I said no but apparently he snuck a couple extra in the pot anyways as we have 12 plants that popped up in the past 48 hours.  I will let them get a little bigger and we will eliminate the week ones so the rest can thrive!

 Above:   Sweet Cucumber.  We just planted one cucumber plant this year and I think we will be happy with that decision and it looks like this plant is going to produce like crazy!

  Above:   Bush Pickles.... we have two Bush Pickle plants and tonight I think I counted about ten pickles and the plants are full of flowers so many more to come!

 Above: Roma and Sweet 100 tomatoes!  These two tomato plants are growing and blooming like crazy... we should have plenty to make many batches of salsa again this year!

Above: Pepper are starting to make an appearance too now... so far just one but many flowers on the 6 plants so I am sure we will have more peppers than we know what to do with again this year!

  Above: That flower is closing up and will soon turn into Zucchini.  Several blooming flowers on this plant too... I am very excited to try my hand at zucchini bread this year!

As you can see our Vegetable Garden is doing great... and it is so easy!  Just letting nature do its work - looks of sunshine lately and water it every night (especially during this heat wave)! I know you are all amazed by my skills but wait there is more... I also planted a bunch of flowers and they are all blooming, seriously some days I even amaze myself!

 So yes I am happy with my Green Thumb skills but I look right next door and their driveway is lined with beautiful flowers and then I realize I am not as cool as I might think!  Oh well, baby steps people - someday my yard will be filled with beautiful landscaping and flowers!  Yes I took a picture of the neighbors flowers - aren't they beautiful?

I've caught a fever....

Baby Fever that is!  My newest nephew was born on Monday June 18th and after snuggling him for about an hour on Tuesday night I immediately starting asking Frankie for another!   My nephew is perfect!  Tyce Charles was born Monday morning weighing in at 7lbs 15ounces and 100% beautiful.  I hope his mom is ready to share him with me because I think that is the only way to cure this baby fever that I have caught (or win the lottery so I can have as many kids as I want without money being an issue)!!

 Colton was so proud to hold his new cousin.  Also makes me realize how grown up my little man has become.  Fun note: Tyce was born exactly 6 years after we brought Colton home from the hospital (almost right down to the hour), crazy how fast time goes by!

Birthday Weekend Fun!

We really made the most of our weekend at home and the fact that it was Colton's 6th Birthday!  Friday night Colton had two of his friends sleep over after his birthday party.  They were out cold by about 10:30pm and slept in until 8:30am.  We got up, enjoyed some breakfast and did a little praying that the rain would stop so we could go to the parade.... SUCCESS!  We enjoyed a 1.5 hour parade for Strawberry Fest in Cottage Grove.  The boys collected so much candy it was unreal.... not to mention water bottles, Frisbee's, Kitchen Sponge (thanks 3M), gift cards (thanks Perkins), beads and so many other fun items!!  

 That afternoon Mason took a nice long almost 4 hour nap while Colton and Mommy planted flowers and played with all of his new birthday toys!  We enjoy dinner with MaryBeth and her boyfriends kids and then packed into the van and headed to the fireworks for Strawberry Fest.  The fireworks didn't start until 10:30 which seemed a little late but the kids did great!

 Sunday we went Father's Day Brunch with Grandma Yvonne at The Tavern in Woodbury, spent the afternoon cleaning the house and then Sunday evening we had a little BBQ with my mom and dad and my sister and her husband to finish off Colton's Birthday weekend and to celebrate Fathers Day!  Colton, my dad and Frankie spent well over an hour playing with Bey Blades.... which are by far Colton's favorite gift from his birthday party!  It was an awesome and busy weekend and I wouldn't change any of it!

Happy 6th Birthday Colton!!

We celebrated Colton's 6th Birthday with all his friends at Pump it Up!  The party was two hours of bouncing fun!  We spent the first 40 minutes in Arena A which had a giant slide, a battle arena and a bounce house.  Then we moved to Arena B for the next 40 minutes which included another giant slide, a giant inflated basketball court and an obstacle course!   The best part about these parties is that we never had to share the bouncers with anyone else... we had each arena to ourselves the entire time!  Colton had 12 of his friends/cousins there and they all had so much fun (and the parents seemed to have just as much fun as well)!  After bouncing for an hour and a half we moved to the party room where we enjoyed cake and ice cream and opened presents.  It was a great party and when it was all said and done I got to go home and just relax on the couch... no clean up for this mama which might have been my favorite part!  I of course took way too many pictures like always so here are few of my favorites from the party!