Sneaky, sneaky.

We did something last week that I feel bad about.

I feel bad, actually, because I didn't really feel bad at all.

We had us another first, which actually ended up feeling like old times...

Got you wondering, huh??

These two were in on it...

Well, don't tell Carlos,

but we left him behind with a sitter and went to a ball game.

We went with Ace's base ball team to celebrate the end to a great season...

The weather was beautiful and our team won.

Add in all you can eat hot dogs, nachos and Dr. Pepper...

almost perfect.

Hubs teased me a little for spending most of the night reading on my kindle,

but lets face it, when do I ever get a chance lately to read a book outside on a beautiful evening...oh, about never.

It was a great night spent with new friends and some pretty awesome kids!

Garden

Well, I'm glad you asked about our garden!

I've wanted to talk about it for a while.

Better yet, why don't I take you on a tour!

We'll start on the front garden/flower bed.

Bug got a bee in her bonnet this year that she wanted to plan and plant her own flower garden.

I thought it a bit random, but decided one Saturday while Hubs was gone that I'd humor her.

She got a $20 budget at our local nursery

 and had to agree to plant anything she picked out herself...

 She did a great job!

 Here's Ace when we started...

 she worked hard for a long time

she had to plant around a couple of random squash plants that came up after Hubs made baby food one night and threw the extra stuff out for compost!

I like a little random!

(and the mystery of not knowing what kind of squash is growing)

 Libby doing her part...

 Ace after we'd been at it a while...

 There's also 2 honey dew melon plants going in the front bed too.

After all of the pics I took, I'm not sure how I managed to miss them :)

The back porch has a few things pots...

This is what the kids got me for Mother's day!

 They pick out great stuff ;)

In the back we have 3 raised beds. 

We didn't have much success with raised beds the first time we tried them, but decided to give it another go...

turned out to be a good idea.

This was also a project that the kids and I could tackle one day while Hubs was at work.

(he's not been to keen on me and the tiller being alone with each other)

the first two are squash and zucchini.

It's kind of embarrassing, but before we moved out of town and planted a garden, I had no clue what food looked like outside of the produce section in the grocery store...

Just in case your the same way, here's the squash!

 and zucchini...

 The other raised bed has cucumbers,

 and tomatoes...

In the way back of the yard we have 3 more beds.

The first is the rest of the veggies,

These are radishes

 (with a couple of rogue cantaloupes that came back from last year...again, I love a little random)

 Here there is okra(left)

peppers, eggplant, and more squash(middle)

cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower(right)...

 jalapeños

 cabbage

(I call it swiss cabbage b/c something keeps eating holes in it!)

 broccoli

 onions, black eyed peas, green beans and peas...

 the second bed is potatoes,

 (Hubs made me quit weeding a few weeks ago so I didn't mess with the potatoes...just didn't want you to think I'd gone lazy!)

the third bed is new this year...

cantaloupe (left), pumpkins(middle) and watermelons(right)!

There's also a grape vine back there.

This is the first year we've gotten grapes on it!

So there you have it!

So far, it's the best garden we've had yet!

It's so much work, fun and learning for the whole family.

Here's a little of our harvest so far...

Needless to say, we've eaten and shared a lot of squash, zucchini and cucumbers in the last couple of weeks!

Wee School...

Speaking of graduation...

Ace hit a milestone too,

WEE School Graduation!

Here's the goofball on the first day of school...

and, in what feels like the blink of any eye

the graduate!

The school had the cutest graduation ceremony.

The kids sang a few songs, then each student got to walk across the stage and get their "diplomas"!

After the ceremony we headed over to the gym for snacks and visiting.

You may not realize this about Ace,

but the ladies love him!

Two little girls in his class are crazy about the guy.

Their mom's tried to get him to take a pic at Christmas and he wouldn't have anything to do with it...

he's since had a change of heart!

We tried to get him to put his arms around them,

but he has his limits.

He just giggled and said

"NO WAY!"

So it's official.

He's ready for kindergarten and super excited!

Dead School...

It's that time of year...

busy, nonstop, crazy.

Everything is coming to an end and summer is here!

We've had two milestones lately that were cause for great celebration...

First...

JROD FINISHED DEAD SCHOOL!!

That's right,

He's awesome!

He worked so hard to accomplish this.

Not many guys his age are willing to go to school full time,

hold down several jobs,

make A's

and be a dad & husband.

And, just a side note, he kind of completes our family circle...

I birth people,

JJ takes them to jail,

Bec leads them to Jesus,

and now J-rod buries them when they're done :)

We're pretty much a one stop shop!

That's not to mention Hubs saving them in the ambulance and Aunt C's ability to make everyone more beautiful!

Back on track now.

J-Rod's graduation was cause for a celebration!

We decided to throw a big party in our back yard.

This was the front of the invite...

Hubs had the ingenious idea to make it look like the hand out you get when you walk into somebody's funeral!

Aunt C did the cake which wast amazing!!

Our family is known to be a bit off color with our humor sometimes!

Thankfully J-Rod loves our humor!

Unfortunately, that concludes the pictures from the party.

At our last count we had over 45 people, not counting kids over the course of the party.

We had a blast!

The kids enjoyed the trampoline and slip and slide,

the adults enjoyed the tons-o-food and visiting!

Congratulations J-Rod!

We are all so proud of you and happy that you've found something you love to do!

11 Months...

Carlos, you are 11 months old...

(and yes, I realize now that I cast a shadow on your pic while trying to use the light from your window...I've never claimed to know what I'm doing)

You are so big.

You weigh about 20 lb.

Wear a size 4 diaper

(because we ran out of 3's and have plenty of 4's in the closet)

You mostly wear size 12 mo clothes, but still a few 9mo

You rarely wear shoes, but have a pair of size 3 that fit

You crawl everywhere at a very fast pace.

You helped your sister celebrate her 8th bday...

 You ate your first solo ice cream cone...

 aaannndddd...

 you loved it...

 and were quite proud of yourself!

You get into everything.

So much so that daddy put in a baby gate to keep you out of the bathroom and big kids rooms.

You are very observant, and the second somebody doesn't latch that gate, you're gone!

We giggle at you a lot!

We still don't know if you're blond or redheaded or will go brown like your sis.

You also learned a new trick...

Mommy was not as impressed as you were.

You now have 4 teeth.

You eat most of what we do.

You haven't been too impressed with the sippy cup yet,

but we're working on it.

You are just one cool kid! 

We love you so much!