Thursday's Treasures

Today was a crazy day, filled with lots of driving, baking, gardening, and family time. I started off the morning at my sister's house with the two youngest kiddos, Ally and Aidan. They had Dr. appointments around lunchtime and I'd promised fun for Ally, who was nervous about seeing the doctor again. We did a quick trip to PETCO which she loved - "lots of Tuck the Turtles and Parrots, ones that start with F and ones that start with P." aka Parrots and Ferrets :)

We had a great visit with Grandma Great, and though I have no pictures to post, I enjoyed seeing her with baby in her lap and Ally snuggled next to her while she read Clifford. At one point, she was even talking on the phone scheduling Bridge. She says she can't do anything anymore, I don't believe that for a minute. It was an inspiring afternoon - my heart was full of happiness hearing her with the two little ones - if only she could be so filled with joy all the time.

We headed home a few hours later to meet Dylan after school. He and Ally played so loudly, it's hard to believe Aidan was able to sleep through their chatter. When Preston made it back from his dentist appointment and Brent came home, I headed outside with Preston, Dylan and Ally to count all our new seedlings. (Brent commandeered the baby and they relaxing together in the glider watching Mythbusters, happy as a couple of clams.)

I think every single pumpkin, watermelon, bean and spinach seed sprouted. More lettuce, carrots and sunflowers, too. Our brussels sprouts are out of control - we'll have to move some of them to another bed or they'll crowd each other out. The tomatos are 6-10" tall already, one is popping out of the gallon-jug hothouse. We harvested as much spinach as we could find for dinner. It's a task usually reserved for morning, but we'd had rain and cool weather all day, so it didn't matter a bit. The boys asked if they could stay out and harvest "a few" radishes. Note the picture I'm including.

It was just so nice to see the three kids harvesting and watering in the rain, skipping around from bed to bed like little pixies.