Memorial Day Weekend

Yea, it was a week ago, but I thought I would share a few photos from it. We went to Mike's mom's house for a bit on Monday. The kids swam of course, little fish. Layla isn't afraid of the water at all this year and hasn't been wearing water wings or anything. My kids usually start out the summer a little cautious of the water, and then warm up to it, but not this year. They were full speed ahead.

Layla jumping backwards into the pool.

That morning, Mike woke me up saying him and Blake would be back. So, with Layla curled up next to me, I went back to sleep. When I woke up again, they were home, and had started this:

Fixing up the flower beds! Here is a close up of one of the latest Zinnia's to bloom.

Probably the best thing about this weekend though, was Blake finally mastering the bike without the training wheels! We told him that as soon as he got good he could get a new bike. So yesterday after work, we took him to Walmart and he picked this one out.

Needless to say, it's been a week full of bike riding, and no signs of slowing down. She was pretty peeved that she didnt get a new bike, but she seems interested in trying it without the training wheels. (Notice the apron?)

He's already popping wheelies, although I haven't managed to get a good picture yet.

See ya soon!

What the heck is it? & Saturday Finds

First off, it's another what-the-heck-is-it post. What the heck are these, does anyone have any ideas? They were all over our yard yesterday morning and they are all over the neighbor's yards, too. They are pretty whatever they are.

This picture is kind of washed out, but I wanted to show how many there were in this bunch.

Another bad photo... this is the neighbor's house, right across the road.

And for yesterday's finds. I got all this for less than $1 at the catholic thrift. I never expect to find an apron, cause, well, I never do. But I looked through the linens and went to walk away. I saw a little cart with some potholder, etc in it, and spotted this:

It's got a few small spots I need to try and get out, but I thought it was cute! Here is a close up of the detail. It's across the waistband and at the end of the strings as well.

I also found this cute grease strainer. It says "Kromex" on top.

And I picked up three books. The one on the left is called "Six Good Friends a Story of Circus Horses". The copyright says 1947. The Young Helen Keller book I had as a child. Not pictured is Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born.

Here are two pages from the horse book:

Check out these illustrations!

Find anything good this weekend?

Spring

Spring is definatly here. Everything is green and blooming. We decided to plant a garden. We've got corn, green beans, wax beans, cucumbers, watermelon, carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers and onions. They seem like they are doing pretty well. We'll see how it goes. This is the first time I've dealt with a garden since I was in 4-H in elementary school. This is everything but our corn, we have that in 2 seperate areas.

After weeding a bit, Mike headed out on the tractor to work in the pond. You can see him just a little bit kind of in the center of the picture above. When I finished, I headed out there to check on the blackberry situation. I thought I saw some bushes, I wanted to try and look again. So I'm walking around the perimeter of the pond, and I see these purple flowers. I dont remember seeing these last year, but it was a jungle out there. I have never seen anything like this, they are very strange looking. Pretty, but strange...

They were all over out there. I dont even know where to begin to try and figure out what they are. Does anyone have any ideas?

After looking at those for awhile, I went back to looking for Blackberries. Found em! There are quite a few bushes out there, all pretty loaded with young berries. Hopefully as Mike is cleaning up out there, he doesnt rip them all out! I havent had fresh blackberries in years, and the store bought ones just dont compare. Maybe I will try my hand at making blackberry cobbler this year. I remember going out back and picking a bucket full of wild blackberries, and bringing them in (minus the ones I couldnt wait to eat!) and my mom making cobbler. Yummy!

Walking out of the pond, I noticed these elephant ears. These things were WAY overgrown when we moved in here. They are a pain, but I thought the beads of water pooled on them were pretty.

And, Cypress Knees! We have several Cypress trees behind the pond, so you can tell it was wet at some point back there. But we have heard from neighbors that there hasnt been water in the pond in years.

Oh yea, our roosters have begun trying to crow. It's so funny to hear them out there. You can hear the roosters down the road start going, and then ours chime in. I will try to get a better picture of them than the one I posted before. We've got two of them and they are both black. Chicken dinner and some of the hens were more yellow. I would love to have to have some Araucana's that lay the blue eggs. So pretty!