The Joys of Summer

One of the great things about the hot MN summer is how well our plants grow. We had a cold spring this year, so our garden went in a little late this year, but the past week has seen it take off! This year we planted 3 different types of tomatoes, several different kinds of peppers, sugar snap peas, onions, and brussel sprouts. Along the side of the house was the perfect spot for pumpkin and squash - they can vine as much as they want, and it won't take out any of the other plants!

Scott really takes care of the vegetable garden, while the flowers are more for me. Every year I try a few different kinds of plants - some work, and some don't! Petunias, geraniums, and pansies are my standard...begonias and daisies were new additions this year. Still not quite sure what to do with the begonias - the hanging basket that I have is not looking so pretty right now!

The garden is pretty well fenced off so no dogs, children, or wives can get into it, but my flowers are available to all to enjoy. Ava's started picking off the flowers to wear behind her ear. If she's not happy with the one she choose, she'll choose another...and then another. The other night, we had a whole bouquet of flowers in our hands!

It seems that a number of my friends are growing mint this year, so mojitos seem to be the drink of choice this summer. Last weekend was River Falls Days (in WI), so I went to my friend Lisa's house for a mojito party! She makes an excellent mojito! In the past, there would have been pictures of us having fun - but this year...just a picture of their son, Jake...eating strawberries, with one lone Cheerio on his cheek. (We still had fun, even tho there aren't pics to prove it!)

Yesterday was very hot and sticky...so what better way to be even MORE hot and sticky than having s'mores for dessert! There are now square, flat marshmallows which are PERFECT for making s'mores! Ava certainly enjoyed hers! I love how she's eating it so neatly (ha ha) in this first picture. Needless to say, she got nice and messy!

After she went to bed, Scott and I stayed up and enjoyed the fire. There are a lot of fireflies this year, which always adds a bit of magic to a warm summer evening.

I think we're going to go to the pool today for a bit - it's supposed to be hot and miserable today. No better way to cool off than to splash around!

Comments

Stephanie Blackwood said…

I could almost small the flowers and I could certainly taste the s'mores! Sounds like you're having an ideal summer and Ava makes it lots of fun!

July 17, 2011 at 8:22 PM

Goodbye Sweet Spanky

This is a post that I'm not very excited to write. As you probably know, our oldest dog, Spanky, had struggled with health issues (ear infections, seizures) his whole life, and recently, his health had severely deteriorated. He hadn't been eating, his ear infection was so severe his face was swollen, he had a hard time getting up the stairs, and he very rarely wanted to play. Last week we got a few tail wags from him, and he ate a few bowls of food, but it was a 50-50 chance that he would actually keep the food down. On Thursday, we made the decision that if he wasn't any better by this weekend, we were going to put him down. I know Scott didn't want to make that decision as Spanky was a very special dog to him - he truly was his little buddy, following him around everywhere, wanting to be wherever Scott was, and howling his sadness whenever Scott would leave him. Throughout Friday night, it became clear that Spanky wasn't going to have a miraculous recovery...

Happily Ever After?

Lately, I've been adding to the Disney Princess movies in our collection. Last week I bought Beauty and the Beast for Ava. That was never a favorite movie of mine, but now that I've seen it several times in the last week, it's growing on me. I figure this is a good chance for me to catch up on some of the stories that I missed out on! Watching all of these princess movies has me thinking about fairy tales...why is it that it's always the evil stepMOTHER? Or the mom is dead, and no one has taken her place? Very rarely is it the father who is evil, or dead. This has actually come up as a topic in more than one conversation lately, and has me a bit intrigued. Fairy tales are often not very happy - and usually someone dies at some point. I was a giving an overview of Snow White to a friend of mine, and as I was going through the story, both of us were horrified at the message - mom dies, evil stepmother wants to murder her pretty stepdaugh...

What's Black & White?

It's officially summer in Minnesota. We've passed the 1-2 weeks where it's pleasant outside, and have moved into the hot and humid midwestern summer season. This calls for some FUN in the SUN! We were hoping that Ava would enjoy the water a little more this year than she did last year (I took her to several weeks of swimming lessons in a lap pool, where the temp of the water was just a wee bit too chilly. It didn't go well for either of us.) Plus, she has a new swimming suit I was anxious to have her try out, so at the very least, I knew she would look cute. :) So, Daddy decided to set up the sprinkler for her one night after dinner. This, too, did not go very well. Perhaps it's because he sprung the sprinkler on her without warning, causing her to run to me, with fear in her eyes, and very wet hands... After that, we never got her to come near the sprinkler (way to go, Daddy), and she decided to play with my potted flowers...with h...

Go, Go, Goers!

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