Summer Days with Crazy Hair!!

We are having a BLAST swimming and going to the beach everyday since the start of summer. Josh has been in Taiwan the past two weeks so we have just been hanging out trying to stay busy. It's so much easier for EVERYONE when we are busy!!
Here is little Blake who loves swimming around in the pool. He thinks he is just as big as everyone else! He loves swimming. All the kids do! Here we are at the pool. Between Carla and I, we had 10 kids at the pool (11 and under). She was taking care of a friend's child and I had Nic and Taleia with us. Looks like we have a daycare class with us!!! It's always an adventure!!!! They have fun together!

Before we left the pool, the girls gave us a fashion show with some fancy hair styles!!!! Grandma Deanna would be proud (or scared...). I was laughing so hard. Madison Miller is such a ham! They all are!!!

They proudly called this their "George Washington" style.

Here is Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.....

And last, but not least we have James Madison and John Adams.

Who knows what is next??? Stay tuned....

Mammoth Zucchini!

My neighbor gave us lots of zucchini and squash yesterday. She has more than she knows what to do with from her garden!!! I thought, "why aren't we getting all that?" Well, her garden is twice as big (maybe we'll expand next year...) and she probably checks her garden everyday. I have to admit that since it has gotten hot, that garden is on its own!!! We do water it everyday but the sprinkler is in place and we don't even have to walk back there to turn the water on. So today I went to check the garden out and boy oh boy, check out what I found.....

That is one big zucchini. I may not have A LOT of them but one of ours is like 4 or 5 put together!! I passed that big boy on to Carla for her family. She is going to make zucchini bread. Yummy!!! I hope she shares!!

Here is all that we were able to pull out of the garden today....


We are so excited to the see the "fruits of our labor"!!! I have a Garden Vegetable Pasta dish I am going to try out from a Pampered Chef recipe book. It includes all of our garden veggies we are getting right now. I wish our pepper plants would have come up because I just about cried yesterday when I had to pay $1.78 for a red pepper!!!!! Ouch.

The Growing Garden

Our garden has really gotten off to a good start!
It's fun going out to check on our little project everyday. There is always something to do - weed, stake up the tomatoes, weed, water, stake up the tomatoes, weed, water and so on... We are thinking about expanding it next year, based on how well it goes this year. This is our "trial" year to check it out.

We were SO EXCITED to see this awesome squash!!! The kids were excited too! We all went out to the garden together to take pictures and then pick the goodies! We were able to pick one squash and one zucchini (what do you do when you have 3 children that want to pick the vegetables and only 2 veggies to pick!!??). I cut them up, rubbed them with olive oil, threw a little salt and pepper on them and grilled them. They were my birthday present to myself today!!! The whole family loved it and the Millers got to come over and share them with us too. (Yes, one squash and one zucchini went a long way!!)

After a little more digging around, we saw a cucumer. I didn't even know we planted cucumbers. Yah! A yummy salad treat! We'll let him keep growing for a while longer though. We also have lots of tomatoes that are working on ripening. They are going to be delicious (and good, as my kids would say!!) Now if we can only take care of the blossom rot problem!!! :)

Let the good garden times roll! (Look how big that corn is getting!!!)

A Day at the Farm 2010

We took our annual trip to the farm today!
I can remember doing this with my older kids and now it is so much fun to take Blake. He was looking forward to his "field trip" all week. We went with lots of our friends.

Blake really liked the fluffy bunny. He wanted to hold it and so he "helped" to hold it. I can tell by his facial expression that he is so excited!!! He was making some crazy faces today!!
There were no baby calves to feed but this sweet little goat was fun to feed! He was really gentle to feed (compared to the baby calf).

We were amazed at this really big pig!

And finally, the hayride was a big hit. I was instructed by Blake to keep my arms tightly wrapped around him the whole time. This picture of him cracks me up because this is his "I am not going to smile at you" face. We get this a lot!

Our farm trip was a blast! So glad we could go!

The New Bike

Josh got a new road bike a couple of weeks ago. He really loves riding his bike. He rides his bike to work when he can. It is around 28 miles round trip. Here is a picture of Josh coming home.

Look at those beautiful clouds!...and my hubby on his bike having fun and getting a great workout!!!

The School Play

Last Thursday the 1st the 2nd graders had a performance at school. They sang a few songs for the parents. The theme was "Unsung Heros". The songs were dedicated to all the heros at school that don't always get the thanks they deserve - the secretary, the nurse, the bus driver, the cafeteria workers, etc. It was really cute! If you look closely, you can see Tyler on the right side of the closest risers. He is on the top row. This is a really bad quality picture. I am having a hard time downloading pics tonight so it will just have to do...Anyway...
Here is Tyler getting ready for the performance.

Madison was "Anna" who got a sunburn in Aruba. She was so cute in her swim gear. She was super excited to get an "actor" part in the play.

Here is our "Anna" with a major sunburn!!!

Oh the joys of elementary school!!

Our Garden

The Miller-Martin crew has started our first garden together! All our kids (plus one neighbor girl) helped to plant something in the garden. It seems fun now but we'll see how fun they think it is when we start picking weeds in the dead of summer!!

It is definitely a "city garden". We won't be planting an acre of corn and an acre of beans but it gives us something to start with and learn! We have peppers, onions, beans, corn, tomatoes, cilantro, basil and watermelon. Josh worked so hard to put up our fence so the bunnies don't eat our food before we do. Everyone did such a great job!!

And of course, it can't be all work and no play! I have a feeling that the daily watering of the garden will never get old! We'll update our garden adventures as the spring/summer continues!!!