The Blue Angels

 

  
 

The Garden

The is the year of The Garden. With Mom and Dad here to help me out, we are going for it! We spend about two weeks getting the soil ready.  Dad dug and dug and dug some more. I think he turned over the soil in that garden 5 times! We added soil. We added mulch. We added manure. We added chemicals to break down the mulch. We pulled out rocks, sticks, roots, and weeds. (Again, mostly my dad, with Mom giving instructions) 

Finally it was ready to plant!

The kids played while the adults worked. 

Isn't that how it usually goes?

There it is! The garden is planted.

Irises are blooming. Beautiful.

The Strawberries

 

The fruit trees are looking good this year.

Blackberries, Blueberries, and Tomatoes

 Squash and Peppers and Eggplant

Cucumbers

 Onions, peppers (so many kinds!) We're hoping for lots of fresh salsa this summer.

Also, we planted watermelon and beans. We are having so much fun watching it begin to grow.

Dad cleaned up the marshy corner and the yard and put down some mulch.

More yard pictures

I love the yard at this house!

What do you think, Tyler and April? Looking good? :)

Cousin Tyler

Tyler Kincaid was in St. Louis for a robotics competition and we got to go see him! We all walked around downtown St. Louis until we found the right Drury Inn, which I thought was a fun little adventure. Of course, there were a few complaints about that from the children. His hotel was right next to the Arch and it was pretty neat to see it so close at night. We don't often go into the city at night. It felt surprisingly safe. Everywhere we looked we saw friendly folks in robot t-shirts- not a scary crowd. Tyler showed us pictures and videos from his phone, and we got to see the way his robot played the ball games. We loved seeing him. We've missed Tyler and the whole Kincaid family. They are great people.

The Drury Inn offers complimentary popcorn and soda. The kids thought that was awesome.

A Robotics Team from Arkansas offered us some of their leftovers from their Spaghetti Factory buffet.  Mmmmm...

Anna wasted no time snuggling up to one of her most favorite cousins.

Tyler was proud of his beard/mustache. Maren teased him.

You can see it if you look close. :)

It was only about an hour- not enough time to spend with Tyler. Hopefully we'll see him again soon.

Maren goes to Prom