Harvesting

We ate some of our first pickins from our garden this week!  I’m still just amazed that we actually have FOOD growing in our backyard.  I love going out there each day to see how much bigger the squash and zucchini are from the day before, and looking for the beginnings of new growth. 

Here are some pictures of our squash from just a couple of weeks ago. 

And here are the things we picked first, proudly held by my little garden-helper buddies. 

SQUASH & GREEN BEANS

Our corn is coming along but not ready to be picked yet.  We’re also letting the carrots grow a little more and the okra is finally becoming noticeable.  We also have a long watermelon vine growing, but no sign of actual watermelons yet. 

Here’s our bounty aplenty after getting cleaned up.  Yumm-o!

I need to keep looking for different recipes to try so my family doesn’t get tired of eating squash casserole (my FAVE way to eat squash).  Our first way of cooking the squash and zucchini was on the grill, sliced and basted with a little olive oil, then sprinkled with salt and pepper.  Paired with some grilled chicken and leftover corn casserole made for a delicious dinner for the Hughes last night! 

A garden we will grow!

In March we decided to plant a vegetable garden as a little project that our family could work on together, so the day after the kids’ birthday party we got to work tilling and hoeing, and eventually planting some seeds. 


The kids were super-helpful when we were putting seeds in the ground and made sure we planted a variety *ahem* of vegetables, but we weren’t on top of it enough to mark what we were planting.  So it was sort of a mystery as to what would pop up where.  Who knows, we might even create our very own hybrid vegetable. Whatever ends up growing, I sure can’t wait to chow down on some garden-fresh veggies this summer!
Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks after the seeds were planted.  These were proof that something was growing, even if we didn’t know what.

THIS IS CORN

And here’s how our little plants were coming along mid-April.  Once things began producing foliage, we were able to identify a few more of them.
THESE ARE CARROTS!

CORN!

Not really sure what this is…

…but aren’t they big?!



And here are some pictures from today…

I have to admit, tending to this little vegetable patch has been kind of therapeutic for me, and fun for the kids.  My hope is that they are learning to appreciate the time and patience it takes for something to grow as opposed to walking into our local grocery store and buying it. 
I’m enjoying spending time weeding (although looking at these pictures I need to spend a little more time), and watering, and watching all of the growth.  We don’t really know what we’re doing, and chances of pest infestation or some other destruction is inevitable I’m sure, but if we only get one ear of corn or one measly carrot out of the seven rows of seeds, it will be worth the labor. 

Spring Break Survival & Some Stats

Spring Break has not really been a phrase that’s meant much to our household until this year.  Since the kids’ preschool follows the county schools’ schedule, the school was closed the week of Spring Break.  Not sure how I was going to survive the week, we managed to do some exploring around town and even took a quick trip to visit my parents.

My mom had an outpatient toe surgery the Monday of Spring Break week, the same day that the kids had their four-year-old well visit, so we planned to go up to visit my mom at some point during our week off and give my dad a break during his Spring Break.    

The kids’ well visit was interesting.  They had to have shots of course, which was miserable for the kids but we made it up to them with Chick-fil-A ice cream at 9:30 in the morning (and mama was treated to coffee…yummm!).  Their four-year-old stats are not super-shocking:

Ethan:
89 percentile weight  (42.6 lbs.)
74 percentile height (41.5 inches)

Our little man is growing steady and strong, rock solid as always!

Hannah:
17 percentile weight (31.4 lbs.)
8 percentile height (37.5 inches)

My little mini-me is a MINI indeed!  She must take after many of the females on Jason’s side with her petite-ness.  Love my little peanut!

We made our trip to Horry County and played nurse to Nana and tried to boost her spirits after her foot surgery. 

The kids love swinging on this single-person wooden swing that my mom won on the radio ages and ages ago. 

One of the kids’ favorite things right now is taking pictures with my camera.  I’ll hand it over from time to time and let them click a few times.  I’ve been really impressed with some of Hannah’s shots.  Here are a couple she took of my dad, his flowers, and me:

Anyone interested in hiring a four-year-old photographer?! 

We loved checking out all of Marc-Marc’s bird feeders and bird houses.  Here’s a little chickadee outside his house, watching me and making sure I don’t get to close.

Hannah learned to play hopscotch on my parents’ driveway (and no, I’m not being super-protective and making her wear a helmet to hop around on concrete, she had just taken a bike ride and didn’t want to slow down long enough for me to get it off). 

So we survived our Spring Break week together and I hope that starting next year we can ALL take a BREAK as a family and take a fun vacation! 

Easter 2012

Easter was incredibly special and meaningful this year.   We celebrated faith…family…and friends.  And as a bonus, we all wore spiffy new clothes!

We really made an effort for our family to experience this Easter season as fully as possible this year.  It was important to us for our children to begin to understand the significance of the Easter events as we tried to put more focus on the religious meaning and not emphasize the Easter bunny with them too much. 

Our church holds services throughout the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday in celebration of “holy week” which helped me (personally) appreciate the suffering along with the celebration, which I feel like I’m able to appreciate a little more each year, although I know I can never fully comprehend the suffering and agony that gave way to such a beautiful outcome.

That being said, we participated in a few Easter egg hunts as we celebrated throughout the week, including the one our church holds on Palm Sunday every year.  The kids enjoyed fun games, sugary snacks, and pizza – everybody’s favorite!   

Ethan about to chomp into his prize for the “cupcake walk” game.

Pretty in pink…hunting for those eggs.  She would try to check what was inside each one before she put them in her basket!  Such a stinker!

Showing off their face paintings…flower for Hannah and a kitty-cat for Ethan (it just looks like a fish in this picture).

 

On Easter Sunday, we sported our new duds for church..

…then headed out to Grandaddy Joe and Grandma Marie’s house for some family fun!

L.O.V.E. their over-the-top decorations for every holiday! 

He looks like he’s riding this, but he could only pedal it about a foot.  He found a couple of suckers to push him around a little.  One day you’ll be able to do it on your own, little man!

Visiting the big pig…

Time to find some eggs!

I just love this little tradition with Joe and Marie and her kids and grandkids every year and feel so blessed for our family to be included. 

Ending an amazing day with a little R&R…

I’m so thankful for the family and friends that we have to celebrate this special holiday with, and for the amazing church family we are part of to help us grow in our faith and try everyday to live Christ’s last commandment: that we love one another.