jaguars and orangutans and a scavenger hunt, oh my!

Yesterday, Hubby took the day off and we all headed to the zoo.

We weren't there as long as we sometimes are - Kiddo was on a mission (although I'm not sure what it was) and kept us moving through the zoo at a pretty brisk pace.  But we did get to see some pretty cool stuff.  Like a baby giraffe, baby otter and baby orangutan.  My favorite part of yesterday was the orangutan family.  They were so entertaining! 

Momma was busy with baby, and Daddy was pouting under his blanket, ha!

One of the reasons we went (other than to enjoy a beautiful day at the zoo as a family) was to work on our Clickin Moms photo scavenger hunt list.  Here we're crossing off "alligator." 

We've been busy this month taking pictures of random things like a purple house, stalactite, light saber and a Target 18-wheeler.

One of the other items we checked off yesterday? 

"duckling."

Kiddo loved all of the ducks and ducklings we saw around the zoo.  We spent the longest amount of time at the duck pond (an astounding surprise, I know).

That boy.  Hubby and I were talking last night about how much he loved the ducks.  Hubby commented that maybe we should look into getting some ducks so that Kiddo could have some of his own.  And then I googled "pet ducks" and read about the poop and the mess and the exotic vet bills.  Maybe we'll just go back to the zoo...

blessed {10 years}

To be able to wake in the morning married to this man, and knowing that I get to do it again tomorrow, is a wondrous thing.

 

And to do it for 10 years?  A priceless gift - one that I don't deserve.  

Today (and tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that...) I am grateful for undeserved gifts.  For a husband, companion, partner, best friend, who knows me and loves me as I am, faults and all.  For this man who shares in the ups and downs, the goofy, the sweet, the hard, the fun, the large and small of this life we live.  

Happy anniversary to this hubby of mine.  I can't imagine sharing the next 10 years with anyone else.

kindergardens - week 10 {trillions of peas}

We didn't get into the garden much over the weekend, so when Kiddo and I went to check on it yesterday, he was thrilled by how much everything had grown since last week.

His morning glory house is just about covered from top to bottom.  We had to cut the morning glory back so that he could find the windows.

And it's starting to bloom!

His teepee is starting to take shape,

and his maze is looking more and more like a maze!

We picked cauliflower, broccoli and all but a couple of our kohlrabi this week.  My family thinks we should give away the rest of the cauliflower - I blanched and froze a couple of heads this past weekend, and the whole house was pretty stinky.  Kiddo eventually escaped out the door because he couldn't take it anymore.  To make matters worse, the pot boiled over while I was busy packing up freezer bags, but I didn't think much of it until two days later when the kitchen positively reeked and we finally discovered a large pool of cauliflower water sitting under the burners in the stove.  Eeew, eeew, and more eeeeew.  When we got it mopped up, our kitchen magically smelled better.  Go figure.  There must be a better way to handle cauliflower.  If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears!

We also picked a few handfuls of peas yesterday.  Kiddo was excited by the bounty.  "We've got millions and billions and trillions of peas, Mommy!!"

We sat down together on the edge of the raised bed with our pile of pea pods and snacked away.  It was one of those sweet moments that I want to tuck away and remember forever.  Just me and my boy, sitting next to each other in the garden with the mid-morning sunshine on our backs, comparing the number and size of peas in our pods before popping them in our mouths.

After our snack, we battled with the evil Japanese beetle.

"When the beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles...they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle."

Sorry.  That just came out of nowhere.

We also discovered an orange-ish tomato (hooray!), and noticed that our Indian corn has started to tassel!

This weekend Kiddo and I are going out of state for a few days, so it will be exciting to check our garden when we get back and see what has changed and grown while we were away.  Maybe we'll have millions and billions and trillions of tomatoes!  Or Japanese beetles.

Check out other KinderGARDENS at The Inadvertent Farmer.

the view from here

I did a brilliant thing today.

I took to heart Ashley's advice.  One of her favorite photo tips is to find an unusual angle.  She is always standing on tables or chairs or other bits of furniture to get shots of her kids, so I decided to follow her example, and climbed up onto the piano bench this afternoon.

What I failed to do was watch where I was going when I jumped down - and I knocked my knee hard on the edge of the piano.  It hurt so badly, I just about hyperventilated, and frightened poor Kiddo while I was rolling around clutching my knee and crying and trying to hold in all the choice words that came to mind.

So tonight I'm on the couch, with my trusty bag of frozen peas wrapped in a towel.  And my boy.  And my Old Navy flip flop tan line.

He's been keeping me entertained by telling me duck stories.

Lots and lots of duck stories.

And when he ran out of stories, we read Cars and Trucks and Things That Go.  And hunted for Goldbug.

And when he went to bed, I settled in with the Lord of the Rings and the Chick-fil-A peach milkshake I saved in the freezer for just such an emergency.

Here's hoping my peas and my milkshake do the trick and I'm off the couch tomorrow.

...

"I would cut off your head, dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground."

one misty moisty morning

I didn't meet any men clothed in leather, though. 

glorious morning

Have a wonderful, blessed weekend!

kindergardens - week 9 {kids photo challenge}

Our KinderGARDEN assignment this week was to send the kid(s) into the garden with the camera. At lunchtime yesterday, I asked Kiddo if he wanted to go out and take his pictures in the afternoon, or if he wanted to wait for the evening. "I'll wait until evening," he said, "because the sun will be lower and it will make a nice background for my pictures and they'll be really pretty." Yep, I'm training him up well.

So after dinner, he grabbed his camera and headed out to snap some shots...and videos.

He really wanted me to post the videos, but I couldn't get them to load, so you'll have to settle for his pictures instead.  You should probably breathe a sigh of relief - when a 7-year-old makes a video while speed-walking through the garden, the result can be a queasy experience for anyone watching. 

Here are a few of Kiddo's pictures:

sunflower jungle

morning glory house

lacecap hydrangea

petunias in his flowerbed

patriotic duck in his flowerbed (and a weed)

tomatoes - we are going to be up to our EARS in grape tomatoes.  

I'm starting to panic, there are SO MANY!

morning glory house again

Flower maze.  It's growing sloooowly.  Kiddo is trying to be patient.

Arch that is supposed to be covered in hyacinth beans.  But the hyacinth beans are having trouble growing big while fighting off cucumber beetles and fast-growing sunflowers that are hoarding all of the light.

daylily

veggies (and the kinkiest no-kinking hose I've ever met)

It sure was fun watching him run around with the camera, snapping pics of what he thought was important for you to see.  

There are lots of other kids behind the camera this week - you can check out their pics at this week's KinderGARDEN post!