We have our veggie garden up and growing, but decided to take a new approach this year. Last year Portman and the kids constructed one of those Home Depot garden kits and we planted everything in the ground. It started off great, but little did we know that we have have lots of critters and deer in our yard who love to eat vegetable gardens! By the end of the summer, we had only one zucchini plant left from the 12 or so veggie and herb plants that we started with.

This year we decided to try container gardening. We have a double-decker porch, and we hardly ever use the top deck (and we don’t really let the kids up there because we’re worried about them climbing). We bought a bunch of large plastic containers from Home Depot (they were cheaper than the terracotta ones), tons of potting soil, and gave it a whirl. So far the plants are doing great up there. They get a full day’s worth of direct sunlight, we’ve had a lot of rain lately, and they are just thriving!

The garden:

Two kinds of tomatoes (started from seedling), yellow squash (seedling) and sweet peas (started from seeds we got for free!) The sweet peas took off and yesterday Roman and I constructed a lattice using garden rope and some 1×2′s for the peas to climb. It’s an okay solution, but next year I would use something more sturdy (we had to tie the ends of it to the porch railings to support it!)

A third type of tomato plant and zucchini, both started from seedlings:

View of the kids running in the field from the top deck:

Based on my internet research, the only thing you can’t grow in a container is cucumbers, and we love our cuc’s. Roman and I planted 10 cucumber plants from seeds in the in-ground garden, and 8 of them are doing well. The seedlings have come up, and I’ve noticed them getting a little bigger in the last few days. We will have to build a trellis for these, as well as some sort of critter protection system! The back two sections of the garden are empty right now. I’m thinking about planting wildflowers in them since Harper loves to pick bouquets for me – maybe it will keep her out of my flower beds!

The last thing we planted (and I don’t have photos) is herbs – tons of them. I love growing fresh herbs, and it’s so easy. Portman mounted four 24-inch window boxes along the lower porch railing in direct sunlight. I planted mint (it gets its own box since it is highly invasive), parsley and rosemary, 2 sweet basil plants, 2 cilantro plants, Thai basil and thyme. The mint, parsley and rosemary all survive the winter and come back every year. I suspect that thyme will as well, but this is the first year I have planted it. Basil, cilantro and Thai basil all have to be replanted every year. Most of the herbs are doing great and growing like trees. The basil likes warmer weather and hasn’t taken off yet, but I’ve never had a problem growing it!

We had the most wonderful Mother’s Day today! We don’t usually make a big deal about Hallmark Holidays, and I didn’t expect much (other than getting to sleep in as long as I want, obviously), so I was in for quite the treat.

I tried to get out of bed, but evidently everyone heard me, and the kids rushed up the stairs demanding that I get back in! A few minutes later they came in with breakfast, and much to my surprise, a new laptop!!! I was long, long overdue for a new computer. Having a husband who is a software engineer means that we don’t usually buy our own hardware – every computer in our house is a hand-me-down or gift from work. The only other one we purchased was my old laptop, bought over 5 years ago, and the L, K, comma and 8 keys no longer worked. Made for some creative typing (and copying and pasting). Needless to say, I am absolutely LOVING this thing. Oh, and dude, it’s a DELL.

After a lazy morning in bed reading to the kids (and forcing them to watch videos of themselves on my new computer!), Daddy packed up the bikes in record time, and we went over to Burke Lake Park for a ride around the lake. The park was absolutely packed today, but it’s huge and the trail wasn’t crowded at all. This was our first time biking around Burke Lake and we were so impressed with the trail. It’s about 5 miles around, but packed dirt and very wide, so we had no trouble at all with the bike trailer. It’s also shaded the whole way around, so it made for a really beautiful, cool ride.

Ada was hysterical in her little bike seat! One benefit of being so tiny: she still fits very comfortably in the front mounted seat. She was non-stop talk the entire ride, saying “hi” and waving to everyone we passed, yelling “hi, Daddy!” loud enough that Portman could hear her, and commenting on absolutely everything. “Pretty lake! Pretty ducks! Pretty mommy!” were repeated over and over again. My favorite comment was when Harper held one of her baby dolls onto the roof of the trailer (yes, she brought babies with her) and Ada yelled out “No, Barper, baby IN!” We were so surprised at how good she was on the ride – she’s usually our temper-tantrum kid in all situations, but she was really happy up there! I was also surprised that she kept her helmet on the entire time without complaint. This is a kid who refuses to wear shoes (she was shoe-less on the ride, but wore a helmet – what gives?)

The big kids were pretty squished in the trailer, but had great attitudes about it. They are definitely getting too big to share it, so we need to look into other options (probably a tandem bike pulled behind me that they take turns on and Ada rides in the trailer.) Harper brought two babies with her, and they pretended that they were the babies’ “mom and dad” the whole time. Portman said they were in character for the whole ride – not surprising at all!

Getting ready to ride (sun was in the big kids’ face, sorry kids):

I made it around the lake toting 1 1/2 babies! And as two of my neighbors so nicely put it (on separate occasions), at almost 7 months I’m “as big as a house.” Tact, people, learn some.

We ended the ride right back at the carousel. Since the kids had spent the first part of the ride waving to the choo-choo, we had to give it a whirl. Harper insisted on riding with Ada by herself (we sat behind them for safety reasons, duh!) She was SO adorable and protective, and kept her arm around Ada the whole time. She made sure that Ada waved at everyone, and there were a lot of people to wave at today!

We capped off the day with cones (and in Ada’s case, some BBQ chips – she was not into the cones.) Today was the perfect family day!

Last week I started something new – planning a weekly menu. I’ve never been good at this, but at this point I just can’t get to the store on the fly, so I need to plan a little more in advance. Luckily I seem to be over the pregnancy yucks and have my appetite back, and I’m more in the mood to cook!

I picked up a cheap-o dry-erase meal calendar at Target. It isn’t perfect, but I crossed out some of the pre-printed titles and made it more usable. Eventually I’d like to make one that really fits our needs, but this was $7 and works for now.

This is my second week using it, and it’s actually really helpful. I make sure to write everything down when I get back from the store so that I remember what meals I bought for! This week we have a few social events, so I won’t be doing a ton of cooking. Also the meals I’m making do make leftovers, so at least the adults will have those a few nights. I found that last week I didn’t necessarily cook things on the day I said I would (a trip to the ER messed up the schedule!), but by the end of the week I had cooked everything on the calendar and the fridge was downright barren. I have columns for mom & dad, kids, and to the right I just put down “extras” that I plan to make at some point. We always have smoothies once or twice during the week (usually as part of a “leftover” dinner), and this week I’m also making cinnamon-streusel muffins. 

In conjunction with my menu planning, Portman finally got around to helping me fix up the recipe page on this blog. It still needs some work (moving the posts into meal-type categories rather than chronological), but it’s progress. If you visit that page regularly, you will notice that each recipe now has a photo. Some of the older ones don’t have photos because I didn’t take one at the time, so I’m using this opportunity to cook some of my older recipes so that I can take a picture! Let me reiterate that I am not a chef and I am not trying to become a food blogger, I just don’t do well with recipe books and I’m trying to preserve some of the recipes that we enjoy as a family!

If you’re at all interested, here’s what’s cooking this week:

• Parmesan chicken tenders with lemon risotto
• Spinach quiche
• Tortellini with tomato sauce
• Cinnamon muffins

I just got around to viewing the kids’ class photos that my friend shared with me (I didn’t order them). I nearly woke the kids up laughing at Roman’s picture! Harper, big surprise, is posing like a child model. Roman evidently was not feeling camera ready that day! Here is Roman’s picture (front and center), and Harper’s (back right). Ha!!Their individual pictures were pretty much the same, but a little less dramatic in Roman’s case. Of course, our scanner is kaput (ordered a new one today, actually), so I can’t share them. This should suffice!

I mentioned in an earlier post that Ada is now enjoying a Big Girl Bed. It’s technically just her crib with a toddler rail on it, but for her it’s a big step! She still insisted that the crib bumpers be part of the setup, so I tied them on the best I could and doubled them back around the side of the crib. It works. We’re going to stick with this for a few months, then maybe think about moving her into the bunk beds with Harper. Harper says she is ready for the top bunk, but I’m not so sure! The other options are they share the bottom bunk (it’s a full size), or Ada gets a mattress on the floor. We’ll cross that bridge this summer.

This is what the baby’s room currently looks like. It’s a huge mess. The changing table is in there, and we are using that for Ada’s diapers for now. This weekend we (and by “we” I mean Portman) put together the girls’ new Ikea dresser, and we moved the big dresser/hutch into the baby’s room. That room doesn’t have a closet, so it needs a lot of storage! Miraculously, the crib, changing table, rocker and dresser/hutch all fit. Since we don’t know the gender, we’re sticking with the green walls, and for now I’ll use the gender-neutralish bedding that my mom made for us when we had Harper. I need to procure some curtains to match (ehem, mom…), but other than that we have everything we need. It’s not urgent, and we still have a few months to figure it out!

The kids are almost always in costume, and in character for that matter. Among other things, this morning Roman said he was a “Super Princess.” We don’t judge in this family!