Weekly Garden Update

It's amazing to watch our garden growing and changing so quickly.  I took these pictures yesterday afternoon and I swear that things had changed this afternoon.  Crazy. 

We added a potato planter.  This was a bag from Walmart and it has a velco "trap door" to harvest the potatoes when they are ready.  

 Tomato plant

 Pumpkins: I think the one on the right has two shoots, which I'm happy to see.  I think we planted a few more, but it doesn't look like they are coming up.

 The red leaf lettuce has sprouted in a couple of spots, but hasn't taken off all that great.

 Sunflowers on the other hand are going great!

 Honeydew on Friday.  When I checked it this afternoon the leaves were gone, like something had eaten them.  I can still see the stems coming up, so we'll have to keep an eye on things.

 The strawberries are turning green again, so I think we'll give them couple more weeks before we pull them. 

 A couple are starting to look like this. 

 Watermelon

 Ty's cucumber plant is really growing.  Today it had some twisty vines on the top. 

 Spaghetti squash

 The green leaf lettuce has really taken off!

 All of the corn kernels we planted have now sprouted, awesome!

 Box 1

 Box 2

Can't wait to compare pictures next week!

Friday fun...

Today was busy and fun. 

We had friends over for a bit....

 New things continue to sprout in the garden.
Pumpkin

 Lots of more sunflowers

 Honeydew melon

Ty's cucumber plant is getting bigger

Even with a few yellow leaves, my spaghetti squash is growing. 

 Green leaf lettuce has lots of sprouts

One little stock of corn starting to grow.  

 Tyler aquired a new friend today.  We will be making trips to Sailor Bar to find the right kind of vine leaves for it. 

The boys chased down the ice cream truck for a treat.

Cody had his first parkour/urban gym class today and really liked it.  We're hoping it will help him with body control. 

We moved Tyler to a new day of gymnastics, to fit Cody in and that went well.  After his class I asked his teacher what the skills were to bump him to level 2 and we were informed he's already in level 2 and working on level 3.  That's pretty awesome.   Level 1&2 are in the same class, so it was easy to miss.  He needs to figure out a few skills like a solid round off, headstand and pull-ups on the bars/rings and he'll move to level 3. 

We have sprouts!

We've been keeping a watchful eye on our plantings and today we noticed sprouts!  It's very exciting to see things growing. 

Sunflowers

 Green leaf lettuce

 Red leaf rabbit lettuce

We are still waiting on the melons and corn to pop up. 

The tomato plant is looking healthier and standing up more

The squash and cucumber plants are also doing well.

We do have one awful looking barrel, the strawberries. 

I did get these at Osh, so we'll probably be taking these back and trying again. 

Gymnastics Show Off Night 2

Here is the video of Ty's second night of show-off week.  

The routines were a bit different tonight and not quite as difficult.  I'm not a huge fan of his second class and really want to see about switching him coaches.  He's very nice, but just doesn't have a hold on the class like his other coach and Ty's not learning as much as he should be.

Discovery Museum

We went to the Discovery Museum of Space and Sciences today with our homeschooling group.  We had never been there before, and it was a lot of fun.  There are a lot of interesting exhibits, many of which we have been studying about in the last couple of months.  The Museum offered a search and find worksheet that lead us around, finding answers and guiding us in our exploration. 

 They also have a few live animals and this rabbit was one of them.  He kinda looks like an alpaca, only smaller.

 After our tour we walked a quick loop around their outdoor trail, taking advantage of  the break in the rain. 

We really look forward to visiting again, hopefully getting to see more of the space side and a planetarium show.

Gymnastics Show Off Night 1

Tonight Tyler had his first of two show-off nights at gymnastics.  

He's doing well, and I'm excited to see him continue to grow and get stronger.

Here are his routines...

Receiving his medal from Coach Kevin

 A new on for the collection!

Hoping they grow...

A garden has been in the back of my mind for a while, so the boys and I finally planted a few things to see what we can grow.  With the rabbits out back, that didn't make for a good place.  I had thought I might be able to put some boxes down the side of our house, but there's watering issues and the sun wasn't as great as I had thought.  So our garden is going to be right out front, we can watch it from the front windows! 
We already had the wine barrel planters, but their contents were dead and the cats had been using them. (So Gross).  So those were cleaned out.  Searching for a cheap solution, we hit the dollar store in search of more bins.  We came up with some baskets and then lined them with weed blocker from the garden store.  Even if they only last one season, they only cost $1!

 Tyler helped me search for flat stones and then I wrote on them with a sharpie to mark the planters.

 We used some left over rabbit fencing to cover the planters and make cages on a couple, in hopes of keeping the cats out. 

Our crop includes: sweet corn, red leaf & butter lettuce, cucumbers, spaghetti squash, strawberries, sunflowers, watermelon, honeydew melon, pumpkins and a tomato plant. 
In a couple of weeks I might add another tomato plant, a couple of peppers, some onions and herbs to start a salsa garden.

Fish Hatchery

We went to the hatchery today to take in the beautiful spring weather.  After feeding the fish we took a walk along the new section of bike trail under Hazel bridge and over to the aquatic center.  It was gorgeous out and we enjoyed seeing the wildlife.