Of Gardens, Graves and Girls

SO we finally got our garden done...except for the later plantings of corn and beans. (LOL! so much for being done!) I am so excited to see everything growing and to be "experimenting" this year with some new fruits and veggies, potatoes, watermelon, and cantaloupe to name a few. Tonight we had a delicious salad from our garden...I planted a "salad mix" of leaf lettuce and it was SOOO good, with both green and purple varieties. I can hardly wait until we can add the home grown cukes and tomatoes too! And as we ate, I started thinking about those yummy summer meals from the garden: sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, fresh corn on the cob, crisp green beans...I'm starting to drool! And this year we will be able to have potatoes (one of my personal weaknesses...I could eat potatoes for every meal...and no I don't have a speck of Irish in me, despite the last name!)

Yesterday, D and I helped my parents put their garden in...of Course Daddy had to have everything calculated out precisely, and had read up on everything related to the things he's planted. But they have a fantastic garden now! It was fun to help them get the soil prepared and the plants in the ground. GO GARDENS!
And Peaches loved helping too!
This past weekend was incredibly busy for us, but so fun too! We spent Friday and Saturday morning up at the family cabin, where the kids had a fantastic time! They ran over the hills, went rock hunting/collecting, explored around the pond (which was actually full!).


They flew kites, played on the swing set, and when the rain was falling they came inside to play fooseball, make up games with the pool balls, shoot hoops and just have fun with cousins.

We adults got to play games, talk do puzzles and just relax and enjoy the wonderful scenery and weather (I of course love the rain/cloudy weather!)

We ate some delicious meals too. Friday night we grilled a London Broil, crispy pan-fried potatoes, green beans, salad and baked beans. Saturday morning we had eggs, bacon, sausage, toast and fruit. The awesome thing to me is that we had such a fun and enjoyable time and we did it without electricity (for the most part that is....I think we did turn on the generator for the toaster!) The kids never once complained about not seeing favorite shows or talked about wanting to play video games etc. Marvelous! Saturday night when we got home we threw everyone into the tub, and went to bed. We were tired!

Sunday, we did our traditional Cemetery visits to place flowers on the Patrick family graves, and share stories of these dearly departed family members. What I love most about these annual visits is that we learn new things every year...new stories are told, or even the same stories with "new" (to me) details. I love that the kids get to learn about their ancestors from people who actually knew them, and hopefully we can keep the family history alive and real for our children as we continue to do this every year. My goal for the future is to add some Hen grave sites/ancestors to our family's memories so they won't be forgotten, either.

On Monday after helping with the garden, we went back up to the cabin for a Patrick family BBQ and to finish up some of the work that didn't get finished the week before (mowing the lawn, fixing the roof). The kids had a blast with all their little cousins (14 of 16 cousin were there...all 8 and under!) They literally roamed the hills playing all kinds of games. That is until a snake was spotted. Good thing Uncle R is good with a shovel (he didn't have his gun with him that day.) It was a rattle snake at least 3' in length. We all breathed a sigh of relief when the head was disposed of and the kids were assured that even though the body was moving, it couldn't hurt them any more. But that pretty much ended the festivities and within the hour we all departed.

We then made our way down to the Hen homestead for the Hen BBQ. D and I made shish kebabs (we didn't relish eating hamburgers twice in one day).

There were also chips and bean dip, baked beans, salad, carrot sticks, and for dessert we had s'mores. I love s'mores so much! Here the kids are modeling their s'mores:




Here are some pics of the girls this weekend.


I found these dresses and just couldn't resist them...Sweetsa absolutely loves hers...and has worn it three of the five days since I bought it! Speaking of Sweetsa...she received her fist flowers from a boy this weekend. Little JS came by the house Saturday looking to play with Sweetsa, and clutched in his fist was a little bouquet of horse chestnut blooms for her! So sweet!

Peaches said her second "word this weekend while at the cabin. It was "dog" (but sounded more like "gog". She is so slow and deliberate about saying dog, but she sure loves that puppy, Charlie!