Priceless.

What better way to spend an afternoon....daddy and daughter catching some zzzzz's. I LOVE IT!

Zealous Zinnias

I can't take ALL the credit for the successes that we've had with our garden(s). I let the kids choose what they wanted to plant for the season. While Hunter chose tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers (all those wonderfully healthy vegetables) Aidan chose to plant some flowers. He really wanted to plant sunflowers (he planted those last year) but he settled for these fascinating zinnias. Both boys have been rather consistent on checking their plants everyday (course, I DO do most of the watering).

It's been fun to watch Aidan go out every morning to check for new flowers. We've had a few for the past two weeks. In fact, we dug up two or three and gave them as a gift to his teacher at school. But this one that we spotted this morning has been the most zealous--reaching the highest and boasting the biggest, most perfect bloom thus far.
Oh, how much I love flowers!!

Big, Green Monster

Every morning I go check the progress of our garden (and every evening). And I must say that I'm absolutely excited at how well everything is growing. We're beginning to see the fruits of our labors.

During one of my evening walks around the yard I found this on one of my tomato plants:By the time I discovered him he had already devoured about 1/3 of the leaves. Thankfully he was on my smallest plant (the upside-down tomato plant) so he was easy to spot. While I have a total fascination for caterpillars (simply because they are so unique looking) I just simply could not stand by and let this Tomato/Tobacco Hornworm go to town!

Now Hunter believes he has a new calling...keeping his eyes peeled for these big, green monsters! Must not let anything come between him and his tomatoes.

8 Things

Okay, Toni tagged me and I must admit that I haven't done one of these in a while but here goes:

The rules: Mention the person that tagged you. Complete the lists of 8 things. Tag 8 of your wonderful bloggy friends. Go tell them you tagged them.

8 things I look forward to:
1. School to be out for the year.
2. Our Cruise to the Caribbean in November.
3. My first veggies from the garden (we're almost there!)--though we've already had a handful of green beans.
4. Getting our bedroom finished.
5. The day when mosquitoes become extinct (hey, a girl can wish--right?)
6. When Aidan is old enough to babysit and mow the lawn.
7. Fall weather.
8. A finished yard.

8 things I did yesterday:
1. Picked a few green beans.
2. Made two hair bows.
3. Went to the Book Fair with Hunter.
4. Wandered Hobby Lobby and Micheal's.
5. Made grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner.
6. Rocked Robyn to sleep (love it every time).
7. Taught piano lessons.
8. Finished two loads of laundry while watching a movie!

8 things I wish I could do:
1. Go biking (if I owned a bike).
2. Get up happy every morning.
3. Take a road trip.
4. Please my 6-yr. old.
5. Play my favorite piano pieces without messing up.
6. Get my clarinet fixed.
7. Hang out outside all day.
8. Keep the critters out of my strawberries.

I tag Karen, Conrad, Krissy, Melinda and Cindy

Girly Therapy

If you have been a part of my household this week you'd know that I've been a regular Oscar-the-Grouch. And I can't even figure out why. Just life, I guess...such a horrible excuse for being mad...

So I participated in some therapy. At first I didn't realize how much doing something like this would help me but for some odd reason it has.

Last week a friend of mine got me started on making hairbows. Somehow, I got hooked. I've been making a few everyday since then. Yep--that's my therapy....making hairbows. I know it seems absolutely silly! A year ago I would have NEVER thought I'd ever be making these!

I started out making simple basic bows similar to what I learned last week. Made about a dozen. I can whip up one or two of these in just minutes. After a few days I wondered what else I could do with my ribbon. So, I experimented a little bit and came up with these:Course, I have since learned that these are called Flower Folds (the blue one is more specifically a Rosette fold). And, they have become my favorite bows because they are smaller and simply sophisticated. I've made just a few of these (yeah, right). Then I put the flower and the basic bow together and you get something like this:
I was having so much fun that I think I went overboard when I discovered a bigger, better, faster way to make these flower bows. And, I created these insanely crazy (but cute) bows!
After these two I thought "Whoa--I better stop!" But I must confess that we absolutely LOVE the big pink one (yes, even my husband was impressed with it). I'm always the mother who sees a cute little baby girl and makes fun of the HUGE bow atop her head. But, when it's one of YOUR bows that you made yourself--does that make it okay.....?

I honestly don't see Robyn wearing most of these any time soon. But, I quickly realized at the beginning of all this that I wasn't really making them for her specifically. I was just making them because I could. Here was something I could put together and the end result would be just minutes away. There is so much in our lives that is just simply monotonous; Chores and projects that never go away and are never finished. And it's been these various activities that I've grown annoyed of lately. So, making these bows created a great outlet for me. I can just pick up my tools and create one of these little works of art in just minutes! It doesn't disrupt our lives and no two are ever alike (even if they're meant to be).