Garden Check 2010

We are now about 2/3 the way through our garden season. Over all I would say this year has been good so far but VERY weedy. I have also had to do a lot of watering this year since it has been so dry. The rain we had earlier last week was a God send. I am just hoping now that the forcasted rain for this week holds true, otherwise it's another long week of watering.
Above is my corn. We opted for the Silver Queen this year rather then our usual Chubby Checker from the last 2 years. We should have our first round ready to come off at the end of this week.

And this is my Watermelon patch. this is only 3 plants (hills). I am a bit nervous on these. I'm not sure what to expect when. The plants are getting huge but I have not seen any melons starting yet. We have seen the blooms for the past 3 weeks, but not much more then that. I am hoping we see a little more action by the end of this week (fingers crossed).

And these are my 2 Zucchini plants. I was certain that since the plants were pretty small, we would not see anything on them this year. Boy was I wrong. There were many blooms on both plants. We went from 0 to suddenly 2 were ready to pick after last weeks soaking rain. I am certain there are many more to come.

And here they are!!

And this is what I made with the small one today. Baked Zucchini Chips. Not to bad, but I think I prefer them cooked on the grill. Maybe next weekend we will get around to that.

I am now going through my recipes trying to find my Grandmothers Zucchini Cookie recipe that are definitely on the cooking agenda for this year.

The 5th of July with the Kiddos

This past weekend I guess you could say that Jonathan and I were pretty low key or uneventful. Jonathan was not feeling well at all last week, so this weekend was a much needed rest for the 2 of us. He is slowly starting to feel a bit normal, but it's very hard to ever feel fully rested when you work third shift.
We spent this afternoon at Dad and Carol's house for our 4th of July cookout with the family (only we celebrated on the 5th). It was a great day and VERY hot! We managed to find some shade to relax in while we rotated Corn Hole and Hillbilly Golf games.
This is Max and his Momma Betsy. Max is getting sooo big! He turns 2 next month.

And here is Master Zander waiting for his lunch and as you can see, he most always has a smile on his face. He turns 1 next month also, the day before Max's Birthday. They are 364 days apart!

Max with his new lawn mower. All the kids took there turn doing there share of the mowing and had fun. Hmmmm maybe we should remind them of this in about 15 years or so.

Max also has this thing for weed wacking. He will pick up one of his toys at random and hold it like a weed wacker and act like he is wacking away, complete with sound effects and a sweeping motion! LOL! This was completely hilarious and of course I did not have my camera with me.

I came out onto the back deck to see 3 of the kids attempting to figure out the Hillbilly Golf. This was pretty darn cute.

You can see above Jeremy who is turning 3 next month also and Abby who is 4.

Yes that's right folks, we had a 1, 2, 3 and a 4 year old all together in the same house.

This is one of my attempts to get the kids together for a picture.

Max, Zander and Abby here. Notice Abby trying to keep her baby brother on the couch. So cute.

And this one is Jeremy, Zander and Abby.

And this is the last and final attempt to get them all together.

"Great idea Aunt Sommer". Carol compared this to herding cats! LOL!!

Notice every one's expression. These will be pictures to laugh about later on down the road.

And this is Max and his daddy saying goodbye after a long hot day of playing with his cousins.

This was a great, much needed family day. As usual, the house was filled with madness and mayhem, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

Hopefully we get to do this in a few more weeks as all of these birthdays roll around.