The thing about gift bags...

They just don't belong at birthdays for kids.*  What kid wants to flick away fluffy tissue paper and see their present at the bottom of a bag?  Ripping and shredding the paper is by far more than half the fun.  Seriously.  What happened to good old paper? I was at a birthday party this past weekend and more than half the presents were in gift bags. I'd even go so far as to say 90% were in gift bags.  Hell, our presents may have been the only one in wrapping paper!  I don't know why this bothers me so much...

And don't get me wrong, I know some people who can put together a beautiful gift bag.  Their gift bags belong at MY birthday party, YOUR birthday party.  But four, five, six, ten, twelve year olds???  LET THEM RIP!!!

Okay.  It's out.

*Just so you are assured that I am not a complete tyrant, I see how a gift bag comes in handy for an oddly shaped present.

My First Garden

Sounds like the title of a book in the easy reader section of my school library.  :)  And yet, it is mostly the truth.  When Bill and I bought our first house, I did have a tiny little garden...but this...this is a whole new world.  First of all, this is my dream house AND my dream garden.  I am giving this my all.  And the best part is that Finn and Liam are totally 'in' it with me.  Well...Finn on a limited level - he will bring a bucket and fill it with rocks and dump them outside the garden (our soil is super rocky).  Liam weeds, fills up the water cans from the rain barrel and waters...he's totally psyched that we are growing "FOOD." (He always says it real loud and with enthusiasm, hence the caps.)  Anyway, here are some pics of what we got done yesterday and today.

Today we painted rocks to label all the things we planted...interestingly, we have not planted carrots yet and we forgot to make markers for broccoli, snow peas, and green beans.  It's kinda hard to paint with Finn around...you should see my deck...it's...er...very colorful now. (Bill is going to power wash and stain it this summer, so I'm not concerned.)

This is my favorite one, the pumpkin patch.  It's a totally separate little side garden.  We literally hope to have a pumpkin patch for the pumpkin carving party in October.  We are SO cool.

 I am pretty proud of this watermelon marker.  Got luck finding a rock in just the right shape.

 Yeah...the watermelon 'patch' doesn't look so impressive just yet.

We found a few strawberry plants growing on the edge of the garden...at least, I sure hope that's what they are.  We also added a few more plants.  So, we'll see what the summer and sunshine bring.

To the right of my two tomato rows is a great big patch of weeds.  I just have not made it that far over yet. I think, when I get to it, it will be lettuce and more herbs.

Here's a view of the whole garden.  There's the watermelon 'patch' to the left.  The green veggies are in rows in the upper right.  And I'm taking the picture from the tomato section.  There was no real plan here...just sort of winging it this year. It's kind of fun and exciting.  In the back you can see the chicken run Bill made.  It's nearly finished and then we can get our chickens!

 This is my "kitchen garden." On our deck outside the kitchen I have our favorite herbs growing.  It's been a busy couple of days...and I am sure I'll be weeding like a crazy woman all summer long.  Hopefully the salads and fresh melons will make it all worth while!

By the way, pointers, tips, shared gardening secrets are ALL welcome!  I can't promise I'll follow - I was recently told that any planting done before Memorial Day is a crap shoot....but...I just couldn't wait any longer.  This weather is too good to pass up.

 Hope to have you over for some fresh greens...or herb rubbed something or other...served, of course, with fresh bread on the side.  :)

Mama's Day Heaven

Didn't do anything fancy on Mother's Day.  While my athletic family counterparts ran, my boys and I enjoyed some time at the beach.  (In my defense, I would have run, but I left a vital element at home - the jogging bra - CANNOT run without it!!)

Anyway, the day was beautiful.  A bucket, a shovel, a towel.  Simply beautiful.  Some pics are from the night before, where the boys and I also hung out on the beach after an early dinner.  I am very lucky my mom lives so close to the ocean.  :)  Enjoy the pics.

King of the world!!!!

King of this world, too!!!!

Finn and his sippy cup...oy.  He'll be about 27 when he gives it up.

Yeah..it's probably unacceptable what I'd like to lovingly type about Liam here.  :)

This one could be an add in a magazine...for PERFECT FAMILY SUNDAY

SUPER HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!  

No Drama

I swear.  No drama at all.

Every story I tell, from buying a pair of underwear to signing up for swim class, there's drama.  I don't know how to tell a story WITHOUT drama.  And, when you look at this picture of my car's front end, you must be thinking - what's the story behind THIS?

There MUST be drama.  And yet...there is not.  Nearly every day I, the distracted mommy driver, do things I think will surely get me in an accident: change songs on my iPod, make phone calls (using Bluetooth, but it's still distracting), reach back to hand Finn a dropped book, car, etc., slurp up diet cokes, and so on.

Did any of these things cause this?  No.  Not a one.

An intersection - a tricky weird one, not a simple one.  Normally busy, but surprisingly not busy when I breezed through the red light.  There was a blinking sign on the the other side of the light flashing details about an upcoming 5k in a town near mine.  I was watching it, waiting for the date to flash, when the light changed and I did not see it.

The car of the guy I hit is worse than mine.  His back passenger side was pretty smashed.  So much so he had to be towed 'from the scene.'  Had it happened a second earlier, I could have killed him.  I would have hit HIM and not the back of his car with my big ass SUV.  :(  This scares the crap out of me.  This makes me cry every time I think of it.

Finn was in the back seat.  He is fine, we are all fine...but still.  He puked all over me when we were waiting for the police.  Not from any injury - he was eating a bagel at the time.  But it freaked me out...and kept me freaked out for hours after, even though he was and is fine.

A lieutenant from the Schodack Police responded to our 911 call.  He was really great.  Calm, thorough, nice.  Didn't even give me a ticket for running the light.  Our insurance guy was really nice. And the body shop has been amazing so far (guess we'll need to see a repaired car to make the final call).  And the guy I hit was completely nice.  Annoyed, naturally, but not even mad, just glad that it wasn't worse.

I know I was lucky.  Very lucky.  I am still really freaked out about how benign the whole thing was.  That it just happened out of nowhere.  But...it's over now.  Every one involved is okay.  I'll be out my deductible and my insurance will go up, but not a ton....all's well that ends well.

And so I will leave you with pictures of our yard in it's spring blossoming glory.  I mowed the entire front lawn today - with a push mower!  (The riding mower arrived yesterday, but I want Bill to start it up for the first time...I'm not ready to break any more of our stuff).  AND I trimmed our out of control bushes.  Had to expend some nervous energy.

The kids and I made some stones for the garden.

Can anyone tell me what these amazing flowers are??? They are growing in a couple of spots in our garden.  They are so delicate and beautiful.