In the garden

We are just sitting down after a long weekend of work on the yard and garden. We started slow Friday night with dinner at the new Michigan Brewing Co. restaurant. We went back and forth about whether it would be trashy to take the girls, finally calling the restaurant to ask. No, they told us, it would not be trashy, they had real high chairs and kids' menus and crayons. It was nice! Loud, but nice, and good beer of course!

Saturday, we bought all of our flowers, soil, and supplies, and put in a couple of hours of prep work before heading out to another restaurant--this time, Macaroni Grill for Grandma Carolyn's 80th birthday party. I want to personally apologize to all the wait staff and other patrons at the 28th Street Macaroni Grill for all the toddler antics--there were four girls under three at one table, for goodness sake. Messy. Loud.

Anyway, we started working right after church today, and "finished" around 10:00 tonight. We raked and weeded, replaced the window boxes, planted and watered. It was HOT, so Nellie spent a good part of the day in her kiddie pool and the sprinkler. Annie, who won't dare to set her feet in the grass, loves the sprinkler! Icy water spraying everywhere--she couldn't get enough. Looks like we have another water baby on our hands! We took one break to pick up more flowers and some chicken wire (and delicious iced cappuccinos at 5:00, which is probably why I'm wide awake), more so that Nellie would finally take a nap than anything else.

When we got back, it was time to do some serious seed planting, which Nellie really, really wanted to help with. On one hand, I knew we were running out of daylight and needed to hurry, on the other, she was so cute! And not bad at planting...it was fun to see her putting seeds in the trenches and cover them with soil--or tuck them into bed, as we called it. If she found a worm, we'd bury him in the dirt and say, "thanks for helping our plants grow, little worm! Maybe we'll take you fishing later!" She dutifully watered each tomato and pepper plant. All the seeds on the edges of the garden probably drown, and time will tell what actually grows, but it was worth it! We had so much fun doing it together. Hopefully, in the next couple months we'll have peas, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, basil, spinach, cilantro, lettuce, parsley, carrots, beans, zucchini, and two kinds of squash.

Some other cute moments: after we'd planted one row of the garden, Nellie stood up and said, "well, it looks like our work here is done. I'm going scuba diving in my pool."

While planting with Kevin, "Daddy, you're so strong! You're as strong as the sky!"

Right before bed, I asked Nellie what Kevin had showed her in the living room. "A funny thing called a bat." Kevin shook his head. "Um...a moustache." Kevin, trying not to laugh--"no, a moth."

It was a lot of work for a Sunday, but there is something very satisfying about taking a shower and drinking a beer after hard work in the sun. I'm not complaining!