Planting Season

I think every kid should experience growing a garden. It is one of those 100 things that every child needs to do before they grow up. Anna had a friend over in the fall and she noticed a small pumpkin sitting on our kitchen counter. The friend was in disbelief that we grew it in our own yard!! She thought pumpkins could only be grown on huge farms and bought at the market!!

This week we had some warm dry weather so Anna Leigh enlisted the Grams to help her plant lettuce. Grandma and Grandpa offer the best gardening wisdom so we are very fortunate to have them right in our own backyard!! Actually, they offer some of the best wisdom in regards to just about everything so we are super lucky that they live right next door!!

Anna will probably plant tomatoes, peppers of all varieties, zucchini, yellow squash, wild flowers, and of course pumpkins (with Gramps!) as the planting season continues. I'll keep you posted with garden updates!

March Madness!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I do mean BASEBALL!!!

Don't get me wrong. We do love us some NCAA basketball around here but March, for the past 12 or so years, has been the start of baseball in our household.
Since Christian has decided not to pursue baseball in college, this, sadly is our last year.

No more cleaning the dirt stained white pants.
No more tripping over the baseball bag by the back door.
No more sitting in 40 degree weather watching a double hitter.
No more watching my boy play a sport that he is so talented at.

I'm going to miss this. Terribly.

A Little Green for St. Patrick's Day!

Remember when I mentioned that practically no holiday around here goes unnoticed? Well, Bethany was home this weekend and she and Anna Leigh whipped up a batch of these little tasty morsels!! Candy coating on a mint chocolate oreo - these are way better than twix!! Add a cup of coffee and - Oh My!! I'm thinking if we just change the color of the sprinkles, we could have these for every holiday!! Hey, we have yellow sprinkles. Isn't the first day of spring on Friday?? I say we "celebrate"!!

Computer Time!!

Sorry, I can only say I'm sorry for the lack of posting over the past two weeks. Seems like when I have a moment to sit down and let the creative juices flow, this happens:
People plop themselves in my computer chair and then refuse to get up. Not only the people who live in this house full time, but also, the peep, who is away all week and comes home on the weekend! You know who you are.
I'm thinking about putting the most uncomfortable chair in the house in front the computer desk. Maybe this will cut down on the loitering.

Doggie Clothing

Do you dress your dog? I have friends who dress their dogs. They buy them clothing and hair accessories (I mean fur). Now, don't think I'm judging those of you who do but I don't see myself ever getting into this hobby. I have my reasons.



1. I don't have a lot of extra money to indulge in buying pet clothing. Any extra cash here goes for the all important java runs - Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Tim Hortons.



2. I have very little fashion sense for myself. How would I know what to put on a dog? Do you match their eyes, their season? Someone tell me.



3. My husband would think I had lost my mind.



4. My dog is a redneck.



I have to admit that for one week when Savvy was young we did put clothing on her. It was the time we had her fixed. We needed something to keep her redneck teeth from getting to that incision site. So, practical fashion diva that I am, I came up with this.




The hand-me-down Hanes t-shirt!! Like how I added the hair tie to hold the outfit together? Actually, my redneck dog looked kind of cute. I think the outfit matched her eyes.

Treasure Hunting!!

Have you ever seen the 1985 movie The Goonies? The one where the kids find the treasure map and head out on an adventure? I always wanted to be one of those kids......And for the past two years I have lived my dream!!! Well, sort of. I am a letterboxer!!!

Letterboxing gives you all of the "thrill of the hunt" fun that was present in the movie without any of the danger and kid quirkiness. Well, maybe some of the quirkiness depending on who you take letterboxing with you!!

Letterboxes are hidden all over the world and you can find their "clues" on various websites. My favorite is http://www.atlasquest.com/. Clues lead you to a box filled with a stamp and a logbook. Once found you put the stamp mark in your logbook and you place your signature stamp in the logbook that is hidden. Understand? Pretty easy and pretty much a great time! This is a picture of the letterboxing stuff - clue, stamp books, my stamp (in the shape of Ohio), Anna' stamp and the hidden stamp. My stamp is hand carved by my super talented husband!!!

Yesterday, we found "The Grabby Ghost of Promont" box in Milford, Ohio. The Promont is a beautiful Victorian house built in 1865. Tours are given and apparently there is a bit of a ghost story told about the house. So the stamp inside the letterbox was related to this story. Very cool.

Anna Leigh took all of the pics. My favorite is the one below of the front doors. Through the front doors you can see all the way through to the back wall of the house. An amazing stained glass window is on that back wall and Anna was able to capture it. Lots of fun!!!

The educational benefits of letterboxing have been super. Letterboxing allows us to visit interesting places in our own city that we may not even know about. It has also been great when traveling - finding new and fun places to visit some with historical significance. And following the clues given are great for critical thinking skills!! A great hobby with great benefits!!!!

Virginia Beach

A big plus in our gymnastic travels is making mini vacations out of the trips. Our most recent meet was in Virginia Beach. Normally, we would not vacation in Virginia Beach in February. My kind of beach weather is 85 degrees and sunny. Wind chill of 20 degrees, to me, does not make a beach trip enjoyable. However, we knew this would be the scenario this trip, so we found other nautical enjoyment in the area. The Virginia Beach Aquarium.

Even though this aquarium was tinier than we expected we did manage to have a great time. I think I need to realize that not all aquariums can measure up to "the ultimate Shedd Aquarium in Chicago".

The best, by far, at this little place was the stingray petting pool. These little guys would come up to the edge of the tank like little puppies!! Anna was thrilled!! I think she would have brought one home if allowed!!

This aquarium was undergoing some remodeling but we were able to see some other neat exhibits. The otters and baby seahorses were favorites of ours.

We ended the visit with taking in the 3D movie "Under the Sea". Freaky at times but overall an amazing video!! I admit I did have to take my glasses off when the shark came at my head!!!