Happy Birthday Mat!

Mat enjoyed some great singing and carrot cake today to celebrate his birthday.

Mathew got to open his presents from Grandma and Grandpa, since we aren't going to be here for his birthday next week.

Eat like Koreans

We had an abundance of lettuce from the garden and leftovers in the fridge, so we made some Korean-style wraps with meat, rice, and other various veggies. We even pulled out the kimchi. The kids thought this was great fun.

The boys got the hang of making their own wraps...

In the end, Peter figured out that the Korean way (cram the whole thing in your mouth at once) works best. And Patrick (my little rabbit) was very happy to just eat lettuce.

Garden Update 5/19

Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, how does your garden grow?

From front to back, we've got beans, tomatoes, Peter training the cucumbers, and zucchini/squash under the cage. It's still been pretty cool at night, so we haven't given up on our makeshift greenhouses yet.

The square foot garden: the lettuce and cabbage are growing great, but the birds have pulled up almost all of our baby carrots and the slugs have done a lot of damage to some of the other transplants. I put out some peppers and tomatillos (with slug bait!) in the last week and so far, so good.

In the back, we'll be eating peas in just a couple days, and the corn/bean/pumpkin patch has really flourished under the tent, safe from cold and critters. The baskets are some more starts for transplants - I'm not quite brave enough to put out the eggplants yet. And of course, there's Mathew on a beeline for the bucket of water.

Quotes of the Day

Patrick on Childbirth: "When my baby gets big enough, he'll make a hole in Mommy's tummy and come out. Then Mommy will get a new tummy."

Peter on fishing: "I know how to catch a beaver. You just get a fishing pole and tie a branch on it and wait for the beaver. And that's how you catch a beaver."

"Patrick, what do you think we should name your little brother?"
"Sister."

Catching up

I haven't taken many pictures lately, but here's a little sample of what's been going on:

Peter got a new fishing hat from G&G, and Mathew made out with a new hat in the deal too.

All of the boys enjoy reading, but Peter especially likes reading to his brothers. I find them like this multiple times every day. Just does a mom's heart good.

This is the garden a couple of weeks ago. Mostly cold weather stuff in this picture, as it's been a cold spring.

The flowers are beautiful, and we got the front quarter tilled and seeded with grass.

Peter transplanted his corn in a makeshift greenhouse, and so far so good. We planted beans, tomatoes, and zucchini in similar plastic tents to protect them from the cold.

Peter read a book about a boy who made "funny food" for Mother's Day, so that's what we did too. Here's the whole family - an apple dad, mango mom, and tangerine kids sitting on a pineapple couch.

Mathew was too excited about consuming his facial features to pose for a picture...

We've had a couple of days of warm weather this week, which was certainly not wasted by any of the kids. They've come in completely happy and filthy.

Peter playing his violin