Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...

How does our garden grow?

With soil and sun,

Lots of love,

And a little guy who helps water each day.

We decided to plant a little garden this spring! I admittedly don't know a whole lot about gardening, but the important part was doing it as a family, while providing a wonderful learning opportunity for Jaden - and what 3 year old doesn't love digging in the dirt! I have no idea what fruits/vegetables grow best in our area, or even what amount of space is needed. So we did what we could to bring a little garden into our even littler backyard. We prepared a 4-foot area and planted a few of our favorites - watermelon, honeydew melon, peas, green beans, and carrots...yes, all in a 4-foot space! I figured it was worth a shot! And much to my surprise and excitement, our garden has made lots of progress over the last month and a half! Here are some of the pictures of our growing garden...

End of April: Planting our garden. Jaden was so excited to have his own gardening gloves and tools, and althought a bit big, you would have thought he was a real working farmer! He was a little disappointed that there wasn't enough room to drive a tractor around on our little "farm."

Mid-May: Our garden has sprouted! I regret that I forgot to label the rows, so it will eventually be a surprise to find out what is what!

Today: Beautiful Garden! Our little garden is growing like crazy (with the exception of one of the rows, which has yet to sprout)! The melon flowers are starting to bloom, and after pollinated, our watermelons and honeydew melons will start to form (so for now, there are lots of bees hanging out in the garden)!

Stay tuned for garden updates...

Project Playroom!

Now that I am off for the summer, let the summer projects begin! I decided that am going to redo the playroom and spruce it up a little. I am going to move some of the toys into storage, get rid of some of the shelving, hopefully get some new shelving (if not, then paint the ones we've got), paint one of the walls, and get some new fun stuff...on a budget, mind you! Here are some playroom pictures that have insired me!

Love the yellow wall color, alphabet decals, and chalkboard wall stickers. (Land of Nod)

Love everything about this room! I want to find a similar world map wall hanging that isn't as expensive. I found floor cushions like these on Etsy for half the price! I love love love the rug and combination of colors. Might even make a pape chain! (Land of Nod)

This is the color that I want to do the playrom shelving...I think. (Land of Nod)

Love the three hanging art boards. (Pottery Barn Kids)

I am torn betwee painting the wall yellow or green like this. I have lots of black picture frames with white mats and white furniture and love the way this looks. (Bungalow Insanity)

I love this blue tree! I have been looking for tree wall decals and have found some similar ones. I also love the blue couch, star accents, and combination of colors.

I am going to try to recreate a version of the hanging candelier using paper lanters instead. We'll see! I also really like the bulletin board that is above the shelves. (Pottery Barn Kids)

Shoud be fun! I have one little helper already ready to start painting!

I Spy...

Jaden is recently very into playing "I Spy." He wants to play in the car, at restaurants, at the grocery store, and even at home. I think it's great becasue he practices color recognition and vocabulary. However, he tends to play like it a little like Tuke and Rutt in the movie Brother Bear. Here's a recent version of one of our games.

J: "I spy something....green."
Me: "The tree?"
J: "Yep! Your turn."

Me: "I spy something red."
J: "The car?"
Me: "No, try again."
J: "The red light?"
Me: "Yes, you got it, your turn!"

J: "I spy something...green."
Me: "That building?"
J: "Nope."
M: "The trees?"
J: "Yep! Your turn."

Me: "I spy something blue."
J: "The sky?"
Me: "Yes! Your turn."

J: "I spy something..green."
Me: "The . . . t r e e s??"
J: "Yep! You got it!"

Such a silly little guy! I think it's so adorable when kids are first learning the concept of these games! He's also attempting "Knock knock" jokes recently. Pretty much goes the same way as his "I Spy" games, except it's always a potato at his door. Don't ask me why!

Little "Helpers"

Having two little "helpers" with me when I was trying to get my classroom all packed up wasn't really all that helpful! But it was fun! And actually, Jaden was quite a big helper and went around with Clorox wipes cleaning everything he could, including the floor (the rest of the time he was entertaining his baby brother or asking me if we were done and ready to go yet). Elijah was busy taking things out and putting them back into my class "treasure box." One of the "treasures" that he discovered was a lollipop. When I noticed he had it, it was still wrapped, so I let him be...until he was suddenly very quiet. Here's why...

Elijah and Aubrey's First Birthday Party!

Better late than never...as promised, Eljah's first birthday party! Elijah celebrated his first birthday with his cousin Aubrey, who turned 1 just five weeks before him! It was such a fun time, and a little emotional, as I watched in amazement and thought how unfair it is that my baby boy turned one so much quicker than anybody else (*tear).

The theme for their party was Nursery Rhymes! Is there a more perfect them for a baby's first birthda!y I didn't think so. My sister, mom, and I had so much fun with it and went all out to make sure the invitations, decorations, favors, treats, cake...everything fit the theme perfectly! It's a good thing the party came when it did, or I would have just kept going with it! We had the party at a wonderful little park in El Paso. The weather turned out perfect for the day and the two little guests of honor had lots of friends and family there to help them celebrate!

Here are some (hundred) pictures from the day!

The decorations...

I ordered these adorable cake slice favor boxes, bag tags, and banner on Etsy.

The party favors! Everything inside the pail had a Nursery Rhyme theme, including the pail (Jack and Jill)! Here's what was inside: a lamb finger puppet (Mary Had a Little Lamb); a monkey finger puppet (Five Little Monkeys); a mini popper (Pop Goes the Weasel); star stationary set (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star); toy spiders (Itsy Bitsy Spider); Humpty Dumpty eggs; and duck horns (Five Little Ducks). And for every single item, we printed little cards with the words to each nursery rhyme on them and attached them with ribbon to each item (what can I say, I'm a teacher. Gotta tie in literacy somehow :o). So much fun!
The goodies, also with the nursery rhyme attached! Moon sugar cookies that my mom and sister made (Hey, Diddle, Diddle); sheep cupcake cones (Little Bo Peep); and little feet rice krispy treats (This Little Piggy).

And of course, the cake! This was made by one of my student's moms, who does amazing work, as you can see! I showed her a picture of the cake I wanted, and it came out more wonderful than I ever could have imagined!

My sweet little birthday boy!

The birthday babies with their mommy's and great grandma (aka "Deyga")
And the birthday party fun!! We had a Humpty Dumpty egg hunt, a huge parachute and balls, kites, bubbles, and lots of smiles and laughter!

Happy Birthday to Elijah and Aubrey... Elijah couldn't wait to dig into that cake, and lucky birthday boy was being fed cake and ice cream from about five different plates!

And the result of nonstop activity, tons of people, overstimulation, lots of excitment, and first dose of sugar is this...

Elijah got so many wonderful gifts from his generous and loving family and friends!