What not to wear

Trying to get the boys ready in the morning is not always a smooth sailing process. They just love their jammies. I even set out clothes for them to wear and their daddy has a race with them to see who can get dressed first. That has been working for a little while, but lately we have hit a little snag. Now they insist they pick out their own clothes. One problem is that AJ will only wear long-sleeves shirts, even if it is 75 degrees out. He says that he just will push his "arm sleeves" up if it gets hot out. He also prefers pants and says he will push the "leg sleeves" up if his legs get hot.

Another problem is that they are the slowest to get ready and usually have a fight over certain articles of clothing. It take them awhile to negotiate- it goes something like this:

A: (Crying) I want to wear the orange shorts. I found them first. (I told AJ he had to wear shorts today, so he was already upset).
P: You need to ask me if you can wear them. It is good manners.
A: Patwick, can I please wear the orange shorts?
P: Let me think...(pause with his finger on his chin)...sure.
A: Yea! (grabbing for the shorts)
P: You need to tell me "thank you, Patwick".
A: Thank you, Patwick.
P: You're welcome.

The sad thing is that P didn't even want to wear the shorts until his brother told him he wanted them P likes to wear "comfy shorts" with no zippers. AJ also complained all morning that his legs were "coldy" and he wanted to wear pants. Gotta love 4 year old quirks.

Tomatomania

The boys and I went to the Quail Gardens for Tomatomania over the weekend (Daddy was golfing with grandpa and Joe). We had a great time and met up with our friends Beck and Max! Beck and Max brought their Mom, Sarah, their grandma, Diane, and their cousins. Fun! We had a great time playing in the water, digging for dinosaurs, and watching the train (the bumble bee and red one) in the Children's garden. Adam even got to feed the compost worms his orange peel. Again, the boys refused to paint a butterfly with their friends, color pictures, or do anything artsy. They would rather watch the train go round and round. Their Mommy was had fun with her friends and even got to see her coworker Vann (a docent there) and purchase 3 unusual tomato plant, a white one, a orange-strawberry one, and one named Jett-setter (of course I bought it based on the name).

Favorite roles

When we were leaving school today, P and A showed me their work and what they like to play with in their classroom. Then they showed me the wall where it tells them their roles for the week. I think P was the clean up helper and A was the calendar helper this week. Well, they got away from me and re-arranged the roles on the wall. Shh. Ms. Castle had already left for the day.

P put Adam as the snack holder, after asking if A agreed first, of course. Then he put himself as the line leader. I asked him why and he said he likes to be first. I thought that it fit their personalities quite nicely.

I wonder if their teacher will notice on Monday.

Big Bear Fun

We were able to get away with our friends Brian and Dina for a weekend in the mountains at Big Bear. After braving Friday night traffic we made it up and were rewarded with brews from Big Bear Mountain Brewery. We were even treated to a local band, the Holcomb Valley Boys. The name was a little misleading as they had a lady singer and no one could have been younger than 65. The next morning we headed out to Snow Summit for snowboarding. Although I have tried snowboarding many years ago and was horrible at it, I wanted to try it again because we were all beginners. What a disaster we were. I hurt myself (swollen, bruised knees and tailbone), Tim quit after three runs, Dina traded her snowboard in for skis, and Brian wiped out so hard he hit his head and also lost his cell phone. I did like snow boarding when I finally got up (I had to turn around and face the mountain to get up). It just hurt too much when I fell on the icy mountain. I think I am going to go back to skis. Maybe, it would be better if it was more powdery so I won't get so beat up.

So Cal boys

Mr. A and Mr. P go to the Barber

A and P made their first trip to a real barber- PQ barber just like their daddy and grandpa. No more of mommy using the "red mower" on their hair. P was a little unsure of the whole process. I think AJ was happier because he got the lady to cut his hair. They were so good and had no tears that they were rewarded with ice-cream!

Garden time

One thing that makes me very happy is growing things (little boys included). Now that I finally have a home with a yard, I have really been enjoying my hobby. My garden has been a huge experiment for me and I am continually learning more and more about how to select and take care of my plants. My favorite time of year is when it is time to get my vegetable garden going. Each year I get more ambitious and I think I have been getting better results. I have learned over the past few years that San Diego has really crappy soil. I have amended the soil, composted, and mulched like crazy, but I still haven't had the success I hoped for. However, this year is all going to change because I was given a great book from my friends, Rob and Nicola, All New Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew, http://www.squarefootgardening.com/. I used the magic Mel's Mix for my soil and Tim built the boxes for me. Check out the results so far in my first SFG:

I have tomatoes, broccoli, artichoke, leeks, lettuce, and onions growing in this one. (Oh and don't hate on my tomatoes, I know I got too excited and I planted them too early. It was too wet with the rainfall so they caught a fungus. I am working on fixing them with some veggie safe anti-fungal spray.)

Below, my second SFG is shown . I have peas and pea seeds, bean seeds, cucumbers (lemon and normal), tomato, Swiss chard, lavender eggplant, Brussels sprouts, purple bell pepper, banana hot pepper, rainbow beet seeds, and a squash that I grew from seed and some animal came by and snapped its stem last night- grrr. The other pics show my seeds/ seedlings (I have them in the sun during the day and take them in at night), and my SD farm bureau membership sign to show I am legit- ha ha.

Now I need to convince Tim to help me build my third SFG to accommodate all the seeds that I have been trying to germinate. For some reason my bell peppers and hot peppers aren't coming up as fast as all the others. I think I should be keeping them warm- next year. Also according to Mel, those seeds take a long time to germinate. Hopefully they will come up. If not, there is always the garden store!

Another tip for next year, make sure that the pen you used to label your seeds does not come off when the container gets wet. Oops, I guess I will have to wait and see what I am going to get.