Dakota Plants His Own Flowerpots

To pick a flower is so much more satisfying than just observing it, or photographing it ... So in later years, I have grown in my garden as many flowers as possible for children to pick.

- Anne Scott-James

Yesterday I put together my hanging baskets and planters in the front of the house. All of the things that mom & I picked out on Mothers Day worked together really well and for once I bought enough and didn't end up with holes and wishing I'd bought just "one more of those". Dakota helped me out a whole bunch and we had so much fun together that today I stopped and got him some flowers and a nice sized pot of his own to plant.

He was pretty excited to get started!

Scooping dirt is one of the best parts!

Poking your fingers into the dirt and making a hole for the flower is fun too!

Dakota planted lots of yellow Marigolds and blue Lobelia. He had a bunch of Lobelia starts left over so he made a second pot of just Lobelia. When it fills in it will be a big puff of blue!

Here he is with his finished pots.

Don't they look beautiful?

Now we just need to do some work on that garden.....

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a nice Mother's Day weekend. On Saturday we did some housework, ran a couple of errands and generally had a relaxing day. In the evening we went to dinner at Jimmy Mac's with mom and dad for Mother's Day. We wanted to go to PF Changs but we didn't figure out what time everyone would be available until late and we couldn't get a reservation. But Jimmy Mac's was good and the kids were thankful for the reprieve from eating Chinese, which they have decided they don't like. Dad had some crawfish chowder that he said was terrific. The kids mostly enjoyed throwing peanut shells on the floor. It was fun spending time together.

Sunday was Mother's Day. At breakfast Carol opened the beautiful outfit the kids got her from J-Jill. It ended up looking really nice on her!

She also got a really neat magnetic note-holder with a flower pen that Dakota made for her at school... it was a really special gift!

Our meeting was very small- Larry & Carol Hagbom were gone, June & Dudley Bickford were absent and Connie Lombardo and her kids were missing and Evelyn Brock was out sick. So meeting was fairly short. After meeting we went to mom & dad's for lunch; mom made delicious BBQ Beef Sandwiches and it was nice enough that we ate outside... first time this year! After lunch mom and I went flower shopping at Carpinito Brothers in Kent and the Fuschia Lady's. Mom already had a lot of her annuals and bedding plants but I hadn't bought any yet this year so I loaded up. Got everything I needed for my hanging pots and my other pots out front. All red-white-and-blue this year. Mom and I always have a good time flower shopping together. We came back to the house to find that dad, Carol and the kids had gone shopping for scrapbook supplies and were working on dad's "Hunting & Fishing" scrapbook. I NEVER thought I'd have seen the day when dad got into scrapbooking but this is his third book already!

But our busy day wasn't over yet! We all headed over to Aaron & Dani's for pizza dinner and to celebrate Aaron's Birthday.

Happy Birthday, Aaron!

Mom & Dad got him some shirts and an iPod Shuffle that he can use when he goes running. We were boring and got him giftcards... to Salty's (his fav) and to Cabela's. I really, really wanted to get him a huge loud air-horn for his truck but it didn't end up working out. So... boring old giftcards.

WOW! It's a.... a.... another box!

Reece will be the next one with a birthday... she turns ONE in less than a month!

Saturday Morning

It's a beautiful sunny Saturday morning. The day before Mother's Day. We have a little last minute shopping to complete but not much more planned for the day. Perhaps some yard work out in the back... it needs it bad! So while dad is up drinking coffee, munching on a bagel and updating the Blog, here's what the rest of the house looks like:

Carol has been reading the Harry Potter books to Dakota. They're about 1/3 way into book four.

Marina's still in bed too. She was playing Dakota's Gameboy and feeling a little shy about having her picture taken. Nice elbow.

Marina's Spring Orchestra Concert

Tonight was Marina's sixth grade orchestra concert. It was the "Auburn School District Orchestra Festival 2009" celebrating "Music of Many Cultures". This is Marina's second year of orchestra; the program starts in fifth grade in Auburn. The concert was held at Mountainview High School. We got to hear the fifth graders, sixth graders, combined seventh & eighth graders and the high school as well as the Harp Ensemble. The concert was wonderful and we were impressed with how much the sixth graders have learned in two short years of orchestra. Seems just yesterday they were struggling through "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".

I recorded one of their songs, Menuetto from the "Royal Fireworks" by G.F. Handel. I again apologize that my camera is not working right so the video quality isn't good but at least you can hear them play. Marina plays cello and, while you won't likely be able to pick her out on the video as her back was to the camera, she is just to the left of the conductor.

Marina was very happy that she got to share a music stand with her great friend Sydney. Here is a picture where I pointed them out so you can see where they were. Marina is in a black top & Sydney is in (what else?!!) a pink top.

Deacon Cole

I got a couple of pictures this morning from Auntie Carol of Rosemaree and Nigel's new baby. His name is Deacon Cole and he was born on Monday April 20th at 10:13AM. When he was born he weighed 6lbs. 3ozs. and was ninteen inches long. From the pictures he looks very alert and attentive. And big sister Cecee looks so proud!

Here he is at 3 days:

And at about one week.

Welcome to the family, little guy. Your Grandpa Marlin would be so thrilled and proud; I have no doubt that from his place in Heaven he is watching over you.

Boys' Night

Marina is spending the night at Sydney's house again tonight. It's becoming kind of a trend on Friday nights; the girls switch around houses and sleep over. I remember how fun it was when I was that age, spending the night at friends' houses. So tonight was a boys' night at our house again. Dakota and I went to the park and he rode his bike for a while. It was a beautiful spring day. Weather in the 70's and an absolutely lovely evening.

Poor 'Kota... his little bike is shrinking I think! Maybe he'll need a bigger one for his birthday this year.

He rode his bike and I walked along the trail at Gamefarm Wilderness Park which follows the White River. We took a break and went down by the river. Kota immediately started throwing rocks.

Including some pretty big ones!

Somebody that was at the park earlier made some really cool sculptures by stacking river rocks. We got into the idea and added some rock stacks of our own!

It was a really nice evening and, as always, it was fun spending time together with just the guys!

Story Time With Dakota

The other day Dakota was reading himself a story before bed. Fairly loudly. I asked him, "Dakota, buddy, can you read that story quietly inside your head?" To which he responded, "NO! Then I can't HEAR it!"

Well, my many friends, here is your opportunity to join in and hear it too. I present to you,

"Story Time With Dakota!"

I have to apologize for the video quality. My camera seems to be going out... guess I'll be buying a new camera soon. And of course I had to have the goofy radio on in the background. That's what quality you get, I guess, when you're trying to surreptitiously get video of your kid singing a story. I did try having him go back and do it again for me with a different camera but it just wasn't at all the same when he knew I was videoing. So you get the original straight-from-the-heart story telling version, terrible video quality and all.