yesterday & today

YESTERDAY: we went to busch gardens with becky & her girls. clay met us there for a few hours in the afternoon, but most of the day it was just becky & her 6 girls & all of my kids & me. here are just a few pictures from the big day! Rachel took her camera & these are a few pictures she took.

Ashley Dennys being silly! But having fun!

2 little peas in a pod!! they were riding the teacups with their oldest sisters which was sweet...both baby girls with both oldest girls.

Ashley corraling these wild ones on the teacups also. This morning when I asked Abigail what was her favorite part of the trip to Busch Gardens she said "seeing Lainey." She likes her friend. Asher was just ready to get the cup spinning!

Levi was very well behaved for most of the day. He wore his sunglasses & checked the place out & then rode the tram to the parking lot safe in his mama's arms.

TODAY: garden & yard work....lots of work!!!! i had to move our big 6 week old White Leghorns to a new brooder so i could move the smelly Amerucanas that are only 1 week old out of the garage into the main brooder with the 2 week old Sultans & Production Blacks. I know it might be considered "junky" by some or rather their husbands....but hey, it works & it's less work & not so smelly. clay found a couple of large dog kennels on the side of the road & he has picked them up. I have put them to good ues & never have they even held a dog at our house!! after i did all of this work making sure they couldnt squeeze through the bars, clay pointed out that i had another decent sized brooder....but i didnt know that because it was hidden under several stacks of shingles. go figure!

 this is all 18 of my 1 & 2 week old baby chicks. sooooo cute!!

 and you might not be able to see them but my plants are there. i'm so happy with how the garden is right now...but it's only been 4 days! those bags of pine straw are from a very dear friend (shout out to Ms. Robin). she let us have bags & bags of pine straw & we have mulched around all of our new trees & after this picture was taken we put it around our watermelon plants, cucumber plants & canteloupe plants. it keeps the viny plants moist & helps keep the weeds from choking them out......a lot of time when we weed our plants that grow out on a vine, i end up killing it from disrupting it so much to pull the weeds. hopefully this will stop it.

you can see my rows...no seeds have come up yet...i'm so impatient...i know...but it's fun watching them. clay said i would have to wait until maybe next friday to see any results...that's forever!!!!

this is just a shot of my backyard garden plot where the squash, zuccini & canteloupe are planted. you might not can see them either but there's about 40 plants back there!! so exciting!!

this is the tool i used to do most of my planting of plants. as helpful as it has been to me it also has almost become a pain to have around!!

this boy is why this particular tool has become a pain to have around. everytime i put it down he would pick it up & start whacking away at something. i would have to tell him over & over again to "STOP!" as he would start trying to whack the dirt where i had just planted. he was just keeping busy...but man...it was consistent busy-ness with him......he never quite got it either that he was hurting my plants. but all he wanted to do was whack things.

abigail helped plant pumpkins today & then pretty much stayed on the zipline all day off of the tree house.

elizabeth was a huge help today. she is almost as tall as i am now!! that's insane. but she helped me with the chickens...carried water...checked for eggs...dragged bags of pine straw where i told her to...picked up trash...just basically helped all day.

and clay did all of the heavy lifting & took every opportunity to use his tractor. he planted my 2 hydrangeas finally & my 2 remaining blueberry bushes & 1 more grape plant. he was against me buying 3 more lemon boy tomato plants, 3 sweet white spanish onion plants & 3 pickling cucumber plants today...but well i felt we needed them....especially since 1 of the 2 lemon boy tomato plants i have got broke & died. he also told me - which i cant say i really appreciated since i planted all by myself - that my rows were crooked, the plants were too close to each other & i had planted too much. but other than that, he did basically do what i wanted him to do today in regards to the garden & my plants & my chickens so i shouldnt complain to loudly.

and what can i say about asher?! he is the biggest helper in the garden. he is my shadow. he is patiently waiting for his grapes, blackberries & canteloupe to grow. this boy stayed step for step out with me today & we were outside almost all day. he is a delight & a joy & i'm blessed to call him my son!