Channeling My Inner Sunnie

Some of you may occasionally check out other bloggers from my sidebar or their comments. One of my few bloggy friends who still lives in the ward we moved from in Texas is named Sunnie. She is as bright and cheerful as her name suggests, and I know that when I read one of her new blog posts I will feel uplifted, informed and resolved to spend more quality time with my kids. Her blog reflects her personality perfectly--it is full of pictures of going and doing with light, but meaningful commentary. She has one of those mommy-blogs that you love to read because it is just so unpretentious. For all the fun things she does and copious pictures she takes, she never posts about her adventures to make you feel like she has it all figured out and her kids are perfect.

I unloaded pics from my camera yesterday and realized there are about 100 of them from the last six weeks or so. They aren't super exciting, but they are a reflection of what we've spent our time doing this spring. Several of them are plant pictures that more adorable hubby took. Plantboy likes to print these pictures and mount them on blank cards to give away. The result is absolutely lovely, though he has been known to say things like, "do you know any other straight men who would do this?" while he is picking colors and cropping shots for sticking to his cards.

So in a Sunnie-style Mormom mamma blog, here are pictures from this spring with minimalistic commentary. Be warned, there are a lot. I just had strawberries and cream for lunch and I'm feeling a bit indulgent.

These are from the jog-a-thon at Jedi Master's school. He did 22 laps! In any other class this would have put him in first place. In HIS class, he came in just behind super-girl with like 26 or something crazy like that.

These next several are of the garden--some in the back and some in the front. We mostly have vegetables in the back because we have one very sunny corner. This first is the drip system lovingly weaving in and out of the carrots (?).

Oh, yeah, the Youngling is a huge help. Though he spends most of his time getting underfoot, he really loves nothing more than to be outside with dad. Mom is very encouraging of such behavior.

This is nearly a month ago; the strawberries are twice this tall now and we'll probably be ready to pick our first big "crop" in about a week. The raspberries aren't quite so close.

Um . . . should have rotated this one before loading, but it was too pretty to skip, so just turn your head sideways. This plant is in the lupine family, which is the same as the Texas Bluebonnet. The leaf is nearly identical and the flowers are also similar. This thing, however is about three feet tall. I guess everything is NOT bigger in Texas.

This is a delphinium. I inadvertently discovered that these make excellent cut flowers. Padawan and the Youngling waged a vicious light-saber fight against some imaginary foe, but the delphinium was the collateral damage and had to be put in water. It lasted nearly a week before it began shedding petals or drooping.

Random ground cover, but I just love the blueness. Plantboy says that true blue flowers are actually quite rare. Most flowers called "blue" look more purple.

My Colorado Plantboy loves columbine. Here are three of several varieties found in our back yard.

This one is called bleeding heart. I've always loved this perennial and my mom has grown both the white and the pink types for years and years. Very aptly named.

Here is the garden a week or two after the previous shots--carrots, strawberries, raspberries, herbs, onions, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, corn, potatoes and beets. The squashes and cukes will be planted in just a few weeks. We're eatin' good this summer!

The Youngling's second birthday was on Sunday. What a cheeseball. He has gotten to that I-think-I'm-posing-for-pictures phase and he seldom smiles naturally for the camera anymore unless it is an accident. His shirt is a size 12 months, I think. It is also a onesie. Plantboy snapped it up before church and it was like a diaper-thong. Here he is with puzzles from Grandma P.

In a stroke of genius, Mom gave him a blender, since he wants the real blender out all the time. In less than two days, this thing has, literally, entertained the child for hours. He loves to put the plastic spoon (included with the set) in the blender, set the thing to high and then watch it blow its top. I'm quite certain we are exceeding the appropriate use clause here. I'm starting to hope it runs out of batteries very soon.

Here is mom cutting the red velvet cake. This is my all-time favorite cake. (ONLY homemade, the box stuff is like eating brownish-pink dried Styrofoam.) Until the Padawan can tell me otherwise, this is going to be his birthday tradition. Mom made this cake for me every year when I was growing up, but I can't bring myself to make it for my own birthday. This way, I just have to wait about a week and a half after my own day to make it. I'd like to find a bottle of blue food coloring and do blue velvet, but the store I went to didn't carry it.

Yesterday we went to a local park/demonstration garden that is mostly planted with native rhododendrons. May is the month for these and this tiny park was one of the most beautiful places I've been to in a city full of lovely things. When you come to visit next May, I promise to take you. Rhodies are in the same family as the Texas azaleas, but they are evergreen, so they have leaves and blossoms at the same time. The varieties in this park were also tree types so they were huge.

This is a picture of the three dwarfs: Itchy, Grumpy and Sloppy. I'm sure these same folks visit your house from time to time. Baby is wearing his new birthday clothes from Grandma L. Thanks!

I told Plantboy that this was the look I was going for in our back yard.