I had a lovely Mother's Day today - I hope all the other mothers who are reading did, too. We went to church, then straight to lunch with Bill's brother and his family. On the way home we stopped to pick up some seeds and seedlings for our garden.

This will be the third summer we've owned our home. We have a wonderful garden spot at the end of the house, which I am determined to tend successfully this summer. The first year we were here, I did plant some things, but I was just overwhelmed in general with taking care of the yard and the house and didn't keep up with it. Last year I had a newborn, so gardening wasn't really a high priority.





I am definitely a gardening novice, so I'm going to read about it and have a go at it! I want my own kids to know how to grow things and enjoy doing it, so I need to get a head start on learning about it myself!

I planted sunflowers and zinnias, tomatoes, peppers, a couple kinds of squash, big orange pumpkins and little white pumpkins. I'd like to still put in some zucchinni, too. What I'm worried about are the sneaky rabbits who live in our yard. I have a feeling they're going to treat the garden like a buffet! Any tips, experienced gardeners?

Also, there are two little spots in front of our basement windows that I'd like to tackle next. They're looking pretty horrble right now. I'm thinking about putting perennials in there. Any suggestions for what to put in? I don't want it to be anything too tall so that light can still get through to the windows. Thanks for your help!

family photo shoot

Yesterday Shelley came over for a family photo shoot. As always, she did a great job and already has a few lovely photos edited to share. Our little model did a great job, too. More are on her blog. Here are some of the photos she took of Lachlan when he was only 6 days old!

Climbing the slide

For your viewing enjoyment

messy dinnertime

Lachlan is all about feeding himself now. For the most part, I try to make him finger foods that he can pick up, but sometimes we still have purees, like last night's peach & sweet potato puree. I started out spoon feeding him, but soon he was grabbing the spoon and the bowl from me. I decided to let him have at it, since I knew dinnertime was going to be immediately followed by bathtime! He managed to eat almost everything, although he made quite a mess in the process!

Chalk the Walk

Even though I was under the weather with a stomach bug all day Friday, I was determined to make it to Chalk the Walk on Saturday to participate with Wendy as co-artists. It is our 3rd year to be part of the festival (last year I had a newborn to snuggle with, so I stayed home) and I love it so much. Especially when the weather is perfect with a capital P. Luckily I was feeling much better on Saturday, my mom and grandma came over to help with L, and Wendy already had a plan sketched out on the street when we arrived in Mount Vernon.
We were sponsored by the Mount Vernon community theater group, and our design was to help advertise for their summer production of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum".
Wendy's cute niece stopped by to help for awhile and Lachlan even got in on the chalk action. Unfortunately he managed to tip over right into the darkest part of our design. Whoops!
I wish I had been able to get back up there yesterday to see all the finished pieces, but I'm sure they all turned out great. Check out Shelley's blog for some great photos of Dawn Morrison Wagner's work. She is amazing!

our one year old

It is so fun to watch Lachlan play and explore right now. If I had to use one word to describe him, it would be "busy". He is always walking now, checking things out, picking things up and carrying them around. Trying new sounds and words every day, like "book" & "kitty". Using hand signs for "more" and "milk". He loves to play chase, peekaboo, and yesterday we were having a grand time pushing things down the slide. He brings me his shoes or my car keys and says "bye bye", like "come on, mom, it's time for an adventure!". He's getting 4 teeth at once and handling it very well! He loves music - yesterday he found a tin in our house to use for a drum and at nana's house he was playing a xylophone while "singing" along. What a special guy, we are so lucky!

1st Birthday Party

Yesterday was Lachlan's first birthday party. The day started out overcast and rainy, so we were lucky that it cleared up by lunchtime for our barbeque - we even saw some sunshine! The guests were family from both sides and L's special babysitters Amy & Deb. It was so great to have everyone together to celebrate with us.
The dessert spread. Yum! My mom and grandmother were here Saturday to help make the cupcakes, angel food cake and farm animal cookies. Grandma O. made the krumkake on Friday.
I decided to order his "smash" cake from Deluxe bakery. Isn't it cute? It was just a bit bigger than a cupcake with layers of vanilla cake and berries, and a whipped cream frosting.
At first he wasn't sure what to do with the cake, especially since we moved the high chair outside and he had a big audience. He poked at it with his finger and eventually took a few bites, but mostly just played with it.
The cake aftermath :)
We opened presents after cake and he did a good job helping me. He hasn't sat still for this long since he started walking a few weeks ago!
Finally, most of the guests tried to assist with putting together the playhouse that Lachlan got for a birthday gift. It was tough, requiring much brain & muscle power! Bill and I certainly couldn't have done it ourselves. I can already tell he is going to love playing in it!
The birthday boy (his real b-day is tomorrow) Lots more photos are on Flickr.