meet Sadie

Meet our new baby! This is Sadie, and she came to live with us Thursday night. She is 5 months old and was in need of a good home. Her previous owner didn't think puppy ownership through, and was leaving her on a porch all day with no exercise and attention. As you can imagine, she is full of energy and excitement. She's also doing great with going potty outside and practicing sitting and walking.

Lachlan is very intrigued by the "pup pup" and cautiously walks toward her, but not too close. Sadie is way too excited to be around him off the leash, so we are slowly introducing them to each other. Less enthusiastic is Cleo, who definitely knows something fishy is going on, even though we have kept them separate so far.

We're very excited about this new addition. And... a little nervous since this is our first time training a puppy. Any advice is welcome. She's going to the vet tomorrow to catch up on shots and get examined. We're hoping to find a puppy class for us to attend soon, too.

visiting the garden

I decided that after neglecting my poor garden the last couple weeks, I should give it a little TLC this afternoon.
On the way to the garden, I stopped to admire our hydrangea bushes. Wow, they are growing like crazy this year!
The sunflowers are getting too tall to stand up, but they're still looking bright and beautiful. Next year I will actually stake them so they don't tip over so soon! I cut some that were done blooming to hang and dry.
I'm surprised that so many pumpkins are ripe and ready to pick already. I wanted to use my pumpkins for our jack-o-lanterns in October, so I've been reading about storing them. Apparently if they cure in the sun for 10 days, then they can be stored in a cool place for a couple months. We'll see!
Mini pumpkins were ready to be picked today, too!
The garden harvest from this afternoon. Notice the little hand reaching up to grab a taste of something.

A trip to Brookfield Zoo

A week ago, my mom and Lachlan and I packed up and headed out for a short road trip to Chicago. We visited IKEA (love! more on that later) and stayed with great grandma. On Tuesday, the four of us went to Brookfield Zoo for the day. The weather was perfect and Lachlan is just starting to be really interested in animals. He was pointing at the animals and talking about them. Of course, people watching was almost as exciting.
First stop was the carousel. We didn't ride it, but we enjoyed watching all the interesting animals going around and Lachlan was dancing to the music.
We rented a wagon, which worked great for carrying the little guy and our mini-cooler.
My favorite was the giraffes. You could see them from all different angles, and get super close.
The real tigers were napping way back in their area, so this big tiger was quite a bit more exciting.
Lachlan's favorite animal was the sea lion. He kept swimming in circles and coming up for air in the same spot. When we tried to leave, Lachlan used his "more" sign to ask to watch the sea lion more.
By early afternoon, everyone was tuckered out and we dropped great grandma off and headed back to Iowa. It was a quick but fun trip!

Caeli's wedding shower

Last Sunday Bethany and I threw our soon-to-be sister-in-law, Caeli, a surprise wedding shower at my mom and dad's house in Des Moines. She was a great sport and rolled with the surprise and all the little games and activities we had planned.
First, Caeli read advice cards that each guest had filled out with advice about marriage and relationships. Then we had some food - I made 3 kinds of mini sandwiches and angel food cupcakes. Bethany made fruit kabobs and my mom made some great fresh salsa. I think the mimosas and Bethany's lemon ice mixed drinks were the hit of the shower, though.
The day before the shower I recorded Thor answering questions about himself, Caeli, and their relationship. Then I did a little editing in iMovie and burned it to dvd, and voila - the "How well do Thor and Caeli know each other" game show was born. For every question she matched answers with him, she got a chocolate kiss, and for every one she got wrong, she had to put another piece of gum in her mouth. They had done this game at my wedding shower, it's so funny.
Then everyone had 2 minutes to do a drawing of what Caeli will look like on their wedding day (coming up on September 26th). The catch was you had to draw it while holding the paper on top of your head. Tricky!
She opened gifts, and of course Lachlan thought the party was being thrown in his honor. :)
It was a very fun afternoon. We're looking forward to the wedding!

Summer Days

It's been a busy week of traveling, wedding showering, IKEA shopping,
zoo adventuring, and fairgoing. And the sunflowers grew even taller
while we were gone. Be back soon with more photos & stories.

hairstylin'

Did you know that Lachlan likes to comb his own hair after the bath?
That's right, business in the front...
...party in the back!!

a few garden snapshots

I spent some time in the garden weeding and cleaning up today. It was in desperate need of some TLC and I made a little progress. I am enjoying watching everything grow and change, and definitely enjoying harvesting tomatoes, zucchini, and acorn squash. Here are a few snapshots from tonight - along with bonus bunny and cow sightings.

This is a stem of one of my giant sunflowers. Isn't it amazing?

my Tweets

I added a little Twitter widget on the side of my blog so if you aren't a Twitter user, you can keep track of my last few tweets. They usually cover L's adventures, my cooking & baking endeavors, and other randomness from our day.

Hello, cows!

Last night after I put Lachlan to bed, I headed down to the garden to pick up some tomatoes, zucchini and sunflowers. As I walked back up to the front of the house, I encountered quite a surprise!
If you've been reading since last summer, you know that we have cows for neighbors. Actually, there is a pasture behind us, and we think it is rented out for a herd of cows now and then. Bill and I were just talking about how we haven't seen the cows yet this year. So, I came walking up from the garden and spotted this fellow, right out by the driveway. I whipped out my iPhone and called Bill because he has the number for the cow owner (we had a calf sneak through into our yard and get stuck a couple times last year).
Then while I was talking to him, another cow comes wandering up from the ravine, and another, and another! Until I counted at least six grazing around our yard! I wish I had a photo of more, but when I got closer to take a photo, they got spooked and ran away. And I almost stepped in a cowpie.
Our fence seems to be intact, but I think our neighbors section is where the cows wandered in, first to their yard, then up the hill into our yard. The cow owner came by about a half hour later and herded them into the pasture, but it was sure an exciting way to end the day around here!