Jude Sayings...

A few quips...

We were visiting our friends' Scott and Jennifer (and sons) at their house.  Brian and Scott, along with several other male friends, were outside putting a new roof on the garage.  The young boys were inside playing.  I ask Jude if he needs to go potty.  He says, very straight faced, "No.  There's no potty here."
What?
Yes, little dude.  They do have an indoor outhouse. :-)


As a family, we were at the local diner for brunch. After our orders were taken, we had some time to kill while we waited.  Our favorite time-waster game of late has been I Spy.  Tamlin has gotten pretty good at this.  He even informed me that he watches my eyes when I am "it" to see what I'm looking at so that he can guess that item.  (Smart little sneak).  Jude even tries to participate, to some success.
Me: "I spy with my little eye......something that is red".  Tamlin & Brian try to guess what I'm thinking of.  Jude answers with "Is it That?" while pointing to the ketchup bottle.  Good guess, right color, but not what I was seeing, which was a red jam package.
Jude: "I spy RED!"... "It's the KETCHUP!" 
Great job little man.
You'll get the hang of this game yet.


And of late, since it is warm and we are all outside more...
Jude" I fell down! I'm so Sad!  I need a kiss!  I need a Band-Aid!"
Oh the drama of the three-year-old life.
He is currently sporting at least 1 or 2 bandaids at all times, usually on some boo-boo that may or not be able to be seen with the naked eye :-)

Jude

Aviation Days

It was Memorial Weekend, and I cruised around the Internet trying to find a fireworks display to take the boys to now that they are a wee bit older.  I stumbled onto Aviation Days at the county airport with an evening air show. Planes and fireworks?!  No brainer!  I knew the boys would think this is wicked cool.

The airport is small, but they had a good two dozen planes on the tarmac for people to get up close and look out.  Many of them were older planes, but there was one large modern Boeing to go into and check out. We even saw how planes from a kit were put together.


 

The boys had fun exploring the various planes...but it was hot... so we did spend a good chunk of time playing in the kiddie area.  Plane toss was a hit, as was the face painting.  Jude wanted starts and Tamlin picked out a rainbow star.  

 

 We went to a nearby park to eat a picnic supper and a romp on the jungle-gym while we waited for dusk.  Then, back to the airport for the night show.  We got out the lawn chairs, sat down with the crowd, and enjoyed a fresh fried elephant ear.  As the sun set, we listened to music and watched the planes line up for the show...well, I watched and my two boys ran around and circles / danced to the music.

The show was based on a trip through the heavens. The emcee talked about the different stars and constellations that are seen in the sky at this time of year.  The planes flights were also very cool.  We saw twin planes fly in a coordinated pattern with the smoke streams behind that were lit by the sunset.  Once darkness fell, the planes blazed through the sky like comets or fallen stars with pyrotechnics blazing out behind them.

 This was a glider that swooped and looped through the air in a graceful pattern.  I loved it :-)
The show ended with parachute jumpers falling down to our sight while shooting off fireworks and flares as they fell.  Awesome.  The kiddos fell asleep as soon as they were strapped into their carseats because it was way passed their bedtimes.

But...

The even more awesome thing is this...

Apparently, there were several local folk that saw strange lights in the sky twirling around and called the local news station reporting that there were UFOs around!
I guess not everyone knew an airshow was happening :-)

Adventure in urban gardening

 Guest blogger Brian Thomas :-)

March 18:  Experiments in Lakeside Suburban Farming phase 1: The Indoor starts.
Basil, purple basil, thyme, oregano, spearmint, rosemary, chives, various colored sweet peppers and various tomatoes varieties (cherry, yellow pear, plum, Roma, pink, orange and red).  Also started lavender and foxglove.  I predict rainbow salsa and spaghetti sauce in our future. More starts to come in the next few weeks :)

March 23:  Experiments in Suburban Lakeside Farming: phase 1.5; More indoor seeds planted.  Started several gifts seeds from Chef Brian (my boss) and have added the following heirloom tomotoes:  Cherokee purple, brandywine true black, black cherry and JL Blue.  We also got lemon cucumbers and jingle bell peppers (tiny sweet peppers) from Chef.  I also took the opportunity to start other seeds:  regular cucumbers, sugar baby watermeleons, lemon drop melons, cinnamon basil, lemon basil, and a bunch of marigolds. That makes 11 different tomatoes planted...

April 11:  The Suburban Lakeside Farming Experiment Phase 2:  Over the course of the last week Tamlin, Jude, and I have constructed 5 raised garden beds (8' by 8'), 2 rain collection barrels (32 gallon trash cans with a hose spigot mounted at the bottom, over flow holes near the top, leaf screening, and a drain pipe hole), a 32 gallon compost bin and 3 20gallon potato growing bins.  We've already got some fingering potatos from the store sprouting and I have "All blue" and "Purple Majesty" seedling potatos from Burpee's we're going to try out.  Now to find roughly 350 cubic feet of topsoil/compost...

The Suburban Lakeside Farming Experiment:  Phase 3:  The Planting (cue twilight zone music).  In the last 3 days me (mostly), Tamlin, and Jude and the neighbor boy Liam have planted a ton of seedlings including:  10 sweet basil, 10 purple basil, 6 lemon basil, 6 cinnamon basil, 6 spearmint, 10 thyme, 1 lemon thyme (donated), 10 oregano, 6 rosemary, 5 chive patches (donated and saved from lawn), 5 lavender and 3 sage.  Yay legal herbs :)  also planted sunflowers, cone flowers, gallardia, phlox and sedum. Vegetables to be planted soon...

May 15:  The Lakeside Suburban Farming Experiment continues:  more planting this week including 40 tomato plants (13 different varieties of mostly heirlooms), 12 peppers (bell peppers of various different colors and sizes), 3 cucumbers, 2 watermelons, 70 marigolds (take that rabbits and my allergy prone family), Asian lillies, day lillies, and 120 onion starts (red, white, and yellow).  Almost done :-)

May 20:  How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?  I just saw one pick up a twig, gnaw it for a second, and then throw it down.  The answer is 1.

May 23:  The Lakeside Suburban Farming Experiment "The Planting" has come to an end over the last 2 days as Summer and the boys helped with 2 packets of carrots, 2 packets of radishes, 3 blueberry bushes, 3 more cucumbers, 2 more watermelons, 2 pumpkins, 3 spaghetti squash, 4 yellow squash, 4 zucchini, 12 green bush beans, 10 Italian rose beans, 6 snap peas and a bunch of flowers.  That is of course in addition to the 40 tomatoes, 3 potatos varietiees, dozen peppers, 100+ onions, 3 cucumbers, 2 watermelons, 100+ flowers and roughly 80 herb seedlings from the previous weeks.  Yes, we are possibly insane.  Let "The Watering" begin (recue twilight zone music).

Our flower gardens in the front of the house.  Mostly donated plants from the moms and some rescued from Michigan.

 Playset partially converted to hold inverted tomato plants. Brian removed a glider swing that the boys didn't use to make room for the buckets.  Some peppers and onions planted in the top with the tomatoes hanging down below.

Potato tubs...colorful ad practical.  As the plants grow, we add soil underneath.

If I get real ambitious, I'll get photos of each bed to show our baby plants :-)