Legos and gardens, perpetual around here

Because he’s cute.  And he wanted me to take a photo of him with his Lego cake.  He’s quite proud of it.  And his monkey pajamas.  Four years old already.

Very messy rough draft of this year’s garden layout.  I hope.  Lots and lots and lots of green beans.  More kidney beans, maybe some green bush beans.  Zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, marigolds…  Some root veggies and comfrey in the asparagus bed.  The other (not strawberry) raised bed shall be medicinal herbs.  I hope.  The dotted raised beds are what I’d like to get put in this summer, but have zero plans of actually needing/using them this year.  Just planning/getting things ready and working.  Again.

Um, yeah.  The left half of the page is the front door.  That retaining wall needs to come out, and we’re going to do a stair-step kind of retaining wall there.  Yes, I have plans for what I want to put where already.  A girl’s got to be prepared.
The right half of the paper is the other (right) half of the yard.  In front of the sheds.  Shall become my “orchard.”  Well, as orchardy as I can get with my little lawn.  😀  Peaches and pears have issues in my cold yard, so my plan is to buffer them with some elderberry trees and blueberry bushes.  And yes, you see a fire pit there.  We’ve needed/wanted one for a few years.  The boys are old enough and know how to safely start a fire, and this way they can get some (contained!) practice.  Bonus, they’re going to learn how to do some fire/dutch oven cooking.

It’s Christmas Day!

By the time hubby and I had rolled out of bed (grandma, auntie and auntie’s boyfriend were already up/here), the kids had all sorted the gifts into piles.  So I didn’t have an idyllic little photo of all the packages under the tree.  Ah well, it happens.


He was kind of happy.  He *loves* cars.  And Legos.


I have no idea what the 10yo was looking at, but hey, this mostly clear photo has all the kids in it.


Grandma buys them matching shirts about once a year or so.  Why yes, I still stick my kids in matching shirts while out and about a bunch of the time.  Easier for the perpetual head counts.


His reaction was awesome.  He was beyond excited/thrilled/you name it.

He cracked me up.

The 7yo’s hilariously fun and excited reaction to the Infinity game thingie he got.  He was thrilled.


The younger two attacking gifts.  They didn’t get *as* much for Christmas, but they were happy.  They have the benefit of older siblings and the siblings’ toys, they’re not exactly starting from scratch toy-wise.  Well, and we’re mean, we make them share a lot of the time.


He got Hungry, Hungry Hippos.  Was his gift from his siblings.  Super cute, he was excited.

Hubby got me one of the new insulated Klean Kanteens.  And when they say it keeps things hot for up to 6 hours?  They’re not kidding.  Kept a drink hot for me for like 3 hours, and not lukewarm, either.  The cafe cap pops apart nicely for cleaning, too.


Then a new mixing bowl to take the place of the 11yo purple one.  Eeep!  I’ll likely start putting it through it’s paces within the week after I finally wash it.  Oh, Grandma got me a cute butter dish, too.  Because she knows we use butter.  Lots of butter.


Hubby also hit the half off Tattler sale, after some slight nudging from me.  Odds are I’m not going to run out of lids next year.  I hope.  I ran out of them this year and had to start using disposable lids again during my last few canning sprees.

I don’t have any fabulous photos of hubby’s gifts, but he got a few pretty cool ones if I may say so.  Made him a perler bead Husqvarna chainsaw ornament, got him a few hard-to-find books by one of our favorite authors, and a few gift cards to a particular restaurant he likes to frequent.  But there’s a few gifts that haven’t made their way to my doorstep yet, and I’m plotting something fabulous for his birthday that’s coming up shortly.  Who knows, maybe he’ll have a pedicure day or something.  *snort*  🙂

Christmas Eve

We usually let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve.


Grandma had brought more than  a few gifts though, so we let them open several on Christmas Eve so they wouldn’t be as overloaded on Christmas day.


Yup, I was a mean mommy and made them get showered and dressed in fresh pajamas.  Mommy was *not* on the ball, so there were no new pajamas.  Just clean ones.


He loves his LEgo train, so more tracks?  He’s happy.


Grandma got him some books.  He’s *really* starting to sound out and decode things all too often…


Grandma got him a John Deere tractor.  He was so excited. 


They were cute.