We had such a nice Sunday!

After Church, we got ready & drove up to Downstate New York. It's funny, we always assumed everything north of Manhattan & west of Long Island was "Upstate". After a little research, turns out there's different regions... The part of NY State above us is "Downstate"... We learn something new everyday! :)

So, we went up to Warwick, NY to do a little strawberry picking... However! I guess we missed the weekend rush & so the strawberries were slim pickins'. So, we went to the next orchard over & started on some cherry picking! The cherries looked so beautiful through the bits of sunlight.

These are some pictures taken from inside the car...

Trying to find some decent sized ones...

Preston found himself a walking stick...

Aubree did pretty good gathering a few strawberries...

Leave it to Garrick to find a hidden stash of strawberries in some overgrown shrubs... :)

 Picking cherries was pretty fun! I had never been cherry picking before.. Everyone looked like monkeys climbing up in the trees though! Garrick found a good tree to get up & Aubree helped hold the box for him.

 Aubree & Preston picked some of the low-hanging cherries...

 They were beautiful! And the orchard was beautiful too, it was so private & way up in the hills.

Then we visited the little market & bought some homemade Honey Roasted Chunky Peanut butter & homemade candy canes. They sold a lot of Pennsylvania Amish goods there too, like Butter - I really wanted some, but it was like 20 pounds of butter, all rolled up in one HUGE bar! Not a bad price though, it only cost $23. I know we probably go through that much butter every three months or so (we LOVE butter!), but I just couldn't justify buying THAT much butter at once! :)

 After all our hard work (yeah right!) picking fruit, we went to our favorite little country farm, Pennington's & ate lunch... Plus, bought some of our favorite treats!

I love how Baylee always thinks there's a party going on, or something... She was just sitting there screaming, all excited. I do not know what was so exciting!

 There's Baylee again... Life of the party! Preston's like, "what's HER deal?"

 Our freshly picked cherries.... YUM!!!

Father's Day 2012

In addition to us making Garrick breakfast & presenting him with some lovely art work the kids made him, they also helped him in the yard & helped him wash the car... Then we all let Garrick take us to play a game of miniature golf, followed by dinner & ice cream... I'm pretty sure we did almost the exact same thing as last year! :)

Aubree played exceptionally well... We may have a little golfer on our hands!!!

Baylee & I had a good thing going... We got quite a few birdies! :)

This guy... Uh, had some interesting strategies going on...

But, hey! It doesn't matter how you play.... As long as you have fun & we did! :)

All of us....

Then we watched the "Pro" at the Hitting Range... He even pulled an 'Uncle Rico' & had me video record some of his swinging form... sigh! So much fun! ;)

Then on to our favorite Ice Cream stand... Only, by this time it had gotten really cool & poor Aubree, was freezing with no sweater! :(

Burrrr!!!! But, we still got a quick picture in the cold air & Baylee got a chance to try some ice cream!

Happy Father's Day Garrick!!

I told him, "he's like fine wine, he gets better as a father with each year that he's a Dad & I can't imagine him getting any better than he is right now!". That is seriously the truth!

...As the kids say.

So, it's been a couple of weeks now since everything has been planted & this past weekend, Garrick put up a cute little white picket fence around the outside of the mesh wire.

We planted 3 different types of tomatoes, Orange, Green & Yellow Bell Peppers, Eggplant, Squash & Strawberries. We have to keep it "protected" because we have these chubby little ground hogs who go around & can devour several vegetable & fruit plants each night (if they want to). Our neighbor behind us told us that last year they were especially bad & they ate ALL her tomatoes! Hahaha... Those guys are funny, but I might be a little upset if they come & do that to me! :)

In addition to that, we have a lot of "wildlife" in our little yard. So, so many different bugs, birds & critters that I am discovering. Of course, I'm coming from living in an apartment for the past three years, so digging around in the dirt hasn't been a daily activity for me in the last few years. But, we are now running into earth worms, centipedes, beetles, etc. The kids LOVE the bugs!! Aubree picks up the worms... she loves them! She had a bad experience with one of them - she was holding it & the poor little guy broke in half, she was SO devastated! She felt terrible for hurting it. Now she's very careful to never let that happen again.

I'm glad we have this area now for the kids to learn & discover. I hope the garden gets enough sunlight so that we can get some produce - I'd love for the kids to experience home grown food!

In my "free time" (the moments during Baylee's naps where I'm not doing chores), I have been taking that ugly rock pile to the left of the garden & creating a stone ground around the garden. I figured, I'd reuse this mess of rocks & turn it into something pretty & it might also discourage the chipmunks & ground hogs from digging under my fence... We will see!

These are my strawberries (on the left) & the peppers (right). The brown stuff around the strawberries is torn up coffee filters - the mulch for the strawberries is coffee grounds & the unbleached paper filters. I read, on an organic gardening website that the acidity of coffee grounds is good for strawberries. I liked the idea too, because we brew a pot of coffee every morning & now I get to reuse the beans & paper.

We have 6 tomato plants - 2 plants of three different types of tomatoes. I forget what they all are, but I know that one of the three, is heirloom tomatoes... So far they're looking pretty good, they just don't get as much sun as they should.

We aren't using any chemicals at all in the garden, or for the weeds in the grass... Nor do we use pesticides or chemicals in, or outside of the house. Garrick & I decided that we are better off using organic, alternative methods. One method that I'll use in the garden *only if I have to* will be to spray Diatomeous Earth on the leaves if aphids, slugs or other pests infect a plant. It's food grade, fresh water Diatoms (silica). Pretty much it's sea shells from millions of years ago, cut up so fine that it will dry out the exoskeleton of insects... But cause no harm to the environment, or to mammals. So, again we're new to all this... So, we will see, it's all a big learning lesson for us! :)

Here's our backyard... Garrick's grass came in really good! He hasn't mowed it yet... So, it's pretty long right now.

I can't believe I have neglected this blog for so long....

It seems like I can't get to bed before midnight anymore, because every night there seems to be a never-ending list of "to-do's", but now I want to start doing things that I enjoy again... Like posting pictures & well - I now have many more activities I've been enjoying too...

Here's some of the things we've been up to, so far this month...

Working in the yard... We now have grass!! And, my garden is complete... I'll add pictures of it, in it's entirety later, but here's the boys working in the yard! :)

The kids are enjoying our trash schedule. We have "green" waste every Monday, along with recycling every other Monday. Trash is every Wednesday & Saturday... So, the kids get all excited when we hear the truck rumbling down the street.

 To me, this is "Old School"... We have the men, walking down the street on the sides of the truck, picking up each bucket & dumping it. I remember it being like this in the 80's growing up, until they switched it to the computerized trucks... New Jersey is behind the times, of California.

 Baylee is getting so BIG (this week she'll be 9 months old)!!

She's a Daddy's Girl 100%

She stood on her own for a few seconds, crawls EVERYWHERE & pulls herself up on everything!

 On the weekends (& some weekdays) we've been enjoying BBQ's & breakfast on the deck...

Garrick makes some amazing cheeseburgers... There's probably 5 or 6 different cheeses on here (Cheddar, Monterrey Jack, Muenster, Asiago & Parmesan (maybe more?))... Anyway, so good!

 The kids also loved their corn on the cob! :)

Garrick grills the hamburger patties, hot dogs & vegetables... While I cut up the potatoes & fry them inside. Our fries our homemade & soooo good!

Baylee eats mostly what we eat now - corn, tomatoes + grilled veggies like zucchini & bell pepper. Garrick calls her our "healthy baby" because she eats all the fruits & vegetables we give her - she doesn't protest on any food! She loves her water too!

This is our neighborhood community lake. I think the beach opens this week. The lake is really pretty. It reminds me of some of the lakes I would swim in, while visiting Sweden.

 Preston said... "I'm being Daddy!"

He's such a funny kid! He was so proud of himself, clomping around in Garrick's shoes & hat!

A few weeks ago we got Aubree a full-sized bed... This was the first night she had slept in it.

Her room is still a work in progress... Preston's room is across the hall from Aubs, but for now I have them sharing a room, so his toddler bed is in her room. I don't know why... But, I'm not ready for them to have their own rooms yet. I may wait until the fall. They always chit chat while falling to sleep & they're BBF's, so I don't know... I like this set-up for now.