The Fourth of July

The Island is known for having a Fourth of July parade and fireworks.

 All kids are welcome to decorate their bike and ride in the parade.

If the children ride in the parade,

 they get to line up to receive a dollar from the fire chief.

Our friends from Island meet us for fireworks every year

and bring the popcorn.

Here's my little princess enjoying her popcorn.

 Everyone had a great time enjoying

 their rest time after riding the bikes.

Yes, I broke down and let Nana spoil them.

 Unfortunately,

the fireworks were cancelled because of the storm that rolled in.

We ended up still having a fun night with a movie and oven s'mores.

Here is the a picture of the ferry leaving the dock.

The girls are sad they were leaving.

We did stop at a playground at an orchard so I could get my

cherries for pie filling. 

 After 6 hours in a vehicle with a the kids,

they indulged in a treat.

 My flower garden got a boost from our Island friends who

had to split perennials.

Here is the before picture:

And the after:

It looks so great...

I wish I could've gotten a better picture

because some of the flowers extend to the left as well. 

Around the Island

The family went for a little drive around the island

and stopped at a few parks and outdoor museums.

My Big Girl really liked the sign.

They crawled on the same tree Zach and I did when we were dating,

a mere 12 years ago.

 My little princess and my oldest liked climbing the best.

My big girl and her mama right after a rescue from about a foot off the ground.

This one I had to put in here...my oldest is posing like the mannequin in the

house named Jacobsen.

This one makes me laugh.

My wonderful husband and I enjoyed ourselves...

we couldn't go to Washington Island and not go to Schoolhouse Beach.

My Big girl loves her Papa and loved swimming with him.

My two guys...

what handsome men in my life.

Nana and my big girl had a great time swimming.

 Here is a great picture of my dad and I at the beach. 

We had lots of laughs and

 I'm thankful for the new memories.

A Vacation Birthday

Well, in the rush of packing,

I realized I had forgotten birthday item...

the felt birthday crowns.

 So we improvised...

 My big girl is 3!

 She loved her sprinkler and water guns from Aunt Mae Mae and Uncle Bri.

 And her tea set from Nana and Papa.

 The water guns got a little crazy and Nana got it.

 So did Dad, although he was armed.

A Much Needed Break...

This is what my kitchen looked like two days

before we left for vacation to Washington Island.

 I managed to can 27 quarts of peach halves

 and 14 quarts of peach pie filling.

It was a long drive up there,

but the kids barely had a nap

except for my big girl who slept for a whole 30 minutes on her sister.

The excitement was too much to handle when we got to the ferry dock...

Once we got to the Island,

we were happy to try out Nana and Papa's new pool.

Note: My little Princess had the snorkel on the whole time:)

 My big girl really looks like a big girl in this picture.

How fast they grow.

 The phrase we heard the whole time during the vacation was,

"Cannonball"

The next couple of posts will have the rest of the vacation pictures.

It's a Jungle Out There

Next year, I will have to do some rearranging with my lay-out.

My plants have never done this well,

I'm attributing this souley to my lasagna gardening. 

The stalks on my tomato plants are almost an inch thick.

Unfortunately, my onions aren't faring so well because lack of light.

The radishes are all out and I will be replacing those with onion sets.

Hopefully, in the full light, they will do better.

I'm in search of the big onion bulb.

Although, my onions aren't fairing as well,

 my peppers are doing great!

 I will be picking two this week.

It's still early, but all of my tomatoes are looking great

and producing large amounts of fruit.

My beans have overtaken the whole garden box

and I am looking forward to trying to find them all.

No blossom as of yet.

Here are my cucumbers. 

I am planning on looking for some metal headboards

for  trellaces for the cucumbers to climb up.

Gardening is an on going learning experience for me.

Until next time...