Our Ongoing Big Backyard Project

With all the rain and snow and mucking through the mud this winter, we no longer have any grass in our backyard. Instead, it's a big field of clover and wild strawberries.


I have to admit that I really like it. I've never been one for a perfectly manicured lawn anyway, and all the purple and blue wildflowers are so pretty. I suddenly understand what the Primary song "I Often Go Walking" is talking about.

The kids, on the other hand, are not fond of all the bees abuzzing through our yard.




We're still working on our garden. Seriously, much bigger project than I expected. We've progressed to getting both beds dug, and one bed in place.


But holy cow, square foot gardening beds are small! Am I really going to be able to fit everything I have planned in that small of a space???

Rylan's Big Week

Rylan had his surgery this past Thursday, so we have had a very busy week. On Monday, we met with the doctor, who briefed us on what would be happening in the surgery. Then on Thursday, we had to get up at 5:00 in the morning to head to Rex Surgery Center in Cary. We were supposed to get there at 6:30, even though his surgery wasn't until 8:30, so it was a long morning of waiting and waiting and talking to various doctors and nurses and more waiting. Finally, a nurse came in and asked Rylan if he wanted a popsicle. He nodded, she picked him, and before I knew it, he was gone.

30 minutes later, he was done. The nurse took me back to the recovery room where Rylan was very high on drugs. He had to be put completely under for the surgery, and he was having a hard time coming out of it. His eyes were HUGE, which was a feat since he already has big eyes. He refused to talk to me or the nurses and just sat there, staring straight ahead. He also threw up blood on me. It was not fun times.

But by that evening, he was perfectly normal and jabbering away. So far, I haven't noticed any improvement in his speech (and I always thought he heard fine), but he's definitely chattering more even if we can't understand anything he's saying. Hopefully that's a good sign.

Humpty Cole

Cole had his kindergarten production on Friday, and he had the very important role of Humpty Dumpty. The production was a Mother Goose theme, and each class performed several nursery rhymes. Cole was super cute as Humpty - falling very slowly and carefully off the wall. I got several comments afterward about how good he was.


After the play, we went to his classroom for a small party. Michael headed back to work (an advantage of him working less than a mile from Cole's school) while Rylan and Eli got some quality time with their brother in his school setting.


It was a big reminder that Eli only has six months until he starts kindergarten also - he fit in so well with all of the big kids! I LOVE Cole's school and am very excited that Eli will get to go there next year.

This Week in Warm Weather News

We made kites last week for Joy School. Of course the wind did not cooperate that day, but the boys still had fun making their kites "fly."




We also started digging up the backyard to put in our garden. I have big, big plans, and I'm hoping the landlords never decide to visit. They told us we could put in a garden, but I'm not sure they meant for the whole yard to be turned into a garden. That's what I meant though.

In Phase 1 of my garden plan, we're putting four "square foot garden" beds in the backyard. This weekend, we got one spot dug, and the frames for the four beds put together. It's a much bigger project than I was expecting.

A Show by the Peters Family Band

The boys invited me outside on one of the warm nights this past week to put on a show. Rylan took keyboard duties. Eli was on drums as usual.



But later, Eli switched to guitar. Cole got inside the basketball hoop and used one end as a microphone and the other end as a rhythmic instrument.

They put on a good show...Hopefully, they didn't annoy the neighbors.

Spring Is Coming, How Do I Know?

There's a Joy School song that gets stuck in my head around this time every year...Spring is coming, how do I know? Pretty flowers told me. Spring is coming, how do I know? Flowers told me so.




In other news, I scheduled Rylan for surgery for next week to get tubes put in his ears. The doctor also suggested getting his adenoids and tonsils removed. He says they usually wait to remove those until the child is at least three, but it might be better to do them all at once so Rylan wouldn't need to have multiple surgeries. We're leaning toward just the tubes right now.