Cole blogs: Eating strawberries.

Hello do you no who your talking to?Cole!I am blogging.Okay now. I am eating a strawberry.Do you like strawberries.Write a letter.

Spring Fun with The Peters Family Band

I took Rylan, Eli, and Kenny to a strawberry farm on Thursday (sadly I forgot my camera). They were amazingly good and even helped, so I kept picking and picking. Tip for any parents who want to take their kids strawberry picking: Bring a wagon, put a bucket of strawberries in it, and let them have at it.

We ended up with five 5-lb buckets plus I threw in an extra 5-lb box to make a total of 30 pounds of strawberries.


We ate one bucket, made one and a half into jam, made half of one into syrup, froze two, and I'm going to dry one. Another first attempt at domesticity for me.


Michael spent the weekend building a trellis for our garden so we can train the squash and cucumbers to climb up and away from the corn they're suffocating. We also staked all of the corn because the soil mixture we used is too light and fluffy.


And our tomato plants have turned into trees.

But we have tomatoes!

Me

I was having an extremely bad Cole Day a couple weeks ago and decided to cheer myself up with a change of hair. I cut it myself, but I don't think I did a terrible job. Wish I had rounded out the sides more, but besides that...(Don't tell Miriam!)

Cole Blogs: fighting stuff

I have fighting stuff.There is a magic wand and a stick.I am in my backyard.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We've had lots of failures but I'm still pretty proud of our garden so far.

This picture was taken about a week ago, and the plants are already twice as big as this.

On the right side, we planted two indeterminate tomatoes, two determinate tomatoes, and six peppers. I tried planting lettuce, but after killing it twice, I gave up. Just this weekend, I planted some southern peas in that spot instead. I also planted flower seeds in all the corners, but am not having success with those at all.

On the left side, I planted four more indeterminate tomatoes, two rows of corn, two zucchinis, one squash, and two cucumbers. I also planted green bean seeds next to the corn last weekend - we're hoping to train the beans to vine up the corn. We also need to build a trellis for the squash and cucumbers to get them to grow up instead of out.

So far, our biggest pest is an evil squirrel that lives in our yard. It keeps digging giant holes and knocking over plants. I almost wish I had a b-b gun.

Cole Says

Cole took a baseball bat outside to defend my garden from the evil squirrel: "It's like whack-a-mole!"

Rylan Says

After helping Rylan put on his pants, I said, "There you go, Bub."

He replied angrily, "No that not Bub. That me!"

_____

When someone asks Rylan what his name is, he holds up two fingers.

Father-Son Campout

This weekend was our church's annual Father-Son camp-out. I took the two older boys (Cole and Eli) but we left Rylan at home because we felt he's not quite old enough yet (we've taken him camping with the whole family before, but with someone that little it's almost a full time job just to keep him out of trouble). This left Erin at home with Rylan which gave her a little bit of time off for Mother's Day. I'm sure she's looking forward to next year when she'll get to be completely alone.

We went up to Camp Cambell which is on Lake Kerr on the North Carolina/Virginia border. It's an old Scout camp that they don't really use anymore. It's kind of a primitive camping spot with some scattered outhouses and a few water spouts in various places. Not too rough, but not a picnic either. We drove up Friday afternoon and setup our tent. We roasted some hot dogs for dinner (I should say that I roasted the hot dogs while the boys caught toads) and then walked around a bit. We later went down to main area by the lake front where they had a large bonfire going. We roasted some marshmallows and had smores while the boys ran around and played with some other kids they knew from church. Cole is obsessed with something called "silly bands" that are all the rage at his school. And he was very happy to show them off to anyone who would listen and even happier to find other kids there who had some and were willing to trade.


We walked up back to our tent around 10:30pm and our flashlight died when we were about 5 minutes from our tent, which is pretty lucky considering when it could have gone out. Cole and Eli stayed up for another half hour goofing around (their original goal was to tell ghost stories but they didn't know any) until sleep finally took over and they went down. I wasn't quite sleepy enough so I layed in the tent with a flashlight and read a bit before falling asleep.

Our air mattress has a big leak so instead I bought a new foam pad from an outdoor store that's designed for backpacking. It's really light weight which is good if you want to carry your gear. But it's not that thick which is bad if you want to be comfortable. So I didn't sleep all that well, but in reality you don't get much sleep while you're camping so I wasn't too disappointed.


We woke up to nice cool morning weather and walked back down to the lake front to have breakfast. After that we got in line to take our turn at the canoes. We paddled out on the lake for about an hour before coming back. I've always enjoyed canoeing and I think this was also the boys favorite part of the trip as well. I do regret not having brought any fishing gear since that would have made it even more fun.

After being out on the water we walked back up and I let the boys goof off some more. They roasted some more marshmallows and ended up very sticky. We then packed up and went home. One night camping trips always seem to be over too fast. And I'm sure Erin felt the same way when we got home that afternoon :)

--
Michael

Eli's Crazy Hair

We were running late this morning, so I got Eli out of the bath and forgot all about him as he got himself ready for church. When we pulled into the church parking lot, I opened the door for him to get out, and this is what I saw:



I love it so much!

Rylan says...

Every morning when I go into his bedroom: "Hi, Mommy."

And the correct answer is, "Hi, baby."

If I say, "Hi, Rylan," he points to himself and says, "No. That baby."