Botanical Gardens

After the zoo we did head over to the Botanical Gardens.  We found a lot of cool things, but BY FAR my favorites were the Lenten roses (hellebore) that Eric and I have been wanting for our yard for a couple of years (they had them EVERYWHERE) and a Snowball Viburnum - AMAZING! 

Mom loved the amazing glass 'flowers' they had all over.  So cool!

Entrance to the gardens

more glass 'flowers"

Hellebores

Snowball fight!!  

I love this picture of the sooo full Viburnum bush

Mom and I on a timer with the Viburnum - its a waaay better picture cropped but blogger can't figure out how to load it (keeps flipping it around) - so you'll just have to trust me.

(well here it is...flipped)

Anyway, we also found this really cool tree.  Red heart shaped leaves (BK - what is it?!)

After the gardens we had a great lunch and headed to the plant sale to get some heriloom tomatoes, meet up with BK and her JoJuice and Eric's mom too!  After we saw all these fun plants at the Botanical Gardens we actually ended up finding a couple of decent priced hellebores (their usual $15-$20 price tag is what kept us from getting them before - but priced at $2 and just needing some love to make them grow we could handle!)  We also found one of the snowball viburnum bushes for sale and got one!  I am sooo excited to see that grow in our yard!

at the plant show with Mom

at the plant show with Miss Kevin.

Whew!  what a weekend - and so far we are only through FRIDAY!  lol  :)

Where we went...

There were Lions...

And Tigers...

...and Bears (oh my!) but I forgot to take a picture of the bears. 
(Quick movie quote trivia time... "I've seen the bears, I wanna see the penguins.  Its a good looking bear though, there is no getting around that"  - Name that Movie!  lol)

Anyway, there were also elephants, giraffes, flamingos,  koalas

And even this strange looking bird (with his creepy 'look!  I caught a rat for you!")

Yeah, yeah - we were at the Zoo!  - But the most fun part was that my MOM was there with me and we had a WONDERFUL weekend!! 

It was a GORGEOUS Friday!  We went and grabbed some coffee (and sunscreen for her Ohio skin that hadn't seen the sun yet this year!)  And headed off to the Columbia Zoo.  After all these fun animals (including the tortoise - that's my fave!)

We headed over to the Botanical Gardens section of the zoo....

Now THAT was really cool! 
To be continued...

Scouting

A new month, a new hunting season.  (who knew?!)  Anyway - this time its turkey.  Which is a short season (so I've learned) and a little more interactive and fun for the whole family (I guess you could say?!)  Last Friday we (Mason and I) got to participate in turkey scouting.  Equipped only with an owl call (Oh how I wished we had BUG SPRAY!) we ventured into the woods.  We were quiet (well Eric and I were) and listening and looking for 'turkey tracks' and  "hooting" every once in awhile to see if we would spook a turkey.  (I have no idea what I'm talking about).

But Mason thoroughly enjoyed the event...  Bounding into 

EVERY

 SINGLE

 PUDDLE

 He could find...

He was one HAPPY (and muddy!) dog.

This is apparently what we were looking for...

? do you see a turkey track here?

Anyway, a happy boy and a happy dog makes for a happy mama.  It was a really nice Friday evening with my boys!

And in case you were wondering - Eric went turkey hunting the next morning where we heard a turkey (or two) the night before.  He 'talked' to one but couldn't 'turn him'.  I've learned this means he wasn't a 'workable' turkey.  But a turkey nonetheless.  Good scouting I say!

Easter Weekend

We had a GREAT Easter weekend here!  It was gorgeous, 85 degrees and sunny, and we had Eric's mom come stay with us as well.  We had big plans  - we had to clean the house before his mom got here, we had all those plants to get into the ground, I had to learn how to cook an Easter meal (and set and Easter table - very important with my MIL - she loves table settings!) and of course we had to go to Church and properly celebrate the Resurrection! 

Saturday was mostly cleaning and preparing (grocery store, Target etc - btw - NEVER EVER go out shopping the day before Easter - its like Black Friday - CRAZY!  I had NO idea!)  Anyway, I waded through the crowds and got us some good food (and some gorgeous Liberty of London dishes for our Eater table!)

Sunday began the festivities with Church (why didn't I take a picture of us all dressed up?) and then gardening while the ham cooked...

We worked up an appetite with all that planting - and luckily I had prepared a gorgeous Easter feast (sorry - I was pretty dog gone proud of my table!)

Even some lovely fresh flowers

Last great accomplishment of the weekend, I finally can say I mastered the art of Sweet Tea.  :)

I am officially a hybrid now!  Hope y'all had a wonderful Easter as well.  We were certainly blessed!

Garden Time

What is the first step to gardening every year?  Is it making a plan, or browsing aisle of plants, daydreaming of the yummy tomatoes you will eat?  

No, actually the FIRST step of gardening (for us) each year is to head downtown and pick up a load of Kricket Krap (literally).  

We get "two scoops" of steaming hot poo and spread it out and till it in....

here he comes...

DUMP!

Then we spread it out evenly in the bed of the truck (so it won't blow out on the drive home)

As you can see, Eric is very happy about his poo purchase.

(To make this process more fun for me, we did stop and get Starbucks and I brought my knitting!)

Anyway, back at the ranch...

There were wheelbarrows full of poopy moved

...and then spread with out with a rake (yes, those are my feet - I was shocked too!)

 Then there was tilling...

(and while there was tilling there was also some knitting)

(What?!?!  We only have one tiller!)

Next up...Planting

Oh boy...

Chicago - Grown up Fun

Eat.

Look at the baby.

 Eat.

 Look at the baby.

I would guess this is how Eric would describe our long weekend in Chicago (and it would have suited me just fine...) but we did do a bit more than that.  My cousins David and Emily both stopped by during the course of the weekend and it was wonderful to see both of them and catch up.  We played a rousing game of Apples to Apples with Emily :) and while David was there we broke out the Beatles Rock Band.  - AhMazing!!!

We had so much fun playing and taking turns on all the instruments and singing along!

(Eric is truly a Guitar Hero!)

(and a drum hero - though I think I gave him a run for his money - I really enjoyed the drums!)

Even Drew enjoyed the Rock Band session and Chad made the comment that Drew was growing up JUST like he did - with a big party going on and Beatles blaring out of the speakers!  :)  Its a good way to grow up - he sleeps through anything!

Kel and I did sneak in a little bit of 'girly time' and we went and got pedicures and coffee!  It was sooo much fun!  (Have I mentioned here before how much I enjoy my SIL?!)  :)

Finally - the food thing DID get a little bit out of control at one point.  Chad had made some awesome wings in the fryer (see above) and then hush puppies and then we got the bug.  The "what else can we fry" bug.  I can't say really whether this ended up being a good or bad idea.  But before we knew it these were headed towards the fryer...

How to turn a 100 calorie pack of Twinkies into a 1000 calorie pack?

Dip them in leftover pancake batter, drop in a deep fryer...

Sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Marvel at their amazing goodness...REPEAT!

Fried Twinkies - who knew?!?  

(seriously though - try it - they are soo good!)

We had a GREAT time in Chicago and I CANNOT wait to go back!