Memorial Weekend

I realize I'm falling behind on the blog posts lately and I do apologize! Life has been so busy lately in a good way, that I haven't sat down at the computer to upload photos and share stories in a while! We had a busy weekend, but full of fun. Gavin's Auntie Kristin was in town and spent a whole day at our house helping with projects and spending some quality R&R time with us as well as letting us tag along on her other visits and plans while she was here! On Thursday, Gavin came into Momma & Daddy's work for a little visit! Everyone was excited to see him and amazed at how much he has grown and changed since he was here to visit in December, when he was just about three weeks old! After the visit at work, we celebrated our friend Carrie R's birthday with dinner at Sarna's and a cool night out on her patio afterward. It was a later night than Gavin is used to, but he happily napped in my lap while we all sat around enjoying the summer weather.

We went in to see Dr. Rita for Gavin's 6 month well baby check on Friday morning and she says he's doing great! He weighs 18 1/2 lbs and is 27" long/tall, which puts him in the 75%ile for his age on both height and weight. He gained almost 3 lbs and 2 whole inches since his last visit two months ago. He also got three more shots and one oral vaccination, which he was not happy about, but he did really well and only cried for a minute and then was giggling again.

We made up for the tough morning with a fun afternoon at my sister Kathy's house. Gavin and I picked up Kristin and Grandma and headed out to Kathy & Terry's house for a visit. We didn't get too much done while we were there, but enjoyed the company, weeded the kids' gardens, and walked around the farm visiting the chickens, horses, and cattle. Gavin happily napped in the stroller while we worked and played outside. It was a beautiful day. Kristin spent Saturday at our house, which was a real treat! Gavin got to have a sleepover in his room with his Daddy so that Auntie Kristin and I could have our own sleepover. In the morning, Cliff brought me and Kristin french toast, bacon, hash browns, fruit, and coffee and we enjoyed our breakfast in bed with the sun shining in and Gavin playing on the bed with us. What a morning! After Gavin's bath, Cliff took him for a walk and Kristin and I headed out to the garden to start planting. We got all of the main garden area planted with Bibb Lettuce, Spinach, Green Beans, Swiss Chard, Beets, Carrots, Green Peppers, Sweet Banana Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, seven different kinds of Heirloom Tomatoes... and the Sugar Snap Peas that I had planted a couple of weeks ago. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that ONE of the 25 sweet potatoes I had planted (the night before the freeze) actually survived and has new green leaves. I have 20 more plants in the mail to me right now, so I'll have sweet potatoes in the end afterall! We still have to plant cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and squash, but need to burn our brush pile first so that there is room to plant them on the edge of the field. Of course, we couldn't burn the brush because we haven't had any rain and the fire danger is too high to burn anything. Saturday night Cliff and Gavin hung out at home together so Kristin and I could go out for a late dinner at Green Mill. Kristin loves Green Mill's Spinach Tortelloni and doesn't have a Green Mill where she lives, so this was a fun little treat.

Sunday was another nice day and we celebrated my friend Katie's graduation from The College of St. Catherine and then celebrated my family's May birthdays. The sun was bright and warm and the parties were fabulously beautiful. We didn't think we would make it to both parties, but Gavin was a real trooper and we had a nice time at both places. We got some great pictures of him in Auntie Joanne's yard that I'll try to share later this week! He also experienced his first bonfire that night, although he slept through most of it! Memorial day was our day to unwind from all of the festivities and we did just that. Cliff and Gavin made a trip to Menard's while I (FINALLY) moved a bunch of pictures from our camera on to our computer, we did a bit of housework, a bit more planting (finally planted all of the flowers I'd bought for my pots!), and then headed over to Jeremy & Rita's for a little visit. We went for a walk around their property with the kids and then shared delicious grilled kebabs and home made biscuits and rhubarb dessert. What a treat. Like I said, it was a fabulously fun filled weekend, but busy, busy, busy!

Since the weather was nice, when we didn't have to be some place, I jumped at the opportunity to get outside and finally rescue my wilting plants from their plastic nursery pots and get them into what should be cool, moist, soil. Unfortunately, we haven't had rain in weeks and our soil is taking on a desert sand appearance! But, praise God, it rained last night. Supposedly we got 4/10", which may just be enough to save our striving crops of corn and beans and was surely enough to give our grass that fresh green coloring again! It's amazing what a rain can do. Particularly a nice, gentle, slow rain like that one! We need more rain - that wasn't enough, but it did help.

I hope to post some pictures of our weekend as well as start the week by week garden update this weekend. We have another friend's birthday to celebrate this weekend as well as a work day planned at Grandma & Grandpa Sellner's house, but hope to have some downtime again on Sunday!