OtterPops: Odds & Ends

Thanks to Jared's Dad who jump-started us when he was visiting by clearing the land and buying some plants, we have a vegetable garden. Jared thankfully set up a very cool watering system and got most of the plants in the ground to continue the project. Now I just have to remember to water it and weed it...hopefully I can pull us through to the end! And, breaking news, we picked our very first zucchini last night. Jared also spent last Saturday changing out the old sprinkler valves which were really struggling. I am so glad he can be skilled in these things because I didn't even realize they were leaking!

Watering system and 1st week of garden (april)

Garden in May

New Sprinkler valves

Working on putting in the Garden

Ms. Diva helping with the yard work much to her dismay

I recently "paid my dues" and hosted both Book Club and Chef's corner at my house (on different nights) as I do once a year. I don't know why I can't manage to take a picture of these things because I had really yummy food and fun presentation, etc. but I am so busy getting it all ready I fail to document it! For Book Club I hosted The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver and it went over really well. There was a ton of discussion and plenty of topics to go around. I really enjoyed the book and it was interesting to hear the varied responses. For Chef's Corner I hosted "Death by Chocolate" and since I couldn't make up my mind on what to make, I made 3 different recipes. Let's just say I got my chocolate fill for the next month. Yum! We all made way too much food and didn't have enough people to eat it.

Lillian with a leftover pot de chocolate

We also had our spring quarterly activity for Relief Society and put on a "Lemon" themed night where we learned how to clean with lemons, cook with lemons, relax with lemons (demos and take home samples) and had a guest speaker. There were about 35 ladies who showed up which was way more than I was expecting, but it was good. I was cooking and prepping for that and am glad to have a couple month break before we host our next activity. Again, when I am in charge of an event, I am terrible at documenting anything, so here is a leftover poster that I made:) I also hosted a collaboration meeting for all the moms wanting to put together a co-op preschool for next fall so hopefully I can get something lined up for Jonas next school year.

Our church also hosted the annual "Helping Hands" or JustServe volunteer day and this year we were cleaning the cemetery near our house. The kids were scrubbing headstones and we were raking up leaves, trash, etc. After I tuned out the complaining from Jocelyn, we all seemed to have a good time providing the service. For the first few times we drove by after the service day I would say "Wow! What a good looking cemetery! I wonder who cleaned it up...They must be great workers!" After the first couple times the girls would just sit in the back seat and roll their eyes and say "you've already said that, mom." but Jonas ate it right up and then after that, he would say the line as we drove by the cemetery.

Our arrival at the cleaning day

Emma scrubbing the headstone

Jared cleaning up the leaves

Lillian working hard

Last, but not least, the boys had their annual "Father & Sons campout" and us girls combined with some friends for "Girls Night Out." Due to Jared's medical condition they weren't able to camp out over night, but they had pizza with us, went "camping" for a few hours (during which time Jonas caught a fish) and then came home to sleep out on the trampoline (which ended up being the couches). You would have thought Jared had taken Jonas to Disneyland for a week with the anticipation leading up to the campout and they hype afterward. Anytime Jonas saw anyone for the next week he would tell them about camping with his Dad. He would also say "Hey-you were at Father's & Sons campout!" whenever he would see anyone from church for the next week. He keeps asking when they get to go camping next. And he told Jared about 20 times during the 3 hrs they were there "You're the best Dad ever!" Talk about a home run. You can guess how many pictures I got of the event...zero. Not even the fish that was caught! But I did take some pictures of girls night out. As I mentioned, pizza with the boys then we went to Jamba Juice and painted nails at our house per the girls' request. Even Emma got really into it which was cracking me up.