On My Mind...

watercolor crayons...

Found these cute little drawings on inspired ideas...add some watercolor crayons and it makes for some happy kiddos - and momma!

I love my flowers...

Every year about this time...well, I say every year like it has been forever...how 'bout this is the 3rd year I believe...my sunflowers and zinnias are here to greet these bright yellow finches.  The first time it happened, I spotted one on top of a sunflower leaning over to get the seeds.  It was my first year in the house and I thought someone's bird had escaped...

Now, I just wait for my birds to come back knowing that I have planted all the things they love!

 

*sometimes they even bring a date...

This is not my Grandma's sewing...

Emily made the apron in an hour since our aprons are Christmas fabric!  She did such a great job...I would like one now! 

Bet you wouldn't find my Grandma sewing with laptop beside her...whatever it takes to learn since we can't have Grandma sitting with us to teach us everything she knows.

Cheese Pizza - the homemade kid painted way...

Red paint for our sauce, yellow paper for our cheese...the older (my 3 yr old, and the 3yr old I care for) was all about cutting up strips for their cheese...what could be more fun than paint, glue, and paper!
We have read some great books so far this week about pizza, made pizza for lunch, and watched a great Reading Rainbow video from the library. 

I caught him sleeping...

I had been seeing pictures on-line of bumblebees sleeping on the underside of daisies and thought it was so cool - I had even checked my flowers.  No luck until tonight...my guys prefer zinnias!

Sleepy brothers...

This is what I love, two brothers so many years apart who love each other this much...makes up for the times they are driving each other crazy...

Baseball fun...

 

Cardinal obsession...

Tanner loves the cardinals!

He can quickly spot the cardinals out of a book, off the sports channel, at the local baseball game, and even in our backyard!  He loves all cardinals!

Happy thoughts...

I wanted something happy to help me get through the loss of my zucchini...

  

 

My thoughts on Zucchini and why I am NOT happy!

Mother nature and I are not getting along today...

Let me tell you a few things about zucchini after attempting to grow it for 2 years!

  

looks like a decent zucchini right?  Maybe let it get a little bigger like the last one...

Not happening because I have been invaded with not just squash bugs...

 

but also squash vine borers...

 

this little zucchini was my attempt at picking when it was small thinking we could still eat it...after sitting for 2 days I notice a little hole so of course I dissect it (although I failed biology for not dissecting animals, but that's another story)...this little stinker pictured above is a squash vine borer.  Google in all it's wisdom pointed this out to me when I googled "somethings killing my zucchini"...amazing how google can make me knowledgeable on any subject in a matter of minutes!

 

Now for those of you who are growing zucchini...good for you...please send some fresh homegrown zucchini my way.

Watch out for these neat little things on the leaves though...

 

That my friend are squash bug eggs...if you kill a huge squash bug like the one above, just know that eggs will be inside of him also...(I won't show you that picture)

In my morning of checking out all the stalks - looking for little holes of the squash vine borers entrance to sucking the life out of  my 2 plants, looking at each leaf for eggs, and then finding what the base of my plants looks like...

 

I am sad...

I had hopes of bowls full of fresh zucchini...

Not happening for me this year.  I dug up one plant, tossed it and will deal with the other plant later today.

3rd year will be the lucky year right?

What I will do different next year

• prepare my dirt
• plant earlier (hopefully we won't have a month of rain)
• be a nerd and inspect each plant every day...I might need to quit my day job

Happy friday!