Summertime...Parting with Such Sweet Sorrow

Where did it go? Our summer just flew by this year. We kicked off our break with the great Disney World reveal, and I assumed the time would creep by in anticipation of the trip. But I was SOOOO wrong!

I made a poor judgement call last summer in thinking that summertime was the perfect time to clean up and "catch up" (whatever that is) on getting my house in order. Can I say that it was the most boring and miserable summer I have ever had?! I totally had my priorities all screwed up and decided that this summer the kids and I were just going to have fun. And we did!! So much in fun, in fact, that I have gotten WAY behind in my blogging.

In order to catch up, I am creating one great big, huge post and cram some of the highlights of our summer. So without much further ado? A due? Adou? Whatever. Here is the most random post in the history of Balentine Bliss. (Which, BTW, is celebrating it's one year anniversary this month! Yay, me!)

So, this summer we went to the dog park with the puppies and the parents,

Visited some of our relatives in NashVegas,

Had one storm that had hurricane force winds and another that dropped a twister a few miles away from our home,



Grew and ate bunches and bunches of this stuff,



Played for hours & hours in the backyard,

Rescued and watched these little guys grow up then subsequently learn to fly away,

Had a long and fun (and exhausting) week at VBS,

Went to the sprinkler park several times,


Had a fabulous 4th,




Picked, pealed, and froze about a million peaches,


Did some serious swimming,

And first handedly (yes, I know it's not a word) learned the definition of "belly-flopping,"

Got a not so extreme make-over,

Before:


After:

Visited our downtown "Riverwalk,"


And rode the trollies,

Hung out at the bird exhibit at our fantastic zoo,


Had some family worship time,


And spent the whole summer just being together, loving each other, and having a wonderful time.

We started school yesterday and now have only 30 days until DISNEY!! If the time goes anything like this summer's did, it will be here in a jiffy!

Gardening for Dummies

Yay! Warm weather and sunshine!! Well, at least it sunshined for a day or two, nothing but rain since! But that's OK, at least it's warm outside! I love May for lots of reasons but my FAVORITE reason (with the exception that school gets out) is that I get to plant my garden!

Last year, Da Hubby was so kind to build me a fortress, beautiful garden for our backyard. Dude, this thing ain't movin'! Isn't it loverly?


People have asked us why do we need such a structure for a garden. Garden are supposed to be free and able to spread. Here are our two main reasons:

Who me?

Uhh, yeah. Don't let their adorably, sweet faces fool you. They are Vicious. Cunning. Veggie Killin' Machines. They get into EVERYTHING, hence the electric fenced in garden. (I'm just kidding, people!) However, that's not such a bad idea....

Anywho, we decided what a great educational and frugal way to grow some of our own stuff! This was our little peace of incredibly diseased, pain in the butt, insect infested, non-producing heaven last year. It was, umm, an "experimental" year. Yea. Anyway, amazingly enough we ended up with a few edible items and a desire to try to get it right this year.

We planted three small strawberry plants last year and picked the blossoms off as they came out. Supposedly that makes the plant increase their volume and spread for the next year's crops. We covered them with straw (Covering strawberries with straw - clever, huh?) over the winter and up they sprung with a vengeance this spring. They are TASTY!!!


They are so adorable! I just love them! At least we did one thing right last year!



Here's some of the other things I have planted this year and will hopefully get a harvest by the end of summer.

And then, there are the tomatoes. We planted nine different types. Ahh, our tomatoes. A great source of stress and demise in my life. I have this really beautiful and sweet neighbor I was talking to last year about my tomatoes. I told her that my tomatoes had every disease and bug that is known to kill the plants with the exception of the nastiest bug of all, the hornworm. I will spare you a picture of these grotesque creatures, because they are just that nasty. So literally a week later I go out to water my precious, dying tomatoes and find a family of 12 nasty, nasty and HUGE hornworms had taken over my garden the evening before and eaten most of the baby fruits as well as most of the vegetation. OOOOOOO!!! I HATE those things!

(Side note - I thought I'd also mention that neighbor I was talking about. You know, the sweet and beautiful one? Well, she planted two tomato plants gingerly in her front beds and produced two, 7 foot tall plants that literally were drooping to the ground with all the tomatoes on the branches. No hornworms. No blight. No powder fungus. No aphids. No garden fortress. Just tomatoes. Lots and lots of tomatoes. Humph. I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous.) I love you, Lisa!

Again, I will try and maybe after learning from a few mistakes last year, perhaps I will get something to feed my family with! I so enjoy watching the plant progress and grow throughout the summer. I just hope there is something to eat this year. (I really don't think I should have any worries, though. My beautiful and sweet neighbor has planted her tomatoes once again in her front flower beds and I'm sure she won't mind if I come and steal liberate a few from her! After all, what are neighbors for?

I Heart Faces - Pouting & Pets

It's that time of week again! I Heart Faces theme this week is pouting and pets! The kids theme was a toughie this time as I don't really have that many pic's of the kids pouting. Pouting is somewhat looked down upon in our house, but I did come across this beauty of Duglin. This is his best pout after learning we had run out of fish food for the koi at our local Botanical Gardens.

This is my sweet, 6 lb. chihuahua, "Sundae" (also known as Demon-Terror :), flashing a big grin for my camera!

Head on over to the Pout & Pet Fest at http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/ to see the the rest of the entries as well enter your own! I would love any comments or suggestions!