PeeWee Pirates

AAAARR Matey! I made these cute guys for the last night of PeeWee Club at church. The kids enjoyed them, but most of all I did! I love making cute stuff.

We are doing a similar one that's red-white-n-blue for VBS. (Underneath is a styrofoam ball.) You could do one for almost anything. They have great ideas online-I think the site was makingfriends.com

Just Jelly

Ryan and I have been busy cooking up all the extra strawberries we have. We made about 10 jars and it was so much fun! We even added some of the mulberries from our mulberry tree--given to me by my grandmother.

(BTW - Just jelly is what Rush calls his favorite jelly-only sandwich. Most of the jelly will be eaten by him.)

Mothers, monkeys, and melons

A few monkeys that I found in my trees today.

The watermelon - still growing well and now there are several more coming.

And lastly a word about our terrific Mothers for Mother's Day. Daniel and I are fortunate to have his mother (pictured above--although I can't remember her ever sitting down and relaxing!) and mine (pictured below) close by. We have been blessed with wonderful mothers who are loving, helpful, and supportive. When you consider most families these days are falling apart at the seams, ours is truly something to be thankful for.

With Mother's Day, remembering my own childhood, I can't help but wonder what memories of me my children will take with them when they leave. Robert is now ten, and half way to being an adult. Of all the things we purpose to instill, I wonder which ones will stick as he leaves home one day. What will he say was important to Mom? Would it be clean rooms, school work done well, gardening, or knowing God??

Air Fest 2008

We were very lucky to get a sneak peek at Air Fest this year. We have wanted to take the children for some time, but it is sooo crowded! Anyway, our friend Julie was nice enough to sign the families from our SS class onto the base for Friend and Family day - the day before the actual show. It was awesome, and the different pilots were all practicing. The kids loved seeing the planes up close and watching the F-18 show off. Daniel told them all the names and Mr. Geer showed them the hydrolics.

Afterward, Julie had us back to the house for dinner, and then we were running off to the beach for fireworks and more planes. There was an F-18 entertaining the crowd at the beach--by far the best show I've ever seen. There's just something about a jet whizzing by and the roar following overhead.

We just loved it. Thanks so much Julie (and Samantha!)!

How does your garden grow??

The garden is our favorite project every year - because you can eat it! I guess spending the earliest part of my life on a ranch and running out each night to cut asparagus (with a rusty old knife) gave me a love for growing things. I think our garden back then was bigger than most subdivision lots these days, and I remember digging up the potatoes and picking corn. The above picture is cukes (on the tomato cages) and watermelons.
Some of our tomatoes (tall) - we've got about 6 plants going - but I need to get a few more in. I use the boards between rows to help keep the kids off of the plants.

My first watermelon! I'm watching this little baby like a hawk.

Green beans - they're eaten right off the plant - never make it to the kitchen! The kids also eat the tomatoes like apples right off the vine. At least it's healthy. The sugar snap peas are still going in the shade, it's too hot otherwise. And, we have lots of cukes too. I never got to planting the corn in the back of the garden - the kids favorite every year, but I may try after the hottest part of June is past. In FL, you can plant year round, which is nice.

Although I had a late start for Florida, at least, where you have to start in February, all of our veggies are doing well --- Daniel and Robert built me this gorgeous fence (better than the leftover chicken wire I was going to try to rope it off with! I'm from TX, so chicken wire is like duct tape!). It keeps out Lucy and the kids when I'm not there to supervise. This is our 5th year for the garden (homeschoolers!) and probably the smallest b/c I've been super-busy, but we're going to expand it in July. BTW the red bush growing along the back is actually the neighbor's, but it is home to hundreds of butterflies in the fall.

Where Are the Brownells???

This spring has seen us travelling north quite a bit and people have been asking questions, so here are a few pictures of what we've been up to. We're building a house on Lake Hartwell in Anderson, SC. And no, we're not moving. The tubing pic is actually from last summer on the lake, just a favorite.