Starting Seeds

With spring sometime on the horizon I am getting anxious to see plants growing in our garden.  Yes, the garden is a lot of work (that I really don't enjoy), but I do enjoy the stash of food that is generates that my family gets to enjoy during the summer and all winter long.

My anxiousness led me to try to start a few plants inside the house.  I have never done this nor do I have a great place for the plants nor do I have the proper equipment.  Since I didn't know if this endeavor was going to be successful I didn't want to invest much $$$ (in fact I didn't want to spend anything).  Due to the wonders of Pinterest I found these newspaper seed pots on a friend's board.  A little bit of time while I was making supper one evening and I had 20 of them made.

 I wanted a greenhouse of some kind, but again didn't want to spend any $$$ on it in case the whole project was a failure.

 Some popsicle sticks and some hot glue and I had the structure to a little house.

 Some saran wrap and I had a little homemade greenhouse.... That is until it got to wet inside and the hot glue let loose... I was very disappointed, but reminded myself that I hadn't spent any $$$ on it for this very reason.

So I had to figure out what other glue I had on hand that would work.  I recently received a freebie in the mail from Elmer's glue and it promised to hold wood together so I gave it a try.

 I didn't harden as quickly so this "model" took a little longer and isn't as "square at the first one, but it is serving its purpose.

The weather has been far from ideal, no sunshine, cold and windy, so my little contraption has only made it outdoors once.  So imagine my surprise when one day I discovered that every single one of my tomato plants had spouted!  YAYAY!

 I love looking at the little plants and knowing that life is springing anew!

The jalapenos are also just sprouting.  Just waiting on the pepper plants.

I am not counting this project a success yet, but I am thrilled with the progress thus far.  The plants need to survive until they can be planted in the garden.  Hopefully pictures will be coming later this summer of tomatoes from these little plants!

Oh and someone else enjoys looking at them as well.   Here she is showing her baby the little tiny plants. :)

Weekend Fun

Seems like I always struggle with what to do with our weekends.  Should we have fun and relax or should we be productive?  Such a struggle for me, but this last weekend was a weekend of fun.

Nick got off work a little early on Friday and we headed out for dinner and a movie.  The kiddos were with Nick's parents and they spent the night which meant that I was finally able to get a full night of uninterrupted sleep.  (This isn't happening much these days because Olivia has taken to talking in her sleep and her favorite word to say is "Mommy!")  Nick and I watch the movie "42".  It was a good movie even if you are not a baseball fan.  I was surprised because really the only bad words in the movie were racial slurs.  Given the topic of the movie I figured there would be a lot of profanity in it.  It was a nice surprise and it was a nice evening out with my hubby.

Saturday morning found Nick and I hustling to be productive before the kids returned.  Once they got back then it was hustling everyone to change clothes and get freshened up so that we could head to the Amana Colonies with my parents to see a children's play at The Old Creamery Theater.  We watched "The Life and Times of the Three Little Pigs".  The kids LOVED it and were excited to met some of the actor/characters after the play.

 Waiting for the show to begin.

 With the Wolf.

 With the Middle Pig

 Olivia was so interested in the little pig that we couldn't get her to look at the camera.  She was facinated with the nose and eyelashes.  (Truthfully they kind of freaked me out a bit.)

We then spent a little bit of time walking through a furniture store in the Amanas (beautiful items!) before heading to the Ox Yolk Inn Restaurant for an early supper to celebrate Nick's birthday.  Our waitress generously offered to take our picture and we took her up on her offer!

Sunday was pretty normal until suppertime when Rebecca's 2nd front tooth fell out while she was eating supper (I think that she has last all of her teeth while eating....).  She was excited and couldn't wait until the Tooth Fairy arrived. Only the Tooth Fairy must have missed our house last night. (Oops!) Hopefully we made it on her list for tonight!