TGIF

Friday already! Well, this week went by rather quickly. I've been meaning to take some pictures around the garden and post what's up and what's about to bloom, but the days got away from me. Also, it mostly rained this week so there was that as well. First sunny day, I'll do it.

My favorite time of year is peony time. Our house was home to a serious gardener before we bought it (I still get her seed catalogs in the post) and some deliciously gorgeous flowers come up for us every year. Currently, in the side garden there is a fuschia pink peony bush that is heavily in bud so any day now we're going to get massive flowers. Can't wait! I never knew about peonies until we bought our first house roundabout 1999 and that came with three giant peony bushes too. Peonies are lovely and the blooms last forever. They are kind of like giant cottage roses.

Last weekend was relaxing, by the way. I forgot to grab the camera for the entire thing but we had all weekend of sunshine and 80 degree heat. We got all the yardwork done, cleaned the gutters, then the fun part. We went to a local carnival that sets up every year for Memorial Day and drank fresh lemonade, ate soft pretzels, and sampled yummy homemade Italian ice (I chose mango). Little one rode the rides, we sat and listened to live bands, and the two bigger boys ate their weight in rainbow cotton candy. I gave little one enough tickets to play three of those games of skill. He won two inflatable guns from the duck pond and on his last turn at the water gun races, he won the grand prize. Free choice. You should have seen his face, I'm pretty sure it made his entire year. He chose a bright blue toothy shark that is a little bit bigger than he is. He named him "Jawsy"

The rest of the weekend we set the pool up (one of those 14 ft blue above ground deals - still saving the pennies for the inground) and then just before the rain on Sunday we went out to Volcano Falls which is a local children's tiny amusement park for some go karting, video games, and Lazer Tag. I got to do my favorite penny game and some Skee Ball. Home to some more barbecuing and then the week began again. I never did get some ice cream but maybe this weekend :O)

Have some fun everybody!

Happy Memorial Day!

Have a great weekend! I'm not sure what we're doing this weekend besides barbecuing, planting the vegetable garden, and visiting the local Veteran's Field for it's annual fundraising carnival & fireworks. But, whatever it is, I hope that it's relaxing. And that there is ice cream.

Some patriotic Etsy finds:


Set of 6 blank cards for $8.50 from
patrioticpapers



Handmade wooden yard luminary by SperryLaserWorks



Lake Cottages gorgeous print by
catherineholman



swanmountainsoaps

Happy Anniversary To Us

Elk Grove, IL is just outside Chicago and it's a protected forest preserve and they have a neat park full of Elk and all around their enclosure are trees, grass, a bike path, and sidewalks. Tons of beautiful places to hang out with mother nature.

This is the best time of year to get out and do things. Warm enough to enjoy the day, and before it's TOO hot and all those mosquitos arrive.

Today was such a gorgeous day in Northern IL, 90 degree high and sunny with a slight breeze. Quite a treat for May! Today we're celebrating 9 years together and it's kind of a tricky one. There is a lot going on. I packed up turkey sandwiches, chips, apples, chocolate, and rootbeer and met hubs at this park. Baby Oliver came along for his first official picnic and showed off his brand new bottom set of front teeth. It was great. Sometimes simple things are really the best.

Coldplay Tour Twitter

Coldplay began US leg of their tour last Friday in West Palm Beach. They just posted this pic http://twitpic.com/5ksbk to their Twitter...



http://twitter.com/coldplay

Set List:

“Life In Technicolor”
“Violet Hill”
“Clocks”
“In My Place”
“Yellow”
“Glass Of Water”
“Cemeteries Of London”
“42″
“Fix You”
“Strawberry Swing”
“God Put A Smile Upon Your Face”
“Talk”
“The Hardest Part”
“Postcards From Far Away”
“Viva La Vida”
“Lost!”
“Green Eyes”
“Death Will Never Conquer”
“I’m A Believer”
——
“Politik”
“Lovers In Japan”
“Death And All His Friends”
——-
“The Scientist”
“Life in Technicolor 2″

Thinking Spring Flowers

These cold porcelain flowers are from last Spring, hoping to get some more into the shop this week. Time, children, and crazy schedule willing. I shall do my best.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Wishing a very Happy Mother's Day to all of you hardworking moms out there.

I had some fun with my boys and the weather was beautiful. Little one spotted some pretty purple irises and bought them for me, my eldest surprised me with a delicious bouquet of chocolates, and I treated myself to a bicycle baby carrier for the little guy. (I also found him the cutest little pair of blue baby "Chucks" sneakers at Target.)

Hope you had a wonderful day!

Spring Tulips!

Tulip heaven; This is my neighbor's house, she must have planted these last Autumn because I don't remember them from last year. If memory serves, she and a couple of her friends were digging around over there in the garden for most of a day and I wondered what they were up to. Maybe these are the result, I'll have to ask her. What a good idea to plant so many of them in such pretty colors. So cheery to drive by and see them every morning!

A League of Their Own

From the 1992 film "A League of Their Own" starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Rosie O'Donnell, Lori Petty, Jon Lovitz, and Madonna.

While the men were off fighting World War II, women were recruited to play baseball to keep the game alive. One of the teams was called the Rockford Peaches and they played in Rockford, Illinois at the intersection of 15th Street & Seminary Street. Their field was torn down a couple of decades ago and now it's just a public soccer field, but the original Peaches turnstile remains.

We spent Sunday doing Spring yardwork. Finally, a nice day after 8 straight days of rain and the obligatory April-flooded-basement week.

The boys trimmed the front tree branches that were growing too close to the house, cut them up into bonfire size, and hauled them to the burn pile. Raked the leaves off the garden bed (still not finished). I mucked out the chicken barn which means shoveling up the pine shavings on the floor into bags for compost and spreading new shavings around. Also, there were some seriously ginormous cobwebs that had to come down from the rafters.

We checked out the fruit trees we planted last year and found buds and new growth on all but one pear tree. My lilac from last Mother's Day is coming along nicely as well as the pretty cherry blossom tree. I have got blue muscari (grape hyacinth), red and yellow tulips, and forget-me-nots coming up all over the place. And the lawn is bursting with beautiful wild violets.

So, after a day of work the boys were heading out to see the new X-Men Wolverine film that night and I managed to squeeze in a trip downtown to see this Peaches field. We had just watched A League of Their Own together the night before and in my family you've got to strike while the iron's hot, so off we went and managed to find it just before dusk.

A bit of local history, anyway. I'll have to check out what else is around this area...