New front yard

We have been busy with our front yard. We (I) decided to switch our yard over to xeriscaping. We will be doing 3 phases of yard transformations over the next 2 years until we move. Phase one involved killing the grass (that didn't grow well anyway), planting low-water-use plants, and covering with mulch. We have finished phase one.

Of  course, everything is so small you really can't see anything. We have a few lantana, yellow bells, mexican bird of paradise, purple fountain grass, morning glory bush, honeysuckle, and a teeny tiny mesquite behind the new block wall.

Phase 2 will include tearing out the excess triangle of concrete next to the driveway, extending the porch with a pergola to cover the front room window, and adding a sidewalk from the street to the extended porch. In the picture below you can see where the new sidewalk will be. The triangular piece of concrete on the left side of the picture is what will be torn out.

Phase 3 will happen right before we move and will basically just involve planting grass in the small area between the future sidewalk and the current driveway, including the area under the concrete triangle we will be tearing out in phase 2.

I finished planting everything a couple weeks ago and the plants are already looking a lot bigger. Our little mesquite has grown almost 18 inches in 2 months. Hopefully with 2 more years of growth, our miniscule plants will actually be visible when we get ready to sell our house when Ryan graduates. I am really excited to see what our yard will look like in 2 years!

For those of you interested, City of Mesa has a landscape conversion program to help offset the cost of changing out your landscape. The web address for the program is http://www.mesaaz.gov/conservation/rebate.aspx
Everyone in the department has been so helpful and prompt. I could not recommend the program more!

SRP has a shade tree program to help homeowners reduce their electricity use through properly placed desert shade trees. The web address for their program is  http://www.savewithsrp.com/RD/shadetrees.aspx
Although the website states they will be 4-6 foot saplings, that was only true with the thorned trees. Most of the thornless ones are truly miniscule, but they grow quickly and are free. How can you go wrong with that? If you are in APS territory, I know they have a similar program.

Things that go

 I just love watching this little girl eat berries. I find it hilarious that she will half-eat most of them, going back over and over to eat another bite or two. She does this with most foods.

While she was eating the berries, she accidentally discovered how to spin the bowl. I enjoy watching her as her mind discovers things and then watch her experiment with them over and over again to see if she can repeat her discoveries.

Sad, grumpy, sick girl

Aimee had her kindergarten shots last week, a whoppin' 4 of them! She had received some too early when she was a baby, so they had to be re-done. Within a few hours we started to deal with a fever...and it wasn't Aimee's--she never got one, even with all those shots! V had the fever. She ended up refusing all food and drink for 2 days. I was freaking out! We got her to eat a nibble here and a sip there, but not enough to keep her off an IV. She was down to one slightly wet diaper a day and I was ready to take her to the hospital.

She was so grumpy at me for wanting her to eat. I thought her grumpiness was so funny that I just had to have a picture of it. As soon as she saw the camera, she hid her face behind the table.

So I came around the corner to see her face and she starts swatting at the camera. (That's why her hand is blurry.) It was so cute and so sad to see her so hungry and still refuse to eat.

I started laughing at her reaction, so she became confused and wondered what I was laughing at.

After I showed her the pictures, she thought it was pretty silly.

 I decided to give her one last chance and I looked all over her, to see if there was anything else that might cause her to not eat or drink for 2 days. I found a huge canker sore on her bottom lip and 4 molars swollen and red, ready to pop through the gums. No wonder she didn't want to eat! I drugged her up with some Motrin and Orajel and within 30 minutes she had eaten two full adult-sized servings of lasagna and drank 10 ounces of water. Her belly stuck out at least 6 inches from her chest. You could tell she had stuffed herself to the max! It was the cutest thing ever!

This picture is after her first serving of food, before she started on her second plate. You can already see how far her belly is starting to stick out. It only got better after that!

I am so glad that she is finally on the mend and back to her normal happy self!

Tis the season!

It is that season again. The season that I love and hate at the same time. The one that causes me so much pain and joy simultaneously.

 (I do love looking out the window and seeing these girls sharing with each other and not a bit of fighting!)

Blackberries!!! All the juiciness and sweetness, mixed with thorns embedded in my legs, arms, hands, and back. The happy smiling faces, mixed with stained clothes and carpets. The children eating healthy, mixed with sticky floors and door handles. The hours and hours spent picking through those nasty thorns, mixed with delicious blackberry syrup, pie, cobbler, pancakes, and anything else we can throw them into. It is all worth it for one month of faces like these.

I honestly can't believe how well the blackberries have done in our yard. The plant that we currently have came from one little 4 inch stick (all the others died off before they could establish). Over the past 6 or so years, it has grown bigger and bigger each year. This year we have picked about 2/3 of the berries and we have probably already had 5 or 6 big mixing bowls FULL of berries. We still have another good week or two of berries to pick. I will be thankful for the day that I can stop mopping the floor three times a day, but at the same time I will be so sad that all the fresh blackberries are gone. I only have 2 more years of these blackberries before we start all over again with a new house and new yard. I have to enjoy every moment with these bushes that I can get! (Just an FYI, we will try for thorn-less blackberries at our next house!)

Zoo field trip

Last month we went to the zoo with our home school group. I was so thankful that the weather turned fantastic just for our trip to the zoo. It had dropped 20 degrees, just so we could have perfect 70 degree weather for our field trip. I was in heaven!

When the boys were little, we would always make it a yearly tradition to go to the zoo. Now that there are so many littles running around, we can only afford to go with the group/field trip rate, which means that Ryan usually can't go with us because he is at school. That just means that I am in charge of keeping track of 5 little people (all with their own ideas) with only my 2 eyes and 2 hands. That doesn't always turn out as well as I would like.

The kids enjoyed watching the animals. V was especially excited, since it was her first time. She was really curious about the orangutans and loved to watch them climb all over and hide in the sheets that they were given to play with.

 Looking at the orangutans. She did not want to leave them!

 All the kids loved the farm, like always. They could not get enough of the petting zoo, cow milking, or tractor climbing. We ended up having to walk through the farm twice, just to appease all the children.

 Posing on the tree bench where they ate their snacks.

While I was getting more snacks out for the kids, I turn around to realize that V was not next to me anymore. It took all 2.5 seconds for her to take off and head for the play area. Thankfully I had other little bodies to catch her and hold her hand while I got snacks out for everyone. She is definitely my cute little run-away!

This little one just loves the camera!  She will give me the best faces when I pull out my phone to take a picture of her.

After I took this picture, all the kids were shivering from sitting in the shade. They were begging me to let them sit in the sunlight again.

Of course, all the kids had to ride the wood horses. 

 As usual, as soon as Aimee starts to concentrate on something, her tongue comes out. (It makes me smile every time--Daddy's little girl.)

 

 Ethan was really getting into it. It was quite funny.

  

 V (with a mouth full of cheese) wasn't so sure about it at first.

After a while, she loved it and didn't want to get off.

 I had to include this picture to show what Aimee normally looks like, with her hair right over her face. (Sweet girl has her momma's hair. I remember my own mother asking me if I was ever bothered by my hair being directly in my face.)

And now with her real face showing, after a little momma intervention. 

 V had her chance, too, but she wasn't as excited as everyone else.

 

The kids also begged me to stop at the statues, so they could pose next to each of them.

 

 V's little expressions just crack me up!

 

 

 

 The girls wanted to pretend they were in The Little Mermaid, and began to sing. V just wanted to get out of there!

 

 

 

 Aimee was so thrilled to be up here.

Jayke wanted to have an updated photo from when he was 3, except this time he didn't choke Timon. (Awww, he was so chubby and cute!)

 

After we left the farm, we had one more potty break to take and we were ready to head out. We had just got to where the elephants were (halfway to the potty), and I turned and noticed Kate wasn't with us anymore. Somewhere between the trail up the hill (she was with us at the end of the trail) and our walking a few yards towards the bathroom she had lost us. I gave instructions to Jayke to stay right where he was and make sure everyone stayed with him and I ran off to find Kate. This was actually the first time I have actually ever lost one of my children. I was terrified, but at the same time, I knew she couldn't have gone far if she had just wandered off. It was the fear that someone might have actually taken her that had me so scared. I went back to the last place I saw her, yelling for her the entire time. I looked by the elephants, even went past them, just in case she had turned left when we turned right. I went back down the trail...she was no where and I began to panic. Then I stop and look around and I see this lady staring at me strangely, so I walk towards her. She asks if I am missing a little girl. (Duh, I am running around like a crazy woman, screaming a girl's name.) She tells me that her mom had just taken Kate to the main office and then she called her mom to let her know I was found. I guess Kate had become distracted at the end of the trail. She lingered, looking at something for a minute, and then she turned left at the top of the trail instead of right. When she couldn't find us, she found someone with little kids and informed them that she couldn't find her mom. Of course, she couldn't remember my phone number, so they just took her straight to the office. I am so thankful that Kate knew exactly what to do and even more thankful that there are kind people in the world, willing to stop what they are doing to help a little child. I am most thankful that my other kids obeyed my commands and did not move an inch from where I left them.

At the end of the day, the kids had all enjoyed their time at the zoo, I had enjoyed the nice cool weather, and all 5 kids made it to the car with me. Next time, I am getting a leash for all my children.