IN like FLYNN {the garden of 2015}

sean's cousin tiffany 

{we joke she's MINE b/c i see her more than he does} 

came up last thursday to help my heavy with child self get our garden in the ground.

god bless tiff!

it was sunny and the redheads all needed sunscreen.

she's a redhead.

her little boy is a redhead.

and then there's my redhead.

so with our three of our preschool aged children 

we passed out bowls of seeds 

and told them which holes and little trenches to drop them THEIR seeds into them.

after about twenty minutes of that

tiff and i sent them all off to the tramp and sandbox 

and spent the next half an hour thinning out the corn they planted all in one row, 

to make it become corn of four rows.

all over some good old fashioned girl talk.

{we were having such a ball in fact, that at the end tiff was making pb&j's for the road for my kids while i was SCRAMBLING to get max in hair and makeup for her dance pics in 15 min flat. 

great team effort believe me YOU, and all thanks to tiff we made it. phew.}

tiffany is my go to garden EXPERT, so i love having her around this time of year,

helping me decide where the sun is going to hit the right stuff the best, 

and what parts of the day it's going to do it.

thrilling!

we did edgy things this year like planted pumpkins into the grounds without their little mounds,

and didn't soak our corn seeds the night before.

stuff like that.

just to see if it even really matters.

i'm telling you, we are garden ladies that live on the edge.

the most scandalous thing that happened in my garden this year though 

is the {ehem} kale/broccoli plant.

let me whisper this next part, because apparently,

last summer when i planted the broccoli next to the kale,

they got a little naughty down under the dirt,

without ANY of us knowing,

and have now rebirthed as the kaleBROC,

as i've started to call it.

usually i would have pulled my kale plant out with the rest of the garden in the fall,

but this year was so warm that it just kept producing WELL into december, so i left it there.

then when we had a week of winter after christmas,

and 7 days of a frozen tundra,

it finally turned brown,

and i just never got around to pulling it out.

well, to my surprise, sometime in february, i don't know really,

it started back producing kale again,

and throughout the spring i've watched it become a full blown kale producer!

let me tell you, i was bursting with gardener's pride over this entire thing.

never will i pull a kale plant ever again!

then, with what did my wondering eyes did appear 

over the last month but BROCCOLI sprouting out of its top.

BROCCOLI OUT OF THE TOP OF MY LAST YEAR'S KALE PLANT!

i know, i know,

i can barely believe it myself.

SHOCKING!

and all going on in my very OWN yard without me knowing it.

their roots did the tulsa tickle all secret like under there,

and gave birth to this amazing little red headed green headed illegitimate garden child.

ladies and gentlemen,

i give you...

THE kaleBROC:

kale at the bottom,

broccoli coming out the top.

it's like the mullet of garden produce i say.

{insert angel choir singing here.}

stay tuned this summer for this excitingly new cross pollination 

of the most unexpected of couples!

to be continued...

i'm so ready for juicy ripe tomatoes, towering sunflowers, 

slip and slides and baby pools, and 500 Popsicle sticks all over my grass,

i can almost taste it:)

conviction

the thermastat in my car said 70* at 3:30pm today on our way to the family yard.

chase and i both had red faces tonight at dinner.

it was cloudy, i swear.

i even thought about how it surely didn't feel hot enough today to get a sunburn.

brennan spent 5 minutes telling johnny how to spell "brennan" in the sand this afternoon.

when brennan writes his "n"s they look more like "h"s, 

so he was all put out that johnny was writing real "n"s that looked like actual "n"s.

finally, he just took matters into his own hands and used his finger to write it for himself,

proudly declaring, "this is what my name looks like usually."

he's got conviction.

that's for sure.

johnny and i just laughed.

max begged everyone to push her on the swings the entire time we were there.

and every time a new cousin would walk out,

she would run up to them,

give them a hug,

and with a big smile ask, 

"you PAY wit me?! you swing me?!"

how can you say no to that?

no one said no.

but one by one they all got tired,

so she eventually settled for getting her feet buried in the sand.

chase ate about a bucket of sand,

and washed it down with his very first bottle of ice cold cow's milk.

he threw the sand behind him and crawled all over the entire yard like a Tasmanian devil.

at some point, i am just going to start calling him Taz.

i love my little carrot top.

everyone was asleep in about 2.5 seconds tonight. 

it was great, great, great.

i think we finally have that ol' daylight savings switch beat.

i vow to go into the basement and dig out the sunscreen bag tomorrow.

promise.

this weekend i remembered i used to be in musicals.

mary, me, johnny,& sean

MISSING: audrey

{we couldn't find her for the picture}

...

"last friday niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight"

mary played "taylor mckessie"

johnny played "james"

and audrey was in the ensemble.

johnny wore his stage makeup and called his mascara "MANscara."

mary and audrey looked so grown up,

and johnny's rendition of pretending the be "the worm" brought the house down.

he is one funny guy.

they were all SOOOOO cute.

it made me think about all of the hours i spent practicing for musicals back in my high school days.

and i vowed to go to more plays and musicals from here on out.

{sean is sooooo gangsta}

they tell me this kid is famous.

in full swing

the family yard is in full swing.

today it was

water balloons,

popsicles,

scooters,

bikes,

and the adults all lounging in chairs on the covered patio.

dinner at 8:45pm.

kids not in bed until 9:30 at night.

let the summer schedule begin.

sleepovers:)

make breakfast for dinner.

including beth's homemade hash browns.

bacon.

eggs.

strawberry lemonade.

play popcorn on tramp.

{almost peed my pants. it was REALLY close.}

bathe kids.

put the kids to bed.

introduce my big girl cousins to

TOP GUN.

how is it possible that they had never even heard of it before???

pause movie to go get shave ice.

raspberry daiquiri, snow cap, ice cream bottom.

traded with sean after two bites for his tiger's blood.

why do i even try anything else?

big girls fell asleep watching the movie.

we woke them up for all crucial scenes:

1. you've lost that loving feeling bar scene

{to which sean noted, "do girls really stand with their legs up like that in bars?}

2. volleyball scene

{insert angels "ahhhh-ing" here}

*fast forwarded risk-kay bedroom scene*

3. goose playing piano scene

4. motorcycle scene with kelly mcgillis

{"take me to bed or lose me forever"--added emphasis on cheese here}

5. goose goes goodbye scene

{it always creeps up on me,

and i always wish that part won't turn out the way i know it's going to}

6. maverick throwing the dog tags scene

7. intense "go be real fighter pilots" scene at graduation

8. final "you've lost that loving feeling" part 2 scene

brush teeth.

put everyone to bed.

we all {including babies} slept until 10:30am.

how is THAT even possible???

waffles.

whipped cream.

blueberry noses.

playing popcorn in pajamas.

nothing better than a sleepover:)

and TOP GUN.

the end.