Making the most of it

It's been one of those weeks when we feel like we just have to make the most of whatever is thrown at us.  We continually try to look on the bright side of situations, especially as we're teaching Anna and Kate how to work their way through the world.  For example, we take every opportunity to teach and share with them anything out-of-the-ordinary.
 
Last week we finally got the big stump ground and everyone who was home at the time got to watch out the back windows and learn what kind of machine Kevin uses, how much work it takes, etc.  We also got our new tree planted (to one day replace at least some of the shade the elms used to provide) and, again, we were outside watching while the work was being done.

Better yet, we tried to make the most of the cruddy weather last week.  Since our rain gauge sprung a leak, we're not sure of the exact amount of rain; however, judging by the amount of standing water in various toys and buckets, between last Tuesday and yesterday, we probably got around 3 inches of rain.  And had lots of cloudy weather, too :(  So Friday afternoon/evening, Matt took the girls to the big stump hole, which had collected a fair bit of water, and they played out there for a few hours :)

One of the storms of last week brought with it about 10 minutes of pea-sized to nickel-sized hail in the afternoon.  Anna and Kate had never experienced hail like that before and we learned a lot that afternoon :)  During the storm they were going back and forth between "I'm kind of scared" (it was REALLY loud) and "This is kind of fun".  Afterwards, it was all fun and games while we looked for the biggest pieces of hail and played in the puddles.

I know I probably pay more attention to the weather these days than I ever used to, but it's just a big part of our daily life as well as our gardening.  So, I apologize to those who don't care about our weather as much as we do :)  That being said, with this abnormal spring, we finally learned that we won't have much of a pear or apple crop this year.  It's hard to say if it was because of the weather or if some of the trees just needed a "year off", but it will be a bit disappointing.  Our plum tree, however, looks like it will give us a bumper crop.  The jury is still out on the grapes, raspberries, and strawberries.  (For more on this, check out the "strawberry farm's" website http://www.carandale.com/)  We need to give the peach trees at least one more year before they should make any peaches, though they wanted to set fruit this year already!

On the bright side, with the weird weather, we've been having fresh asparagus at least twice a week for over a month now.  Yum!  And, the peas, potatoes, onions, and broccoli are all growing healthily and will hopefully give us lots of yummy produce in a few months.  Now if only the rest of the garden would dry out so we could till and plant the next round!

The girls are fully immersed in all of this garden talk and, Anna at least, would be able to talk with most adults about all of the above ideas.  She's loves growing things almost as much as I do :)

Speaking of Anna, her preschool year is quickly winding down.  In fact, next week is her last week!  There are a handful of end-of-the-year activities that are well underway.  Last week was a walking field trip to the library; today was a field trip to the zoo; Monday is the recognition night; and Wednesday is the family picnic.  Anna has had such a wonderful experience this year and we couldn't have imagined things going any better.