The warmer days of June

My jolly-jumping son. :o) 

Some friends from Denver are here in Edmonton for about 6 months of work, so we took the opportunity to get together.

 Their little Daniel is sooooo cute. Oh my word.

 The first strawberry from our little strawberry patch. All in all, we got about 7 lbs from the first picking of the year, and we have a few plants getting ready to produce a second crop of fruit now. We ate them as fast as we picked them.

 Especially these two kids. They looooove strawberries.

 And smiles. Lotsa smiles. Philip automatically brings out the grins whenever he sees me with the camera, no coaxing needed.

 Summertime meals... out on the deck as much as possible.

 Beauty out front.

 This is my experiment this year - pole beans in a pot. So far, so good. :o)

 Hansen roses.

 Look! It's a bean! Half of our bean seedlings died when we transplanted them into the garden this year, but those that survived are bearing veggies! :o) Not enough to cook for a meal, just enough for fresh eatin'. I love it that Hope and Joy will eat anything straight out of the garden - kale and parsley included!

 Wakin' up from a nap in his stroller.

 The long boardwalk part of the deck that goes by the house comes in handy when I want to put some distance between sleeping and awake children. :o)

 Why not?

 He loved it.

 Except for the shoes part... he's not too keen on shoes just yet.

 Digging in their bucket of sand.

 Thankful for happy, simple days of summer.

 Look who came to see us!!! :o) That's right - it was Pilar, along with her sister Chenoa. They were in town to shoot a wedding that weekend, and graced us with their presence, staying in our guest room downstairs.

 Joy and Pilar had talked about painting their toes the same yellow ever since we saw Pilar at the farm earlier this spring.

 Getting more independent, as in, more able to do things independently. :o) Pilar and I were playing Boccee ball with Joy at the other end of the lawn. :o)

 "Can you give me an unner-duck?"

 The girls still fit in the baby swing too... yus! We actually have two regular or "big girl swings," as we call them, and a baby swing, but only spots for two, so it changes what we have up there day by day, sometimes minute by minute. :o)

 Chenoa obviously had the camera at this moment.

 And this one... I wouldn't think of a pose like that. :o)

 Surveying their work.

 Pilar and Chenoa were out all of Saturday, shooting the wedding, and we had a normal/busy/laid-back, Daddy's-home-odd-projects-and-Tim-Hortons kind of Saturday.

 It was just what the doctor ordered.

 The days and weeks are long without Daddy as he works many, many hours these days, so it's always special to have time during the day with him.

 Another shot of the roses out front.

 Picking strawberries together on a Sunday afternoon. :o)

 Yum, yum.

Pilar and Chenoa were able to come to church with us, and stay for lunch after. We were so blessed to have them. Joy fell asleep on Chenoa's lap during church...so sweet.

Of Aunties and Gardens

We had the blessing of having my sisters both come see us for a weekend. It is rare that either of them has a weekend free right now, let alone both having the same weekend free, so this was a real treat.

 Chloe introduced Hope to the game of "belly-button-Doctor." Hmm.... not so sure about this one myself, but it was fun for them that weekend.

 Philip thought Auntie Lyddie was pretty great.

 My girls are getting into wanting to paint nails themselves, so they had a chance to practice their budding skills on their Aunties.

 Hope actually does a very neat job for being just four years old. :o)

 Chloe and Lydia were both so gracious about it. :o)

 It was a wee bit cool outside, but we still went out. I mean, come on, it was June after all!

Summer beauty.

 And summer beauties. :o)

 Children are the masterpieces of creation.

 Evening tea. A friend dropped by with the peach rose blossom from her garden. I had watered that rose faithfully one summer when it was a mere six inches tall while they were on vacation a few years ago, and it finally matured enough to produce blossoms. :o)

 Playin' with a spoon.

 Is it just my kids, or do all kids like to bang spoons on any surface they can find?

 New summer outfit from Auntie Chloe! The girls have sure been spoiled by her generosity over the years!

 Mr. Adorable after a nice bath.

 So grateful for those overalls that came in a new-to-us bag. He has worn them and worn them and worn them!

 Glimpses of the gardens...

 This is the first year I have done a window box, thanks to the iron stand we found in the attic of the acreage. It was an old one Opa had made for Oma back in the day. It is so special to me to be able to use things my ancestors created.

 New to our garden this year is a clematis - a gift from my sweet Mother-in-law. I added some chicken wire to another old  flower stand/creation of Opa's, painted it brown, and positioned it in front of the fence to make a nice climbing wall for the clematis.

 Hope is getting good at dead-heading flowers. She practices on the mini petunias, and we have gotten to where I can ask her to go dead-head a certain set of flowers, and she does it right! Pretty great for a four-year old, I say!

 How I like to garden - with water and tea. :o) My Granny Cote, who is an expert flower gardener, always liked to garden with a cup of tea, so I partly do it to keep up the tradition.

 A promise of beauty soon to come.

The vegetable garden, dotted with fallen lilac blossoms. :o) Amazing how much the garden has grown in a month. Now those front tomatoes are literally as high as my shoulders. :o) Amazing what sunshine and rain can do. God is good. He has a purpose in everything. 

 I was getting the girls in their PJ's for the night and Joy wandered off. I didn't think much of it until I noticed she was being quiet. She came back in saying, "Ah, ah! I don't know what happened, Mom!" Yeah, right!!! Oh well. We made good use of the lotion, had another talk about using Mommy's things without asking, and went from there.

 Look who dropped in! Unplanned, but welcome in our home was Reid, recently engaged to Chloe!!! He called around 4:30 on Saturday afternoon, saying he missed Chloe, and being that his weekend commitments were completed he wondered if he could come join us for the weekend. :o) And you know what we said. :o)

 Laying some love on the couple...

 And the beautiful Lydia. A friend wanted to see a picture of her with her short hair cut, so she asked me to take a picture of her. :o)

 It was Father's Day weekend that the girls (and Reid) were here. They left after Sunday lunch, and we managed to head out as a family for a wee walk in the evening. Josh was so amazing. He chased the girls and got them giggling.

 I was plumb wore out - same as this little guy... hmm... wonder why? Must have something to do with the fact that he and I don't sleep through the night.... but he's chubby, and that makes me happy. :o) While he dozed in his stroller, I plopped down in the girls' double stroller and had a little siesta myself.

Ready, get set, GO!