Derek To The Rescue

28 June 2010

Super Derek to the rescue! This is an actual photo Jared took with his phone while we were on a walk the other night. Notice how the handle bars are turned backwards. He says it helps him reach the pedals and turn better. What a great kid!

Summer Fun in the Sun

27 June 2010

Amazingly the milk spray seems to be keeping the fungus/mold off my grapes. And, believe it or not, the duct tape seems to have saved my zucchini plant. The damaged part of the stem is taped up and buried and the rest of the plant is as green and healthy as ever. I went out earlier today to polinate the blooms with a paint brush so I should have some zucchini for dinner this week. Below you can see my sunflower. I got a grab-bag of sunflower seeds and planted a few. They were all different. The first 4 plants grew and bloomed weeks ago. This one didn't do anything forever and then one morning we had this! It's more than 7 feet tall. The kids love it!

The kids also love swimming. Tyler isn't afraid of the water anymore. He jumps in with his tube and swims across the pool with his foam swimming board in order to earn Wii playing time. We're working on more efficient kicking and holding his breath when his nose dips under the water. Derek is still attached to his tube but we made major progress the other day when he got up the courage to jump into the pool without anyone in there waiting to catch him. He got a Pop Tart as a reward.
Holly is cool as a cucumber. She likes to walk around the pool. Sometimes she climbs in and sits on the top step when her feet get too hot. She's also just fine floating around the pool in her yellow baby floaty. The last time we went I took her out of her tube and helped her float on her back. Unlike the boys, she was EXTREMELY calm and held perfectly still with her legs and arms straight out like a star fish. What a great baby!

Pictures from the Park

25 June 2010

Here are some pictures from the park.

Squash Vine Borer

23 June 2010

So my parade of disgusting garden worms that love to live in Texas continues. Right after I thought that I'd cured the zucchini of all it's ails, I went out and found this! A stupid, gross, wiggley, wormey, squash vine borer. Eeeeeewwwwww! I pulled it out of the stem and cut it in half with scissors. I don't know if the plant can be saved. It's not wilting yet so that it a good sign, but the hole that is left is pretty big. The danger of reinfestation is low until later in the summer and one website said that you can repair the stem with duct tape and then cover it with dirt. I think I'm going to try it.

The poison on the tomatoes seems to be working. No more worms so far this week :)

Milk - It Does A Garden Good

22 June 2010

My zucchini plants were having trouble. I know, I know, zucchini is the EASIEST vegetable to grow. Not for me. They kept coming on and then they would fall off when they were about 2 inches long. I looked it up on the Internet and it turns out that my plant had a calcium deficiency. There are special fertilizers for that, but instead of buying something new, I just watered my plant with some milk. And what do you know? It worked! I have lots of nice big zucchinis.

So my grape plant is in trouble. The leaves are covered with a wicked fungus called downy mildew. Again, there are some poisons you can buy but I don't have any more money. I found a website that says that if you spray milk on your pumpkin plants it will kill mildew. So, I just loaded up my spray bottle with some whipping cream that is about to expire and sprayed it on the grape plant. I don't know if it will work. Maybe it will. Maybe it will cause bacteria to grow and compete with the fungus. Maybe the fat will create a protective coating? I don't know. We'll have to see. I'll keep you posted.

Paper Bag Puppetry

21 June 2010

Today the kids and I made some paper bag puppets and then put on puppet shows for family home evening. Here are our masterpieces. Please be sure to note the superior production quality of these films ;) Enjoy.

This is 'The Tyler and Derek Show' (that was stolen by Holly).

Since Tyler and Derek refused to continue working together, I present to you 'The Tyler and Mom Show'.

Not to be outdone, Derek insisted that we produce 'The Derek and Mom Comedy Hour'.

Straight Shooter

21 June 2010

Happy Father's Day!

For Christmas, Kyle gave the boys hand guns that shoot pellets. Jared already had some that he brought back from Japan and so he took the kids out in the back yard to do some Texas shootin'. They put a target on the fence and practiced their aim. I thought it was a little unsettling but at least they were having fun.

While I was teaching at Provo College I asked the students what they had done for fun over a three-day weekend. One shifty male student said, "I went to Wyoming, drove around in my truck and shot guns." Awesome!

Witte Museum

19 June 2010

San Antonio's Witte Museum has free addmission on Tuesday afternoons. I thought it would be fun to give Sara a break and take her kids with me and my kids to see the dinosaurs and other fun stuff. The line to get in was a little long (45 minutes in the sun without a bathroom - JJ just had to pee on a bush) but once we were inside the kids had a blast!

The exhibit was called Dinosaurs Live. They were animatronic and the kids could control some of them with buttons that moved different parts of thier bodies. There was a T-Rex that sticks his head out of a tree trunk. That really scared Derek.

The sand in this dino digging pit was made of ground up Payless shoes - well, it was rubber anyway. I put Holly in and she HATED it. She also hates standing in grass.

I took this picture with my cell phone cause the batteries in my camera died. The only problem with the cell phone camera is that it doesn't have a flash and so my subjects need to hold perfectly still while I take the picture. Tyler did great!

Tyler and Taylor on the stairs to the HEB Tree House of Horror. Oh wait, no, it was just a regular tree house.

Kids getting wet in the "World of Water."

Derek and JJ in a famous Texas cabin. It was moved here for some reason but I forgot why.

The whole gang. They are so so stinkin cute!

Horn Worms

17 Jun 2010

I've found three of these horn worms eating my tomato plants this week. Today, Holly grabbed one out of the garbage can and squished it's head between her thumb and her finger. Green stuff squirted all over. It was really super gross. We left it on the patio and it shriveled up and turned brown. When I went out tonight to clean it up, a tiny frog hopped over my foot and scared me. Then a cricket got on my toe. I sprayed poison on the tomatoes and went back inside.

When I was a kid, Kyle and I got some earth worms, dipped them in gasoline (that was in a bread pan in the garage for some reason) and "fried" them on the hood of my mom's car. Once Kyle made a ball of earth worms that he gathered up while following the tractor around while my dad was plowing. He threw the ball at me. Luckily he missed.

Rainforest Cafe

3 Jun 2010

A few weeks ago we took our friends, the Smiths, out to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. The service was slow but the kids had a great time.

It was J.J.'s birthday so he got a "balcano" cake.

Cleaning The Church

2 Jun 2010

Last month we signed up to go help clean the church one Saturday. The building guy isn't really super organized and when we got there everything was all locked up. Another family was there too and they called the bishop to come open it for us but since it takes about 30 minutes to get to our church, we had some time to kill.

Kill ants that is.

P.S. Don't let the clouds in the pictures fool you. It was about 85 degrees out when I took these pictures.

Suzie's Garden

1 June 2010

My garden is doing great! The bugs seem under control and it's gotten a little hotter so the mold and mildew is going away too (the grapes will be especially thankful for that). It looks like the corn is going to come on soon and there are lots of tomatoes - especially on the hanging plant. I'm excited.