Happy Birthday Party Sweet Boy!

Colven's 2nd birthday party was today. The weather was fabulous!
The smoke evaded us today, which honestly was a bit bittersweet.

A gift from Aunt Sakura

Opening a gift with Dad

Sharing toys (well.. baby crack) with 9 month old Malia.




Things get interesting when the water balloons come out! Here is Uncle Greg with a big load!!

Look at these men... LOBBING water balloons at the children! HAHA!! Do you see them in the sky? The kids are on the other side of the fence.

Making bubbles! A big hit.

Colven's favorite "present" ... a singing card from Taia and Pops (Cyrus' parents)

Colven and cousin Savannah on Colven's new SKATE BOARD!

We let him pick out what he wanted... and it was this.

The totally awesome cake that Nana made and decorated

Gorging

Hangin' with dad in the children's garden at the end of a very long, very good, very non-napping kind of day.

Where is mom you ask? Well she is cleaning up of course! :)

Preparing for a TWO year old's birthday party!

My baby is going to be 2 on Monday. His birthay party is tomorrow. I'm not sure if the time has passed really super quickly or excruciatingly slowly? A bit of both I think!

Nana volunteered to make the cake (YAY!) so we picked the carrots from the garden today

Colven sampled them... several of them! We just started harvesting from this bunch and they are fabulous!

Here is Nana in her kitchen baking with Colven

Good night!

Welcome to our garden

The view from the West Entrance of the Children's Garden

corn, marigold, cerinthe, tomato, climbing bean, sunflower, baby pumpkin, cinderella pumpkin

A view of my favorite windowless window inside the inner circle of the children's garden.

The "north entrance"


The "west entrance"



Joyfulness





An overview of our garden today

This is my current favorite bed, it is the most active right now with all the growth and positive proliferation. Mesclun loose leaf lettuce, cucumbers, beans, carrots.


Glorious cilantro, which bolted before I left on our travels. It now has some really awesome coriander balls formed, so it continues to flourish without my hand to pull it -- I'm looking forward to the fresh spice! Also some spent lettuce, about to be tilled in tomorrow because it has gone bitter.
It fed us all spring. Thank you lettuce bed!

This

beautiful
sage
always catches my attention
with it's graceful arches and flowers

Black grass
just for fun

Oh Montana

I miss you already!
I'll be back to upload some more images, but at the moment Colven is recovering from a bout of intestinal flu so my free time is ummmm limited :)

Montana, Idaho, Washington, Nevada, California

All in one day!!

We were greeted

upon our arrival

tonight by a

fire-tinted moon.

It has been a

long journey home.

This cactus flower is so amazing! I'm not sure which side I prefer, the front or the back.

First dahlia bloom of the season

Echinacea

The plant in forefront is a Chinese Lantern that I started from seed last year. I can't wait to see it bloom!



Colven flanked by tomatos, peppers, eggplant, and basil

One of Colven's chores in the garden is to hunt for snails.

Canning success!

My first canning attempt in several years went perfectly!

I was brave and used a pectin that I wasn't familiar with. Pomona's Pectin allows for low and no sugar canning, as well as offering options for alternative sweeteners to sugar such as honey and stevia. It is made from citrus peels.

I am thrilled with the results:
Bright, perfectly gelled boysenberries.
I also made some rhubarb orange preserves. Colven has a new addiction :)

The setting sun is barely visible behind a blanket of smoke from the fires in Big Sur. I took this photo yesterday in Carmel Valley Village, where specks of incinerated life were floating through the air as drifts of ash.
Several of our friends have lost their homes.
The fires continue to burn and devour more every day.

The beautiful inside of an overgrown fig.
We missed this one somehow.
The ants did not!

We have had a busy week. Colven and I went to the Bean Family Reunion last weekend in Maine. We had SUCH a fabulous time! The night before we left to come home Colven developed a high fever and came down with Hand, Foot, Mouth disease on the plane ride home. Loooooong day of travel for both of us. All of us. My parents sat next to us on the second plane home and Colven cried almost the entire time. Good news is he has healed quickly and is almost completely back to his old spunky self!

We have a new camera to play with (I left my old beloved, trusty camera on the plane on the way to Maine. sigh.) so I will post some new photos later today. It is 5:30am and I have been up since 4.

unable

to

sleep

Bountiful harvest

Colven and I are preparing for our departure to go to a family reunion in Maine, so I decided to do a thorough harvest of the nanaberries today so as not to share too many with the birds. The harvest was plentiful! Such gorgeous berries! It was challenging to gain a full colander, between a toddler and his mother -- the amount ebbed and flowed as we picked. I'm excited to know that we will have some preserves to bring to Montana with us to share with Papa and everyone!

My, how they grow!

Pineapple guava flower

Pomegranite flower
We call this Colven's tree since his placenta nourishes it











Children's garden pathway

HAPPY FLAG DAY NANA!

It is 1am.. I am cleaning up a little before I head to bed (later than usual) and as I wash my hands I notice my kitchen sponge, colored from our day of crafting and painting.

I think I'm on the right track :)

Summer beauty

Dad may go...

but he comes back

and plays pretty hard


until Colven passes out with a smile on his face.

No teeth brushing tonight