The Backyard

Here's a lovely sunset that we got
to see tonight. It was such a
nice day and then to end it off
like this was really nice.
What would have been nicer?
Violett having a full nap, but
the sunset was still nice!

And here's a little friend that
we keep out in the garden.
I can't tell him from the others,
but he'll come when I call him.
Now, if only he had a name...




My seeds are sprouting!
My seeds are sprouting! Yippee!
I can't remember which ones
these are, but they are a
squash of some sort.
Butternut, Spaghetti, Corn,
Zucchini...they're all in there.

Swimmy Pictures

Tantrum Without A Cause

Somedays my baby is a Crabby-Patty. She wants up onto the couch and just doesn't want to do it herself so she has a tantrum. This video clip goes on for about two minutes, but the tantrum goes on for much, much longer than that! There is no reason to be crying and clawing at me and I refuse to give into her and pick her up when she acts like this so we have to just wait it out...Why did no one warn me about tantrums? I lay the blame on all you grandparents for this one!

First Time In The Pool

All I can say is: Thank goodness for Sunscreen!

Queen Violett

Violett is going to be a year old
soon and I'm planning a garden tea
party for the family. This is the image
that I've used for the invitations.
It is so funny and I worked on it for hours!
Click on the image to enlarge it.

from MY garden

These are some of the bulbs that I planted last November. I don't have much of a garden so I just put them in large pots.



Here's a pic of the pansies that Deb brought over the last time they visited.



I guess I got the good bag of black tulips because Debs mostly turned out to be red and not black. All of mine turned out to be the correct bulbs except for one. They are so pretty.



Most of the tulips and other bulbs are on their way out for the season and I'm just waiting for the long weekend to be over before I plant some seeds and perennials.

Daddy Wants A Kiss

Another scene from the High Chair

Rustic Strawberry Tart

I've had some puff pastry sitting in the freezer and no idea what to do with it. Strawberries have been on sale at the grocery store and I bought too much! Violett can't go through that many in a day so what to do? What to do? Hmmm, the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living as a Strawberry Galette which is basically a pie crust laid out flat on a baking sheet, lined with cut strawberries and the edges turned up. I used the puff pastry dough instead. It still worked out just fine, but I'll admit...it looks really crappy to me! Violett loved it and so did Scott. I loved it too, but next time i will use pie crust and make it myself. That way it will be big enough. Now, I know that it would have looked better if I had sliced the strawberries evenly and discarded the outside of the berry slices, but BLEH, who really cares? I'm not that picky. I had used the tray and parchment paper earlier that day to freeze grapes. I dried it off but when I had taken it out of the oven all the sugars left behind by the grapes carmelized on the sheet.

Random Picture Series V

We took Violett to the park the other day.
While we were there we saw some bunnies.
I got up fairly close to them to take some pictures
of them as they were hippity-hopping around.









She had such a good time in the
swing. She was clapping and
waving her arms around. Is there
anything as cute as these pictures?
I don't think so.



These are daddy's socks.
It was a little chilly so we put
some socks on! I think that
they're a little too big for her.









This is just too cute!
I had to turn the
flash off to get a better
picture of her. I love the
way she is on all fours
peeping through the holes
in the gate.



She looks like she's all ready
to go out and play in the snow!
Too bad it's not winter anymore.

I have a new pencil

I made this from scratch! It's my own design and I'm very proud of it. Deb asked for four of these for Ella and Seths teachers as an end of school gift. I think it looks great and it doesn't take too long to make!