Aoife's Love Affair with Worms

Since we live on Fort Campbell and they make you jump through hoops to plant a garden I have devised a genius plan to grown tomatoes. Baby pools with holes drilled in the bottom set on wooden pallets that the Class 6 was so nice to donate. I started a compost pile in the back woods when we moved here and now I'm able to use it! I mixed the compost with garden soil that I bought. The best part of the compost pile was the 1,000,000 worms living in there. I put a bunch of them in the pools with the plants and once the kids saw them, they forgot all about planting the tomatoes and started a worm hunt. Aoife decided that she LOVES worms and was in tears when Emmy said that she wasn't being gentle enough and she was going to kill the worm. We had to tell her that the worm needed to go back to its mother for her to put it back in the pool. It reminded me so much of Aidan's lady bug trauma only this time we won't be getting a hamster!
Aoife looking for worms:Aoife - devastated after giving up her worm:

Nurse's Appreciation Cake

Emmy's preschool teacher asked me to make a cake for the nurses at the nursing home where her brother lives. I had a really hard time coming up with the design for it. Initially she told me that she wanted it to be nursing related and when I did a google search for nurse cakes I found cakes with band aids, syringes, blood, and prescription medication on them. These all made me want to throw up a little in my mouth - not exactly the reaction you want to something that is going to be eaten! I tried to think about the sentiment behind the cake and what she wanted to convey. I imagine that if I was thanking people for taking care of my family I would want them to know how much I respected them and loved them for what they were doing. My designs tend to be simple but I think this one is thoughtful as well. Here is what I came up with. I used the words care, hope, trust and love - I guess love made it onto the other sides! I hope they enjoyed it!

Garden - May 13

First of all - sorry for not posting. Blogger was read only for a while and even now as I type strange things are happening so there's no guarantee that this will post or remain posted. Ugh.

Anyway - our little garden is getting bigger and bigger! The carrots, peas, beans, garlic and onions seem to be doing very well and have weathered the severe storms just fine. We even have flowers on the pea plants so hopefully the first peas of the season will be here soon!Beans:Carrots:Pea flowers!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Ahhh - Mother's Day. It's different when there's no Dad around!! No sleeping in - no breakfast in bed that turns into breakfast in bed eaten by three children that leave you with a bed full of crumbs.
Emmy and Aidan both came home with beautiful cards from school and Brendan was very thoughtful to order gifts for me. Both my parents and my sister sent me flowers which was very sweet.
We got up and had a little bit of a slow morning since we didn't need to leave until 9:30. We went to Cheekwood, which is a very large estate in Nashville that has been converted into botanical gardens. It was beautiful and the kids really had a great time running around. Aidan kept saying, "This is really fun! I think we should come back here lots of times!" It may have also had something to do with the large model train exhibit that the kids found enthralling! There were many gardens with lots of different flowers from the color garden to a Japanese garden to rose gardens, perennial gardens and even an herb garden. It was really hot - 92 when we left - so we ran out of steam before we saw a lot of it but that just means we'll have to go back! Here are lots of pictures I took today - they are in no particular order:
Aoife in the Japanese garden:A cardinal:Emmy:Me with the kids during our picnic - I used my mother's day gift - a tiny portable tripod for my camera! It's perfect and maybe there will be more pictures of me in the future!Aidan:Emmy and Aoife playing in the fountain. It was so hot and keeping Aoife out of the fountain was a full time job!Can I just say how much I LOVE their curly hair???The kids walking through the color garden:Us - outside the mansion:this looks like a huge lantern or bird cage!The end of the day - not so much in the mood for group pictures!Dancing on a mosaic:Watching the model trains:

Happy Teachers' Appreciation Week!

I made these for Aidan and Emmy's teachers to thank them for all they do. It's a little gesture of how much we appreciate them and I hope they were yummy!

Aoife in Downtown Clarksville

This morning Aoife and I went on a little walk around downtown Clarksville. It's not big but there are a few cute shops and from what we saw, a few more going in! Aoife had a great time walking around and we enjoyed spending time together. It's going to be pretty rare to get any one on one time once school ends for Aidan and Emmy!

Gardening

Aoife got a few lovely gardening related gifts for her birthday which she LOVES! She now has her own tools AND her own watering can - of which Emmy is extremely jealous! Yesterday it was hot in the afternoon so we got out the new sprinkler from Grama and cooled off a bit. Aidan and Emmy loved the sprinkler but Aoife wasn't so sure. She watched them jump through the water for a bit and then decided she needed to get her gardening tools and putter around in the flower beds for a little while. She loosened the soil, weeded and gave the plants a drink. She's a nurturer already!Not sure about the spraying cold water:Going to get her stuff:Gardening:Emmy joining in on the fun:watering the basil in our lovely handpainted pot:Taking very good care of our vegetable garden: