Summer Sights

I have spent the last three days unpacking and setting up my new classroom. It is a lot of work, and (let's face it) I am extremely particular about how my room looks. At this point I feel like it has come together nicely and looks and feels like a nice space. In having to spend this time getting ready for the new school year it has made me feel like summer is over. It seems like it really just flew by. I know I did a fair amount of traveling (which I am happy about) but it still feels like it was gone in a flash. There are a few things that made this summer special and unique for the girls and I.

1. Smoothies. Alexa and I have become smoothie addicts. We make fruit and yogurt smoothies everyday. We both like to suggest different fruits to toss in and different yogurt flavors to try. After we dump everything in and puree it we sit on the deck and sip them. We watch the birds and dog and chat about things.

2. Bats. Please note I hate bats, but this summer I came to be able to observe them and not race inside to hide. Chloe was fascinated to learn that we had bats that flew around eating mosquitoes in our yard at night. So each night after it would get dark she gets up (puts her book mark in whatever she is reading) and shouts downstairs to me, "Mommy, Bats?" We then go sit out on the deck and watch the brown bats swoop through the yard eating bugs. We checked some bat books out of the library, and she read up on them. We sat and talked about all kinds of things while watching those bats.

3. Tomatoes. How could I not mention those when thinking about this summer. These things are huge!

Every other day we pick a bowl about this size.

I think the neighbors are starting to hide when they see me coming for fear I will ask if they want more. I have eaten so many I feel I might turn into one.

4. Flowers. I am so happy about how some of my flowers came in. These Zinnias out front the girls and I planted as seeds. They look like a bush and have been this colorful all summer long. Alexa likes to go out and cut some every few days to have flowers on the table.

The window boxes are doing well too. I planted purple petunias this year, but I love how some pink seeds from last year plants came up. They look so nice together. I couldn't have planned that if I tried. I even like how this totally random sunflower decided to grow in the front garden too.

My shed flower boxes both came in this year. Last summer a very annoying cat from the neighbors killed all my plants in the box on the left. I drove me nuts to look out and see one box with flowers and one with nothing. This year I blocked off the box with wire until the plants grew big enough. I am so happy to have my balance restored.

I also love how these seeds I tossed in the back garden came in. These are called four o'clocks. I had never heard of them, but they have done really well. They close up in the middle of the day and open in the evening and early morning. They have added such nice color all summer long too.

The Honeysuckle is huge this year! I planted this a few years ago and it was really nothing more than a stick. It actually looked dead at one point and I dug it up and planted it here. I think it is more than happy. We have spotted a hummingbird visiting it a few times.

This is Alexa's flower garden. Her morning glories are taking over. What is more fun for me are the flowers in front. I can't even remeber what type of seeds she picked out, but the package called them butterfly attractors. Now every time we see a butterfly in the yard she says, "They must be coming for my butterfly attractors."