Last weekend I attended a local Gardening expo.  It was very inspiring, and a little overwhelming - much like a homeschooling convention.  I came home with a couple of tomato plants, as well as a bell pepper plant that was purchased on a whim, and lots of ideas.  The Tomato guy assured me that the plants would survive outside - provided that I keep them covered at night for the next couple of weeks.  No problem, right?  Well... the other night I wearily climbed under the covers and turned out the light.  About a minute later it hit me:  the tomatoes were naked.  It was very cold - there would certainly be frost.  So I flipped the light back on, rummaged through the closet for shoes and a jacket, and trudged out into the backyard to tuck my little tomatoes in for the night.  (I didn't kiss them goodnight - I do draw the line somewhere!)  So far, so good...

All in all it's been a pretty good week.  On Monday, we had as close to the "Perfect Homeschooling Day" as we ever have.  The weather was gorgeous, so I spread a couple of blankets on the back lawn, brought all the books outside, and we did "backyard school." Ben kept happily entertained out there, Megan had fun writing her spelling words with sidewalk chalk on the patio, and an ordinary Monday became a really fun memory:

Later that afternoon, things got considerably less happy when Ben decided to throw a knock-down, drag-out screaming-hysterical temper tantrum that lasted about 30 minutes.  There are things I really enjoy about the toddler years.  That is definitely not one of them.  Enough said.

Tuesday we took a field trip to a local petting zoo.  The kids all had a blast, especially since pony rides were involved - always a hit with my crew.  Here's Ben and Sarah checking out the baby wallaby:

It was supposed to rain that morning, but thankfully the storm held off until after lunch.  Seems hard to believe that in another month we'll be winding down our school year.  This is shaping up to be one of those very rare summers in which we are neither moving nor giving birth to another child.  Needless to say I've got quite a long list going of "Fun Things to Do" and "Projects to Tackle".  Hopefully we'll be able to do plenty of each.