After 3+ days of rain the sun finally came out today. For once Paul was off and I had a long list of things I wanted to get done. Things such as till the herb garden, which is hard to do with a baby on your hip.

Yesterday the boys made these at Home Depot. And during a 30 minute break in the showers they filled and planted in them: tomatoes, peppers and apple seeds from our lunch.

But today the first order of business was mowing. Paul has been working until after dark for the past 2 weeks, so our yard was in dire need. Now usually I am not a fan or mowing days. It took over an hour and a half to mow our 1.5 acres. Usually Paul would sit one of the boys on his lap, but still it took a big chunk out of his one day off. Last fall our mower died and Paul talked me into getting one of those zero-turn ones....plus side: it is much quicker. Down side: the boys can't ride anymore. So this is how they spent almost the entire time he was mowing this morning, even the 11 mo old:

After the mowing we planted these:

Now now I have peas, broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, hot and red peppers, basil and cilantro back in the garden. I also started the cucumbers, canteloupe, watermelon and zuchinni inside to get a head start. I just hope our weather holds- last year I had to dig everything up due to a late frost.

Then we moved onto the birds. The only thing on my list that didn't get done was raising up the nest boxes. We've had them on the ground, but the curious birds have scratched out all the "nests" and a few are sleeping in them, so it is time to raise them up so they hopefully leave them alone more. They are only 8 weeks old....they won't start laying until closer to 20 weeks, so we have a while still.

The brown one, Brownie, was one of the one we thought we were going to lose. She turned out to be just a late bloomer. My 4 year old has taken a real liking to her. The white one, is a Wendy, but has a new nickname of Saddlebags due to the tremendous amount of white fluff on her thighs.

And here is Shadow and Saddlebags again.

And finally one of our black stars, and Phoenix...who looks like our only rooster. Once we know for sure he will most likely be sent to a new home, as long as we find someone who won't eat him!!