The Best of Intentions...

Last spring Katey asked if we could have a vegetable garden. Well, it was probably more like a plea for a fruit and vegetable garden and the request probably consisted of an apple tree which the girl is dying to have in the yard for some reason, even when we tell her it would be about 15 years before the tree produced fruit. But, I digress. So, Katey asks for a garden along with detailing elaborate plans on what should be grown and how we can sell extras to make money. We decide to go slow and plant a few things in a container. The only thing that came up were cucumbers. The vine was doing really well and had all sorts of little cucumber babies on it. Then we went out of town and forgot to ask neighbors to water it. When we returned there were dried-up cucumber babies. Katey and I were so sad and vowed to try again this year.

Spring rolls around this year and we decide to do a few things in containers again (really, digging a plot of land and having to WEED would so not be happening around here!). This time I did a little research and we ended up planting beans, peppers, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. We started them from seed in the house and were amazed at how quickly some of them grew! At the appropriate time, we transplanted them to pots and put them outside. And then we waited. And waited. And waited.


Finally, we had 2 beans. Now, the beans were a last-minute, non-researched decision. And, only one plant came up. So, this summer, we have had about 7 beans total. Sad.

Then, a cucumber appeared. We were so excited! It got bigger and a little bigger...then it started getting round. For some reason, we ended up with a cucumber BALL! Seriously, it was about the size of a pool ball. What in the world!?! But, there were many more sprouts, so we ate our tasty little cue-ball and waited. And waited. And watched the vine die a slow death for no apparent reason.

Next came a pepper. We watched it grow for 3 weeks, I think. Red peppers take FOREVER to get red, by the way. When it finally turned red, it was probably 1/3 the size of the peppers you buy in the store and a bug had gotten into a piece of it, so we all had 2 bites of a very small, though yummy, red bell pepper.

Finally came the tomato. Katey LOVES tomatoes. I had envisioned having to give tomatoes away to neighbors, knowing that the plants usually produce like wild-fire. Not ours. We had one, yes that is right, ONE cherry tomato. But, as you can see, Katey loved every, er um, THE bite of it!

Shouldn't a tomato plant be fuller and more leafy than this?? That is our pepper plant in the background.

So, all in all we probably spent $40 in containers, soil, seeds, fertilizer...and had visions of saving so much money on produce this summer. 7 beans, 1 cucumber ball, 1 tiny pepper and a cherry tomato. That is roughly $4 per vegetable. Awesome.

Maybe next year we'll just break down and plant the apple tree.

Will Wonders Never Cease?!

We are, at times, a house divided.

VS. Now, I say "at times" as I am not quite the Ohio State Buckeye fan that my family probably longs for me to be. I can't name even one of the players at the moment, and the only way I can tell you that they are playing is by reading the status updates of friends and family on Facebook. (I'm sorry family, truly sorry).

Mike is a big Michigan fan. Now, he isn't an over-the-top, have to postpone or reschedule or cancel our date because Michigan is playing Notre Dame, kind of fan. (Thank you, Sweetie, for still taking me out last Saturday!) But, he is a big fan.

With all of that being said, my wonderful, loving, sometimes likes to push your buttons, die-hard Buckeye fan mother got Katey and Seth OSU T-shirts for Katey's birthday. Not only that, but she has been programming them since birth to do the O-H...I-O chant along with "Go Bucks!"...much to the disgust of their Daddy. And, it seems that no matter how hard Mike tries to get a, "Go Blue!" out of them, the kids just find OSU to be their team of choice.

Somehow we got on the topic of the OSU game on Sunday after church. Being a sub-par fan, I had no idea if they had won (or whom they had played). Seth and Katey were chiming in, hoping with all the hope they could muster that the Buckeyes won. Then Katey pipes up, "What sport do the Buckeyes play?" That's my girl!! :-) After a small discussion of it currently being football season, Mike decided to try, once again, to sway the kids to the dark side (hey, Michigan blue is actually a darker color than scarlet, right?!). The conversation went something like this:
Mike: Do you know what a buckeye is?
Katey: A nut!!
Mike: And do you know that Michigan's mascot is a Wolverine! Do you know what that is?
Seth: I think wolverine is in the comic books or something like that.
Mike: Yes, he is a SUPER HERO, but also it is a mean animal that can fight! Would you rather be a nut or a cool super hero/animal?
Katey: [Growl] Daddy!
(This decision is impossible for her as she doesn't like to be called a nut but doesn't want to side with Daddy on this one!)
Seth: I like the Buckeyes. Stop talking to me, you are making me angry!

The rest of the afternoon was spent with Mike trying to sway just one of the kids to his side and neither of them budging - for no good or apparent reason. Poor Mike. The Averill genes might be strong enough to make both kids look like exact duplicates of their father, but obviously the Hendrickson genes make you bleed scarlet (and grey). Hee hee hee.

On another topic altogether...
Seth decided yesterday to wear ANKLE SOCKS to school! He pulled them out of the drawer and said he would wear them to school. Some friends and I were pondering over this yesterday, wondering if he sees that other kids in his class don't wear socks pulled up to their underwear or if maybe he was teased or something like that. So, Seth gets off the bus, comes in the door and immediately takes off his shoes and socks, declaring that the sock bothered him all day. Okay. Then, this morning I send him up to his room to get dressed. I head up to check on the kids a few minutes later and find him digging through the sock drawer. He pulls out another pair of ankle socks (what, 2 days in a row??!!) and he says, "Well, I guess I'll wear these again today." And then it hits me...

Mommy needs to do laundry. :-)

School!

We are now several weeks into the new school year so I thought I should perhaps do a post about school. Katey is in the 3rd grade now and Seth started Kindergarten. I was pretty nervous about getting both of the kids up and fed and dressed and ready to head out the door all by 6:45 each morning, but so far all has gone pretty smooth (or is the proper form of the word smoothly?).

Here are the kids on their first days of school - Katey started a week earlier than Seth thanks to Union County's staggered Kindergarten start.

Please notice Seth's socks in the picture. They are his signature trademark these days. Socks must ALWAYS be worn pulled up as high as they will go and ankle socks just WILL NOT due!

I simply could not post without including a picture of Seth with his backpack on. I love Kindergartners with huge backpacks! Adorable!

And, while we are on the note of adorable, here are Katey and Seth getting on the school bus together for the first time. I will note that it isn't the picture that is dark...this is what the morning looks like when the kids get on the bus (WAAAAYYYY too early in the morning!).

Seth kept telling us he was "curious" about the school bus (we think he actually meant "nervous") so Katey, being the wonderful big sister that she is, told Seth that he could sit with her on the bus. Awwww!! What do you think Seth's response was?

A) Okay
B) Thanks Katey, you are the best big sister EVER!
C) No thanks, I'll sit with someone else
D) I think I want Mommy to drive us to school

You got it; the answer is C!! Such a loving brother... But, what you cannot see from this picture is that Seth is holding Katey's hand as they boarded the bus together. :-)

The first few weeks of school have proven to be exciting and emotional for our family. We have already had melt-downs over homework (from BOTH kids!), forgotten jackets and agendas, missed buses, almost missed buses, tears over missed and almost missed buses, excited squeals for cheese pizza day in the cafeteria, stories of teachers and classmates and PE and Music and Spanish, and an overall joy of being back to school. Yup, I think this is going to be a GREAT year with lots of ups and downs...

Oh, and before I end this post, I have to include a link that you need to read if you haven't seen it already. This is a blog post from our dear friend, Alison, about Seth and his good buddy, Andrew. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! And, thanks to Alison for such a sweet, sweet entry!

Two-Wheelin'

It is a proud moment when training wheels are removed from a bicycle. And we were very proud (and hopeful) when Mike removed the training wheels from Seth's bike...A YEAR AGO!

From that time forward, we had been bribing Seth with Bruster's Ice Cream if he would just learn to ride his bike. Usually the conversation went something like this:
Us: Seth, we really want to go out for ice cream tonight, will you please try to ride your bike?
Seth: Um, no thanks.

On occasion we could get him to at least try, albeit half-heartedly. But, all along we knew he could do it if he just made his mind up to do it. If there is one thing we have learned about this kid in the last 5+ years it is that forcing him to try something doesn't usually go over too well. But, if you can get him to just want to try it, all is well with his world (and ours).

So, Sunday afternoon we again suggested that he learn to ride his bike and this was the response we got:














Cute, isn't he? :-)


After 2 or 3 attempts that looked something like this:
















He did it!!
















And there was much rejoicing and eating of ice cream! :-)

How did that happen??

Last Thursday we celebrated Katey's 8th birthday. Seriously, how did that happen?? It is hard to believe that the tiny little baby I held in my arms just yesterday is now 8! (And, by the way, how did I get old enough to think that 8 years happened in the blink of an eye?!?)

Katey got to choose her birthday dinner. It came down to Costco Rotisserie Chicken with mashed potatoes and corn (all squished together with salt added, of course!) or homemade pizza - Katey's 2 favorite meals - and chocolate cupcakes. In the end, pizza won out so we rolled out dough and Katey spread on sauce and cheese and was delighted when the pizza crust bubbled up while baking. It is the little things in life, isn't it? :-)

I assume that you are now wondering why there is an enormous chocolate cake sitting in front of the birthday girl instead of cupcakes. Yeah. So Mike's mom makes an AWESOME chocolate cake recipe for all the birthdays and everyone always raves about how delicious it is. I talked Katey into letting me make Grandma's special cake but doing it as cupcakes and she was super excited about it and I was all warm and fuzzy inside thinking about what a special privilege it is to make your child's birthday (cup)cake and how a tradition is being passed down through Mike's family. However, that isn't exactly what happened. Katey was at Costco with me and as we walked past the bakery she began to drool at the sight of all the delicacies. She eyed the ginormous chocolate cake (the thing weighed 7 pounds, y'all - no joke!) and quickly changed her mind from wanting homemade cupcakes to needing this cake. I think you can connect the dots. While it definitely wasn't Grandma's Chocolate Cake, it was pretty tasty and our family enjoyed it for 5 straight days!

While pizza was baking Katey made a beeline to her presents. As you can tell from the picture below, she was happy to be opening the gifts. Though, when we asked what her favorite present was we were told, "Darien giving me a hug for my birthday." Uh-oh. Darien is our 8 year old neighbor that both the kids love to play with. Katey always wants to give him hugs and he always runs away screaming that he doesn't want any hugs. So, it really was a big deal when he brought a card over and hugged her when giving it to her. Sweet.

One of Katey's other favorite gifts is the i-pod she bought with birthday money. All of the sudden this child LOVES music and loves listening to my i-pod. So, we found a used one on e-bay. Now Mommy just needs to get music downloaded to it so she can use her own!

It certainly was a great birthday! Seth is already telling us he can't wait for his birthday (in 3 months) because birthday's are so much fun. We think it is because he and Katey get to eat cake for so many days in a row. :-) But, he is right - birthdays are a lot of fun! A little bittersweet for Mom's and Dad's, but fun none-the-less. Happy birthday, Little Monkey!