Zoo Day for the Birthday Boy

My little boy is 3 already! He didn't want a party. But he did want a Dusty and Lightening McQueen cake as well as a trip to the zoo. So that is what he got. 

Back to Building

Armando is back to building houses. After the house he built last summer sold with an actual profit and not a loss, he continued with more houses. Currently, he and his partner have 3 new construction houses and a few remodels or 'flips' they are working on. We hope these new projects turn into some profit and potentially some income for our little family. Here are a few pictures of some of the new construction homes he is working on. Oh, and I get to clean when they are all done. The kids tag along sometimes to help.

Nap At ACE

This doesn't happen very often. When it does, it just melts my heart. My napping almost 3 year old baby boy. Fell asleep while nursing. Love him.

Snakes To The Rescue

Slugs eat my strawberries. Actually, they take one or two little bites out of each and every strawberry. It is very frustrating to go out to my strawberry patch, see dozens of bright red juicy berries but then find a tiny slug bites in them all. All but one. This one berry was spared.

I recently heard that garter snakes eat slugs. Of course, I don't have an abundance of snakes in my yard, hence all the slugs. As I was telling my friend about this strawberry/slug issue over coffee at her house one morning, I mentioned to her that if only I had garter snakes, I wouldn't have such a bad slug problem. As luck would have it, she just happened to have a TON of garter snakes hanging out under a big black tarp in her yard. 

The kids (hers and mine) and us ladies had a ton of fun catching snakes. There were dozens of them. We figured it wouldn't hurt to re-home a dozen of them into my garden where they would have an abundance of slugs to feast on.

 Into the strawberry patch they go

After just a few days, I noticed a significant decrease in slugs and my berries are now whole. 

Balance Bikes Are Rad!

So is this kid!

2014 Garden

We have peas, corn, tomatoes, kale, swiss chard, strawberries, carrots, radishes, a few varieties of squash, lettuce, hops, bell pepper, hot peppers, blueberries, raspberries and a whole bed dedicated to herbs. It's coming along and everything is growing beautifully!

Book, Bath & Beer

This mama traded in long relaxing warm baths for once a week cold quick showers years ago. Good beer, clean kids and adventurous books make up for it though. This picture represents the end of our day, on many days.

Ouch!

Today Ezra was been bitten by one of our rats and now has a painful bloody hole on his finger, he dropped an iron chair on his big toe (which is now purple) and scraped his face and chin badly by falling face first into a log while performing acrobats of some sort. All before noon!

Somehow, we got through the day, and even made it to ACE.