Growing Dirt

We are doing a co-op garden this year. We found someone who loves to garden but has no land, and we love to eat but have no abilities to grow food, so it's a match made in heaven.

Several months ago she (Ashley) started the process of "lasagna gardening" to develop rich soil. Now Bob and Cindy are putting the fence around to keep our deer friends from having a delicious salad bar at their disposal. It will be a huge garden, about 13'x30', so lots of room for yummy vegetables. Ashley is quite expert at organic garden and came out today to till the soil and mix in a bunch of i-don't-know-what to make the soil drain (right before the hail storm hit!)

It's pretty fun - the kids are learning about gardening. Kenzie informed me that this peat stuff is made from the outside of coconut shells. (Miraculously, Mason was at the neighbors when they had the chance to get completely dirty.)

Mason asked for sunflowers, so Ashley is planning a row. June and Bob asked for tomatoes and zucchini...so we have those too! All I want is fresh veggies! Ashley started growing seeds in her green house and says we can put them in the ground as early as next week.

Movie time

We went to see the animated movie Rio with our neighbors. On the way home Mason and Anna rode with me. The conversation was so cute, and they quickly forgot I was in the car. I was cracking up listening to them. It went something like this:

Mason: I liked the part where the guy lost his pants.
Anna: I liked the part where he learned how to fly.
Mason: oh me too.
Anna: I ate a lot of sugar.
Mason: I think they make these candies by buying Swedish fish, cutting them into little pieces and then putting sour salt on them.
Anna: I love Swedish fish. We eat them all the time. When we were in California, on the day that Alaina was boogey boarding I snuck a bunch of her Swedish fish.
Mason: Oh yah, I like Swedish fish too.
Anna: It was so gross those because she put the rest in her shoe. They had sand all over them. Then she took them out and gave them to my Grandma!!
Mason: did she eat them?
Anna: No, she didn't eat them. Oh no, I think I ate them. Yah, I remember eating them.
Mason: did they have sand all over them?
Anna: Yah, a little bit of sand, but not like I ate a whole beach or something.
Mason: I ate four whole beaches one time.
Anna: You did?
Mason: Yah. Except for one grain. I left one grain.
Anna: why did you leave one grain?
[a brief moment of silence]
Anna: did you go back and refill the sand?


Anna, Alaina, Kenzie and Mason

Soccer

Time for a new sport!

Mason is learning soccer, sometimes the hard way:

At least his teammates are fans, you can hear them cheering in the background as he shows off some fancy footwork.

Love, Mason

Look out, he’s figured out how to communicate. It may take a little bit of work on the part of the reader, but he definitely has message to convey. We keep finding notes.

To Mom. I am not very happy about what you said to me, but I am very happy that you let me play with Wii. And I am very happy that we even have the games on Wii. But am very happier that I even have my moms!

These two notes went to Kenzie. The first says, “I don’t want the drawings. They are yours. But I do want is that marker. Love, Mason.” The second note is a follow-up and says, “Thank you for that marker. I really appreciate it. Love, Mason.”

Love letters

Mason gets a special light in his eye when he looks at Lauren. He has a hard time holding back the giggles. He especially loves wrestling (or, as he wrote, “resling”) with her. He drew her about four love letters today, including this one.

When she left I asked him if he loves her. He said, “yah, she’s a little bit better than my Wii.”

On a side note, as we were all watching t.v. tonight. Kenz was cuddled up to me, interlocking her fingers with mine. Then she offered, “I feel sorry for frogs who are boyfriend and girlfriends. Want to know why?” Um…then she told us “because they can’t hold hands.”

Dance moves

David and Daniel came over today. I got the camera out and told them to show me their dance moves. They had fun.

Dolphins

Kenzie practiced her book report on dolphins.

Retreat backlash

We had a great weekend in Suncadia with our church. The kids had a lot of sugar and little sleep, which means tonight is less than optimal. I should have seen it in their eyes yesterday, the dulling effect of exhaustion was clearly visible:

 

But the had a blast. As always, the highlights were the “no-talent show” and swimming. Kenzie and Emily read a poem. Kenzie was in a play and sang a song. Mason showed off some karate moves. Oh, and Cindy showed off her juggling (with just a bit of pressure to do so).

Dirty ball

Note layer of dirt around the collar and inside the hat…Cindy was less than impressed with his hat-digging technique.

Peace Duck

Notice the message here:

Dear Mason,

I am sorry for punching you in the forehead.

Love, Sister

 

She got so frustrated with him this morning that she close-fist punched him in the eyebrow, so hard that at 10:00 tonight she was still complaining that her knuckle felt like there were 200 needles in it. (Yes, I followed-up with a short training session on how to throw a punch without breaking your hand, but that’s not the point.)

Kenzie has really been doing great lately, trying to take the high road and make good choices. I think she just lost it for a minute. She feels horrible…so much that she sent him a duck. But, note that she still insists that he call her “sister,” never MacKenzie.

You can be sorry, but no need to lose the title.

One season ends, another begins

Hard to believe, but Mason’s first basketball season is over. He had a blast and improved markedly during the season. Again this game he scored 6 baskets. This shot was taken after one of them. I love the expression of pure happiness. He loves this sport. The 10:00 game ended at 10:55.

Then we went about four blocks to his first baseball practice, which started at 11:00. He has coach Mike again this year, who is a friend and is great with the kids. They practiced throwing, running, catching and a little bit of hitting. Mason, of course, tries to throw it as hard as possible in any circumstance. He was throwing with Coach Mike, standing about 15 feet away and launched one at him, receiving a stern “too hard” warning back. Mason backed off and started to take things a bit more seriously…okay, just a bit.

This was his favorite drill, though…Coach Mike stands as target practice.

After one game and one practice, he was the first one in the house. We found him like this, about ten feet inside the door. We thought he was just worn out, but after discovering the fever, he’s officially sick! He spent most of the day in bed, but somehow has revived enough to go to a movie tonight. 

The reader

Mason has been “reading” at church for quite some time by memorizing the lines. This time even though he had it memorized he took his paper up there to let everyone know that he could be reading it.

red and weird