Growing....

Well, I wanted to do this neat little garden update, complete with photos.  It's exciting times here because it's getting so close to yummy harvest.  So I'm pretty sure I took some photos.  And I'm pretty sure Kaden took some photos.  But I can't find any of them :(

It's a balcony garden, and kind of neat because we've had a great response with the few herbs and tree seedlings.  The tomato (yes, sole one!) is finally starting to turn red.  We got a few earlier from that plant and they were good (so says my mom, I don't eat them).   The peppers are FINALLY having little tiny peppers, after an entire! freaking! summer! with nothing coming from its blooms.  I'm excited about that because they are *chocolate* peppers, and we'll see what THAT means finally.   The sunflowers never, ever, took :(  I probably should have planted them along the building instead of on the porch.  The celery is giving me some seeds, so I can finally collect those and take it out.  The carrots are finally growing orange, so not far now Papa Smurf!  The watermelons are going nutso, little sugar babies and blossoms growing all over and very exciting for all of us.

You know what ELSE is exciting?  A few times this past week, Kaden has been eating something and decided he liked it enough that we should plant some in our garden.  So far, his list is green beans, corn and peas.  And more watermelon.  I'm excited.  Too bad none of those will survive in a Fall garden here.

You know what I just noticed?  In this post, I've used the words FINALLY and EXCITING a lot. So far it's been unintentionally!  But now I'm going to go underline them all.  Hee hee.

You know what else I think of these days, when I hear the words FINALLY and EXCITING and GROWING?

This.

Excitement! Getting to know Neighbors!

So!  Earlier this week, we had a wee bit of excitement.  No fewer than SEVEN firetrucks in our neighborhood.  You would've thought it was a block party, there were so many people hanging out, milling around, chatting.  No one had any clue what was going on, but we were all chatting away anyway.  After about an hour, all the trucks left (waving at our little guy and making him sooooo happy).  Another hour later, I hopped on facebook to check the fire dept's fan page- and sure enough, they posted the event.  Thanks to an alert neighbor spotting smoke and calling 911... the FD had to bust in a door because no one answered... and it turned out to be a small kitchen fire and the chef asleep in the next room.  Excitement for the day!

That's not the only way we meet neighbors around here.  Besides the normal "hi" when we pass each other on the sidewalk, we sometimes have someone stopping by when I'm watering the garden.  It's a patio one, and they're all in boxes- more on that for another post- so it looks "interesting".  The best part is there's actually herbs FLOURISHING, so they get attention, and our watermelon vines are going *all over* now.  Here's a pic of our smallest one, less than 1/2 inch long.  The largest is probably a 5 inch diameter- I think they were sugar babies, so it probably wont' get any bigger.  There's another 3-4 in different sizes growing.  Much fun, and a good discussion piece!

Random Fun

I don't think any of these photos happened *recently*... but they did happen in 2013.  So there.  We took advantage of having free weekends (wha?) and did some touring.

 Like to a pretzel factory in Lititz! Fairly neat place, even if it was a historical factory and not really used (much) anymore.  Way cool to see the ovens and huge paddles used to bake the tasty treats.  Not cool at all to have to work there, back in the day!

Of course, there's Hershey and Chocolate World, which we may or may not visit too often.  It depends on who you ask.

I didn't think this would ever happen, since the kid has not voluntarily fell asleep since he was about 3 months old.  But sure enough, I sent him to read a book on his bed... and ta-da! or wa-la! whichever.

 And then there's Superfireman Guy.  He's like a fireman, only a superhero too.  Because he can fly, and water shoots out his hands, like spiderman, only it's water not webs.  What, you didn't know that?

And these last two?  Well, I just love my kid.  I'm pretty sure he's hiding under the table, waiting for us to notice him.  He may or may not be fully clothed.  My guess is not.  It's apparently a lot of fun to run away and hide instead of putting on PJs and going to bed.  Just an observation, I haven't tried it myself.  Just clarifying, for you weirdo types.