We had the community garden kick-off a couple Saturdays ago. Sadly, only us and the Hays showed up out of the gardeners. We also had one of our Food Bank Sponsors and one of the gardening experts from the Green Valley community garden, who came toting neat varieties of peppers and tomatoes that grow well in the heat. We were lucky to be able to snag a few and are excited to see how they turn out! The rest of the gardeners have been trickling in, but they missed out on my donut party.
The enthusiastic gardener
We had ground squirrels climb up the faucet and eat all our plants! We bought some clamps to keep the netting in place, and it seems to have put a stop to that.
We were perpetually wiping dirt off his face
After we had our spring plants in the ground, we headed up Madera Canyon for a picnic lunch with the Hays with a few extra kids that they were watching. They took care of the remaining donuts for us.
Every kid other than cautious Colby ended up falling into the stream.
This was the self-confidence boost of the century! He was talking to himself and said something that sounded like "Mommy young." I told him "That's right kiddo, Mommy is young and beautiful." He proceeded to sing a song about it and I caught the tail end of it on video. What a sweetheart!
Elliot absolutely lost it over a smoothie we made a few weeks ago. My favorite part is when he squeezes his eyes shut after distributing his gratitude kisses.
This last one isn't anything spectacular, but it captures the general chaos of the weekly ward playgroup at the church. I love it.
We were lucky to have my mom here for a week over her birthday! It featured all of the classic events: watching Elliot, eating Mexican food, trying to convince Mom that Tucson is not a boring wasteland, more admiring Elliot, and watching lots of shows.
She came bearing a Disney matching game to prep for our Disneyworld trip this summer. He loves it
The actual Birthday Day consisted of lunch at Manuels, followed by the show "Two Amigos" at the Gaslight Theater. We had a blast at the show and were suffering from facial smiling exhaustion for much of it.
It was the first time we had left Elliot with a babysitter (other than having him play with friends). Mom was more worried about it than we were! Elliot did great with Mia and told her that "Mommy and Daddy Work," which is of course the place where we go when we are not with him.
The next day, we went to a showing of Rusalka Live from the Met. It was a live broadcast from the opera house to movie theaters all over the place. I don't know if I am converted to being an avid opera fan, but I enjoyed the story. It was based on the original Grimm's Fairy Tales version of Little Mermaid. The one with the very unhappy ending.
The sets and costumes were amazing
The next week, we ventured down to Tubac while Aaron was at work. We went to the Historic Presidio followed by lunch and a stroll through some of the several art galleries. I could have spent a lot more time there. There is always so much to look at!
The "touch me" table full of old objects found at the Presidio
The 1800's schoolhouse
Elliot became very attached to the dunce cap and did not want to share with Mimi
We had a few other undocumented adventures. We tapped her decorating knowledge to find replacements for our sadly deteriorating couches. We hopped around quite a bit to find a decent deal on one that meets our red color needs. We got fabric this time around, which should last longer than the blended leather of the dying couches. We also got mom set up with Thumbtack, which is a site that will hopefully allow her to find more clients for her interior design business. And of course, we had many movie nights.
