Sunflowers!!

Every year I give gardening a try.  You might remember my first potted garden in Colorado.  It went...ok.  

I just have these grand ideas of what I want a garden to look like and am always unprepared for how much work gardens entail. I have friends back in Illinois who have these gorgeous vegetable gardens, and I think, ooh! I can do that!  And then I remember that I am in Texas, where nothing grows but the temperature, and I am forced to try to only garden a very small flower garden and a few potted vegetables.  Sigh.

I am lucky that Evan likes to garden as well (his dad has a fabulous garden!!!).  The past few Mother's Days, Evan and the girls go out to buy me flowers and we all plant them together on Mother's Day.  It's become a tradition that I absolutely love.  The girls pick out flowers they think I will like and it's fun to see what they choose (this year--marigolds, roses, and some purple bush that is actually growing and thriving, but whose name neither of us can remember) (Evan looked it up--they are blue plumbago!!!).  However, gardening in Texas has proven to be most frustrating.  First off, it's hot as hades and we're always under water restrictions. Secondly, the dirt in our yard sucks (oh, Illinois, how we desperately miss your fertile soil!).  So, it's a game of praying for rain and trying to remember to water enough to keep them alive, but not too much to spoil them as the temperatures keep climbing and it gets more and more dry. I did plant a few garden veggies and was able to eat a few things, but where I set the pots ended up being in too sunny of a spot and the bluejays who nest in our trees ate all my ding dong tomatoes (with me watching! cause they are jerks!!).

Nevertheless, we continue trying.  

Evan has found his signature plant since we moved to Texas, though--sunflowers!!!  He planted them the first year here and they grew!  Like crazy!  This year he planted two varieties in multiple spots in our yard and some of them got to 10 feet high!!!  

 Evan starts off planting seeds and the girls get all excited when they see them sprout. When they get taller than each girl, it is cause for celebration.

 Here are some of them in our garden bed in our back yard:

 This year, we had house finches come and chow down on the sunflower seeds.  I had never seen finches like this before, so I had to take pictures (shocking, I know).  I was inside the house and taking them through the blinds all sneaky and paparazzi like...

 but they totally saw me.

 How creepy is this guy?!  He is making eye contact with me:

The sunflowers have since died and Evan hatchet-ed them down (he rarely gets to use his hatchet...because why would he need it? He's a lawyer, not Davy Crockett).  Next year, besides the obvious sunflowers, we're going to actually check to see what is native to our area in Texas and plant things that will survive in these hellish conditions.

We're freaking geniuses, I tell you.

Swimming.

This past week, school started.  Many people on facebook have started talking about going apple picking, thinking about upcoming fall traditions they will be participating in soon, and grumping that the pools are already closed when, of course, the weather is smoking hot and perfect for swimming this last weekend of summer known as Labor Day Weekend.

What about us, you say? Well, thankfully the pools stay open longer here, because summer is not even close to being over. The highs this weekend over 100 degrees and I have already promised the girls a trip to our neighborhood pool this weekend.

 What's funny is, last year, we barely went swimming. Yes, I had an infant at the time, but when looking back, it wasn't just that Vivian was so little, it was a whole crop of reasons--Evan had started the JAG job from hell and worked obscene hours, Julia was in the middle of her constipation issues, and I was having some post partum depression issues.  It just wasn't on the radar. This year, though, we are taking advantage of having such a great pool on Ft Sam that is for residents. It's an awesome pool for us because it's zero depth, has spouts, is deep enough for some snorkeling and cannon ball jumping, and is 3 minutes from our house. It's rarely busy, too.

 See that swimming aide that Julia is sporting below?

 That thing is fabulous!! Julia has blossomed as a swimmer since we strapped it to her this year.  She's grown confident enough to float, swim underwater, jump in unassisted, and even try swimming WITHOUT the aide!  Plus, as she gets better, we can take off a layer as needed so that she is swimming more and more on her own.  I must publicly thank Kyle for recommending it, as she is our professional pool guru.

 I have only taken the kiddos to the pool solo for one very good reason: Vivian.  That child is crazy. She loves the water, but every now and then she'll get it into her head that she needs to climb out and run super fast to the deep end and try to jump in.

 I kid you not, I had a panicky drowning moment while chasing her because i was still IN the water and she was out, but she was trying to jump in to the 5'6" area and I COULDN'T TOUCH THE BOTTOM. So, I was trying to push her out of the water while trying to keep my head above.  I finally pushed her back hard enough that she fell backwards onto the pool deck and I hollered at Evan to come help me. (To be fair, he was helping Julia on the other end of the pool and couldn't see me...because he was doing handstands.  But, he rushed as soon as I hollered, so no worries.)  Vivian wasn't even phased, she thought I was roughhousing.  Crazy baby.  Anyhoo, as the summer has progressed, Vivian has gotten much better about listening, so going to the pool has been fun!

(Just for the record, Elisabeth spends 80% of her time underwater when we are at the pool, and is very hard to photograph the few minutes I have the camera out.  I am not deliberately neglecting to post pictures of her. Thank you.)