Old Lady Gardener # 120 -I need to plant but…

Mother’s Day has come and gone with joy and a bit of tiredness at the end of the day. It was a great sunny day here that turned to summer hot about mid day. The temperatures reached into the 80’s and our cool weather bodies had no idea how to handle the heat. (Yes, I know that 80’s may seem cool to some of you but here 80’s would be July and August temps not May.)

We had a lovely brunch and then my daughter and I took to sorting out the remains of the 200 some plants we started in my sun room. She was taking her share of the plants home to be put in the garden whenever she had a moment. I was left with my share which still over flows the hoop house.

These are mine to plant

It has been great fun growing these little seedling but now I move on to where are they really going to go in the garden. I had ideas and all of them have changed as the plants have been growing. I think my problem is I imagined the plants as full grown and flowering. At the moment they are small and weak looking little guys. I know they have potential and will grow into beautiful plants but in the state they are in now I am afraid to put them out into what feels like the wild world.

They have been protected from cold and bright sun. Now they can handle the changing temperatures and are doing well with the heat of the sun if I keep them watered (little pots dry out much quicker that the soil in the garden). Once out in the garden they have to deal with worms, bugs, mold, RABBITs, chipmunks, squirrels and birds. That is a great force of possible ways to get eaten.

Did you notice the caps for rabbits? They are my biggest concern. They eat everything it seems. I have read about so many plants that rabbits won’t eat. I plant those and the next day there is just the small remains of a plant and a few roots. The wild rabbits have been having gourmet dinning in my backyard. It is an expensive way to garden and feed rabbits. Now I have these young plants I have nurtured for months. I don’t really want to put them out to be eaten the same night.

I can put a lot of cayenne pepper around each plant or group of plants but as soon as it rains or I water I would need to repeat that process. I could fence but it is a large garden and that would be a great deal of fencing that just looks bad. Writing about it now makes me wonder if that is what I will need to do. Fence the area until these tender plant grow up to much stronger plants. Although I know last summer the rabbits eat even my big plants.

Geez – how do other gardener to this. When growing from seed how do I have big enough plants to put out in the garden? How do I handle the rabbit population? The bugs, worms and insect don’t really harm the plants unless it is an infestation and the squirrels really just dig up plants and then I replant them if I catch them before their roots dry out. But Rabbits are a different story all together.

I wonder about large commercial gardens. What are their plants for critters who like to eat everything? I suppose most of them use high tunnels that can protect the plants from animals. Darn it! No room for a high tunnel here in a home garden.

So on this note – I am off to pull the fences from the front gardens that were protecting the tulips from the rabbits and move them to the back garden to protect that new seedling. The tulips are fading and I am picking them for inside arrangements before they completely fade away. It the heat continues they will be gone by the end of the week.

Last of the Tulip bouquets

on of these popped up very cool but I did not order it

I will keep you posted on the battle of the little seedling and the rabbits. We will see who wins?

At the moment the rabbits are winning with the plants that are already growing in the garden. Does any one know where I can get cayenne pepper cheaply? A trip to Trader Joes might have to fit into my day! PS Trader Joes was out of cayenne pepper – I am wondering if others are fighting the rabbits today as well.

Happy Gardening!

OLG Old Lady Gardener #119 – Practice makes Perfect??

I taught for a long time! Retired in my mid 60’s and I can still hear my voice saying “practice makes things Perfect”. Well, darn not really. The idea of doing something over and over until you get it right or perfect sounds absolutely scary to me. Yet I know I said it over and over again to students and my own children.

So why did it take me till 72 (almost) to understand that it is not repetition that works. Practice for me as a child and sometimes as a teacher was to do the same thing over and over. Practice those multiplication facts over and over – flashcards and timed tests. Play that piano or violin piece another time, now again. Take those three lines and write them again – yes your handwriting will get better. (Now I think how god awful it all was and maybe still is.)

I need to be honest here – I taught this way for many years but did change over time – mainly because I was bored and I knew this did not work for me as a kid. How many handwriting sheets did I do as a kid and still had the worst handwriting ever. Piano – well that was a lost cause for me which now I feel bad about. I would love to be able to play. I hated practicing. I hated doing things over and over again. (It was also true when I taught lower elementary that I hated doing the calendar every day over and over again.) I hated repetition.

Yep – repetition is good and helpful. Yep – routines are important, especially for little ones but even us old folks feel some comfort in a routine.

So what am I saying here?

Daffodils from the garden

Well, I have been learning about botanical painting and that also means drawing. My pencil or pen control has never been great – example the bad handwriting. But in my art classes every time we start a new project we are drawing. We are working to prefect this drawing to make the plant look real. We are looking at fine details – leaf edges, size of stems or leaves or flowers, are there imperfections in the leaf and if so where, how do we add shading to make this plant look 3d. Then we trace what we drew on to our watercolor paper. The next step is to begin painting – first with broad strokes with water wash of faint color and then later adding detail to each section. We are looking at this plant over and over. We are working with each little part many times. The difference here is that each time we are taking new steps. We are working on the same plant and same skills but for different reasons. Each time we make a change in the project we are working on. The same but not the same.

Rough sketch for tracing and pencil work for shadows – getting better

This morning I needed to draw a daffodil to be ready for tomorrows class. I was putting it on tracing paper then moving it to watercolor paper. My first drawing was great but really too small. It was not quiet right. So I checked my measurements and tried again. Yep, I was drawing the plant again. I was practicing but in a very different way.

I have been taking classes every 6 weeks since last September. I have have been drawing in another nature journal on and off since last summer. Every time I am drawing something different. I might be using a pen or a pencil or painting. I have not thought about these as practice that I do over and over.

But it is exactly what has been happening with each project my skills improve. I remember more to measure more, my hand seems to be able to make the stems or leaves more quickly and they look better with each plant I try. I still have a long ways to go but the change in my drawing startled me this morning.

Rose thorns in process

I also sat down last night to write in my journal and there was a smooth and readable script across the page. My handwriting was so much better then it ever was. It makes sense since I now have more control over the drawing pencil and the paint brush. (You have to have control when painting tiny thorns on a stem of a rose bush or the pussy’s on the pussy willow stem.Both os these have a ways to go but I am learning and having fun.)

Pussy willow in process

I also watched over the last few years my grandson play with number blocks, watch a short 12 minute show on different number concepts and songs. He was playing with numbers every day and everyday it was different. We played games and asked questions and we counted things he saw at the park. All of it just for fun. Now at 4 and 1/2 he quickly adds, subtracts and multiples in his head. He understand division and sometime even sort that out with a bit of thinking. Yes he is a number geek and clearly has a gift for math but still his skill came by playing with numbers in all different kinds of ways.

The same thing happened with Physical therapy. The PT lady gave me four exercises and told me to do them daily. Yes you guessed it, my dislike of repetition came in and I went hunting on line to find a person working on the same issue but with a wide variety of exercises. A 15 to 20 minute routine each day but each day was different working a different group of muscles but all working to support and strengthening the same issue. A great deal more fun and helpful.

Or in the garden – if I do one task over and over I get a sore body and hate gardening but if each day I do something different I get stronger, I am engaged and the whole process is so much more fun.

None of this learning came about by doing the same thing over and over. It is not about repetitive practice. It was about working the same skill often, that is for sure. I can give me more examples but really you don’t need more repetition.

The idea is variety is the spice of life. We are doing the same thing but differently. We are engaging our brain or body – well really both to learn a new skill. If we break down what is happening we are really just being wholistic in how we approach our learning. We are seeking new learning from many different sides or ways and then letting our brain and body develop naturally. We are also having fun with what ever it is we are doing. We all know we learn more when having fun.

So try it – what is something you want to learn or do but don’t what to practice it over and over? Take the time to find all the ways that might help you to learn that skill or strengthen that set of muscles and then have fun with it. The change won’t happen over night but one day you will stop and go hey – I can do this now and I couldn’t a while back.

Life is interesting when you mix things up a bit. Just practice doing things differently!

OLG Old Lady Gardener #118 Slow steps into the garden

It is a perfect chilly rainy Sunday afternoon. I am sitting in a coffee shop with a hot cup of Chai tea and thinking about gardens. What else would one contemplate on a rainy afternoon in the spring?

The rain is so needed in our area that I just can not complain. I will need to find time to squeeze in garden tasks this next week. Hopefully there will be a few days of sun or at least drier so I can get a few more garden beds weeded and begin some “early” planting.

It is funny how I thought a few months ago when we had no snow that this would be a year when I would have lettuce and spinach early from the garden. I was sure we would have early, early spring peas. Nope. Not happening. Yep, we have had no snow but the temperatures have dropped each night to the 30’s and the ground temperatures have not really warmed to a place that it is worth putting seeds into the ground.

My sunroom is over flowing with plants that are getting larger and larger. I have continues to pot up each of the plants that are in tiny cells. Yesterday I moved what I thought was 24 little plants to find there were 32 of them. If they all make it we will have a garden of colorful wild flowers.

A few of these little guys like the light and warmth they are getting and have begun to set flowers already. This is a first for me – flowering before I plant them outside. The Coreopsis is flowering and a few of the pepper plants, known to be slow are setting flower buds as well. I have been picking them off since I don’t want them flowering and fruiting yet. I would prefer to get them in the ground before all that activity starts. The dahlias are leggy and I need to figure out how to support them and strengthen them before they are set out to deal with the real world of wind, rain and full sun.

The hoop house, which is the next step to going outside, is out on the deck but the nights are still to cold to put plants out there yet. Last year by April 23rd I was putting plants out in this little warming house. It is now the 28th and we are not there yet. We are not far off and the plants inside are much larger than last years plants so I guess you can call that progress. Maybe this week will bring warmer night and everything can go outside.

This has been a year of excitement about the possibility of an early growing season for this northern gardener but in reality we are just about where we are each year. Scanning photos it is hard to tell what year it is since they look so much alike. I have to look for the subtle changes in the photos. A change in a garden bed or a bush that was trimmed last year and was large and now is small is the only way to know what year I am looking at.

In this time of waiting to be outside I realize I should sit down and sort through photos – creating files for each year. I also feel like there are some plants that need to be in groups – like the tulips and daffodils. It would be good to know what we planted each year in each bed. My front tulip bed is now almost all yellow tulips – might be good to change that up for next year.

So here I am a few days from May and the planning stage is still happening.

We will watch the rain, sort photos of tulips, transplant little plants to larger pots hoping to have enough space for them, drink tea and check out what bulbs I want to buy for planting next fall.

OLG Old Lady Gardener#117 Still early spring here!

Young Hellebores first bloom

Helebore

Talk about old! The last few days I have been either walking a great deal more or working in the garden. Our weather is windy but temperatures mid day are in the low 60’s with mostly sun. So a perfect time to work. The old comes in as each morning I rise and find my hip joints stiff and my back not wanting to move.

A little over a mile walk first thing in the morning begins to loosen things up and I stand a bit taller. My movement is a bit smoother than the early morning Frankenstein walk from when I first got out of bed.

I envy my new neighbors to the north of us. A young couple in their first house. Last year most of their energy went into fixing up the inside and now they are working on the yard. (partly because a second huge branch fell from the Silver Maple leaving them with lots of work but plenty of fire wood). Last Sunday they cleaned up the flower beds, dug out a dead Nine Bark shrub, trimmed back four super large Yew bushes and chain sawed a great deal of the fallen tree limb and cut it into fire wood size pieces.

I would have been out for the count about half way through that amount of work. They were cheery and making more plans. Youth! What a wonderful thing!

I am finding one small task to do each day. You don’t see the dramatic change I noticed with the neighbors gardens but weeds are getting pulled and slowly oh so slowly I am hoping to pull this garden into shape.

The weather has helped a bit in that are night temperatures are still way to cold from me to even start bringing the small annual out of the sunroom.

wild Tulips

There are changes in the garden although hidden from most people who would view the garden right now. The tulips are starting to bloom. One tulip at a time. The daffodils in back have decided to bloom one bed at a time. So the ones along the north side are in bloom. The hill garden and south gardens are full of green leaves and I can see buds but it will be another week or so before they decide to grace us with color.

The wild tulips up front are also full of buds and early this morning they looked like they might bloom today. The forsythia bush had a quiet bloom so we are now hoping the spice bush, which gets more sun, will push more flowers for us to enjoy.

The young trees in the neighborhood are also now in bloom, It makes a glorious evening walk. Spring is just a wonderful time to be out and about. Even if my joints and back don’t like it! I Do! So walking and gardening I will continue to do. Take that old age!

OLG Old Lady Gardener#116 Wait, Wait – oh now hurry!

The garden season is upon us and suddenly I have more than I can possibly get done. I did try to work ahead of the season but there are so many things that just need to wait. We needed to wait for the soil temperature to rise above 50 degrees. We waited for the frost to be gone from the soil. We have needed to wait for the top soil to dry out a bit (even though we have had little snow and not much rain). Then the March winds hit and it made no sense to be raking when the leaves were just blowing all over the place.

But now it is mid April. The weather has settled a bit and it is time. I have completed the clean up of the front flower garden beds just yesterday. I like doing this because I am up close and can see what plants are returning. It is a good time to check for damage or disease on any of the plants. I also have a watch and wait list of plants that are coming up and I not sure that what they are. Are they really something I planted last year? At this early stage I leave them be but make a note to come back and check on them each week.

Squill after clearing for 1 hour

Blue Squill – closed up today due to rain

This also is the time to work on reducing or eliminated the invasive plants like Squill or Bellflower. They are both lovely when blooming but they literally take over the garden if not removed. An example is Squill. There is a patch of it on the Southeast corner flower bed. I started yesterday to remove it. Digging carefully and deeply I spent an hour or so and only managed to remove less than half of the patch. This cute little plant had what felt like thousands of tiny little bulbs. The little bulb are the size of a pin head. It I leave any of them behind they will grow. ( I know there are some left behind – there was no way I could get every tiny plant but I am working on it.) This will be a several years project since I really do not want to use toxic chemicals that would eradicate it more quickly.

The daffodils have begun to bloom and the returning perennials are now showing up. When I look closely there are flower buds on some of the tulip plants as well so we are excited to see more color soon..

While working on the outside clean up and exploration, to find what is growing, inside the flower seedling are growing quickly and need to be watered every other day. I am running a fan in the sunroom since I noticed a few plants were not doing well. There is this thing called damping off. Damping off is a disease of seedlings caused by several different fungi and fungus-like organisms. This disease causes emerging seedlings to collapse, often submerged in a mass of white fungal growth. I don’t see any of the fungal growth but several plants have just fallen over with weak stems. There is a fine line between enough water and to much water for these young seedlings. A fan helps to circulate the air and prevent this issue in most cases. It all feels a bit odd that I have the heat in the floor on and am running a ceiling fan at the same time. But hey, it seems to be helping.

Inside seedlings

I have fallen behind on planting. At this point I had hope to have the summer veggie seeds planted. The warm weather guys like tomatoes, cucumbers and basil plus a few other I plant inside. This keeps them warm until we are past our last frost date in May.

Outside there are cool weather crops that could go in and I have not gotten to it. Those are things like lettuce, spinach, carrots, peas radishes, cilantro, and kale. All of these grow better when it is cool out so I need to hurry with this planting. I am afraid by May it will turn hot and I will have lost my window to get this guys going.

Today is raining, which we need so not complaining just waiting for a good time to plant the cool weather veggies. Maybe this weekend! I will let you know next week!

Inside seedlings on the floor – waiting to go out to the hoop house once it warms a bit more.

OLG Old Lady Gardener #115 Up close and Personal:the green of the garden

Early spring has finally reached us here in Minnesota. Our night time temperatures are staying above freezing most nights. We are actually getting rain and not snow or snow flurries. The sound of rain on the windows and roof is glorious in that we are still in the 3rd or 4th year of a drought. The garden is really beginning to wake up. I no longer need to crawl around the garden beds to see if there are plants there. I can actually see them pushing their way through the mulch or old leaves of last year.

I have cautiously cleaning out some of the garden beds. I have waited for the bugs to emerge. Now I need to really remove the remains of last years growth and old leaves that have blown into the gardens. I started the other day hoping just to remove some dreaded Creeping Charlie but that led to clearing away the leaves from the Lily of the Valley and then I just kept going.

This morning I carefully walked around the yard to see what was happening. The whole area outside the beds there is a scant amount of grass and a lot of mud. So walking is not easy but oh the plants to be found were wonderful. Little spots of green all over the yard. The green comes in so many shades it is fabulous to see. There is the bright yellow greens of the rhubarb leaf and the blue green of sedum or the daffodil leaves. There a true green with red edging around the tulip leaves and then a brownish green on the Hellebores stems. I wanted to take my paints out to see if I could match each of the colors but the wetness of the ground made it hard to sit anywhere. I already had soaked knees from crawling around with my camera. Yes – know I said I did not have to crawl this time but I needed to get up close and personal with some of the tiny guys.

It will be weeks or months before most of these plants have flowers but for now the miracle of green, whatever shade it is, is a wonder to behold. I am confused by those who only look from a distance or who do not look at all. They are missing so much of a world around them. Each plant begins its growth in a different way and with different colors and different timing. Thinking about how they evolved is mind boggling, How do they know it is time to grow? I believe most are waiting for the right set of temperature and lighting before they decide it is time. The red coloring is an early protection from UV rays for many plants, it can protect some from cold, it protects from being eaten, it may signal a stress response in others or it may simply be a coloring for this plant. So much to know and learn! Why would you want to miss it?

Oh dear – I went through my photos thinking I have a couple here to show you. Twenty two photos later I think wow – a bit too much to share so will see if I can narrow that down.

Below is a peek at the greens happening right now in my garden:

Hyssops -green with purple that makes it a grey color

Columbine -green with red tint that will fade as it grows

Wild Ginger – yellow green with hits of purple. This will be grey green in about a month

Penstemon Husker Red – red with a hint of green will later be green with a hit of red and white flowers

Lichen and moss – look closely there are three greens here, the grey of the lichen, and a light yellow green and then a darker green

Virginia Blue Bells – a purple green right now with just a hint of the flowers showing. These will be green with lavender flowers in mid May (the orange you see is red pepper to keep the rabbits from eating the plant.

Daffodils – blue green leaves and a more yellow green for the flower bud

Hellebore – blue green in the leaves but purple to brown in the stems – such a cool color

Peony – this will be green with white flowers in June- what a great red with green lines or spots on it. I know its not really green but I could resist sharing this great color.

Tulip leaves – a hint of blue in the green and edged in red with red tips and we don’t even have the flowers up yet.

What colors are you seeing in your garden? Not the flowers look closer and maybe crawl around a bit. It is a wonderful world when you get up close and personal!

OLG Old Lady Gardener #114 Breathing with Trees and Poetry

I was not going to post today but..

I had just finished a very chilly walk home at dusk. On this walk I needed to stop and focus on the many varieties of tree buds that were coming out on each of the small trees. These tree were just planted a couple years ago when the street was resurfaced. They are baby trees which allows us to see the beauty of each stage of development in the spring.

Our big trees are doing the same thing but it is happening so high up we don’t see and forget about the wonder around us.

Once home I sat down to read and ran across this article by Maragret Renkl – How to Breath with the Trees in the NYT Opinion section.

Not only was she linking me back to nature but she was also reminding me that April is poetry month and our poet Laureate Ada Limon is also asking us to look closely. She is asking us to find the words that will bring us back to the world around us.

(Her new book is out on Thursday – You are Here: Poetry In the Natural World)

We need to stop, look, listen and create poetry or just write words that will keep us in contact with nature.

This month is also Earth Awareness month.

So be aware, look closely and write. Then share! This is a month to re-engage with the world around us and think about how we will help others see the value in saving our planet!

Spend a little time with the trees – what ever size they are?

OLG Old Lady Gardener #113 Blessings and a bit of sorrow

Blessings! It was beautiful day inside. Outside was a bit chilly and cloud until right about now. It is7:15 pm and the skies have clears and the sun has arrive just in time to set.

Our Easter was filled with laughter, loud voices of little children, excitement and a bit of sorrow.

All in all I feel blessed and grateful. In this old age I have family, friends and a home to provide comfort for all who need it.

I have noticed after this last snow there are more birds, more songs in the air. Sometimes it is just the song a tiny bird that can lift you up.

Tonight we walked and I listened for the songs and watched for the buds that are now pushing out along the young trees down the sideways. I needed that to help me refocus from a bit of news.

You know your children no matter how old they are are still your children. When they are hurting you also hurt. So after a lovely day of egg hunts, and way to much chocolate we settle with Little Man’s Mom just to chat.

However that chat was deeper that any of us were thinking. She is struggling, their family is struggling. As she said it will all be ok but for now the road is a bit rocky. There are some personal issue that are being worked on and they will be ok – as she says.

In the mean time I am just glad to be here to listen, the help, to be with Little Man when he/they need us. I am glad to be here for them in any way they need.

Family is a blessing!

On that note I am also grateful to this writing community! Thank you for this last month of writing and sharing. You are all amazing people. Thanks also to the Two Writing Teachers for hosting and supporting this writing platform for so many years!

OLG Old Lady Gardener #112 The Hunt is Ready

Tomorrow is Easter and this funny boy wearing his mom’s glasses is excited and his mother is just as excited. Today she came by to help set up the egg hunt. Complete with messages from the Easter Bunny ( think the spring version of the Elf on the Shelf).

There will be plastic eggs and a basket at his house with a note to encourage him to get dress and brush his teeth so he can come to Grandma and Grandpa’s.

Here there is a message in chalk from the bunny and one I must hang on the door before he comes. The one here tells him in a rhyming poem to hunt for so many red, purple, yellow and blue eggs. There is one egg hidden high that an adult will discover with a note about the frogs from the bog who have also left a bucket of art materials. (note the marker on his stomach and all the drawings on the table.)

I am hoping once we make it through this adventure we will get to sit down to brunch! Not so sure Little Man will eat much but we will try.

Are we finished – oh no – once brunch is over we will connect with the neighbors for the second egg hunt that the kids have set up. It is a bit simpler but they will each have 4 eggs to find and I believe there is an Easter sign that will be delivered to go along with the hunt.

All this craziness will happen inside since the snow is still melting and the back garden is basically mud. It should all be fun, loud and interesting to see how the 2, 4 and 5 year old handle this event. They are new friends. It is the first time the parents will have met each other. We as the old folks have been the go between for the kids.

Here is to Spring! Easter Eggs and children who bring fun into our lives!

Easter eggs created by Judit Varjas, Hungary

OLG Old Lady Gardener #111 Overly Excited

When you are four years old holidays can be exciting – overly exciting! Little Man has been geared up for this next holiday for months. All of us have been keeping it cool but today it all spilled over into craziness. We are families that are not deeply tied to the religious side of Easter, but have celebrated this time as the coming of spring and sharing religious stories from many backgrounds. At four the Christian crucifixion story is not one we are going to spend time on now. That means this is a day of Easter bunnies, flowers, eggs and all things spring.

Today Little Man was spending the day with us. He came in bubbling with plans for the day. There were eggs to dye, we needed to fill plastic eggs with M &M’s for an egg hunt that he and the neighbors 4 year girl plotted out on Wednesday (who knew??) and there were cookies to be made and sprinkles were needed. Whee! So much to do.

Snag number one: came in that we needed to hard boil eggs before we can dye them. Too long! So Little Man and I took a trip to the grocery store for other needed items. We also swung by the coffee shop for apple juice and a chai for me.

While driving we sorted out the plan that we would first mix cookie dough, roll out and cut out the cookies. Then while they were baking we could dye the now hard boiled eggs. Ok, this seemed like a plan.

While mixing the dough with Little Man proclaiming this was the best day even.

We rolled out the cookies, cut out rabbits, tulips and butterflies and into the oven they went.

Suddenly I am there in the kitchen rolling, cutting and checking the oven with no Little Man. He had had enough. He had gone off to the bathroom never to return. I found him in the living with my I-pad trying to remember the code to open it. Yep, I was left to finish the cookies.

Snag two: It was lunch time and I needed a break before egg dying would happen. I was now working my way to the dog house. He was not happy with me. That was not the plan.

We pushed through since I needed to clean up the cookie mess and reset for eggs and sit down.

After struggling through lunch – basically not eating on his half, we dyed eggs. The package of dye was space oriented so we also had a small science experiment with the dyeing. Not sure how this all fits into Easter but we created a fizzing reaction with vinegar as if our eggs were taking off into space.

Snag Three: The eggs were left to dry and I declared it was time for reading and resting. I think I needed it more than he did. Although he had been yawning on and off all morning. He agreed but dragged himself upstairs.

note the space shirt

I promised we would frost cookies and sort eggs for his planned easter egg hunt after the rest. I was hoping he would drift off for a short daytime nap. He had now yelled at me at least three times about a variety of things.

We read the ending of Zita the Spacegirl and he yelled he was not tired and was not going to lay down and stormed down the steps. I found him drawing and coloring furiously. I let him be. We did receive one written note from him that stated he did not Love us – sign Mason. I did ask why and he just growled.

About 20 or 30 minutes later he stated he felt better and what would we do now. We made his eggs into planets with rings around them. We counted out M & M’s to go into the plastic eggs for the egg hunt. We found easter egg grass and made a nest for wooden eggs and fake birds.

He had settled!

Until his mom arrived and the wildness began again. Running in circles around the house, and telling us all what we were to do.

I apologize knowing their evening was not going to be fun. They had one wild, hungry, and tired kid on their hands.

I must say I was glad he was headed home. I love the dear kid but I was ready for a glass of wine, a quiet dinner and a good book.

Sunday should be interesting!