5.18.2011

Tomatoes, beach and a relaxing week!

Thursday the 12th, we met up with some friends from Tampa to pick tomatoes... yes, MORE tomatoes!! We picked 200 pounds this time. Since it's getting to be the end of tomato season, some of the tomatoes were starting to rot and split.
 
Friday evening, Collin and Kaitlyn decided to have a garage sale. So early Saturday morning, C & K set it all up. In the sale, they sold some of the tomatoes we picked. They made about $40 in just tomato sales!
Saturday afternoon, I took Dave to a puppy meeting at SEGDI's Discovery Center in Sarasota. It was a good meeting and Dave was worn out!

Sunday, mom and dad went to a rare fruit and tree sale in Bradenton. They bought 4 Barbados cherry trees, a Dragon fruit plant and a small bush basil. One Barbados cherry has as much vitamin C as 12 oranges!
 
 
Sunday evening, we had a going away party for some good friends of ours. Mr. Kemp is in the military he and his family are moving up north in just a few days. Dad gave Mr. Kemp a Grateful American Coin to thank Mr. Kemp for his dedication to our country. Mr. Kemp found a couple other coins (ones that hadn't been packed yet!) to show us.
The kids had fun swimming, kayaking, and playing games. 
 
 
 
 
 
We had (lots) of good food, laughter and fellowship. We will miss this sweet family! 
Monday, I had a prolotherapy consultation and my first prolo treatment. It was pretty painful, but we are hoping this will help my back issue. After my appointment, since Dad took the day off of work, we decided to go down to Venice Beach. We haven't been there in years!

 
It was a little overcast and chilly for quite a while, but the sun came out eventually! Dad and mom dug through the shells C and K brought in their sifter and found several sharks teeth... this is the biggest.
 

 The new blog title!


-Meagan-

5.10.2011

Mother's Day!

I have a wonderful family! They spoil me!  I awoke to this lovely sight... and to their lovely voices singing "Happy Mother's Day". 
As is our tradition on special days, I was served breakfast in bed.  Homemade crepes with a yummy cream cheese middle and fresh fruit!  The candle was to celebrate my 18th Mother's Day
They showered me with cards and gifts and flowers...
 The children gave me a very funny card. On the front it had a picture of a mixer with chocolate cake mix dripping from the beater and it read, "Good moms let their kids lick the beaters."  On the inside it said, "Great moms turn the mixer off first".  The children each wrote me a 'limerlick' (to go along with the card).

From Kaitlyn:
 There is a woman named Diona
 No, it's not Diana
 She is sweet,
 And she is kind
 And she is my momma.

From Collin:
 My mother's last name is Boyle.
 For her family she toils and toils.
 So I'm here to say, 
 It's her special day, 
 Today we will treat her so royal.

From Meagan:
 My mom is a hot super woman,
 Who does most the cleanin' and cookin'
 She never will know
 How I love her so.
 Dad, too, thinks she's pretty hot lookin'.

Aren't they just too cute!!??   Yes, they treated me like royalty all day.  Even making me stay out of the kitchen!
Later in the evening Meagan set up a special dinner-party at Judy's.
We enjoyed barbecue ribs, yellow rice, green beans, corn on the cob, chips and salsa, and a yummy-luscious cake for dessert!  
I'm so glad I'm a mom! 
I'm so thankful for my three beautiful blessings from God.

5.07.2011

Tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes...

Thursday was such a gorgeous day with a lovely breeze and warm sunshine.  We decided we just couldn't waste such a beautiful day inside doing schoolwork... so the children and I decided to make it a 'field trip' day.  We drove to Hunsader Farm in Bradenton to pick tomatoes.  In less than two hours we picked 175 pounds of beautiful red tomatoes and we only paid $7.00! 
Big beautiful juicy tomatoes!
Here they are completely filling the back of the Mazda!
These are the hands that did all the work...    look at the dirt!

After work, then comes play!  We enjoyed looking around the farmer's market and the country store, then we met up with the Mendez family and spent an hour or so petting the animals in the petting zoo... goats, geese, a donkey, llama, emu, chickens and roosters, peacock and pea hen, a bunny, a deer, a duck, two pot-belly pigs, horses...  the children had a great time!
  This goat was very pregnant. We could touch her side and feel the baby moving! So cool!! 

Oh, you want to know what happened to all those gorgeous tomatoes?  We shared them with friends and neighbors.  We have enough left over to dehydrate a few, have BLT's for lunch, make some fresh salsa, and I want to try my hand at making freezer tomato sauce.  If it turns out well, I want to pick more tomatoes this coming week to make more sauce!  I'll let you know how it goes!!

Have a wonderful weekend and a lovely Mother's Day!
Diona


5.03.2011

after shop class..

Since the couches from the living room have been demolished and taken to the dump, we needed to re-arrange.  We decided to move the couch and chair from the family room into the living room:
Making the family room a game-craft-puzzle-sewing-scrapbooking-school room:
We are enjoying having the extra indoor play space.
 Kaitlyn and I enjoyed spending some time putting together a puzzle over the past couple days. There is one piece missing because it fell on the floor and some puppy teeth found it before we did! Can you find the missing piece?
Come join us for a game of Parcheesi sometime!!