First (Official) Day of Summer Break

Our first full day of summer break was great. The boys and I slept in. I'm not sure what time we actually got up, but it was after 9:00 the last time I looked at the clock this morning, and I rolled around a little while longer. I finally hopped up actually feeling like I got a full night's sleep for a change.

I made what we normally have on Saturday mornings for breakfast - bacon, eggs, and biscuits -- even though it is just Friday. We had all day, no plans, so why not? I've been growing herbs in hanging pots on the back deck and one of my favorites is dill -- we eat A LOT of dill for some reason. So, of course I'm growing dill along with mint, oregano, and basil. I've always put dill in the kids scrambled eggs -- not sure why, I guess because I put it in mine -- not sure why I do that either -- I just do.

Well, today I didn't put the usual dry Kroger dill in the eggs. I decided to use my fresh dill because it's growing very fast -- if you watch if for a few minutes I swear you can see it growing -- the mint is growing even faster. It must be due to the Miracle-Gro potting soil I splurged on and planted them in and the Miracle-Gro food I've been giving them. I was afraid the kids wouldn't eat the eggs with fresh dill since it looks more like skinny little leaves than pepper, so I decided to add the fresh dill to mine after the eggs were done.

I saw Hayden's frown when he approached the table. "Mom, my eggs -- where's my dill?" he asked. I explained to him about the fresh dill, and he immediately hopped up, went out to the deck, snapped off a sprig of dill, walked back to the table, pulled the little leaves of dill off the stem, and tossed them onto his eggs. Then he gobbled them up.

Brandon, of course, was perfecly fine without the dill leaves. His eggs were covered in the usual -- parmesan cheese -- so he was good.

Between the dill and parmesan, I'm not sure they actually even know what eggs taste like.

Next we fed Swimmy and Swan. Have I told you about our new pets? They are guppies Hayden brought home from school. It was either fish, centipedes, or milipedes. I was really pleased with the fish although Hayden really wanted a milipede. I wouldn't have known what to do with the milipede.

I went out and got Swimmy and Swan a little aquarium the day after they arrived and they are as happy as can be living in the aquarium on a bar stool behind our kitchen table. They have a great view of the herbs outside the window. And I swear Swimmy gets excited when he knows it's feeding time. We feed them after our breakfast and our dinner and I really think he knows. I have to walk past the aquarium to get to and from my chair, and he zooms to the front of the tank and pace swims back and forth, back and forth until Hayden and Brandon come around and feed him. Swan calmly waits in her little cave and usually captures the first few bites from food that is sinking toward the bottom. Then she slowly swims to the top and gobbles up whatever Swimmy hasn't woofed down, which isn't much. He is a little pig.

Right after they came to live with us, Hayden told me that Swan was a girl. I asked him how he knew. He said, "daddy said so." I said, "well daddy wouldn't know if a fish was a boy or a girl." He said, "yes he does, he's smart, and he said Swan is pregnant." I said, "I can't tell, so I doubt daddy can tell." He said, "well daddy is smarter than you, so he knows." I'm really hoping Swan doesn't have any babies so I can be smart again.

After breakfast we wandered down to the garden to replant tomatoes -- I lost mine in the flood of 2009. Oddly enough everything else survived although it all appears to have suffered a stunted growth. In fact, it all looks like I just planted it today -- they've been in the ground for almost four weeks now.

I do have two cherry tomato plants in hanging containers on the deck that are around two feet tall and very bushy already. They weren't affected by the flood since they were hanging on my covered deck. It's kind of funny, I thought I was buying those hanging cherry tomato plants like Daddy had on his back porch last year, but apparently they aren't the hanging variety. They just grow straight up. They're going to look a little funny, but I actually think they are going to do very well in my hanging baskets, so I'm leaving them there.

We squeezed a couple of pea plants that Hayden brought home from school into the garden too. I'm not sure what pea plants need or how much space they require, but I hope it's not much. I guess I'll find out, if they survive.

After that, we picked strawberries - lots and lots of strawberries. This is the third year for my strawberry patch and they came in full force this year. I don't treat them with anything, so the critters get to the majority of them, but of the berries that were ripe today, we salvaged about a quart. We tossed about a gallon, seriously. And there are TONS more out there. They are everbearing so they produce some all summer, but right now is the best picking time.

After we were done berry picking... I mean tossing, I turned the sprinkler on the garden. As if there were a switch connected to Hayden from the sprinkler he began losing his clothes instantly, and he didn't have much to lose - just some underoos and a t-shirt. He stripped off the t-shirt, and I assumed he was stopping there. You'd think at almost seven he'd have a sense of modesty, but nope -- off went the underoos until I said, "what are you doing?" "I don't want to get my underoos wet," he said, as if I should have known what he was doing. Of course I told him to put them back on which he grudgingly did.

Speedy Brandon appeared on the deck steps, in the short amount of time it took for Hayden and me to have our conversation, wearing his swim trunks. Apparently he has the switch too, but his switch tells him to get into appropriate attire as quickly as possible. This is an odd role reversal. You'd expect Brandon to drop drawers in an instant and Hayden to run in after the swimtrunks, but for some reason it didn't go down this way. They must be rubbing off on each other. Hayden decided to hop into his swim trunks too after he saw Brandon.

A little while later, after sprinkler play, I planted petunias out front while the boys played close by. Hayden, apparently got a craving for strawberries because he went in and came out eating a dark-red, juicy, warm strawberry. Yes, he washed it first -- that was the first question I asked too. Warm strawberry juice dripped down his chin and onto the sidewalk. It looked delicious so we all headed inside so Hayden and I could eat some strawberries. They were the perfect combination of tart and sweet and were still warm after being picked about an hour earlier. They were heavenly yummy. I stood at the sink eating one after the other and tossing the tops down the garbage disposal. Hayden had a small bowl full and dipped some in honey.

Soon after our strawberry feast we were out back again. I planted beet seeds in a large pot on the deck and put some petunias in pots. Hayden and Brandon spread their beach towels on the deck, sat on them, and played some Gameboy games.

Brandon has decided he wants a Batman room so I spent a little time in his room this afternoon trying to figure out how to do it. I showed him some Batman rooms on the internet. We've decided on a Gotham Cityscape at night. Midnight blues for the sky and black for the buildings at night with white for the windows that will appear lit. I'll paint a yellow Batman signal coming from one of the buildings. The cityscape will cover two walls. I will paint glow-in-the-dark stars. The small window wall will be solid black with glossy black Batman faces and bats stamped all over it to give it texture and depth. The last wall will be bottom half midnight blue and top half Batman gray with a glossy black stripe between the two. A jumbo peel-n-stick Batman will be on the gray part. I'm still trying to decide if I want to go super dark and paint the ceiling as well -- make it feel like his own little bat cave.

I know... I'm talking as if I have a clue how to create all of this, but I'm going to try to make it work because that's what mommies do. It's mostly just geometric shapes so I think I can handle it. It's not like I actually have to paint Batman or anything. We went to Home Depot and picked out our colors and we have Batman ordered. I'm praying he doesn't decide he wants a Scooby Doo room tomorrow.

Hayden wants a Pokemon room. I told him I'd work on it next. Brandon's room will be all that is dark and mysterious. Hayden's will be all that is light and happiness. Interesting.

We ended our day with some yummy cherry limeade's at Sonic. Back at home, I noticed Swimmy pace swimming while H and B were upstairs with daddy so I fed him and Swan.

Ah! Thank God for herbs and sprinklers and unexpected fish pets and warm, ripe strawberries and Batman and cherry limeades and smart daddies and Home Depot and Miracle-Gro and sleep-in days and bacon, egg, and biscuit breakfasts. And most of all, thank God for a great and lazy first day of summer break, and may the rest of our summer be filled with more days just like it.

Oh, and thank God our pool opens tomorrow -- if you can't find us this summer, that's where we'll be.