A week in NC

The boys and I spent the majority of this past week at my parents. But before I get to that, I wanted to note Mason was determined last week to break his nose. He fell four times in three days (once into the large cement ball at Target; down the steps from one of our barns; on a sidewalk at Hudson's BBQ; and then Levi pushed him down in the gravel at our house). Each time, he scraped his face and his nose took a beating. Poor boy! He never actually broke it but it scared me every time. Mason is such an adventurous boy...I have to watch him closer because of this. And thinking back, Levi was just starting to walk at this age (15 mo), whereas Mason has been walking almost 4 months. So here he is, sporting some of those scrapes.

A highlight of our visit to Papa and GinGin's was the back driveway getting prepped for paving. Papa has spent a lot of time fixing washouts, etc. on Grandma's driveway but finally has had enough. So in come the pavers! Wednesday morning a motorgrader and backhoe arrived, making Levi and Mason two very happy boys!

Mama's peach trees are loaded with peaches. They're beautiful, especially considering she and Papa do not spray pesticide. Mason and Levi had fun picking them up.

It was a HOT week up there. We left the heat of Columbia, hoping to have cooler weather, but it was just as hot (upper 90s all day every day). Levi still wanted to play outside, especially with Joshua's old Tonka equipment. This crane was his favorite.

Mason charging down the driveway.

Up close with the peaches. Lovely!

Papa has done a lot around their property. These rockpiles are neat--all rocks collected from Elk Creek.

It was a good trip. I got to see two friends from high school and their kids, as well as have dinner with my cousins Heather and Lewis at the fantastic Italian restaurant Lewis works out. The drive to and from took longer than usual because I had to stop for lunch (followed by potty breaks for the almost-potty trained Levi). But it's always worth it--one of the pluses of me being a stay-at-home mama is that I can just load up the boys and go for the week.

Back at home, I whipped up this bag for a friend's daughter's 2nd birthday. I'm excited about it! My new Brother sewing machine is fantastic!

A way to spend the evening: Biting fly catching!

Some folks play the Wii, others build block castles. Maybe you take a walk around your neighborhood. But if you live at our house, you get to ride around after supper and catch flies. It's a big sport here, thanks to the overly healthy biting fly population. Ashley is determined to wipe out these pests and has developed an interesting method of attack: sticky papers taped to his truck windows. Come along for a ride and see what I mean.

Starting off on the journey. Fresh sticky paper taped down. 

First victim on my side. There are hot beds of these guys, one of them being down by the highway.

Cruising around the back, a few more bite the dust (or the sticky goo). If you look hard, you can see Mason in my front lap. This is a full family affair for that after-supper time when it's really too hot to play outside but not quite time to go to bed.

Cruising around the back. I show so many pictures of the front of the house--thought you would like to see the back, too.

Another lap complete. Look at these things!

Apparently they like curved objects, which explains why they land on the side mirrors.

Ashley tallying up his destruction.

Over 45 flies caught in a 20 minute period. Thanks, Ashley!

A Festive Fourth!

Fourth of July in our neck of the woods is a big deal. There's the Peach Festival in Gilbert (annual event for over 50 years), complete with a July 4th parade. But beyond that, folks seem to really care about this holiday. Houses are decorated, people have cookouts, kids dress in red, white and blue. It's great! To get in on the action, I decorated our house. She's perfect for decorating!

I'm especially excited about the pleated flags that I found on Amazon to hang on the porch rails. This just says American farmhouse to me!

We had friends and family over for a July 4th celebration on July 3. What fun! It's what I always envisioned for our house...lots of people relaxing, having fun, and kids everywhere. We had three kiddie pools and a bouncy house (thanks to my good friend Susan for that addition!).

The kids had a blast.

My friend Claire, who I used to work with at USC, and her husband Matt. We hadn't hung out in so long...so glad they could come so we could catch up!

Lots of kiddos and parents...eating popsicles here!

And more popsicles on our front porch. Couldn't get more perfect than this if you ask me!

The boys got to see their first parade on July 4. The Gilbert Peach Festival Parade is a classic parade. My friend Susan and her family joined us. Thanks to Carey and Kleck for ferrying us over to the parade from Ashley's parents (nice to have a big golf cart!). Ashley parked his truck the day before so we would have a good spot to watch.

Zack and Mason watching the band coming.

Levi watching. Carey is in the golf cart down below.

One of the old Gilbert fire trucks. Neat!

The Peach Queens. What would a festival be without beauty queens?!

And you can't have a peach parade without peaches decorating the floats. I really like this one because they made peaches for the tractor wheels!

And this just cracked me up. The parade had all sorts of participants, from the local high school band to Absolute Auto Glass to this group of hillbillies. Funny!

Ashley's parents usually run the Country Store for the Peach Festival, where they sell all sorts of peachy products (my favorite is the peach drink). All the proceeds go back to supporting the Gilbert park.

Levi, looking so much older and serious!

And Mason had fun snatching up the American flags.

Back to our house...I made a red and blue flag bunting to hang over our dining room window. Not hard and super cute! I loved the simpleness of it.

In case you can't tell, we had a great holiday weekend. It was perfect!

More on the garden

Last year I canned pickles for the first time using my Aunt Tib and Uncle Zelotese's cucumbers. This year our garden is producing enough pickling cucumbers that I've made 14 pints of dill pickles already! I'm especially excited about the baby cukes that I pickled because those are my favorite size pickles.

More of our garden bounty. Notice the slender white eggplants in the back. These are Asian eggplants. Tender and tasty! Ashley likes to slice them thin and fry them.

Our garden...you can tell the cucumbers have taken over 1/3 of the space.

Ashley and Papa planted a separate section of corn (pictured here on the left).

The tomatoes and beans are coming along, too!

Tuesday I made a honey lime salmon in the oven and then added zucchini, squash and carrots to couscous (with sesame oil and soy sauce). Yummy!

VBS and Garden Bounty

One of our goals when we moved out to our new house was to have a garden. Because we were a little late planting one, Ashley bought plants instead of seeds. He plowed the area, added composted soil and planted the garden himself (I watched the kids). It's turned into a beautiful space that we all enjoy. Ashley added pinestraw between the rows and two irrigation heads (to keep the garden from wilting in this "famously hot" South Carolina heat).Here's the garden a few weeks ago. I'll have to add a current picture soon. More on the garden in a minute...

Last week Levi went to his first Vacation Bible School (where he went to preschool this past year). He had a big time, coming home with a crown on the first day.

Mason and I had a big time hanging out by ourselves.

Happy 3 year old!

One morning Mason and I weeded the front bed. It takes a lot of weeding to keep this place looking good. Ashley sprayed weeds this past week to help cut down on the big stuff.

Here's our clawfoot tub. Although I've concluded my That New House blog, I'll still share house stuff here. Because that's what I do :O). The boys love this tub (I do, too).

Back to the garden (a place that has few weeds thanks to newspaper and pinestraw between the rows--I hated weeding the garden growing up so this makes me happy!)...We're getting lots of squash and cucumbers right now. Lots of them. So I'm trying out all sorts of recipes.

I made Summer Squash in Parchment (Mark Bittman recipe) and wilted mustard greens (greens from one of Ashley's employees). Delicious.

Made a great meal with grilled chicken, wild rice and the veggies. Mason even ate a few of the mustard greens.