Tomato Seeds

Yesterday I stopped by $1 Store where I found 4 packs of flower and vegetable seeds for $1. Pefect for a science project for the boys. 12 packs of seeds later we headed home.

Today we planted the tomato seeds. I poured the seeds onto a plate, Ben started putting them on the soil, Jonathan thought the seeds were a snack and ate them.


My expectations are low on harvesting any fruit - it will be a miracle if the seeds/plants survive. Between the dogs and the deer, the chance of us picking a tomato is probably zero.

Lexington Reservoir

This morning, instead of taking the dogs to the beach, we headed to the reservoir. The boys had a blast. Ben went off exploring with Dad and the dogs, they saw a red-tailed hawk while Jonathan and I splashed in the water.

Both boys loved throwing rocks in the water





As we were leaving I spotted a salamander, of course, Ben wanted to hold it.

May The Force Be With You

Jonathan loves to play with Ben's light sabars - despite them being almost the same size as him. Of course, it usually ends in some kind of sibling rivalry. Notice Rika - she HATES the light sabars, almost as much as she hates the vacuum.

Happy Valentine's Day

To celebrate Valentine's Day - Friday, Ben had a Valentine celebration at school. All the kids exchanged cards followed by baking Valentine cookies.

Ben, Jonathan and I baked a chocolate/strawberry cake for Bill.

Tonight, after dinner, Ben tried one of his valentine lollipops (which he didn't like) and Jonathan enjoyed a piece of cake (oh, and once Ben's lollipop had been thrown away, he decided he'd prefer a piece of cake)

Rainy Weather = Painting

The weekend was grey, dull, rain, blah. We stayed home the entire weekend, actually, we stayed in our jammies most of the weekend (except Bill, who worked hard shoveling and raking wood chips). The boys played, read, crayoned, wrestled, made play-dough monsters and painted.

Jonathan - you're crazy

Jonathan found Ben's camera in the toy box - and - our little engineer immediately knew what to do with it. He held it up to his eyes (granted it was the wrong way around), said "cheese", pressed the button and took a photo.




Jonathan loves books, I know, most kids like to look at books, but he really loves them. 90% of the time he wanders around the house with a book in his hand, saying "a book, a book, a book", then, he'll sit on the floor next to where we are standing, open his book, and look at each page. The moment we walk away, he picks up the book, moves to our new location, sits down, opens his book, and looks at each page. I was getting the bath ready for the boys, and of course, Jonathan and his book had to follow me.

Water Boys

Bath-time in the Ross household is always a very noisy and very wet (for the entire bathroom and Mom) affair. Both boys LOVE water, they would stay in the bath until the water is cold - and still say it was warm and could they stay longer. The only part Jonathan doesn't like is when his fingers and toes turn to prunes, he holds out his hands, gives me a very serious look and shouts "Mommy, Mommy, help"

Wood Chips

It's been a busy weekend. Last weekend we planned we'd do something fun with the boys this week - but like all good plans.......

Friday morning we got a knock on the door, it was a guy from one of the local tree companies, he'd got a truck full of wood chips and wondered if he could dump them in our front yard - so Bill said "yes"......OK, they are the best wood chips we've ever received, completely dry and 100% wood (no leaves, etc.), but, this truck was a lot bigger than the usual loads we've received, which means, a lot more work for us.

Seriously, these photo do not do it justice, the pile (in real life) is HUGE. We've spent a couple of hours each day (which is all our poor backs/arms/legs can stand) over the last 3 days and we're still far from done.