The Competition Is On....

Poppa, the competition is on......our seeds have sprouted, here we have marigolds, sweet william and tomatoes. Yesterday we planted some peppers (doubt they'll grown, I found the seeds packets on the garage floor, chances are they've been there for years). Today we bought broccolli, beans and petunias. Once we've transplanted seeds outside, we'll start the next batch.

So - who's in the lead?

Oh, and when Ben read his letter (which he did almost entirely by himself), his first question was...."so, what's the prize, do you think it will be chocolate?"

Emma Prusch Farm

Today we went to Emma Prusch Farm in San Jose, it's a very small farm with only a few animals, even so, the boys had fun.

The first thing Ben discovered were the old tractors, which he immediately wanted to climb on, and of course, Jonathan had to copy his big brother.





The first animals we checked out were the chickens and roosters, then we moved on to the barn to look at the cows. Jonathan was OK until a cow started moo-ing, then he wasn't so sure. Ben was brave enough to pet Rusty the cow.




We headed to the other side of the barn to look at the pigs, sheep and goats.

The Naughty Chair

Dinner tonight was a fight. Jonathan didn't want to eat. So, instead of sending him to his bedroom, we tried a new tactic....the Naughty Chair. Bill positioned the chair in the living room facing the fireplace. Jonathan was sat on it - 2 minutes "jail time" - yes, he wasn't real happy about it, but the tears were really crocodile tears. After about a minute the tears stopped, his back turned to us, swinging his legs....but....he did finish his dinner.

Making a Birthday Cake

To celebrate Bill's birthday (albeit a day early) we decided to surprise him with a chocolate cake. OK, it wasn't that much of a surprise, I'd pre-warned him we were going to start baking and therefore please stay out of the kitchen, but, as far as Ben was concerned it was a surprise. While it was baking, Ben stood in front of the oven to "hide" the cake, and several time he whispered to me, as quietly as any 5 1/2 year-old can whisper "shhhhhh, Dad doesn't know what's in the oven" - yeah right.

As always, the highlight of the entire process was licking out the bowl...