Joey's Green Beans

When we planted our garden, we made sure to include several bean plants. Green beans are one of the only vegetables Joey really likes. Most of the beans we planted were green beans, but we also have purple pole beans.I felt like we planted a ton of beans, but we haven't had a very large yield. Next year I plan to sow more of them. For now, we only had a small handful growing. And one evening, Joey asked if we could "please, please, please!!!" go out and harvest some green beans for dinner. So we went out and picked some. Like I said, it was only a very small handful. Here's Joey showing off our harvest. Doesn't he look excited? And he's excited about vegetables! Obviously, I'd like to encourage this!
Here's a close up. That's a whopping TEN green beans total. But Joey was thrilled to have them with our dinner.
Here's the thing. I've cooked fresh green beans before. I steamed them. So I thought I'd do the same with these. But since there were so few, it was hard to know how much time it really needed in the steamer. I overcooked them. One of the beans actually looked kind of burned, actually. How do you burn something in a steamer? Anyway, I took out the singed one and gave the rest to Joey. He took a bite and then instantly grabbed up all the beans off his plate and made this face:
I guess I fail at green beans.

4th of July & Kory's Birthday

For the 4th of July we all gathered at my mom's house for a BBQ & small birthday party for Kory. His birthday is on July 8th, so it makes it easy to combine the two holidays. I love a 4th of July BBQ! Here's Matt and Simon showing off the matching shirts we get every year:
Here's Korinne and her two aunties!

And here's the birthday boy. Gee, doesn't he look thrilled? It always makes it so nice when you celebrate someone's birthday and you see how happy and excited they are to receive so much attention. A second after the photo was taken, Kory blew all those candles out in a single puff. It was rather amazing, to tell you the truth. How does someone recovering from a kidney transplant manage such incredible lung capacity?

Here's Kristin enjoying her piece of cake. Tandy make the cake herself - it was a Jello poke cake, using red and blue Jello. Very patriotic! And then it was frosted in Cool Whip. Delish!
After the BBQ and the usual round of board games, we headed home. Simon was exhausted from the excitement, so I stayed home with him so he could sleep while Matt took the older kids to watch fireworks. Hope you all enjoyed Independence Day!

Sean's Birthday

On June 26th, we all gathered together to celebrate with Sean! First we had presents...

Then we had this yummy ice cream cake. Wendy bought these really neat candles that had colored flames. Can you see in the picture how the orange candles have a orange flame, and the blue ones have a blue flame? Very cool!

Of course, Kristin was happy to help blow out the candles!After the presents and cake, we sat around playing games and visiting with the family. Here's Simon and his Aunt Wendy. This is Simon's new "photo face" which appears almost every time he sees a camera. I love that cheesy grin!
Simon had lots of fun playing with Wendy that night. First, he spent some time pointing out all the different parts of her face. "Here's your forehead..."
And then he gave her a series of big wet kisses!

Simon's Trip to the Emergency Room

Last night Simon had his first trip to the Emergency Room. I doubt it will be his last. He was jumping around on some pillows and fell backwards into the coffee table. And right away, blood started dripping from the back of his head. It was awful! Fortunately, the bleeding stopped quickly - but it was obvious that the cut was bad enough that he needed medical attention. So, off we went. Simon seemed to feel fine and had plenty of energy. The Emergency Room was pretty full when we got there, and I worried we'd be in the waiting room for a long time. But it only took about a 45 minutes before we went back to a room. Well, it wasn't really a room - more of a curtained area. But you know what I mean. Simon was less than excited about having to sit and wait, especially when there was lots of fun and dangerous medical equipment sitting around calling his name.I tried to snap a picture of his head, but he was on the move most of the time. in this photo you can kind of see the spot - but we'd already cleaned up his hair. Initially, the entire back of his head was a big red mess.
It turned out that Simon needed two staples to close the wound. They had me hold down his body while two nurses held his head still. He was screaming the whole time since he hates being held down. The doctor leaned in to put the staples in and then paused to ask me if I was going to pass out. I wanted to smack her. I work in a hospital! I'm not upset because he's having a procedure! I'm upset because he's upset! Just get this over with!

Here is a photo of Simon after they had finished. Doesn't this picture break your heart? He looks so sad and pathetic!
Here's what his head looks like today:

Garden Harvest

It's an exciting time 'round the old homestead. We're able to harvest the first few vegetables from our garden. It's so exciting to have fresh produce at our fingertips. Kristin loves to come out and help pick veggies. So far we're getting zucchini, yellow crookneck squashes, and lots of cherry tomatoes. Most of the tomatoes are from the volunteer plant that came up along our fence. But there's loads more on the way! Look at how pretty our vegetables look! I love those vibrant colors.

Simon Turns Two!

Can't believe this little guy has already been with us for two whole years! For his birthday, we had the usual family dinner at our house: a BBQ (burgers and chicken) with potato salad, corn on the cob, and watermelon. And of course, birthday cake for dessert!
We got a cake from Costco, because they're fairly inexpensive - but of course, you get a TON of cake. Look how enormous that thing is compared to Simon! It's almost bigger than he is!
This piece of cake is actually WAY too big for him, but doesn't it look nice and manageable compared to the whole cake? Simon was very interested in the frosting, in particular:
He thoroughly enjoyed his cake and got it all over. Even in his ears! And he ran his fingers through his hair a few times for good measure.
Then we opened presents. Simon was particularly excited about this Wonder Pets book he received, and wanted to read it right away.
Of course, of all his gifts, I had my own personal favorite:

Star Wars in Concert

Star Wars in Concert came to San Diego in May. And, OF COURSE we had to go! Matt, Joey, Kristin, Wendy, Sean and I all had a great night out! First we went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory (a favorite, to be sure) and then we headed to the Sports Arena to geek out! Star Wars in concert is a show that hosted by Anthony Daniels, the voice of C3PO: He'd give a bit of the Star Wars story as an introduction to a certain musical piece. Then a full orchestra would perform a song from the movie while images from the films were projected on a screen. Did I mention there were also lasers? It was really an outstanding show. If this show ever comes to your town, I really can't recommend it enough! So much fun!