Scrabble flowers in the garden of shoes

Friday we put our car in the shop to get some work done. Luckily, Mike's parents are in California for a week and were kind enough to let us use their minivan while they were gone. I love it. I used to be against owning a minivan. I think it symbolized adulthood and I equated that with a bland and boring life. Poor minivan wrongly stereotyped by my young naivety. I may not want to give it back.

Ayden got new shoes. I spent the whole day tracking these down and felt very accomplished when we were heading home from a successful journey. He's not ready to tie his shoes yet although we will be practicing that this summer. We are still focusing on potty time communication. He never lets us know when he has to go. We have tried sign language, words, picture cards and a big mack button that you hit and it says, "I have to go to the bathroom." That worked the best but costs 119.00 dollars. Are you nuts? For a damn button? And the fact that it's the only thing that works means regardless of the price, my objective is to purchase it. It's a bitch to find. If you Google it it's still damn near impossible locate.

Mike and Ayden were outside tooling around in the yard and I set up my hanging tomato basket. They are just little grape tomatoes but that will be great for my salads. My neighbors are out gardening too and she gave Ayden a flower to give to me. It was so sweet.

We are definitely starting our garden back up and I would like to grow broccoli, peppers, lettuce, strawberries, herbs, potatoes, radishes, etc. I wish I had a banana tree.
Growing up in Florida I had fruit trees in my backyard so if I wanted a lemon, orange or grapefruit, I went outside and picked one. My dream is to eventually be able to grow enough food to sustain my family and a few friends whenever we need something.

We had some friends come over for Scrabble Saturday night. A little intellectual sparring and some brewskies well on into the evening. I hadn't played any board games in so long I forgot how fun it was.
Here's Mike planning out his next move.

Weekend freedom

The weekend has been a calm one. Saturday morning we went downtown to the organic grocer and picked up a few things. I love bringing my camera to take pictures of things that catch my eye. Like the alleyways. I love walking through them during the day but I would never do it at night.

I Mike's parents came Saturday night and baby sat for a couple of hours. There wasn't any particular movie that either of us wanted to see so we opted to visit friends and grab a bite to eat. Either way it was nice to be out of the house and Ayden was practically pushing us out the door. Kids need a break just like parents do.