Helping Hands

Last night Hayley and her friends Savannah and Maddy volunteered to help the Kiwanas with a back to school backpack program.  We helped them set up an assembly line of donated school supplies prior to the actual event and then we helped pass out the items (paper, notebooks, erasers, pencils, markers, etc.) to all of the other volunteers who went down the line and filled the actual bags up.  It was quite the production and it was so nice to see so many people (including a lot of teenagers) volunteering their time for such a worthy cause.  I was very proud of the girls...

The finished product:  400 backpacks stuffed with everything an elementary school and middler schooler needs to start their school year!

What I've Learned So Far

1.  There's nothing more gorgeous and delicious than a tomato that you've grown yourself.

2.  Stake your peas and beans shortly after you plant the seeds because once they start to come up they are searching for something to wrap their amazingly strong tendrils onto.  If there's no stake available, they will cling to each other and it's difficult to unwrap those sticky tendrils and redirect them.

3.  Pea and Bean tendrils are incredibly strong!

4.  Too much rain is not necessarily a good thing.  More than 2/3 of what I originally planted was drowned out by all of the spring rain.

5.  More is not always better.  When Luke and I were planting, if the package said to plant 4 seeds in a hole we thought that maybe 6 or 7 would really insure that something would grow.  Well, because of this over-planting we learned about thinning which we apparently didn't do quite good enough because our radishes didn't mature proprerly.

6.  Patience is a virtue.

Local Goods

Lovely morning spent at the Kent Farmer's Market...

Sun, Water, & Friends...

Today was an awesome day!  There's no better way to spend a sweltering summer day than on the boat with good friends.  Even though Lake Sammamish was very rough it still felt wonderful on this 95 degree day.  We did a little swimming and a lot of tubing... a good time was had by all.

McKenna and Scott.

Payton and Hayley.

Luke just lettin' it all hang out!

Staci and Payton.

My little monkey-dog, Poppy.

The Deti's and the Berkeley's.