the garden in progress

checking on the mandarin oranges...
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Here's a shot of our mandarin tree, which is doing much better than we ever expected it to! They're not quite ready yet, but even in their "unripe" stage, they taste amazing! The rest of the garden is looking pretty terrible -- we have lots of weeding to do yet (though we did a fair amount 2 weekends ago) and we still have to prep the beds for this year's heirloom tomato attempts.

To date, we don't have a good solution in place to stave off gophers and deer, though we're strategizing when we can.

In the works for this year (in addition to the heirloom tomatoes) are some organic potatoes (thanks to a friend of our's who tipped us off on the possibility of growing our own and split an order of seedling potatoes with us), and some strawberries and cherry tomatoes that we're planning on planting in kid-friendly containers (so's the kids can happily self-harvest)!

Our kaffir lime tree is just huge and is bearing tons and tons of fruit....You can see part of it just behind Tom and Dylan....The fruit is not worth eating at all -- too bitter -- but the zest is apparently useful in Thai cooking (as are the leaves, of course). My mom had the great idea of selling some lime leaves online. I was skeptical at first, but after seeing what they sell for, Tom and I decided to publish a trial listing on eBay and, lo and behold, we sold some! Our tree won't make us rich, but making a few bucks off a tree just thriving in our backyard is kind of cool...!

enjoying the long days
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Since the time change, Dylan and I have been going out into the garden every evening to do a little weeding (me) and a little water play and bubble-blowing (Dylan). We'll post progress of the garden as it progresses...!

of walks and Elmo

Reisz boy
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Last weekend, Mark, Yu-chen and Ellie came over for a visit and, lucky for us, the drizzly morning turned into a gorgeous afternoon! After brunch at Zachary's downtown, we headed for a walk along West Cliff.

Ellie and Dylan
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Both kids thoroughly enjoyed watching the surfers and the waves. As you can see, Dylan eventually got pretty tired. Ellie wanted to push his stroller, and she did such a good job of it, Dylan actually fell asleep! Incidentally, Dylan's been toting that little baby Elmo around everywhere! He takes him to school, reads stories to him, pats his back to put him to sleep, shares his food and drink with him, makes magna tiles chairs for him to sit on, and long train tracks for him to play with (Tom or I have to make little Elmo's fuzzy arms push trains along tracks!), and all sorts of things...! Thanks, Grandma Sharon, he's lovin' it!!

dylan's new 'do and doin' stuff

kissy lips
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We had a very busy weekend this past weekend -- two birthday celebrations for friends with younger siblings who just turned 1 -- and we saw Taliana both days (after the parties), AND Dylan got his hair cut.

"Hey, look at me!"
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

At Ava's bday, he did a lot of swinging and climbing, and playing in the sand.

choco-face
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

At Elyas's party, he played with blocks, slid down Amirah's indoor slide and gobbled up his chocolate cupcake.

kids with their medals
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

With Taliana, they wore butterfly wings, rode "trains", and did a whole lot of running around with their running medals on...! The kids are playing together so well these days, we're able to get through at least 1 lengthy game each time we get together!