Six years ago today...

We brought this little guy into the world. 

 Yup.  Aidan turned 6 today.  Where does the time go?  I've spent the last couple of days going through six years of pictures.  I've picked out some of my favorites.  There are a lot of them.  It was a lot of fun looking through the pictures and remembering all of the places we've been.  One thing that is constant in all of the pictures though is how happy the kids are.

He was a thinker even just days old.

Connor was very happy to be a big brother.

They spent a lot of time together.

Checking out how handsome they both were.

I think it is safe to say Aidan was teething in this picture with the drool coming out of his mouth.

Aidan always loves being outside.

In one of his favorite places to be, Nana's pool.  He is counting down the days until he's in it again.

How cute was this kid?  

Aidan rocked the Chucks.

It was amazing how many pictures I have of Aidan with food all over himself.  No wonder Corky loved him.

This is the face we call the "angry monkey".  Aidan didn't get upset all that often, but when he did he always brought out the angry monkey.  We still see it from time to time.

Out exploring again.

This is the "don't mess with me look" that he pulled off from time to time.  Too bad he was too cute for it to work.

What was I saying about food all over him?  I don't know how he fell asleep in his highchair.

He loves picking apples and pumpkins.  Thank goodness we moved up to the North where we can do so.

As Connor and Aidan get older, they still are best buddies.

Maybe I'm biased, but I think these are the two cutest kids around.

Aidan always loves to help me in the kitchen.  He's my little sous chef.

He's also very much into the arts and crafts. Here is stuffing a sock monkey tail.  Look at that determination.

Even though he looks happy here, he is not really a snow child.  He likes to go in it for a very small amount of time and then gets fussy and wants to come in.  Perhaps he is a true Florida boy.

We are so lucky to have this little guy in our lives.  He truly makes us smile and laugh all of the time.  He is a happy, easy going, adventurous, dare devil, artsy, craftsy, warm and tender hearted little boy.   He loves his big brother and Connor does a good job pretending to tolerate him even though he knows he really loves him.

RIP Rhino

Our evil hamster is gone.  Today was cage cleaning day and she was curled up in a ball.  Tim took the lid off and she didn't attack (like she usually did) and he poked her with a stick.  Nothing.  I was in the shower at the time and he comes in to say, "We have a problem".  He then tells about the passing.  He then went to tell the boys.  I heard the feet running down the hallway to go look.  When I got out of the shower, I was happy (and maybe a little concerned) that the boys weren't sad to see her go.  Connor was singing, "Ding dong, the hamsters dead".  He is a tender hearted kid usually.  Aidan wasn't too upset.  For the last week he's been begging us to feed it to the snake.  I think it's safe to say there will be no more hamsters in this house.  I can't even begin to say how much money we've spent on that beast.  

Here's the funny part of this...yes, we can find humor in everything.  Aidan is having a party next weekend.  We asked him what kind of cake he wanted.  He wants a hamster cake.  We were going to build a cake into a hamster sitting on his hind paws holding a nut.  Now Tim wants to make a dead hamster cake.  I'm trying to talk Aidan back into a Kirby cake.  I guess I have a week to try and figure that out.

RIP Rhino...although I'm sure she's headed to hamster hell.

Note to self.

Yes, it's another note to myself.

Dear Self,

Next time you take your driver's license and credit cards out of your wallet and put them into your camera case (I did this for the hockey game) make sure you put them back into your wallet before you attempt to go food shopping. Imagine how silly that would be. Oh wait, you don't have to imagine. You were a dumb ass and went to the store and spent a good 45 minutes strolling the aisles looking for good healthy eats for the week. You stood in line. You unloaded your entire cart in an organized fashion...you know, like you always do with all the boxes together, all the produce together, all the frozen together, etc. The cashier starts to reach for your first item and you open you wallet only to realize it is empty minus all the other crap you carry around in there. You uttered a bad word (thankfully the kids weren't there), you turned a brilliant shade of red, and you unloaded the groceries back into your cart in an orderly fashion. You drove 20 minutes home, grabbed your cards and drove 20 minutes back. Did you learn your lesson? I hope so...if not, read this message again frequently and learn from your mistakes.

Thanks,
Self

Now what?

This blog is called Busy Bee's Garden Experiment.  An experiment it is.  I think I've planted my seeds too soon.  They are getting so big and I'm going to have to re-pot them all before they can go outside.  Next year I will know not to plant so early.  I will admit though that we have had so much fun watching them grow and get bigger.  

zucchinis, peas and green beans

zukes!

zinnias

foxgloves.  These amaze me because they start out so tiny and get to be so big.  I can't wait to see them bloom.

This afternoon after school I caught the boys playing a game together.  

They had quite the Stratego battle going on.  It's awesome that they are less and less interested in TV these days.  Connor has started a new book series that one of his bestest friends that he likes to hang out with reads.  The Warrior series.  It's about warrior cats.  We've been reading it together and Aidan is still my little lego buddy.  Who needs that dumb ol TV anyway?  Well, I do, but I tivo everything and watch it when I can.

Not much else going on over here.  Waiting for spring to show up so that we can head outdoors!

How did I spend Valentine's Day?

With my favorite boys of course.  

We took the boys to a hockey game.  I absolutely love to go to hockey games.  I have for a long time.  The kids...not really ready to sit through full games.  This is the second time we've taken them to a game and they get bored really easily.  I guess they didn't inherit my love of the sport.  Maybe when they are a little bit older.  They actually said they enjoyed going to the baseball games more.  Huh?  Talk about boring.  I take knitting to baseball games because I'm so bored.  I like baseball games for the Guinness and sitting in the sun.  Hockey...it's fast, it's exciting and there are fights!

We were treated to a fight pretty early in the first period.

We ended up leaving between the second and third periods because the boys were getting restless and the Penguins were losing.  They weren't playing that great and I was getting frustrated.   It worked out nicely though because we beat the exiting crowd and didn't have to wait an hour in the parking lot trying to get out. 

I suppose we'll just have to wait until they are a little bit older for them to appreciate the sport.  I was hoping this year we could take them to a Buffalo Bills game in the fall.  I haven't been to a NFL game before and would love to go.  I don't think our kids would sit through a full game.  I guess we'll wait and see.

Photo Friday.

Er, I'm posting on Saturday, but I took them yesterday and then ran out of time to post.

My babies.

Christmas cactus that bloomed a little late.

These are off a plant that I grew from a cutting from Tim's Aunt Mary.  The cutting is from a plant that was his great great grandmothers.  

Zucchinis

Peas and zucchini

Heirloom tomatoes

Zinnias

Spring weather.

It got up to 65 degrees today.  It was so nice to be outside without a jacket.  Unfortunately it's not going to last.  By the end of the week it's back in the 20's and 30's.  Oh well, today was a preview of spring.

My seedlings are getting big and now I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to re-pot them before they can go outside.

zinnias

I ordered more seeds today.  Tim asked me what I wanted for Valentine's Day and I told him gardening stuff.  So, I ordered seeds for jalapenos, haberneros, and poblano peppers.  I was only going to order those but I wanted to justify the shipping price so I also ordered some seeds for some flowers.  I ordered marigold seeds (for pest control), flowering tobacco, and some bee balm seeds.  I am going to get two more seed started trays and I'm going to be good to go.  I can't wait until I can get out and dig some compost into the ground and get these babies planted.

In other news, Rhino busted out of her new cage the other day so she is now in her third cage.  She was trying to chew her way through her cage this morning so now she is in Chopstick's old cage.  I don't think she's very happy with us right now because she likes to climb and can't.  I'm going to have to find her some things to play with in her cage so she doesn't plan a massive revolt.

Looks can be deceiving.  She looks so cute and cuddly but in reality, she's pure evil.

That's pretty  much all I have for now.  Now I'm going to be waiting for my seeds to come.  Patience.  Ugh.