Our Garden, Mary Lu at Strong Start, Juan the Sandwich Maker

Lately, Juan makes our lunch. About a week ago Juan decided that he could make our ham sandwiches himself. Since then, he pretty much makes our lunch--yes, we've been having the same thing everyday. It's so cool and he's so proud. We literally don't do anything to help him except cut the bread. I stepped in and cut the cheese one day because the cheese slices are very large when he cuts them with his table knife, but he didn't like having help so I stepped aside and we were all just very calcium-rich for a few days. The photo below is the very first sandwich he made.


























Mary Lu dancing. Mary Lu is a very tan girl.













Neither Juan nor Mary Lu stay dressed for long when we're at home. This seems intrinsic to all children.










This is Mary Lu at Strong Start with her teacher, Dana. Strong Start has been such a fantastic find for us. I feel so lucky that we get to do this with Mary Lu. Dana is amazing and Mary Lu talks about her all the time. We sing songs, "like Dana," now we even brush teeth like Dana.














Gym time at Strong Start










Dana filling ML's car with gas.













This is our neighbor's cat who has adopted us. Juan has named her Sweet, apparently paying reverence to one of his homies still in the clink. At any rate, she is with us whenever we are outside. She lets Juan carry her around some, and doesn't even blink an eye when she gets wet with the sprinkler. Juan plans and carries out entire plans to get her to do things (like get in their toy car or in the pool). He builds ramps and lures her with treats.









This is a view of the part of our backyard that remains wild. We plan to landscape some of it (i.e. terrace an area for berries and make a seating area) and leave the rest wild. Juan calls the really dense part of it "The Forest" and I think that's a cool thing to have.










This is the view up to our house from our garden. The photo above was also the view from our garden but if we turned to the left.









I'm not sure if you can pick them out, but these are the three fruit trees we planted this year. Two apples and a peach. We'll plant a pear or two and hopefully a cherry next year. Juan really wants a cherry tree.










This is the view of our garden from above. Some things are gone already: arugula, beans, peas, carrots, lettuch, spinach. You can just barely see the tops of our corn in this photo, but our corn is just coming in now. We have/had tons of tomatoes and zucchini. We've got 5 or 6 pumpkins that are getting big. For next year we need to work on our technique for cucumbers, peppers, and watermelon. We also want to terrace above this and make our garden extend all the way up the hill. On the far side you can see our grape vine. They're wine grapes, completely useless to me, but I think they're cool so we're keeping them. There are tons of old vines all over this part of the yard, but this is only one that came in this year so I felt like we should keep it. It's pretty.