YOU KNOW IT'S HOT WHEN........

OK, so I got the candles 4 for a $1 so they are a bit soft, but still! Seriously?

Our house was NOT this hot but the candles sure thought so!

Too funny to not share!

A weekend to make memories!

We took Kira and Evan to the Zoo. We had a lot of fun, even though we had a light rain all the time we were there! We had to go to Grammy's office for a picnic because of the rain but we had fun anyway! This is a really big tortoise and since I wouldn't let them RIDE him, they decided a picture would be ok.




What's more fun than sitting on a baby elephant? Apparently, according to Evan, looking for the sign that will tell us if he's extinct or safe! We had to find the signs for every animal there and he would worry if the sign said the animal was almost extinct! He'd get really excited if they were safe! He's such a funny kid! I'm not sure if he got a good look at some of the animals because he was so busy looking for the sign!

This isn't a wild animal OR endangered! But I think it was one of the bigger hits that day! Since it was raining, the snails were out all over the place! I let the kids pick this guy up and hold him. Evan was having nothing to do with that but Kira was ready! I explained about the snail's foot and Kira touched it and thought it was funny.

Evan put HIS hands behind his back and told us to put him back! So we did.

On Saturday morning, before swimming, the kids had to find things to entertain themselves since - *gasp* - we don't have Nintendo, Wii or ANYTHING at our house!

Kira wanted to make a house of cards. she stuck with it until she got it!

Evan built this 'Rainbow Road Game' to race his hotwheels on. We each were assigned a car (but he drove them because he was the only one who knew the rules!). There were various 'levels' and we each had 'lives' so if we crashed and blew up we were ok as long as we still had lives! He ended up winning! Is anyone surprised?

All in all, a wonderful weekend! We will miss the kids when they move to Chicago but we have memories to treasure until they come back! And Heidi has promised to get her blog going again so we can share in their lives even while they are so far away.

Well, we are finding that gardening in Arizona is a bit different than in Idaho! But we are also learning that we can grow in smaller spaces. there are 3 tomato plants in each whiskey barrell (no, we didn't drink the whiskey first!). We only put two cucumber plants in the orangeish pot and one zuchini in the grey one. Next year I think we'll plant two zuchini! I know, I'm crazy! But none of our girls grow veggies so.....

We put the shade over them because the sun is so direct and was really drying them out. They have really flourished noticably since we covered them last weekend! At least the tomatoes have. The lovely depression in front is courtesy of Kira and Collin. They built a road and needed dirt to make it higher than the ground..... Should have taken a shot of the lovely road too!

I love how the cucumber is climbing the fence! Except for the parts that are poking out through the fence and into the desert! There are a lot of little cukes on there. Hopefully they won't break the vines.

I love how pretty zuchini blossoms are. If you look closely you can see two more zuchini almost ready to be picked. These are 'AZ zuchinis' - we want them to be 'ID zuchinis' so we are letting them grow bigger - for slicing. We did pick two last night and had stir fried zuchini and carrots and onions! So yummy! NEXT year, we are doing a 'square foot' garden and so we will grow carrots, onions, and radishes too! That will be fun! As you can see, we have rocky ground so everything will be above ground....

This is one of many tomatoes - but it was closest to the front so easiest to get a shot of. He's not very big yet! But I imagine he will taste fantastic! Unless, of course, the bunnies get him first!

Stupid bunnies......