Sam's birthday

Little Sam and the rest of his family are on quarantine right now with suspected swine flu, yikes. But at least on Friday they had fun, the kind you have with other people, as we celebrated Sam's first birthday with him.

Mom and Dad preparing Sam's lemon-filled Bing's Bakery birthday cake:


Dana showing Isaac the Garbage Man how beautiful he looks on film:


Sam's first-ever taste of frosting:


Saying good-night to Camille and Noah, just before we went home and crashed ourselves:

Isaac's best friend

He's from preschool. They bonded over a fierce love of dinosaurs. He is a really nice kid with a fun last name. I give you.... Evan!



They cheese here by saying "Poopy Pickle":

How does my garden grow? Very well, thank you

For my 30th birthday this past March, I asked the boys to build me a raised-bed garden. Daddy drew up some plans and, on a less frigid Sunday afternoon, all three of them put it together.



Well, mostly Daddy put it together. But there was some help with dirt relocation.



Here is the finished product of the first phase of my raised-bed garden.



The second phase, which will be similar but involve three beds instead of two, will be erected in the next two weekends, when the planting of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers is more appropriate. Meanwhile, this is what my first-phase garden looks like after 6 weeks, also known as now:


An early, bush-type pea, 'Burpeeana':


My beloved, marvelous snap peas, 'Super Sugar Snap':


Behold the amazing tendrils of 'Super Sugar Snap' as it climbs our ghetto homemade trellis!


After a late-March frost killed my first strawberry plants (DUH), these 'Sequoia's are doing well:


A carrot variety the boys specifically bought for me, 'Short n Sweet':


A second carrot variety recommended by one of my gardening books, 'Scarlet Nantes':

Soaking up the sun

The dudes and I nearly went through a bottle of sunscreen during the 5-day heat wave here last week. Why stay inside? On Monday, Isaac didn't have school, so we went for a hike around the town reservoir.

Ag Day 2009

Every spring, the UD School of Agriculture puts on a big fair to celebrate all things gardeny or farmy. This year we decided to go, especially so we could take our houseguest Gerard.

The highlight was riding things, either in tractor or wagon form.

Moving

I realize that I am no longer into this blogging business as much as I used to be. Daddy has convinced me that I should do regular posts of beautiful growing boy pictures, and abandon the text that I love to write but am loath to commit the time to right now. That being said, I am also thinking that it is dumb to buy this blog-cow when you can get your milk for free, so Those O'Neal Boys is moving back to blogspot. We apologize for the inconvenience and name change. Please follow us to:

http://poopypickle.blogspot.com

Thanks!

Making out with Mother Nature

Urban fisherman:



A house we built for the elves that live at Turtle and Dolphin park:



Isaac helped. He insisted on building beds and a gumball garden for the elves, as well as leaving behind a cane for the grandpa elf.



Jake helped at first, but then stole all our big sticks to build an elf car. This is his second car:



(Blog title brought to you by the lovely Aunt Jean)