Summer Came Early

NOT THAT I'M COMPLAINING....but we went right from winter to maybe a week's worth of spring right into the heat of deep summer! It is HOT! We are all loving the great weather and the opportunity to be outside although we had to make it a priority to get the a/c units into the windows this weekend. The kids got to play in the sprinkler at home as well as at a neighbor's house and that was fun. We all got a kick out of Zach's Buzz Lightyear sprinkler toy that Kevin could make "hover" while balancing on the water. Lucas would laugh, laugh, laugh and try to catch the rocket ship. It was really cute!

The boys LOVED this!



Tulip lover?



Because our spring was so wet and cruddy a nice side benefit was that my spring flowers have lasted a looong time. I still have tulips blooming and it's been well over a month since they started! The weird thing though was that I was finding the heads of some of them chopped right off, as if they were snipped. I thought it might be an animal and we considered that maybe it was the friendly ground hog who lives under our neighbor's deck. Another neighbor suggested it was deer (although only a few tulips were beheaded, not all of them which I thought would be weird to pick and choose). And yet another neighbor suggested it was bunnies. That same day I snapped a bold little critter right by my front door. So maybe she was right? Then again I found another little cute guy who happens to love tulips -- pulling off their petals, that is (see next photo).  



Tulip lover...or hater?





Grass is growing!

On Memorial Day weekend we spent a good chunk of the time outside, playing and doing some much needed yard clean up. I moved a few tulip and daffodil plants that had been planted stupidly (if I plant it, maybe it won't grow, and if it does grow, the beauty of the flower will outshine how stupidly it was planted). Uh, no. It just looked stupid. So I dug them up and moved them to where I thought they would look better. It might not be the right season to do this, but I had to do it while I could still see the leaves and know where to dig! And it fortunately wasn't all the bulbs, just the ones by my front door (and the ones in the side yard). I did get a wound/badge of honor. A nicely painful blister in the middle of my right palm from where I pushed down on the trowel, over and over again. I also moved some lillies in the back garden that were in danger of choking out one of my peony plants! They've been transplanted to the other side garden and I'm excited for some color/beauty on that side of the house now. I'm really excited that with sunlight in the back yard now, that we'll have a lot more flower options and stronger blooms.



Post-parade, a little Mullen parade of our own

We had a neighborhood cookout on Saturday that 6 familes on my street went to. It was so nice to just hang out with friends/neighbors who have kids who are the same age and are friends with my kids. THIS is why I moved to Surburbia! I know it's hokey, but I just love it. :) The kids played on the swing set, in the sand box, in the toy room, ran in the yard, and went home exhausted and happy. We went to a super short parade in Sudbury on Memorial Day itself. It sprinkled a tad bit on us but didn't really rain and the rest of the day was again hot and muggy. Zach loved that they threw candy into the street and he could run out and gather it up.



Big Boy Bike Rider!

Mr. Cutie

This was kinda the entire parade.