The rockets the yard work and the summer food

This Friday I decided to break out the bike gear. We had to really scrub the bike trailer and look up the instructions for hitching to the bike.

I have been storing the bikes and their paraphernalia under the deck and with all the rain and snow we've had they were a royal mess.

The chains were rusted the tires were flat and there was caked on mud everywhere.

We started scrubbing and hosing off.

Megan was particularly helpful.

She kept 'helping' her brother.

Once the washing was done we oiled the chains and pumped up the tires and straightened the front fork on Nana's bike. Then I tested out the bikes and waited for the trailer to dry.

While waiting we got a guest.

My dad came over and attacked the yard with a will.

He took down the stump with the nails in it and, happily, hit no nails!

The kids have been riding the log ever since. Apparently it is a train.

After getting the stump down he went up the hill and transformed our scrubby nearly impossible to mow area into a ferny oasis.

He dug into our horribly rocky soil with grunts and whacks and worried me about his back.

Kiernan was unable to lure him into Minecraft play but was happy to chatter away at him anyway.

I am really happy about this section. I love ferns and the liriope plus hosta make it look good immediately.

All this yard work took 2 full days. We are so grateful!

Thank you dad.

This weekend we decided to take the kids to their favorite local park. They call it the 'stink bug park' because one day last year when they went over with mom it was draped in stink bugs.

It is actually named Old National Pike District Park.

When we got there we discovered that we had come just in time for some rocket launches. The National Association of Rocketry was holding its free to the public model rocket launches. There were lots of little kids and rockets of all sizes. We got to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing in great style.

On the way home we stopped at a farm stand.

I love summer squash so much. When my sister and I were little we used to have a favorite dish (made for us by our wonderful Grandma Rumford) of scrambled eggs with onions cheese and yellow squash. 

I make this for my family as much as I can in the summer. The kids like it and David loves it and it makes me feel so warm and comforted.

Here is Meg's with some of the spoils of summer. She had nearly ever summer food this weekend. Kiernan loves the corn-onba-cob. Megan loves anything with salt.

Not to be out done by lunch; for dinner we had hush puppies and fried 'chicken'.

I was thinking with my stomach for sure this weekend.

I spent a good bit of time gardening this weekend. Partially this was in response to seeing all my dads hard work and partially because I had an out of the blue panic attack on Sunday morning. There is nothing that calms me down as much as gardening.

I put in some hosta and some ferns of my own. I pruned

 blackberries and raspberries. I weeded and I got excited about our baby cucumbers and tomatoes. We had a handful of fresh snap peas.

Megan and I took a trip to pick up some more lavender.

5 weeks until school.