Squash Bug Centerpiece

The garden has been a lot of fun for me this year, and what was especially was getting to watch some bugs on our zucchini plant, too. We'd stand at the window to watch them crawl around, mate, and lay eggs on the leaves. The boys and I were pretty entertained.

Then I looked up what the bugs were and found out they were going to kill my Zucchini plant. Sad! So, I've been vigilantly killing the eggs before they hatch in hopes I can beat them....not sure if that is possible.  In any event, we have a new centerpiece at our table....squash bug eggs and some newly hatched babies.  Calvin keeps asking what we are going to do with them now. I told him we'll "get rid" of them. He is not satisfied with that answer. I just don't have the heart to tell him I am going to kill them all!



Our garden has not been defeated yet! We've gotten some vegetables already, and it has been fun to watch it grow!

Here is Calvin's documentation of the food we've gotten so far.  I think it is fair to say that Calvin alone has eaten at least 15 of the 20 tomatoes we've harvested since he's counting/graphing them first (and Jack enjoys carrying them around "for Daddy" more than eating them himself.

We've had some classic summer days recently. We watched our friends move out of their house the other day. There is nothing better for our boys than a good moving truck with front row seats to watch the movers!

Calvin has been going to Kids Week (our church's vacation Bible school).  He had a love/hate relationship with the loud music/# of people/etc last year, though he thinks it is his school...when people ask where he goes to school, he says "Kids Week."  

This year he is LOVING it and participating!  I nearly cried the first night when I picked him up and he was standing on his own feet, singing the music with the people on stage while imitating their body motions.  We've been praying that God would help him not to fear because God is always with him. I think that God is showing himself to be real to Calvin in this area. He's been asking me to pray about it during meal and bedtimes, and he's always so excited to share that he enjoyed participating!

It has also been fun to have some time with just Jack and Luke. Last night we stopped by a local softball game on our way from dropping Calvin off. Then after I put Luke to bed, Jack and I have been reading book after book together. Calvin and I do this a lot while the other 2 are sleeping, but Jack is not as interested in it when there is other stuff going on. I love that time we have right now!

And, of course, we've been going to the pool. This look reminded me of when Jack was just a little guy and his hair was permanently like this. =)

And Luke has not been sleeping in the morning, so we've been more free to come and go. I love seeing this on the monitor!