Garden Week

Last week was our "garden week." Everyday the kids and I did gardening projects or field trips. Our first day, I took the kids up to the MSU Children's Garden. They had a Stories For Sprouts program for 2-4 year olds. They read 2 garden stories and then did a craft.

The boys enjoyed visiting the garden, but since it is so early in the year, there aren't a lot of plants. The boys loved the pond and the maze of bushes.

After walking through the outside garden, we went inside to the butterfly garden. It was so cute- there was a pond, small bridge, lots of vegetation, and little hideouts for kids.

We had a fun day and the boys loved seeing the bees, fish, and butterflies. We plan on going again later in the summer when the outside garden is up and running.

The next day, my dad came down to help us plant our own garden. We've done a garden the last two years. The first year, I weeded it once, and last year I weeded it twice. I'm hoping to better this year. I'm more excited about maintaining it this year, and Jake can be a big help now. I only do a garden for the boys anyway. They LOVE it. Tyler helped me with potatoes and kept saying "I a good worker, Mommy." He loves to help me and this is a great hobby that we all can do together. My dad and I had some disagreements about the layout of my garden, so to pacify him I did it his way.

Our next field trip was to Puddingstone Farm in Parma. They have 3 greenhouses, so I picked up some more plants for the garden and the boys love it because they have horses, goats, sheep, turkeys, chickens, pot-belly pigs, peacocks, rabbits, and ducks. The baby pot belly pigs that were born on Mothers Day were so little and cute! When we went last year, the owner walked us all around and gave us a tour and let the boys pet all the animals. We love going there!

On Friday, I decided to change the layout of my garden since I didn't like the way my Dad did it. So Jake and I dug up everything we had planted on Wednesday, and planted it again. It was a lot of work, but I wanted a place for the boys to be able to dig and there was no room they way my dad planted it.

The boys also have their own little sunflower garden, which if everything goes right should be a sunflower house by the middle of summer. We'll see how it goes. I'm glad to get all 24 of the seedlings out of my bedroom window!Of course, being the library dork that I am, I had lots of gardening stories that I picked up from the library so the boys had fun little stories about gardens to read before bed. I love the library!

Now, I have a nice tan and a nice garden, and something to keep the boys and I busy all summer long!