Catching up

Life has gotten the best of me and I am WAY behind on updating. First it was computer issues, we managed to lose a few months of pictures--sadly containing Kyle's Yellow belt ceremony and Julia's 1st Birthday the others we lost were just hanging around kids playing in the yard sort of pictures. I do have some pics of Kyle's ceremony and am hoping that my brother took enough pics of Julia's B-day. So onto the update: I'll start with Julia's B-day. IT was a bittersweet day for me I was excited because she is growing so fast-almost before my eyes and sad because I realized that it was our last "1st Birthday that would we would be having. Julia had a great time being the center of attention. Our whole family was together--It was even more special because my brother and sister-in-law were home to visit(they hadn't been back in 3 yrs and in that time my brother had done an additional tour in Iraq)it was the first time that they had seen Julia. Anjie decorated Julia's cake and cupcakes (which came out really cute). It was sad when they left a few days later:(. Once we got into May we were gearing up for Mackenzie's first Dance recital--talk about STRESSFUL! We (I guess I should say "I") didn't have the greatest experience with this school. Mackenzie's Teachers were wonderful it was the Studio owner I had issues with. We made it through and the recital was a success! Mackenzie had SO much fun and LOVED being on stage. I'm not sure that she will go back to dance (if we do it will be at a different school)some days she says that she wants to take Karate others she says she wants to dance. Shortly after the recital Julia decided that she would be my earliest walker, she was officially 14mths when she took her first steps (Kyle was 17.5mths and Mackenzie 15 mths) she is still very much a drunken sailor or even a Frankenstein if you will. Now that school is out we have been enjoying a laid back summer. We have been to the Sprinkler Park and took a day trip up to Hampton beach with a friend and her kids. They had o much fun (even Julia) and had sands in places that they probably didn't even know existed! Julia probably ate half of her weight in sand too. I also decide this year to start a garden. I thought the kids would have fun with it and it would cut my grocery bill down a bit. Here is what I planted (bear in mind I was accounting for some plants to not make it): 6 zucchini plants, 6 cucumber plants, 18 various tomato plants (6 Roma, 6 cherry and 6 grape), a whole envelope of green bean seeds, some strawberry plants (to go with the TONS of wild raspberries we have)and a package of Watermelon seeds. I think I over planted---Everything survived and I now have TONS of tomatoes growing Can anyone tell me how long it takes for them to turn red? The only thing that didn't work out was my watermelon :( I have one leaf pop up and the a day later it died. I have 3 strawberry plants that survived out of 10. I will post pictures soon--I just need to burn a disk and download Hope everyone is well.