Garden Up and First Birthday

We wore our matching pink Columbia fleeces!

Last Monday, I took a Personal Holiday from work to celebrate Ellie Jo's very first birthday with her! It was a very special day for both of us, and it was so sweet to let her sleep in until she wanted to wake up (about 9:30!), and go in to see her standing in her crib, waiting for me to get her. She greeted me with a sweet smile, and "Mama? Mama? MAMA!!" and then a big giggle. She was SO happy to have mommy home with her, because Mondays & Tuesdays are the hardest for both of us, as I go to work all day both days.



I took her to Starbucks for a special mommy & me treat for her birthday - a pink cake pop! (And of course I had a tall soy Vanilla Macchiatto!) I had dressed her in the "It's My Birthday" shirt, after waking up at 6:45 to wash it before she woke up (it had cake on it from her party). The baristas who saw it when I set her on the counter while I fished in my purse for my Gold Card were so sweet, and offered to pay for her cake pop! I told them no, they didn't need to do that, but they all insisted.

"Mmmm, Zoe and I like this cake
pop, mommy!"

Not quite sure how to dig in...

"Like this, mommy?"

"I got this!"

"See, Zoe?"

Right after she signed, "Thank you."

Picking it apart, lol!

Aaannnddd it all went in, haha!

"Ooooh! Ooooohh!'

Pretty good for never having had one!

She loved it!

Juice break! (You can kind of see her
shirt in this one)

There wasn't really anywhere to sit that was conducive to having a baby, except across from a gentleman who was working on his laptop. I decided to just set her down there, where I could sit right next to her, and still give her some space to play. (Big leather chairs = super fun freedom for baby!) 

At first, I was nervous about disrupting him, but then I saw Ellie just grinning from ear to ear, and shrieking with joy - looking right at him. He was making silly faces and smiling at her! He said, "It's been about 20 years since I had one that little. Makes me miss that time." We chatted for a few minutes, and he told Ellie "happy birthday, sweetie," before returning to his work. What a nice man!

Playing with her toys

My sweet girl and her Zoe

Reading to mommy

This is about when she got tired of the Starbucks
outing.

She lasted about 20 minutes in there with her toys while I sipped my coffee and talked to her, telling her what a good girl she was, and how mommy was so happy to get to spend the day with her. I think that was pretty good, considering she hadn't yet had her morning nap!

We went home for a nap, and then I got a lot of stuff done around the house! After her party on Saturday (a post for later, when I have more time), I reached my "Kate Gosselin" moment - where I just snap because the house is a disaster. I had to do something about it. I figured cleaning the floors was a reasonable goal, since the rest of the house cleaning required me making noise and Ellie was sleeping. I got them swept, Swiffer dry-mopped, and Swiffer Wet-Jet'd! (At least, the floors in the kitchen and great room). I was pleased with my progress! (See the seat cushions piled up on the right? Those got washed, too!)

Cleaning the pergo floors was a
MUST on Monday!

 I had been planning to take Ellie to Pike Place Market with Leah & Ashley, but it got to be too late in the day with Leah working (she recently got her real estate license!), and the baby sleeping. So, when I called Leah to check in, we changed plans, and decided to take Ellie to the Skagit Valley Food Co-Op to get all of our vegetable and herb starts. Ashley got off work early enough that she was able to go with us, too! It was perfect. It's a special trip that we make annually, and it was so sweet to get to share it with Ellie for her special day!

Here's our little shopper!

And today, I finally got time to plant everything! I was so excited to get it done, because it's important to get everything rooted before June. The church had a huge dirt pile that needed to be taken away, so Robert hauled some over for the ground cover in my raised bed garden. We bought a 2-yard bag of topsoil at Wal-Mart last night, and together, they made a fabulous garden!

Robert made me that garden out of pallets!

Looks good, right?!

Here's a side view

Lots of room for things to grow

The lettuce looks sooo good!

Can you see the Purple Basil in the
middle?

Dill in the front!

All the stuff I have left to plant in individual
containers

I still need to pick up some stuff from my mom's, like my lattice for the peas, and find some of my round containers for the blueberries and tomatilloes. But eventually, it will all get done!

Here is a list (in no particular order) of everything we have in our garden this year:

• Sweet Onion
• Mini Red Bell Pepper
• Pablano Pepper
• Green/ Red Bell Pepper
• Farmer's Choice Lettuce Mix
• Green Globe Artichoke
• Garlic
• Green Zucchini
• Salad Bowl Mix Lettuce
• Broccoli
• Spinach
• Oregon Sugar Snap Peas
• Shelling Type Peas
• Lemon Basil
• Sweet Basil
• Thai Basil
• Purple Basil
• Chives
• Lemon Balm
• Dill
• French Tarragon
• Creeping Prostratus Rosemary
• Licorice Plant
• Apple Mint*
• Chocolate Mint*
• Everbearing Strawberries*
• Pineapple Crush Strawberries*
• Blueberries*
• Pie Pumpkin*
• Yellow Potatoes*
• Red Potatoes*
• Tomatillo*

*still needs to be transplanted

Anyway, I hope to have a fruitful garden this year! It was so special to get to take Ellie to pick out everything!