Pirate's Landing

Phillip's 65th birthday was on June 4.  Our family met in Elkin at Pirate's Landing restaurant to celebrate together.  

 We drive past here on our way to Virginia and Phillip has always wanted to stop and eat but we never have.  He was excited to have his birthday dinner here.

 We all liked watching the fish in the pond that surrounds the restaurant.

 This is our whole family except for Emily's husband, Jon who had to work.  

 Laura, Michael, Jimmy, Lilly (peeking out beside Rachel), Rachel, Hannah, Emily

 Daniel, Caleb, Jack, Jason, Jonas

 Jaclyn and Daniel

 Sam discovering that he really likes hush puppies.

 Jason, Jonas, stranger in background

 The kids were glad their grandpa was willing to share his birthday dessert.

 Lucy, Jonas, Lilly, Sam, and the pirate

Sam and the pirate

This is one of my favorite pictures.  Sam is teaching Lucy how to thumb wrestle.

 Front row:  Sam, Lucy, Lilly

Back row:  Jack, Phillip, me, Jonas, Caleb

 Happy birthday, Phillip! 

May

Jonas spent the night with us.  He was ready for action with his lasso wrapped around him.

Devin brought Sydney over for a visit.

 Phillip made a new raised garden bed out of Jason's old bed.  We're planning to plant more strawberries in it.  

 Lilly spent the night.  She had fun with the marker board.

 We celebrated Mother's Day by stuffing the children into a giant inflatable ball and rolling them around the yard while they squealed loudly.  Great fun was had by all except Jason, who did all the stuffing and rolling.

We celebrated Brett's birthday.  From left to right, this is Mark, me, and Brett.

We also bought a new love seat but since my camera is broken there aren't any pictures of it.  It's really nice and we've enjoyed it.

 I went back to my neglected project of trying some of the recipes that have accumulated over the years.  This is supposed to be Mexican Skirt Steak but, since I use what I have and I had pork chops that day, it's Mexican pork chops.  Both Phillip and Hannah declared it a keeper.  That suits me since it's one of those easy, one dish meals that I don't mind cooking.

Garden Journal - Monday, June 2

Cucumbers - They look sort of sad but they're growing.

 Now this is really sad.  The leaves are curling up on the tomato plants.  Phillip thinks maybe I'm watering them too much so I'm backing off on that and hoping they'll perk up.

 The potatoes are doing well.

I picked the spinach and froze most of it.  I'm still getting a little bit every day for my smoothies but it's almost done.

 We're hoping to get a few heads of cabbage in spite of the bugs or worms or whatever is chomping on it.

The peppers seem to be okay.  Some are doing better than others but we have quite a few little peppers coming along.

I'm still getting bits of broccoli most days so we're letting it stay for a while longer.  The onions are still growing.

Green beans - This is one of two beds. We won't get enough to can but we have lots left from last year.

The peas are almost finished.  We've been disappointed in them this year.  We haven't gotten many and they weren't very flavorful.

The strawberries have done very well.  We covered them with bird netting and that helped a lot.  I'm getting a little bit every day and adding them to my bag in the freezer, if I don't eat them first.

We had to replace one of the blueberry bushes.  I tried to save the poor thing but finally even I had to admit that it was dead.