I am in a tent. In the backyard. Camping with a seven year old and an eight year old. Calvin and Lila (and a gaggle of stuffed animals) are having a sleepover. This is after an evening where we decided to plant some pumpkin seeds, have a BBQ in the backyard, play some music for our own dance party and then pitch a tent and camp out. So here we are. Me with my computer.Calvin and Lila giggling, chatting and telling ghost stories and entertaining themselves with shadow puppets.

Lelia Hauling the Tomato Stakes

While they are entertaining each other, I will relay the happenings of the day. My friend Lelia came over today to join me in the community garden. In the morning, we walked over to the plot. Calvin with his scooter. Me pulling the wagon filled with potting soil and watering cans. Lelia hauling a bunch of large poles for the tomato plants. We installed the poles and took time to do some weeding.

Me Hauling Soil

Lelia Enjoying the Soil

Then Calvin, Lelia and I went to the nursery. Lelia picked up a few eggplants that we would plant for her in the plot. Calvin picked up a venus fly trap to join his other two at home. Three is company. I picked up some Thai and fragrant verigated basil plants to plant in the community garden plot. Calvin and I succumbed to the lure of colorful knee pads (after the morning spent on our knees on the hard ground yanking weeds) and picked up a bright green and pink one for me and a red and yellow one for him. Then I grabbed some bean and basil seeds. Lelia found a houseplant for herself. Then we were off.

Weeding

After we dropped Calvin off at home, Lelia and I continued on the gardening marathon and traveled to Lowe’s hardware store. We were in search of a pot for Lelia’s houseplant because the prices at the nursery were insane and I knew that Lowe’s had the best pots for the best price. We found a very nice glazed ceramic pot for Lelia as well as a plant stand. Then we picked up a few strawberry plants for Lelia to plant in the plot. I grabbed some bricks to create a barrier between the planting area and woodchips.  Then added a trellis for the beans that would be planted in the community garden plot. All was well in garden purchasing land until we got to the car and attempted to put the trellis in the car. After trying various positions and entry points, it was clear that it would not fit. So after a moment of thinking that we would need to return the trellis, I realized that we could put the trellis on the roof and tie it down. But then what would we tie it down with? Oh! The tomato ties, of course. I had purchased tomato ties and could use them to tie the trellis to the roof.  And so we did.

Then we left Lowe’s, stopped at the store to pick up a few things for the BBQ and headed home and arrived just when Lila and her parents were arriving. And we have come full circle from the beginning of this entry: planting pumpkin seeds, BBQ, dance party and camping out………….it’s after 10:00, they are still awake…….getting extremely silly, a sign of hitting the over-tired zone……..gotta go and get them to sleep………….