CALEB!!!!!!

I think of this blog as a kind of online diary, so this will be a bit different from my other blogs. My Grandson, Caleb, started kindergarten this last Mon. The very first day of school is a special day for any child. Plus Caleb will be six on the 23rd of August. So I decided to do a blog all about this very special child!

Here's Daddy with Caleb shortly after he was born.

Time to celebrate that first birthday!

My daughter-in-law always makes Caleb a very special cake. His favorite sleeping partner at this point was "monkey" so she did this awesome cake for him.

Like many children he liked the box better than the gifts!

Birthday number 2 was different because Daddy had recently left for Iraq. Mom , Grandma and Grandpa took him to the zoo. How he loves the water!(Still does)

No cake this year but a very special desert!

Time for the presents!

Here we are at birthday number three. There will be two parties this year because Daddy will be home soon. On his birthday, we took another trip to the zoo!

Dad's home and it's a Thomas the Train party at Caleb's favorite choo choo train park! Too bad it's raining! Notice the super cake!!

He's even dressed for the party!!

Now he's almost four and ready for the first day at a new pre-school!

Mom baked a "Cars "cake for the school party!

Birthday number 5 has a superman theme. Mom has out-done herself with this cake.

Time for a big boy party with friends!!

Now we are almost six and ready for the first day of school.

Backpack and all !

First on the bus.

I started the blog with a picture of Caleb and Daddy. I am ending it with a picture of Caleb and Mommy. (The super cake baker!) I am one lucky person to have these people as part of my family.

My Garden

Before we moved to the Pacific NW I was a wanna-be Gardner. I always started out in the spring with great ideas. As the weather heated up, I stayed in more and more. I remember going out at 7am and the sweat was dripping off my face. Well, that was the end of Barb the Gardener!! I stayed in my nicely air-conditioned house! When fall and some decent weather came I was too busy back at school to think much about the yard. Here I really enjoy my garden. There are only a few days when it is too hot. In fact we have really lucked out this year! The weather man thinks we will not see one day of 90 !!! I dead head every day and try to keep the flowers coming all summer. Since fall is my favorite season, I have planted several plants to bloom in the fall. Here is a look at some of the mid-summer beauties!

A lovely feathery dahlia that survived in the ground over the winter.

This lily is taller than the SBA-6feet plus.

A close up of the lily.

A lovely day lily that was given to me by a friend. I don't know the variety.

I have three great clematis. They always make me think of my Dad who loved them.

This is an upright fuchsia that dies back every winter and returns in the spring.

This looks like floral sunshine.

This is one of my favorite annuals,rubekia , Tiger Eye. I keep space for them in several spots in the garden.

I read that a vine instantly ages the house. I love the way my onion lamp looks through the vine.

The vine really helps the look of the front load garage.

In the world of cross stitch, I finished Shakespeare's Peddlers," Jenny Bean's Creation Sampler. "
The colors on the photo aren't very good.

Tomorrow, I'm planning a special post about my Grandson who just started kindergarten!

The Last of Alaska

It's been fun choosing the pictures for this, my last post of the Alaska trip. I didn't realize that I took so many pictures of the flowers. However, it does not surprise me as I love flowers -wild or in gardens! For the most part, I'm keeping the flowers I post, the wild flowers of Alaska. We did see many beautiful gardens , especially in Anchorage. This will finish posts from that most amazing trip. I never thought about whether or not we should drill for oil up there. I'm sort of conflicted as part of me knows how much we need oil but the other part says we need to leave this amazing place alone as much as possible.

A close up of the lovely fireweed.

This is a very poisonous plant called monkshood.

We saw this blue and white lupine everywhere.

Not sure what this delicate little flower is called.

I guess seaweed counts as a wild plant!!

I'm not sure the name of the next two yellow flowers.

We saw this plant only in Seldovia.

Very feathery.

This little plant is a member of the orchid family!!

I thought this looked like a snapdragon, but it was wild.

Again, I want to thank all of you who shared this wonderful trip with Jim and me. We will never forget the amazing things we saw. Tomorrow, I'm back to my own garden where I have spent several hours since coming home. It was like a bad child and went a bit crazy while we were gone!!