Odds and Ends

Following Cora's all-star game last Saturday, we met up with her softball team for the end-of-season party, held at a beautiful community pool.

The cake was amazing! Made by Coach Cory's wife Kim, the cake consisted of cupcakes arranged and frosted to look like a softball field. The girls' names were placed on toothpick flags, in a cupcake near the position they played.

After cupcakes, the girls had a cannonball competition - here's Violet's entry.

When the pool party was over, we rested at home before going to the end-of-year Mom2Mom family picnic, with dozens of our favorite friends. Yes, it was a crazy full Saturday!

On Monday night, we returned to the ice rink so we could skate together as a family, since Cora missed out on the skating part of Violet's birthday party.

It was a lot of fun, and because it was a promotional $5 "cheap skate" event, we ran into several friends there. The girls are excited to return to the Ice Station for summer camp in July!

Helpful, Seb. Really helpful.

I saw a deal online for this 50-gallon portable rain barrel, and for $30, we knew it was worth having. It can collapse and be packed away when not in use, and has hose hookups at the bottom. 

If it rained here, we could put it under the gutter's downspout to catch the runoff. 

Since it doesn't rain, I'm using it to hold leftover bathwater, and the water from the shower buckets, for use on the trees and garden.

Speaking of gardens, just look at the girls' veggie patch! The zucchini, tomatoes, beans and cucumbers are looking fabulous, and the grape vine behind them is producing tons of tiny grapes.