Reasons Why l Love Summer

Happy Summer, y'all!  I pretty much missed blogging the entire month of June.  I've got lots of topics to talk about, but little time to type.  Realistically, I don't know if it will get much better until the snow falls...

In the vain of keeping things positive, I want to share my favorite reasons to love summer time.  I love getting my nails dirty in the garden, and watching all of my baby plants grow up and produce wonderfully tasty treats for the dinner table.

I'll share pics of the garden below.  But first, other reasons why I love summer, in no particular order:

Reason #1)  The dogs have less hair. 

Well, that is because I shave them.  I am not a professional dog groomer.  You will see proof below.  But they are so much more comfortable after they have been shaved, since we are back in the hot humid midwest summer time heat.  Keystone LOVES the attention.  Abby, not so much.

At least KEYSTONE is more comfy.  Notice his cute tiger tail!
Abby would only allow me to do her belly and back of her legs.  Brat.

Reason #2) Baseball brought SamsMom to town over Memorial Day weekend! 

I finally got to meet SamsMom's family and friends when I went to watch her son play baseball. We had a great day visiting. We enjoyed Minsky's pizza (a local pizzeria since they wanted something "KC") and I got to see their awesome luxury-resort-on-wheels. Then the next evening, they came up and enjoyed dinner at our place. We had fun playing our games in the basement. They were properly introduced to real pinball machines.

L to R:  her son, me, her hubby
We were playing mesmerizing games of pinball!

Keystone even loves to play!  We had a great evening and a great weekend.

Keystone loves all the bright lights and shiny balls.

Reason #3)  I love trying to grow new plants. 

We have grown pumpkins before, but we have never tried to establish our own pumpkin PATCH.  This year?  Yeah, it's a patch alright.  We have 28 plants going.  They will be able to spread out for acres if they wanted to.  We are hoping for so many pumpkins, that we'll be able to line the driveway on both sides with them!  Stay tuned for that--we'll open the patch to visitors around the beginning of October...  It's going to be awesome.  Speaking of growing things, here is an update on the garden.  It looks amazingly different.  We are going to have so much produce, we are going to be able to open our own farm stand.  We've been eating tom's for over a week now.

Yes, 28 pumpkin seeds grew into this!

A wall of green beans -- 1st harvest was eaten last night

I GREW BROCCOLI!
You can see some ready to harvest at the bottom and top of pic 

My beautiful tomatillo.
I will roast you, blend you, and cook you into a tasty sauce.

Our Garden

Giant Sunflowers in the background.
Birdhouse gourds growing in the foreground (just 3 plants)

Reason #4) Winner, Winner, BIRTHDAY Dinner!

I am delighted to explain that we were chosen by Dawn's daughter to be the host of her birthday dinner.  She turned 9.  When her parents asked her what she wanted for her special birthday dinner one evening, at first she said "steak at Texas Roadhouse".  Then her dad asked if she wanted that or steak at Uncle Todd's house.  Guess what she said?  Yep, you guessed it.  Steak at Uncle Todd's house!  So we hosted a special dinner for Dawn's family to celebrate a wonderful 9-year-old's birthday.  Todd took the opportunity (since the house would be clean) to have a few pinheads up to fix up some games, and play some pinball. 

We had great fun playing with balloons in the living room

Pinheads playing pins in the basement

Her dad planned a special "dessert buffet" for her 9th birthday.
Treats from The Upper Crust and I have to say they were INCREDIBLE!

Her favorite part of the night was a bonfire.  We got the jackets out and walked down to a rip-roaring fire Uncle Todd created. 

It's a fire!

Aunt Tracy & the birthday girl

Complete CHEESE from the birthday girl & Uncle Todd

And now, the BEST REASON why I love SUMMER TIME!

I steam our homegrown yellow banana peppers:  cut in half, de-seed, and put in a bowl with 1" water and cover; microwave for 1-3 minutes.  Drain them, put them on a sprayed cookie sheet.  Put some taco sauce on them, cover with cheddar cheese and broil.  THIS IS SUMMER ON A PLATE TO ME!  Enjoy.  (These are addictive and will incent you to start gardening if you haven't already.)