life in the country... i LOVE it!

so typically gerry does all the flowers at our house... ok he does all of the "outside" work. but this year, i was given the go-ahead to go to the farmer down the street and buy our flowers for the yard. gerry ALWAYS gets red and white, and i'm allowed to get pink flowers for the BACK yard. well this year was different... i was in charge! i packed up my boys... clay on his bike and carter in our big double stroller. we hiked the mile down the road to pick out our flowers. since clay and i were making the decisions, we picked all pink and purple-ish flowers! the picture below is our stroller going home... 2 hanging baskets and flats under the stroller and in the special mega sized storage part. *****

here is one of the friendly horses on our road... they come right to the fence and let you pet them... they are GORGEOUS!
well, today was the planting day. gerry left to mow, we went off to the store to get potting soil etc. after MANY hours, we planted 3 and 1/2 flats of flowers! here are a few...

and a few more...
here are all the empty container and tags that clay "collected" so he could take them this weekend and show everyone. not sure what the allure of them is, but i'm also not 6... and a HALF! i have to say, clay and i typically butt heads a bit... we are VERY similar and both VERY stubborn. he was SUCH a good helper today! he was so proud of every flower we planted. he kept telling me how gorgeous and beautiful all our flowers were. he's so sweet! when he wants to be! ;) i told him that i would pay him if he worked really hard. he asked what i would pay him with... when i told him love, he looked at me like i was on crack! i assured him i would pay him with dairy queen and everything was all better!

carter LOVES the wagon... every pile of dirt we had to take back in the woods and dump, he HAD to ride the wagon back.

how disgusting is this??? I NEED A PEDICURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and in closing, this weekend is 4th of july. this is the weekend when a whole big clan of us go to our property in franklinville and PARTY for the weekend. we swim in the pond, fish, hike, ride atvs, drink, chill by the bonfires, drink, eat a lot, watch AMAZING fireworks, and drink a little more.

so, i mentioned swimming... this means we need a bathing suit right? well, this poses a problem. i'm so fat right now that all of my bathing suits are a JOKE to even think about. so i made a quick stop today and tried on a bunch of suits. now let me just say that i had carter with me. i tried on about 10 bathing suits (while trying to keep carter from running free, which would make me have to chase him out in the store in the bathing suits- EEKS!) i finally settled on this one.

ok, i know what you're thinking... a bathing suit with a skirt? why not just wear a one piece with a skirt? i'm not that old yet. it's still a 2 piece... the top isn't too bad... the skirt, well, what can i say? i'm getting old and chubby folks. i'm working in it ok?

happy 4th to everyone... have fun, be careful, and don't blow any phalanges off with fireworks! :)

*****ADDENDUM- yeah, that's a coors lite can in my stroller... it's a LONG walk to the farm and back! ;)