Happy Birthday Joseph!

My nephew, Joseph is 16 today.  Time flies!!!

My sister, reserved a room at Maggiano's for his birthday party with family and friends yesterday.

Joseph's name was on the welcome sign.

His name was also on the outside of the room.

My sister got that cake from Wegmans.

There was a small candy bar set up and favor bags for you to scoop candy.

Here's 1 of the tables with the decorations.  There was 4 round tables total.

Here's the menu.

This is Joseph!  His biggest present from his mom was a new Iphone.

This is Aggie.  :)

Here's Aggie and Ellie.  Aggie is showing Ellie a book.  They are cute little friends.

What are the girls pointing at? 

Ahhh.....BALLOONS!  :)

There was lots of yummy food.  Fried Zucchini!!  So yummy!  :)

Ellie is digging in Aggie's bag to find some fun toys to play with.

My dad holding Ellie.  He made some funny faces and Ellie was laughing at him.  It was so cute.

The party was fun.  I had to go help my dad find his car when I was ready to leave.  He parked so far away.  We had to drive around the mall parking lot to find the car.  We finally found it.  LOL

Happy Birthday Joseph!!  :)

New Things Monday

It's time for another New Things Monday.

(picture taken from google images)

I got a bag of Special K- Cracker Chips in Sea Salt and figured I'd give them a try.  They remind me of Pringles.  My little sister and husband tried them and agreed that they taste like Pringles too.  They are awesome!  They taste good and are a quick little guilt-free snack that is low calorie.

PS.  If you're on Target Cartwhell they are 40% off until August 2nd!!  :)

NOTE:  I don't get paid to talk about any product I try and feature on my blog.  I just like to try new things.

Garden Update: Week 21

It's time for a garden update.  This is week 21.

I had 2 sunflowers pop this week.  They are truly magnificent flowers.  The bees love them and they just look so lovely in the garden.  They are easy to grow and I know next year I'm planting a bunch.

So pretty

Here's one of the sunflowers this morning.  It's much fuller in the middle.  If you look close enough you will see several bees.  I counted 4 while taking the photo.

I harvested some more peppers.  I tried one from the last harvest and my mouth felt like it was on fire.  Whew......I had to chug some almond milk.  LOL  I got these at my favorite produce stand as a starter plant.  They were labeled wrong.  :(  They were supposed to be bell peppers.  The other plant is correct but this one produces hot as hell peppers.  LOL  The plant is cute though when it's loaded with peppers.  It looks like a little Christmas tree with bulbs hanging down.  haha

A perfect 10.  Now I just have to find someone who likes really hot peppers.  I gave my dad the others I had and asked if he wanted more.  He said they were too hot.  LOL  I do have an idea in mind for them.  :)

Here's the other pepper plant.  It's loaded with bell peppers.  So far, I've only harvested one.  I hope these grow.  I love bell peppers.

My spaghetti squash is cuter each day.  Can a veggie be cute?  Sure....why not.  :)

This guy has turned yellow but he's not ready to be picked quite yet.

There's another one growing real nicely too.  He's still green.

I have some pea flowers......and just when I was thinking the plant was done producing.

I dumped one of my potato plants this week.  All the leaves were not quite dead yet but I figured I would try anyway.  I should have waited some more.

I did have potatoes.....but they aren't that big.  I only got 8.  I should have kept them growing some more.  Oh well.  There's always next time.  Lesson learned.....don't rush the plant wait for leaves to die.  :)

That same day I picked 2 zukes, a squash and 2 yellow toms.

Here's the other white potato plant.  It has adorable potato flowers!

Eggplants are doing great.  I have 2 so far.

I can't wait till they are ready to harvest.  It will probably be sometime this upcoming week.  

I didn't realize eggplants have thorns.  Did you?  Yeah I found out the hard way.  OUCH!  :(

I have a cucumber that should be ready this upcoming week.  There's some other tiny ones on the plant.

Squash that will be ready this upcoming week.

My carnival squash are doing good.  This is the biggest one.  Looks so perfect.

Here's the multicolored one.  :)

I have 2 more little ones coming in.

Here's my rose bush.  The bud finally popped.

Watermelon is doing great.

Here's my aloe plant inside.  It's the only plant I have in the house.

Farmers Market 7/5

On one of my days off this past week, I decided to head over to a farmers market to pick up a few items.  I figured if I stopped by then I wouldn't have to go over the weekend.  I've loved going to this market but I never get to go anymore because I'm working during the open times.  There's not as many vendors here as there was in the past.  But that's okay the ones that were there were great.  They had a lot of good stuff.

I had $6 in cash for what I needed.  I needed:  peppers, potatoes and an onion.  I went ahead and got what I needed first thing so I could then just walk around.  I spent $4.35 total.  That left me with $1.65 in case something else caught my eye.

I then took some pictures of produce.

So many vibrant colors.

I hope my watermelons grow this big.

Tomatoes galore!

Fresh corn

I see peaches!  :)  I was tempted but didn't get any.

Here's my market tote.

 I got exactly what I needed and best of all it's all from a local farm.  :)

Oh yes, I also got a message that I had veggies on my desk from a coworker.  I had a friend who went out during her lunch and I met her to pick up my goodie bag.  

Inside was 4 ears of corn, zucchini and lots of squash.  YUM!

Oh and I found this guy on one of the ears.  I quickly put him in my bug jar after taking a picture of him of course.  I wasn't about to let a japanese beatle escape and then land in my garden and eat something I've been growing.  :)