Mama Bean is KinderGARDENing (12)

To be honest, I don't feel like I've done much gardening, with kinders or otherwise. Winter in these parts is soo long, and summer is really really soo short, and when I have the choice between a) pulling weeds or b) going to the park and chilling in the sand, well... park wins.

Sorry.

These pictures, then, represent in no particular order what summer's been all about, and some of that is gardening (!) We have more than 60 feet of radishes ready to harvest and less than no idea what to do with them. I imagine several pounds of Kim's Grow to Give tally will be our radishes making it to the food bank :)

We went strawberry picking - I don't think this picture fully captures how covered in dirt Bean's hands and face are. We were picking in the 'black field' which is not yet strawed over, because they're young plants (I guess?) The more mature fields were already done for the season.

The berries were small and over-ripe, it was hard to hull them for jam. We picked 8L, which turned into 12 or 13 cups of mashed berries, which turned into 8 cups of strawberry jam with regular pectin (so sweet! won't make it again) 6 cups of strawberry rhubarb jam (our rhubarb plants are hella-prolific, this is our third cutting from them this year) and 8 cups of strawberry jam with light pectin (much less sugar, much fruitier tasting.)

He likes these disc swings quite a bit - ever since we showed him how to do it laying down, that's the only way he does it. And justincaseyouwerewondering, we do put shoes on our children. He's just pre-emptively barefooted because the sandpit it next.

I often feel like I'm the only parent actually playing in the sand. And then I feel a little foolish, but it is fun! That truck has been at the park since it opened, and no one has taken it home with them, it's so nice. Although, Bean thinks it's his and that can get sticky when another kid is playing with it.

Papa Bean got excited that Sprout is big enough to be in the swing now. She looks kind of excited about it, too! Compared to Bean's under-dressed feet, she looks prepared for fall in this pic. It was a gray day, so we put pants and a sweater on her for the first time in a long time.

Then there's a gratuitous picture of Bean in his cool-guy shades lol.

We are enjoying salad from the gardening (ooh look, words that are actually about gardening!) We thinned the lettuces waaay too late, so they've 'hearted' all topsy-turvy, but they are still yummy. This is my idea of a 'fancy salad' with radish slices, blueberries, and walnuts. But it's not that fancy, cuz I'm still eating it next to someone's snack bag of berries, water bottle, and newest favouritest dump truck. That's KinderEATing!

My tomatoes are getting colourful! Those yellow ones may or may not be in my belly now, all sun-warmed and tasty :P

These berries are in my belly now, too!



















This lily kind of just popped up in my 'fairy garden' Good thing I didn't weed it! Please check out Kim's post for the other participants this week :)