Welcome to Summer!

I wanted to include these first two pictures with the previous post as before shots to give further explanation as to why Anderson's hair cut was soooo necessary :) This was some wild and sweaty (but cute) after-nap bedhead:

And yet more sweaty nap bedhead (him, not me):

And here is a recent photo of the little man :)

 We've been loving our backyard more than ever this year.  Carter and I put together this flower bed to finally make use of a previously useless patch of dirt behind the house.  I love cosmos (the pink flowers) :)

Such a cheerful little pansy

This is what happens when you forget (and forget and forget) to use the (copious amounts of) green onions in your garden -
 lovely purple flower patch :)

Two things make me happy about this:  1.  i love rhubarb and 2. the seeds i planted are alive!  Of course I know that seeds usually, given the right conditions, will grow - but for some reason every year I will check and recheck and rerecheck the garden until finally i see a tiny sprout here, and then one there, and then - everywhere!  A sigh of relief and satisfaction...

Much to a little 3 year old's delight, it looks like we are going to have LOTS of strawberries this summer.  We have eaten 7 of them so far and have resisted picking the ones that are kind of pinkish still so we can have them tomorrow - it was hard though...

Hooray!  Raspberries!  Why is this so exciting?  Well, we have had these raspberry bushes for about 4 or 5 years and they have NEVER had any fruit until this year.  I give all the credit to my in-laws who came and helped me tidy them up this spring :)

I love the colors on this iris.  The white is so stunning next to the purple.

More pansies.  These orangey yellowy ones are beside my front door and they just make me smile with their brightness.  

This is one of the last blooms on this plant (sorry, don't know the name of it) for the season, but I just love the way the pink and the purple mingle with each other.

And of course the yard would not be nearly as great if there weren't two little boys who liked to play in it.

I know there will be many an epic wrestling match in years to come...