Happy Mother's Day, All!

I know I'm a day late, but Bill insisted I take the day totally off yesterday. He bought me a dozen yellow roses, had Sydney color a card for me, and got me Annie's donuts for breakfast. Yum! What a guy. In the afternoon, we went to Target and got the first part of my mother's day present - a gazebo for the back yard.



One of my friends got one of these and had it up in her yard last summer, and it was so nice. Our backyard is kind of unfriendly in general, and this really helps to soften it up and gives me a nice place to sit and knit while the kids run around eating dirt and spraying each other with the hose (well, okay, Owen's not old enough to work the hose yet, so it's pretty much Sydney doing the spraying). My next goal (besides getting some cushy patio furniture to go inside the tent) is to get the patio resurfaced so that it's nice to walk on in bare feet and looks a little less institutional. The concrete is old and rotten, so walking on it is like stepping on shards of broken glass. Not pleasant!

Saturday we got the beds in the front yard filled up with dirt and planted a bunch of vegetables.



Tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and, of course, pumpkins. I can't wait to start getting some fresh produce! Hopefully this summer we'll remember to pick it before it gets all old and rubbery (unlike our ill-fated peas and beans from last year).

Next, on to the sock updates! First, I'm happy to say that my Sockapaloooza socks finally arrived in Paris. Yay! So much for Global Priority fast service, but at least they got there and made their new owner happy. I have to say this Sockapaloooza has been a rousing success in my book! Next up on my swap knitting list? My Knitting Vacation Swap project, and my Spring Feet Sock Swap socks (which I'm well on my way with, but I'm going to be submitting the design so you can't see them).

Sonya finished some Jaywalkers (one day late for her A).

Emily finished her Sockapaloooza socks, and got some in the mail!

Khris finished the second father-in-law sock and is currently in Canada presenting them to him in person.

Crazy Basket Lady Karen finished her black-and-blueberry socks for her Sockapaloooza pal.

I swear I posted these earlier, but perhaps I just commented on them and forgot to post them. Anyway, Laura made up some lovely Eyelet Diamond socks for her Sockapaloooza pal.

Kris finished some awesome Log Cabin socks.

Adrienne knit up some Pomatomi:



Lisa finished up her Unity socks and wrote a lovely mother's day post about her daughters' arrival.

Virtuella knit up some Sixth Sense socks.

Sara salvaged some LLSS from a failed pair of Jaywalkers and made some Rainbow Brite socks.

Jenn finished some Sockotta summer socks.

Kristy in NC knit some Simple Stripes socks for her mom:



Notice anything odd about them? ;-)

Stariel finished her Famous Socks.

Sillyewe finished some Embossed Leaves for her first brownie point.

Sheri finished some Mother's Day socks for her mom, on Mother's Day.

Monica finished some Baby Cable socks (scroll down past all the hand-dyed yarn p*rn to see them).

Karen finished some gorgeous Denmarks.

That's it for this week's sock update, folks! Keep 'em coming!

I'll leave you with some cute kid pictures. Here are the adventures of Snack Boy and Napper Girl.



I swear, we aren't a white trash family, despite the fact that my kids aren't wearing clothes! It's like 97 degrees outside today and they were out in the pool, and I haven't managed to dig clean clothes for them out of the laundry yet. Gimme a break, a'ight?

Sydney got ahold of the camera today, and took a bunch of artsy pictures. Most of them I'm too embarassed to post here since they're off the hideous mess in my office, but I'll show you a couple that don't totally betray me as the heinous housekeeper I am... Do we have a budding Ansel Adams on our hands?

This first one is the view from under our kitchen table.





Please ignore the disgusting carpet in that second picture. It seems pointless to have it cleaned since it will immediately be peppered with ground-up bunny crackers and spilled chocolate milk. We are having it replaced the second the kids are old enough to know better.