May at our house

This picture pretty well describes May at our house.

 We have so many tomatoes. The winter never got cold enough to freeze the tomato plants, so our 4 cherry tomato plants are now out of control bushes and we're harvesting 2-3 bowls full every 2 or 3 days. The day I took this picture I set myself a goal to find all the ripe tomatoes. It took me 2 hours, but I did it. And I've tried to keep up with them so I don't have 8 bowls-full to harvest again. Our 2 regular tomato plants that survived the winter are also producing pretty well, getting 1-2 bowl-fulls every few days. I heard that you can freeze tomatoes and when they thaw they just slide right out of their skin to use in sauces, and that sounds a lot easier and more likely to happen than canning them. So we eat or make salsa out of the tomatoes, freeze the extra big ones and give away the extra cherry tomatoes.

Annie fell asleep on the bench while I was making dinner. I woke her up and ended up with a very grumpy kid the rest of the evening. Sometimes a girl just needs her sleep, I guess.

 We've had a dove roosting in the rafters of our porch. She had a couple babies, and within a few days of noticing that they had hatched, they were gone. Less bird poop on the ground beneath their nest now. :)

 The kiddos love wrestling. Even though it inevitably ends with at least one, often more, crying from getting hurt.

Most of May was spent finishing up school for Rachel with all the end of the year fun stuff, and doing swimming lessons with the girls, and hanging out at home. Thankfully May has been rather mild and I actually think April was hotter overall than May has been. The kids have still enjoyed playing in the water outside every chance they get.

 With Ryan's new found freedom from diapers he has become rather fond of removing some or all of his clothing. When he's playing outside I'll often come out and find him naked from the waist down. He'll proudly tell me "Pee on rocks" or "Pee in grass." Way to go. Getting him to get dressed again is quite the battle. And when there's water in the water table it's twice as bad. Then he'll often remove ALL his clothes.

 This day I finally convinced him to put some shorts on telling him they were a swim suit. But as soon as he was done with the water he stripped down and grabbed his towel to go lay on the grass to dry off.

 We really need to get another kiddie pool. Our last one got holes in it, so all the kids have to play with is the water table, which they turn into a pool. They just don't fit that great. :)