Upside Down Tomatoes at 6 weeks

They are growing, but still seem to want to turn upward. I guess they will come back down as they fill with fruit. We are starting to see small tomatoes and on top the peppers & onions are doing very well.

Our home has grown by four feet!

Meet our newest family member! Max, He is a ShiPoo and joined our family yesterday. He is a little ball of fur and loves to play with feet!! He was Kailey's birthday present. I am sure you will all be meeting him in person soon!!

What's happening?

The summer has had a busy start. We are in full swing!! Brayden celebrated his 9th birthday on the 5th of June. We had a party for him this weekend with his friends. We went to a movie and then had pizza & cake. It was tons of fun. It is a sight to see him interact with his friends. He had his first 2 baseball games last week. They lost both, but just in the last week I have seen a great improvement in his game. He went from swinging at every ball to knowing the balls from strikes. The last game, the pitcher walked him every time he was to bat. He starts swimming lessons tonight.

Zach had his first basketball game for summer league yesterday. The team they played against only had 3 players show up and they had to pull 2 kids from the younger team. Albert Lea had 12 kids show and 2 that were not there. Our 10th grader basketball players are loyal basketball players. I am very proud of them for showing all they have. They won the game!!

Kailey is just busy. She loves to be outside and most nights end in screaming as I take her inside for a bath. She is exited for her birthday next month and busy planning her "tea party" birthday party, with a few friends.

Mike had his first derby on Friday. We spent 4 hours in the rain. Which turned the field we were in into mud. We were inches thick in mud! I was the tallest I have ever been!! Mud was stuck to everything and everybody. Did I say there was tons of mud?? I think he placed 6th, he got his truck hung up on anther. Next derby is 6/28 in Northwood.

Hope your summer is off to a great start!

Will tomatoes grow upside down?

looking down (top) looking up (bottom)

The whole project

So here is the experiment. This is the view of the whole upside down thing. Upside down are 4 tomato plants. Planted on the top are green and red peppers and red onions. Will we have tomatoes, peppers, and onions? Will we have tomatoes that taste like peppers and onions? Will this even work? We will see!! Mike is quite creative!!! Watch for updates as the summer grows.

Mike's New Hobby

What a great holiday weekend we had. We got all the flowers planted outside. Replaced 2 shrubs that did not come back this year. We also planted tomato plants. Mike had a new idea to plant some tomatoes upside down. He had the top portion of a 55 gallon plastic drum. So tomatoes will be planted upside down and on the top we are planting red & green peppers and onions. Maybe we will make salsa this year. I was not sure if it will work or not so I still planted 8 plants in our pots.

Demo derby season is starting soon. There is one truck in my yard and talk of another one to be added. Mike also has taken over the Cub Scout master position for Brayden's troop. He is very excited and has lots of new ideas for the boys in Pack 7. If you have a boy who is not in the scouting program, let me tell you it is worth while. I wish we would have pushed Zach harder to do it when he was little. But have no fear, there is an adventure scout program that he joining this fall. I think that it teaches many skills that are lost in our "technical" world today. Last week I saw 5 little boys that had never fished before! WOW. That just totally surprised me. I know not everyone is an outdoor person, but Albert Lea has that free "take a kid" fishing program every year. If you have a business or hobby that you do, we may be calling on you to show your stuff at a pack meeting in the future. (Police/Sheriff, Firefighter, Hunter/Fisherman, dog training, etc) You know who you are :) If you have a boy interested in scouts please let me know. We are accepting new scouts at any time.

Summer is going to be full of activities for the Boettcher family this year. Zach has summer basketball league on Sunday afternoons in Owatonna. Brayden has a traveling baseball program that he is participating in. Kailey will be doing cheer tots thru the park & rec. There will be plenty of demo derby's, a couple summer birthdays, a 10 year wedding anniversary, family reunions, camps, and maybe a vacation? I think I need a vacation just thinking about all of it!

Hide & Seek

Yesterday I took Kailey & Brayden shopping in Mankato. What an adventure. I decided that she should be able to walk, so I left the stroller at home. Bad idea!! Kailey kept hiding in the clothes racks and running away from me. I remember doing this as a child to my mom and Rita when they were shopping. Now I know why they were SOOOOOOO mad at us!! I was a wreck by the time we left the mall. Not to mention most of the shoppers were looking at me like I was crazy. We had to stop for quite a few time outs and breakdowns. Never again without the stroller, at least I can buckle her in when it gets that bad. The terrible 3s are here. What is the saying for a 4 year old?

Baby Shower Fun!

This weekend we (me, Angie, & Darlene) held a shower for Rachel, Bill, and baby Liam. He is scheduled to arrive mid June. We all had a wonderful time, from planning, to shopping, to setting up, and attending. McKenzie & Madison will be great big sisters. They held their own with our games of word making, my water broke, and the clothesline game! A great time was had by all of us. Thanks to Angie for being a great co-host. Thanks to Rita for her help. Thank you to all attended. Thank you to Rachel, Bill, McKenzie, & Madi for letting us share this with you. The baby to be is just a reminder of the blessing that my family and children are to me. We are waiting patiently for our newest family member to arrive!! Just don't ask Kailey, because she thought he would magically appear at the shower!