2012 Garden- Part 5, Fruit!!

It's pretty neat to look back at pictures from 2 1/2 weeks ago and see how much things have grown.  Check this out!

Garden- April 29th

Garden- May 17

It's a different angle, but you can see that our plants are really filling out now.   Look at how much less plastic is visible.  Funny side note:  When I was about to snap that last picture, Josh exclaimed, "That's a bobcat!"  I got so excited that I lowered the camera and tried to spot it, but I didn't get to see it.  Titus didn't see it either.  If I had taken the picture 3 seconds earlier, there would have been a bobcat in the shot.  Bummer :(
Anyway, here's a closer look at the growing plants.

Cantaloupe are taking over!

Corn has tassels and silk now!

Tomatoes are needing cages already.

You can see a few plants are still small and not doing very well.

Bean plants are getting big and looking healthy

We dug around last night and found a few melons starting to grow!

Itty, bitty watermelon

A couple of honeydew melons

Our first cantaloupe of the year

So overall, things look pretty good.  We definitely have a few plants that have died and bugs are munching on several others.  If things continue as they are now, it looks like we will have tons of corn, cantaloupe, beans, and tomatoes.  Okra has been a little slow getting started, but I'm sure they'll perk up as it gets warmer.  Zucchini and yellow squash have been struggling, but I think we have 2-3 plants that might make it.  Cucumbers, peppers, tomatillos, and eggplant are also doing ok.  We'll have another update in a couple of weeks.
Oh, one more thing.  Last year we planted some sunflower seeds on the side of our house.  We had a couple come up and bloom, but nothing spectacular.  This year, one of them came up and has been growing really fast!  I'm guessing it's about 8 feet tall since Josh is 6 feet tall.  The window it is in front of goes to our living room, so it's been fun to watch it shoot up over the last few weeks. 

Our First Niece and Our First Nephew Day

Last week was a really great week.  Several good small things happened, but 2 bigger things also happened: my Mom has a contract on her house and our first niece was born! 
June Elizabeth's birth was a scheduled c-section, so we were able make plans to see her just minutes after being born.  We watched through the glass as they weighed her, measured her, checked her out and gave her shots.  It was great to be here for these first moments. 

Proud Aunt

June Elizabeth

June and Uncle Josh

While mama and baby were still in the hospital, big brother Ben had to be entertained.  We had a full day with him on Saturday.  This was our first time to watch Ben, so we weren't quite sure how things would go.  He did great and we all had lots of fun.  We went to the zoo, taught him how to fish, spent some time on the playground, watched a movie, played with toys, and checked out the tractor. 

Riding the train at the zoo

Feeding the giraffes

Checking out the tortoises

Uncle Josh teaching Ben how to fish

We sat by the lake for 1 1/2 hours fishing and throwing rocks in the water

Playground time!

Wiped out!

Zoo train puzzle time!

"Helping" Uncle Josh make pancakes

Lab Quote Friday- 3 Strikes, You're Out and a Nerdy Party

Well, our semester is coming to an end, so this will be the last lab quote Friday for a while :(   Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have more once our new batch of freshmen arrive in the fall.
Our department offers a general science class for students studying to be elementary teachers.  This class covers a wide variety of topics and has lots of fun labs.  I hate to pick on these students since they're not science majors, but one particular student has really been cracking us up this semester.  Here are 3 of her most special moments:

Professor:  How many days are there in February during a leap year?

Student:  Well, there are 31 days in a month, so... 32!

Student:  I just misspelled my last name!

During an activity where they had to color a world map, this student's map was mostly green with little blue blobs.  She had colored the land blue and the water green.  Something didn't look quite right :)

We had a retirement party for one of our professor's this week.  Dr. Reeves has been at ACU for 32 years, so we knew we had to do something special.  We came up with a periodic table cake and some fun cookies.  I think they turned out pretty cute!  We're such nerds!

Periodic table cake- about 40x50"

Erlenmeyer flask cookies

Beaker cookies

Test tube cookies

One of the gifts Dr. Reeves received from our department was a benzene ring branding iron (he owns a ranch with several animals).  His wife sure knew what to do with it! 

We sure do have fun in this department!

Current faculty and staff (minus one) and some retired faculty