Friday, May 30, 2008

Our Memorial Day....

I always look forward to Memorial Day! It means Daddy is home which also means that life slows down for the day! Everyone usually works on a project that can be accomplished by the time grilling out or churning the ice cream rolls around! It's a very relaxing day!
This Memorial Day was no different. I spent most of the morning making soap and then worked on getting the front porch ready for company.

The porch furniture desperately needed to have last years' dirt cleaned off so Trevor helped me move the sofa and table into the front yard for cleaning. I cleaned it all down with Murphy's Oil Soap and it smelled and looked so good when I was done!

The plants that Momma had received for her birthday are perfect for the front porch! The begonias LOVE the shade and the New Guinea Impatien DOES NOT like the back porch, so I took some time getting my fingers in the dirt and re-potting them! I love to plant things!

Daddy had been busy hanging the porch swing while I was working on the furniture which was really exciting! The swing has been sitting on the porch since we moved in and we're all happy to have it hung!!
When the furniture was dry I was then able to rearrange the furniture to accommodate the new porch swing! I have to say that I'm very pleased with the result!

This is the view from the porch! I love to just sit and look out on this! You may notice dead leaves on the fruit tree; those are from the late freeze that we had a year ago. They still haven't fallen off, amazingly.
The porch is a wonderful place to sit on summer afternoons. It doesn't get any sun until around five o'clock and a breeze always seems to find it's way to it. Now that the swing is hung I know where many of us will be!

We had some friends over for an early supper which consisted of hamburgers done on the grill, coleslaw, gazpacho-a cold soup-, chips, and of course homemade ice cream!! It was delicious!


No picnic is complete without having at least one dog in the midst of everything!

Sawyer filled his plate up with chips and staked out a place on the bench to eat! I think Trevor may have managed to get some food, other than chips, into him!

Sayre helped Sawyer use a bow and arrow and Sawyer got so tickled watching the arrow fly!


I have a little friend in my garden! The poor thing has almost been stepped on twice now! I've been finding him under my butterfly bush or in the general vicinity of it. I do have a home made toad house but I don't know if he's using it or not.
I get so excited when I see that "good" animals or amphibians are making my garden their home! That tells me that I'm doing something right in it!

As I close I must state the correct weight of the calf. Tristan was horrified to find that I had put down "over two hundred pounds" (which is correct) for her weight. She actually weighs around five hundred pounds (and she's going to weigh more if she keeps eating the dog food).
I hope y'all have a wonderful day!

4 comments:

~*~Jessica~*~ said...

Oh boy you have such a nice big front porch! We had a pretty quiet Memorial Day... we actually did our cooking out the day before because it was supposed to be cloudy and cold, with a "wincey" chance of rain :) We only got a little bit of rain though, which was nice!

I LOVE to make ice cream!! I make it several times a week if not every night per Mother dear's request :)

lovely pictures! ~*~Jessica~*~

Paula said...

Dear Ashley,

Your did a wonderful job cleaning the furniture and decorating the front porch! Everything looks so beautiful and welcoming! I love the view from your front porch. It looks just like "A Country Maiden's Lane." What a beautiful homestead you all have!

I am glad you all had a nice Memorial Day.

Blessings,
Paula

Maiden4Christ said...

Dear Ashley
Who were the guests by any chance?
Everything looked very nice.

BETHANY FRANCOSTEIN

Ashley said...

Jessica-I don't know how you make your ice cream, but we couldn't even begin to make it once or twice a week! It takes a full bag of ice (or all of the ice in the ice maker) in addition to a half hour or more of it being in the "churn". We do enjoy it though!! Our favorite is mint chocolate chip!

Mrs. Paula-It felt so good to get that furniture scrubbed and looking good again! Momma has "to recover the porch furniture cushions" down on her to do list, and then the place will look terrific! I did enjoy fixing the front porch up and I'm glad you enjoy the results!

Bethany- I don't know if you would know our guests.. they are the Smiths' from Cold Springs.
Thank You for your comment!