My first harvest!

We just ate a salad with our dinner!!!  And the lettuce came from my garden!!!!  I grew it myself!!!  Can I hear a WOO HOO??!!!  Everything is growing so beautifully... I couldn't be happier.  It's just a matter of time before the WHOLE salad comes from my garden!  I have green beans climbing up the bean cage, cucumbers with flowers and teeny, tiny baby cucumbers coming in behind them, flowers on my tomato plant, which means tomatoes are just a short wait away, good lookin' carrot stalks... sigh.  I'm in gardener heaven.  The only thing I can't figure out (and I haven't really looked into it yet) is why my broccoli is flopping over.  Maybe it grows that way, I don't know.  But,  I don't think it looks right.  Anyhoo... here are the pictures to prove it:  I am a gardener.  And, knock on wood, the rabbits don't know it yet!

Green beans

Floppy broccoli 

Here comes the cucumber!

Carrots

Tomatoes are on their way.

Mmmm... salad.  Even Pern ate some!

Success in the woods!

In case you were wondering why it's been almost a month since my last post, the reason took place this weekend.  The school camping trip has been the focus of my days for several months now, and it got kicked into high gear over the last couple of weeks.  But the good news is: it was a success!  We took 23 families to Prince William Forest Park (well, actually, they took themselves) for one and a half days, two nights, and four meals and only had one trip to the hospital (one of the kids tripped and got a pretty deep cut on his forehead) and one encounter with a Copperhead snake.  Yes, they're poisonous.  The ranger came to our rescue and removed the little critter.  It was a baby.  More poisonous than the adult version, but ever so cute.  

The mice were a bit of an issue and the bathrooms could have been cleaner, but I have a feeling we'll do it again next year.  Everyone kept asking if this was the "1st Annual" camping trip, but I haven't committed to anything...yet.  The hardest part (creating a structure of organization to facilitate a two day camping trip for 90+ people) has already been done.  A 2nd camping trip would require a fraction of the work and, I think, would be even more fun.  With no stress of the "unknown" and the "unsure" of how things will work, I would be able to relax and actually enjoy myself instead of always trying to be one step ahead of the game so that everyone else could relax and enjoy themselves!  We'll see... stayed tuned for that decision.  

I don't want to post any kid pics, 'cause I don't have parent permission and I don't want to put kid pics "out there" but here are two highlights from the weekend.  Both involved campfires, the highlight of any camping trip:

Pern and Joe played guitar and we all sang songs around the campfire (Friday).  So much fun!  It was a very "this is real" moment for me.

And then, during one of the activity blocks on Saturday, kids stuffed marshmallows and chocolate chips into bananas to create "banana boats," which were then wrapped in foil, heated in the coals of the campfire on Saturday night, and eaten right out of the skin with a spoon.  One word: yummy!

All in all, it was a good trip!  It was a huge learning experience for me.  I was proud to have pulled it off and am currently still riding the high... I have that, "if I can do this, I can do anything," feeling.  Not a bad one to have, right?  Maybe I'll keep it for a while.  :)