Happy Friday!

Things seem to be calming down a bit around here, thus no post yesterday. That and I am feeling the self imposed strain of having cute new pics of E every day!

One of my sunflowers is obviously a show off and is darting ahead of the others. I'm really quite excited about it because this particular variety is different from the norm. I took this pic yesterday morning and since then it has opened even more. I will restrain myself and wait until it gets in full glory before I slam you again!

Hiding behind the leaf on the right are my emerging pumpkin plants!

Last night I was outside doing the seemingly never ending chore of pulling weeds. The corn wasn't doing much talking so I got on the phone with Katie (south GA gardener/cook extraordinaire). We discussed squash recipes since she and I both will be overrun with them soon. Anyone have any fantastic recipes for these buggers? I'm sure she and I both would appreciate them!

Since our conversation went well past weeding time, I just hung out outside enjoying the night and catching up with a good friend. While out there, I discovered two things: We have lightning bugs here! and the Big Dipper.

I have never taken the time (nor had the interest) to search out constellations and stars so this was a big deal to me! Maybe I will have to start taking a closer look at the nighttime sky...

Remember TC's mom? She gave birth to her second TC last night! Congrats to her and the fam. I hear he looks just like his big brother did - that can only mean trouble for little cowgirls like E!

I hope y'all have a great extended weekend and it is filled with good eats, a few cold drinks and a lot of fire crackers!!

More phoney picture taking (ha! get it?!)

How's your math game?!

I went looking around for something to tickle the brain with and here is what I came up with.

It's another quiz, but this time it's all about the math. Eighth grade math. Can you pass? (I know, I know, I'm such a nerd.)

It has been a while since I was in 8th grade but I still scored an 8/10. I won't talk trash, yet, because I know there are some pretty smart cookies who read my blog! (I am very interested to see what my 88 year old Grandaddy scores... It's been quite a while since 8th grade for him but he's one of the smart cookies I was talking about!)

Report back!

Garden Fun #2

Now that I have gotten all of the horsey pictures out of the way, I can bring you to your knees with more pictures from our garden. Hooray!

Things are growing at rapid speed in the back yard. We have had a couple of showers that really give the plants a jolt. Take a look at what one week will do for my precious 'maters!

Is it wrong to be this excited about tomatoes?!

The squash that I thought was going to take over the garden last week has held steady and put all of its efforts into producing umpteen million squash. What in the world am I going to do with all of these suckers? Looks like you're all receiving care packages from Kansas!

My first squash and then the beginnings of my second, third and fourth squash!

In case you can't make heads nor tails of these pics: The squash (and other plants) produce male and female flowers. The female flowers have a baby fruit behind them whereas the male just have a stem. If the female gets pollenated the fruit will grow. If not, it just shrivels up and falls off. (You can see the old flower at the end of the squash that is growing.)

My suflowers are shooting on up and I should have a recognizable sunflower head soon! From what I read, they are fixin' to bolt almost a foot and a half in one week. I thought I would document the growth by having Ella stand next to them.

There are several heads forming here - E with her play phone pretending to take a picture

The cukes, corn, okra, watermelon and pumpkins are coming right along too, but they don't have much to look at. Rest assured that once something worthy of a picture comes along I will post it! Lucky you!

E meets Scooter

Ella is now a card-carryin' cowgirl!

David made it back from Georgia with one of his old roping horses, Scooter, in tow. Grandpa had been feeding, clothing and generally keeping Scoot alive for the past several years and decided that his granddaughter needed herself a horse. And Ella Grace couldn't be more excited.

This weekend E got to spend some quality time with her new friend and love, love, loves him! On with the pics!

The old man himself - and look how skinny David looks!

Ella waits impatiently while David warms Scooter up.

First ride with Daddy.

The next day

Fun stuff for everyone! David showed her how to move the reins to get Scooter to turn and she's got it down! The next step is for Ella to get her very own saddle and then she and David can go ride together. I'm sure there will be many more pics of E atop her horse!

I haven't had a lot of time to compose some witty and thought provoking post (because work is a mad house!) so these pictures will have to hold you through the weekend!

Ella is in gymnastics with her friend Mal and recently Mal's mom got her a leotard. Of course, I had to grab some pics of the new leo and the girls before class.

In case you're wondering, that is a cheeseburger tattoo.

Looks like E has had a few more cheeseburgers than Mal!

Listen up, class!

The combines have started rolling through our great state, making short work of many acres of wheat. Since I am dedicated to making my blog more than just shameless pictures of my baby girl, I am offering up a quickie lesson on WHEAT!

Most of the wheat grown here is called winter wheat because it is planted in the fall, grows a bit and then goes dormant through the winter. Once spring hits it keeps a' growin' and is ready for harvest in June.

The reels of the combine push the wheat towards the blades, the wheat is cut and goes within the combine. Once inside, the head of the wheat is shaken to release the seeds. The seeds are then sorted off to the grain bin and the rest is discarded out the back.

The combine operator will cut wheat until the grain bin gets full and then empty it into a grain truck.

Feeling smarter already, aren't you?!

Oh, let's not forget one of these!

Random Pics

Here are some random pics from this weekend.

This is why I had a baby: Child labor! (Notice the wedge flip flops!)

E tries to convince Lilly to load up in the 4 wheeler.

After a little help from D, she's ready to roll.

Miss Maggie

After seeing all of the weeds in the garden I decided it was time to clean things up a bit. So here I am, squatted down, picking weeds, when my shirt comes up and oops! the top of my panties show. E comes right over behind me and says "Mama, your panties!" and pulls them straight up. And up some more. That'll teach me to squat down.

Garden Fun

I am pretty dang excited about our little garden in the back yard. We now have certifiable evidence (!) that the garden will produce and make our hard work worthwhile!! I am especially looking forward to the tomatoes, which eluded us last year. Check it out!

That is 5 tomatoes in just one spot on one plant! Hot damn, tomato sandwiches for everybody!

We also planted corn, squash, okra, cucumbers, watermelon and sunflowers. Pumpkin seeds are fixing to be planted for the fall. We are just regular ol' farmers, aren't we?!

This is the first time we planted squash and thank goodness the other plant didn't come up. This monster is poised to take control of my garden if I'm not careful!

I think it's time to do a little hoein'

Since we are in the land of Kansas, I planted some sunflowers. This is the beginning of the big sunflower head.

Mmm... Looking forward to sunflower seeds!

I'm sure that I have bored you to tears with this week's garden update but I am too proud not to share! Maybe, if you're lucky and reeeeeal nice, we will share the loot! I think we are going to point the Honda east in July and should have some produce ready by then! Keep your GA and FL fingers crossed!

Holy Moly!

Ella sure does take after her Daddy.

She wants to be a cowgirl in the worst way and tells me repeatedly that I, in fact, am not a cowgirl. (Apparently, since I don't have the standard issue Wranglers, I don't meet the criteria. Pretty on the mark, really.) She will wear her Wranglers on the hottest days just so she can be like Daddy. It was all really quite sweet and cute until the other night when she asked if she could pee standing up...

Ella has a friend her age, we'll call him Tough Cowboy, who wears Wranglers and is a bona-fide cowboy. We went and watched TC in his first kids rodeo a couple of weeks ago and had a ball. One of the events TC competed in was sheep riding and I was able to snap this pic of the ride:

Cowboys ride sheep

Looks like fun, right?! Ella Grace thinks so too. She is slated to ride her first sheep at the end of July. BTW: TC named this sheep Holy Moly, after a pro bull he saw once. Holy Moly is right!

Notice TC's mom in red? She's getting ready to have another TC any day now... Let's all send some sweet thoughts of oxytocin to mom!

Please welcome our four legged female friends to the blog!

That'd be Lilly to the left and Maggie on the right.

Fine looking specimens, right?! Lilly, especially, since she is reportedly half red heeler and half brittany spaniel. Everyone say it with me: "WTF?!"

These girls aren't much in the smarts department but they are great kid entertainment! They sure do love Ella, sometimes a little too much!

(Check out Ella's tattoo! Makin' Aunt Sissy proud, no doubt!)

Since Lil and Mags are members of the family, of sorts, I thought they deserved their 5 seconds of fame.... and, maybe some internet dognapper will come and cart them off....OK, maybe I don't mean that....but maybe I do...

Incidentally: One night I got real brave with my mom (Margaret) and called her Mags... won't be doing that again. (It's Margaret, Mrs. Stronach if you're nasty.)

Could you use that in a sentence?

Ah, good ol' spelling bees.

We watched the national bee on TV and I was lost. Those words were not only hard, but totally obscure! They sure did make my 4th grade spelling bee elimination word of 'Thanksgiving' look pathetic. Or, is it more pathetic that I still remember what word knocked me out of a 4th grade bee?!

I found this quiz on msn.com today and thought I would pass it along. I got a 7/10. See how you stack up... and surely someone else remembers their elimination word? Please?

Ella Grace in her forthcoming bee crown

Is this thing on?

So, the blog begins.

You say you want to know what is going on with the McClure's ?! Well, here you are! (I am thoroughly new to the whole process so it might take me a while to get fired up... but I promise that I will shamelessly post pics of Ella Grace in the mean time!)

To get me started and out of the gate, I have a quickie for you:

This weekend Ella says to me "Mama has a butt crack." David is in the living room reeling with laughter while I hold composure enough to ask where she heard that phrase (because it wasn't from me!). To this she tells me "Daddy." Nice.

Also, this weekend I found myself having to force the sentence, "Ella, that's called a penis".

I'm lucky I made it to Monday.