This Weekend & the Start of Summer Break.

Friday marked high school graduation at my son's small school.

Tradition is for the junior class to give a reception 

for the seniors following the ceremony.

A very nice tradition, I say.

I know I'll appreciate it next year when Berkley is wearing his gown and mortarboard.

(Gulp.)

My friend Julie and I were in charge of decorating.

We went with a garden theme--

green and white,

lots of freshly cut flowers and candles,

baskets, iron and burlap.

Weeks ago, knowing this event was approaching,

Julie had the great idea of each of us

planting all of our annual pots around our houses with green plants and white flowers

so we could use them at the party.

Since we had to freshen up the pots anyway, why not?

We used things we already own.

What we didn't have between the two of us we borrowed.

The only direct out-of-pocket expenses that we had 

(meaning things that we couldn't use again after the reception)

were the limes in the vases

and the Irish Bells (the cool tall green flowers in our arrangements).

I even took the surplus of those to a florist 

who offered to buy the rest from me.

How's that for resourceful and thrifty? :)

Class of 2012

The banquet table awaits food.

I now have the benefit of having several of these vases sitting around my house.

Don't you love the limes?

Thanks, Pinterest!

It was a special night and fun to be a small part of it.

And now, it is officially summer break!

Woo-hoo!

.......

We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and getting caught up on a few things.

Saturday involved the Farmers' Market (yeah!) and cleaning the house (ehh...).

Yesterday after church we napped, Sierra made cookies,

(she always puts in lots of extra chocolate chips :) )

and then we worked in the garden.

I can't believe that we're so late in getting everything planted.

I guess we hoped that the house would have sold by now.

But since we're still here, we may as well enjoy it, right?

 The tomatoes are alot further along than anything else.

Why do we put screens around everything, you wonder?

Because we have one pesky chicken who flies into the garden and wants to eat everything in sight!

 Here are some little cayennes.

 And some bells.

 Baby cucumbers.

 And green tomatoes.

Oh, the invasive mint!

We dug it up and put it in a pot because it was taking over,

but it must survive underground because it keeps coming back!

Poor thyme. 

We also planted some cosmos along our sidewalk.

We've never used these before,

but they are so delicate and happy.

Kevin also trimmed the wisteria vine over our front porch.

 Doesn't it look nice? Hi, Rosie!

The front porch.

Someone buy our house, please!

.......

So today is the first week day of summer break.

One thing I plan to do is get our last garden item ready.

I'm going to attempt to root these sweet potato slips.

These potatoes are from our garden last year.

You probably can't tell from the photo,

but these suckers are each the size of a small football.

We've hoarded them all winter long

and now we can attempt to start our crop this year from them.

We'll see. 

I found the step-by-step directions here

in case you want to try it.

I'll let you know how it goes...

.......

I also want to spend part of today coming up with a plan for our time.

I don't want the summer to just slip away.

*from somewhatsimple.com (via Pinterest)

I like the idea of having a focus for each day.

I think I'll use some version of this for my family

for the weeks that we are in town.

What are your summer plans?