Birthdays and Gardens.....

~* Opening his gift from Auntie & Uncle Kevin *~

Today was my favorite little guy's birthday BBQ with the family. He is 6 now and in kindergarten so he will be having a separate kid's party tomorrow at some kid place with some kid's from his class. So today was low-key: just immediate family and my sister-in-law's immediate family.

~* Jonathan and YiaYia *~

Despite it being a little chilly today we still had a nice time. Usually family things at my brother's house can get a little...interesting. My family and my sister-in-law's family are quite, uh, different, and we don't really speak. Whenever we are all at my brother's house at the same time we all just keep to our respective families and try to remain cordial. It keeps the peace. And since as far as we are all concerned it is all about the little guy anyway keeping the peace for his sake is of the utmost importance.

~* Jonathan and Papou *~

Lately, though, things have been happening. Good things. And I think there will be some healing. The two families will never be friends and that is just fine with me. I am only concerned with my nephew, my brother, and sister-in-law. I just thank God every single day, many times a day, that my nephew is as close to us as he is. And I know my brother and sister-in-law are thankful for that, too. And again, that is all that matters. As for the others....life is too short to waste time on toxic people.

~* Jonathan with his SpongeBob cake *~

You are probably wondering where gardens fit in to all this birthday and family stuff. Well, my sil's uncles are avid gardeners. And they are really good at it. They both plant huge gardens (and I am even pretty sure everything in it is legal! lolol) with every veggie under the sun. What does this have to do with me? Well, my brother gardens, too, and one of the uncles brought my brother some of his butternut squash seeds and he was going to give some to my Dad, too. For some reason he thought my Dad did veggies. My Dad loves his yard but he is more in to his lawn and flowers, not veggies. Then they told him I was going to start my own garden for the first time and he insisted I take some of the seeds. It was actually very sweet of him. So that is my garden update: it now appears that in addition to the veggies and herbs listed in my previous post I will now also be planting butternut squash. From seed. Eeeks!

So, it really was a good day!

~* Silly birthday boy!!! *~