Trees planted. Check.

Wow.  We got so much done today.  I ventured out with all of the girlies (minus Rachel who was off hanging pj's on a fence.  Don't ask.)  to Al's Garden Center to pick up pansies a plenty and some fruit trees.  I had originally planned to buy wood for our garden beds today also, but when my back hurt as we were leaving Al's, I thought that might be overly ambitious. Sometimes my downfall can be my brainless optimism, but today my caution paid off.  We barely finished planting the trees by 5 pm.

We had fun perusing the many flowers and trees while Lilly rode on my back (with quite the snotty nose, turns out!).  We decided on a 4 in 1 cherry tree, which has 4 varieties grafted onto one tree, and a 5 in 1 Apple Espalier, which is great for growing along our fence in our not quite so big backyard.   And, of course, we couldn't leave without the 30 pansies that some of Chris' coworkers gave us a few months back.  I let the girls choose the colors as Hannah serenaded us with "Little Purple Pansies" . (which used to be "Little Purple Panties" when Rachel was little. )

We came home and dug like crazy through our horrible clay, amended the soil and now we have our beautiful, tiny fruit trees in.  Until those decide to produce (in what, three or four years?), we will distract ourselves with our garden and some berries.  This week's plan?  I am going to get the girls growing some of our veggies from seed and will have them help build our garden beds.  Yes, the spring bug has bitten us.  I am ready to be out of the house and I can't begin to tell you how refreshing it was to hear the birds sing for me as I dug. (even if it was starting to feel a little like "The Birds" when there were 21 of them sitting on the fence watching me.  Spooky stuff.)