Eli got his first hair cut at 5 months, by my cousin Jess. It was a great haircut. About a month or so later he looked like he could use another trim and I tried my own hand at trimming things up. I made a total mess. I think the picture above was a few days after my attempt. Last week Clay's Aunt Norma couldn't resist trying to fix the mess.
Now he looks so grown up and he is officially a SITTER!

Price's Fork Fair 2011

I didn't actually have my camera at the fair this year, but we had some memorable moments. Eli got his first blue ribbon for a miniature flower arrangement. Eli ate the food from the baby food jar so I could use it as a container, so he did his part to get his name on the entry!

On Thursday I ran out to the garden after work and gathered as big a variety of produce as I could find. I ended up with:
Red and Yellow bell peppers
Serrano and jalapeno peppers
Roma, Brandywine, Better Boy, Cherry, Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
Okra, Kale, Sweet Potatoes, zucchini, and Corn
I had a few purple beans left in the fridge.
To help decorate the basket I used a sunflower and lots of herbs including:
oregano, rosemary, basil, purple basil, Thai basil, dill, chives, mint, lavender, and pineapple sage
I also ran next door and picked a few pears to include some fruit (that may be cheating??)

By Friday evening when I got off work to see the exhibits, the basket didn't look as pretty, with a few items wilting, but it ended up with a Best in Show :)
Our sunflowers didn't do as great this year but I had a few beautiful small ones that I put together with some pineapple sage and Sedum in Clay's name and he got a Best in Show also.

So we thought we were Rocking the Big Price's Fork Fair so why not put Eli in the baby contest. Well, he wasn't such a big fan of the loud, crowded, hot Grange hall. By the time the 6mos to 1yr age group for boys was called he was a flushed, drooly, gassy mess. He didn't take home a ribbon. So when he starts getting a big head when he's older, we'll remind him he took last place at the PF fair:)

We had fun and I'm always happy to see a lot of people enjoying the little community fair. We will see what happens in the next couple of years when the new PFES opens and the old school building is sold. It will certainly change the dynamics of pulling off the fair.

As always, I usually see the fair as time to let the garden go. We still have a crop of corn that didn't seem to fill out like the first planting. We have an abundance of tomatoes. Clay's mom and dad made some salsa, and his aunt Dee helped can some tomato juice. We are so fortunate to have some folks help out to prevent us from wasting some great food. I tried dehydrating some okra, which turned out pretty good for snacking. I may try to dehydrate some more Romas as they come in.



Eli getting ready for the baby contest. Looks like he is about ready for his second hair cut!

Several of my friends gave Eli little homemade decorated onesies using freezer paper stenciling. I knew I'd love the crafty project myself and have had it on my to do list for awhile. I finally gathered the materials together and here are my first four attempts.

Eli and I recently traveled to Haymarket, VA to visit cousin Jessica and her family. Oh - they are all too cute and just loved playing with Eli. He took a special liking to little Grace, who in return took a special liking to Eli's Bumpo seat!!

Harvesting has Begun and Eli at 6 months in his Birthday Suit!

Little Roar and Mid July Garden

I love seeing these bibs hanging outside to dry. Thanks Aunt Dee!!
Everything in the garden is doing well so far this year except for the squash and zucchini. Clay and I use to think those were the two easiest plants to grow, but we've been in a full blown war with the squash bug this year. We finally got some diatomaceous earth to use, but I think we started it too late. I spent a lot of time hand picking the adults and scraping off the little eggs that are so strategically placed near the veins of the leaves where it is all but impossible to rub them off with out tearing up the plant. In this picture we have two varieties of beans on the left, okra near the back/middle. We have peppers, and tomatoes on the right. We moved our corn to the back and did two separate plantings. We've had some bad thunderstorms that have tried laying the corn down flat. We also tried a row of sweet potatoes this year in the middle. We have basil in the front right and it seems to be going so fast that it may be spent before the tomatoes come in for capris salad. I did make two batches of pesto to freeze in ice-cube trays and I dehydrated some as well. I think one of the best things we did was not plant potatoes this year. For the past two years the potato beetle has been too much to battle and I think rotating potatoes and beans every other two years or so would be a good strategy.
Close up of the beautiful Thai Basil.
Happy Mid-July :)

Eli's Song by John Denver

Eli's First Hike and First Pony Tail

We took Eli on his first hike up at Mountain Lake on the War Spur trail. He seemed to really enjoy his new backpack. It took as a while to figure out all the adjustments, but I think we're all pretty happy with it. It was great getting Eli out in the woods. War Spur is only about 2 miles. We gave him one bottle on the trail, the pack has plenty of space to carry all that Eli needs, including a little canopy cover, but this trail was very shady, so we didn't have to worry about the sun :)

Eli was zonked out by the end of the trip!