Multiple Mayhem!

Attack of the Monster Caterpillars

Denise — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:42:49 GMT

We have a small fenced play area off to the side of the house that has a swingset, a sandbox, picnic tables and a concrete slab where the kids love to ride their bikes and tricycles. Lately we've had tons of these little black and yellow caterpillars all over the place and the babies kept trying to step on them until they understood that if they let them alone the caterpillars will turn into beautiful butterflies in a few weeks. Now the kids are having a great time hunting caterpillars so they can meet them before they turn into butterflies.

This evening we took them out for a little bit - I think they've got cabin fever, its been raining a lot over the past few days and they haven't been able to go out at all. So they're running around, picking up acorns and looking for "catypilyars" when all of a sudden we hear a bunch of oohs and aahs. They had found the grandaddy of all monster caterpillars. Check this thing out - the little black and yellow one to the side is the kind they're finding all over. Thank goodness we haven't run across any more like this, might give me nightmares If anybody knows what this guy is gonna turn into please let me know!

Potty Training Made Easy By The Quad Mom!

Denise — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:49:11 GMT

After potty training five children at the same time I've learned quite a few tricks by trial and error. I can save you time, money and heartache during one of the toughest phases of child rearing.

When your child begins to get interested in YOUR bathroom habits its time to start getting them "pre-trained". Demonstrate how the toilet works, allow your child to flush it, and let him or her watch you using it.

As soon as your child begins expressing an interest in the potty you will need to go out and get a potty chair of your choice. The style or type is not important as long as it is convenient for you and your child to use.

We had every type imaginable - hand me downs, yard sale buys and baby shower gifts since we needed so many at once. Honestly the fewer bells and whistles they had the more we liked them. The ones that "rewarded" the child with a tune when they were "successful" quickly had what we like to call batteryectomies. The three piece ones with lids that turned into stepstools were a pain to use and had too many parts for the kids to put back together on their own. We liked the simple two piece ones with a removeable insert the best. Plus I highly recommend that you also get the kind that fits over the top of your standard toilet once your child is trying to master the art of #2 - its too high to start your child out that way, but makes cleanup a breeze when you need it the most

My biggest money saving tip is not to waste your money on so called training pants or the pull up type of diapers. A diaper by any other name is still a diaper and your kid knows its a diaper no matter how often you call them "big boy pants".

Training pants are intended to allow your child to feel wet without leakage based on the theory that the child won't want to feel wet and this will speed up the training process. The problem is that not all children are bothered by feeling wet and because they're not designed to hold much you'll go through many more of these than regular diapers, plus they cost more than regular diapers.

Once your child has been "pre-trained", they understand the principles of using the potty and they are beginning to be aware of having the urge to go, you should simply switch them to underwear during any part of they day that they are awake. This will speed up the potty training process tremendously because no child is comfortable walking around with wet clothes.

Because there WILL be accidents it is best to make the switch to underwear when you'll have several days in a row to spend with your child - perhaps over a three day weekend or other vacation from work. Explain in advance to your child what you will be doing. Its a great idea to take your child to the store with you when shopping for his or her new underwear, allow them to help with the selection and make it an event.

Begin by taking your child to the bathroom and placing him or her on the potty every 30-45 minutes. Reward your child each time he or she successfully uses the potty. Your choice of reward can be anything you choose, but must be something of value to your child. For instance, our oldest did very well with stickers as a reward until it came time for #2 training and then we had to move up to hardcore rewards, a truck for every time he went poopy in the potty (he was our toughest), but all the quads needed were gummy bears. We gave them one for tee tee and two for poopy and that was all the incentive they needed.

Keep taking your child to the bathroom as scheduled and before long they will start to tell you when they need to go and you'll be able to start stretching the time between bathroom visits. By the end of your long weekend your child should be getting the hang of it. Be sure to make it a habit to take your child to the potty immediately upon waking and before each nap or bedtime.

Your child will still be wearing diapers at night and during naptime but you'll know when you can start taking them out of those when they begin to habitually wake up with clean and dry diapers.

Multiple Birth Programs

Denise — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:43:06 GMT

During my pregnancy with the quadruplets we were fortunate to learn about the programs that formula companies and other baby product firms have for multiple births. These large companies will provide the parents of twins, triplets, quadruplets and other mutliples with generous donations of free or discounted products. For instance, Carter's sent us gorgeous yellow footed sleepers for all the babies and two packages each of blue and pink onesies (Thank you so much Carter's!), and Gerber sent us spoons that were too beautiful to use so we put them away for the children in their memory boxes, and the coupons saved us an AMAZING amount of money. (Thanks bunches Gerber!)

These generous companies have programs where they donate their products or provide coupons with great savings for expectant and recent parents of twins, triplets, quadruplets and quintuplets. When we had our quads we were overwhelmed by the generosity of many of these companies, we couldn't have made it through the first year without the formula and baby food donations, you'd be amazed at what it costs to feed this many babies! I've placed a list of Free Stuff for Twins, Triplets, Quads and Higher Order Multiples on my Squidoo page at http://www.squidoo.com/quadruplets.

Handsome In A Uniform

Denise — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:09:52 GMT

We finally got the pictures we were promised of Ryan at bootcamp and boy does he look handsome in his uniform! We were sad that we didn't get to go visit him at his graduation from bootcamp but its difficult enough to travel across town with five kids in carseats, there was no way we'd be able to take them across country. His mom, stepdad, brother and sister got to go see him though and I'm very glad about that, I know Ryan was happy to see some familiar friendly faces in the crowd. He's got a few more weeks of training then he'll get a little bit of leave before his next assignment. He hasn't decided yet whether he's going to come visit us or go to Korea to visit his mom, but we're selfishly hoping for the former - the kids sure have missed him while he's been gone!

Goodbye To A Good Friend

Denise — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:09:39 GMT

Sadly, my mother-in-law's boyfriend passed away this week. Don was a big cuddly bear of a man and the children just loved him and all the neat noises and faces that he liked to make for them. He was a happy guy who always had a joke to tell and he was very good to Betty and to us.

Don was diagnosed with cancer a mere three weeks ago and he was taken from us much too soon! We will all miss you terribly Don but we're glad to know you're in a better place.

Farewell to the Cousins ... Until Next Year

Denise — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:44:27 GMT

We took all the kids over to mom and dad's last night for a family dinner with my brother's family before they left this morning to head back to Korea. All the kids had a blast playing together and we got some great pix! We're always sorry to see them go but we're so glad that the cousins all had such quality time to play together and get to know each other better over the last few weeks. I'm also VERY happy that they got to go see Ryan's graduation from boot camp in Fort Sill while they were here. They brought back some wonderful pictures of him (see my previous post about him leaving us) and he looks very happy, and so handsome in his uniform.

Yesterday was Jacob's 4th birthday but we didn't want to have his party on the day Mike & Camille leave since our dinner was about them, but they gave Jacob some great toys, including a Leapster L-Max. Thanks you guys - you're the greatest! Have a safe trip and come back real soon

Next, we have to figure out what to do about a party for Jacob, he's got more presents hiding in the closet (shhhh - don't tell him where) and I've promised him a dumptruck cake. This is going to be my first attempt at a shaped character cake which is probably the reason I'm not in more of a hurry, but I'll be sure to let you know how the cake turns out.

Trip to Chuck E. Cheese

Denise — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:44:25 GMT

Since we took all the kids to the amusement park last week, the quads schedule has been all messed up and it sure has affected their moods and attitudes. Then just when they're getting back in the swing of things they all come down with the sniffles, we've got runny noses galore amongst the quads. We had planned to take all of the kids to Chuck E. Cheese along with my brother and his family, it would have been the first time for the quads, but we decided that it was a bad idea given their colds and how long it took them (and us) to recover from the last fun outing :S So we just took Jacob, our oldest who will be four next week, and his cousins. They had a blast and I think the parents even had a good time, we had some nice conversation, decent food and we got to watch the kids enjoying themselves. It is wild how all those tokens magically turn into tickets that magically turn into trinkets that magically disappear on the trip home. Next year during their visit I'm sure we'll be much braver and they'll all be able to go

P.S. Yes Mom - I know he needs a haircut, but lately he's acting scared to death of the scissors. I'm working on him

Favorite Time & Money Saving Tips

Denise — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:59:32 GMT

My husband does this thing with the bath soap that drives me CRAZY!! Whenever the bar of soap gets too small for him he'll quit using it and get a new bar, well he leaves like a 1/4 of the original bar, way too much to throw away so I continue using it until it TRULY is too small, but then I never get the pleasure of using the brand new full-size bar of soap So finally I realized that he is never going to change so maybe I should do something else about it. I started saving up all the bars of soap in a cup under the bathroom sink. Its amazing how fast the cup fills up around here, so I occasionally grab all the bars, take them to the kitchen and make myself a new big bar of soap. I put all the small pieces in a small glass bowl and microwave them for about 30 seconds at a time, stirring after every 30 seconds. Once the mixture is liquid enough to mold I use the spoon to smash the mixture down into the bottom of the glass bowl. Be careful - the bowl will be hot! Let it cool and pop your new bar of soap out. If it doesn't come out easily just put the bowl in the freezer for a few minutes.

Keep a pair of scissors and a couple small resealable plastic bags in the bathroom - just when you think you've got to the end of a tube of toothpaste, hair gel or makeup you can cut off the end of the tube and easily squeeze out what's left. Store the remainder of the tube in a plastic bag and you'll be able to get a few more days to a week's worth.

We have so many different sets of sheets at our house that they end up in a jumble in the linen closet. Finally one day a lightbulb came on and I realized that the easiest way to keep all the matches together and to keep them properly folded is to store them inside one of the matching pillow cases. This way you can keep them much better organized and you never have to search for that odd piece again.

I love to pull recipes out of magazines or print good ones that I find online, but they end up all in a jumble. Now I divide them into meal combinations and put them in clear plastic sleeves within a three ring binder. They're protected from cooking messes and it makes it quicker and easier to plan a whole meal.

I'd love to hear about your favorite time and money saving tips!!

Quads First Trip to an Amusement Park

Denise — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:19:22 GMT

My little brother works and lives in Korea and he and his wife and kids come back to the states once a year for a visit. They've got two beautiful kids, ages 4 and 7, that our children just adore. Well, we got brave and decided we'd take all seven of the kids to the local amusement park a couple days ago. The kids have never even all been to a sit down restaurant together, they truly don't get out too much, and we were pretty nervous about taking them so my mom, mother-in-law and aunt all came along to join in the fun.

The kids turned out to be pretty great actually, they listened well and had a blast riding all the small rides. Jacob, our oldest, likes the rides the least so he spent a bunch of time in the gameroom with nana, thrilled to be winning tickets galore that he got to exchange for trinkets. The girls liked the rides the most, the little boys just kinda tagged along because they weren't about to let their sisters show them up. Amazingly, Sarah - the smallest of the four - is the biggest daredevil of them all. We went on the tilt-a-whirl and most of the kids hated it, it just spins way too fast and forces you backward in your seat. They couldn't wait to get off, a couple of them screamed the whole way, but not Sarah! When the ride stopped she wouldn't get off, just said "not done!" I had to promise her we'd ride it again before we left the park and she made sure we did - a couple times!

I'm soooo glad they had a good time cuz its gonna have to last them awhile! They were TERRIBLE for the rest of the day and have been ROYAL TOOTS for the couple days since. These kids are very set in their schedule, we've encouraged that because its the only way to get everyone to sleep at the same time, eat at the same time, etc - but they missed their nap that afternoon, slept in the next morning, and refused to give in at nap time the next day so their schedule is just all messed up and the rest of us are paying for it. By next year at this time we'll likely have forgotten about the "after ordeal" and get brave enough to try it again

Wax On, Wax Off

Denise — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:15:32 GMT

There's something about red crayons - they just won't come off the wall no matter what I try. We try to control the crayons whenever the kids are using them, but somehow they walk off anyway. The kids break them so there are twice as many to try and contain, and they skillfully hide them I think for use when we're not looking. They recently started a mural on the wall in the living room behind the couch where we didn't even find it for a couple of days, and one day the boys snuck some crayons in for nap time and the whole room got a makeover. Some of the things I tried to remove the art from the walls with didn't work at all (window cleaner), but others worked on most of the marks (Mr. Clean Magic Eraser got most of it), but NOTHING worked on the red at all.

Today my husband says "you know, I heard that furniture polish might work." So he goes and gets some out of the cabinet (ours was Scott's Liquid Gold Wood Cleaner) and with just a bit sprayed on a paper towel he proceeded to get all the red crayon off the wall. It was amazing, didn't even take much effort. We were worried about discoloration so I'd recommend trying a small spot first but honestly there was not much chance of the walls looking worse than they already did I just wish I understood how he could go through weeks of listening to me gripe about the walls before coming out with this gem of an idea.

Can't Leave Them Alone For One Minute!

Denise — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:07:49 GMT

Last night I went around the corner to the kitchen to fill up sippies for everyone. Since I can't see them from the kitchen I just kept talking to them while I was getting out the juice, "I'll be right back, thank you for being good boys and girls." I come back around the corner with my arms full of sippies and I see all four of the quads standing on top of the coffee table right near my desk. Brandon is the only one facing me while the other three are all reaching over the octagonal child gate that surrounds my computer desk (affectionately known around here as my "cage"). Brandon hollars "uh oh, coming" and they all sit down on the coffe table and act innocent. Unbelievable, they're not even three years old and they worked together to move the coffee table across the living room and actually posted a lookout to try and keep from getting in trouble because they knew they were being bad. Unfortunately they outnumber us and I think it's probably downhill from here!

Snap, Crackle & Pop

Denise — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:10:16 GMT

With so many children in the house it can be pretty difficult to get any work done, so although I feel very lucky to be able to work from home, I also often think that it might feel like a vacation to be able to go off to work at an office somewhere My work hours are limited to those hours of the day that the children are sleeping, so naptimes and after about nine at night is when all the real work gets done. Of course that's also the only time available to do other things like take a shower and clean the house or work in the garden.

Yesterday during the kids naptime I was cruising right along on the computer getting lots of work done, I was in the zone but I'd hear a strange noise and stop to listen. Then nothing. Back to work and then I'd hear it again, a weird snapping or popping sound. Then nothing. Then a couple snaps in a row. Then nothing. Finally I break away from my work to go investigate. I'm standing in the hallway between the two kids bedrooms when I hear it again so I press my ear to the boys' bedroom door and they're in there whispering to each other, then another snap and a giggle. Busted - I whip open the door and both boys are up (way too early I might add) and standing on the cedar chest in front of the window busily snapping the faux wood blinds into pieces and having a grand old time.

Looks like the boys are gonna be next in line to start losing stuff out of their room - the blinds are gone now and can't be replaced until they can be trusted. What's next? They may all end up with bare rooms and mattresses on the floor, might just pad the walls while we're at it in case I need a place to go

Our Little Entrepreneur

Denise — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:02:11 GMT

When the quadruplets were born they were taken immediately to NICU and didn't get to come home with us right away. It was several weeks before we got to bring them home and the girls came home first, then the boys a week later, so they didn't get to come home all at once either. The girls brought their older brother Jacob a present when they came home and he'd been expecting some babies so he was okay with it once he got the gift. Well when we brought the boys home Jacob was not happy, even though they brought him a gift too, I think he'd decided sharing attention with the two girls was enough. He eventually got over it, but he's not the world's greatest at sharing. He does try, and gets upset when the babies don't share with each other, but he does seem to feel that everything is his first, and then the babies can have it when he's done.

We have plenty of wheels (tricycles, big wheels, etc) for everyone to ride something at once, but somehow its just not right if we don't have five of each thing - everyone wants what the other has. But Jacob has now decided that the cars are all his, he likes to line them up and pretend to wash them or work on them, says they're in the shop so no one else can ride them. This certainly isn't fair to anyone else but Jacob can be pretty stubborn about it. So mamaw tells Jacob, "why don't you rent the cars out, that's what companies that have a lot of cars do, they rent them out so other people can ride them". Now Jacob has his own little company, he gladly rents the cars to his brothers and sisters for either 5 cents, or 3 leaves, whichever they have available.

No Furniture Necessary

Denise — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:06:35 GMT

We've been having problems with the girls throwing all the clean clothes around their room when they should be sleeping. Sometimes they play with the clothes before they go to sleep, sometimes its after they wake up, but they always do it stealthily, they make no noise at all because they know they're being bad.

We've had this changing table since they were born with two open shelves below it where we keep their clothes in large baskets. The girls were so bad about taking those clothes and throwing them about that the baskets have been living in the family room for a couple weeks. Then the other night we hear a big boom and go into the room to see one of the girls on the floor with a stunned look on her face and the changing table laying on the ground. She had climbed up on top and apparently toppled over with it so the changing table has now been relegated to the garage, which solves one problem but not the problem of where to store the clothes.

My mother-in-law found a neat dresser at a consignment store for $20 so now we've got that in the girls room, already bulging at the seams of course, and we hear another loud boom in the room while putting the babies down for the night last night. This time it was Jacob, our oldest, who had pulled the top drawer out then yanked and the whole thing fell over on top of him. He cried but thankfully only his feelings were hurt! Anyway, bedtime was then immediately put on hold until daddy got the drill out and attached the dresser to the wall. I'm glad we don't have to worry about that any longer, but wonder how long it'll take the girls to simply open the drawers and "decorate" the floor again. Guess our next step will be to take all the furniture out of the room and leave them their mattresses

I Signed Up for PayPerPost

Denise — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:54:53 GMT

I just found out about PayPerPost from an interesting book I'm currently reading about blogs called "Blogging Heroes, Interviews with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers". This is a really neat service where you can get paid for blogging when you write about certain topics. You basically take on assignments from advertisers to write about web sites, products, services, and companies and you can earn cash for providing your opinion and valuable feedback to advertisers, typically about $5 per post and up. I think it sounds interesting and I'd like to try it out and just see how it goes - wouldn't hurt my feelings to make some much needed diaper money Anyway, I will only choose assignments that I believe would be of interest to my readers and my reviews may be negative or positive but they will always be honest. Furthermore, any sponsored posts that I do decide to make will be fully disclosed as they will all be classified under a "Sponsored Post" category.

If you're an advertiser or a blogger I'd recommend checking out PayPerPost.com for yourself! Please don't hesitate to let me know your thoughts and give my your comments on my sponsored posts, I value your opinions!

Want Daddy Do It!

Denise — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:58:49 GMT

I'm not at all sure how it happened - daddy likes to think that he's the tough one, but all of a sudden I'm the stern one and whenever the kids get into trouble they start calling for daddy, like he's going to save them from me or something. He's pretty good about backing me up when I've put my foot down about something, but he has somehow turned into a pushover when it comes to the kids. He gives in on things like leaving the light on at bedtime or going out without shoes on, then of course I'm the bad guy when I go turn the light off or try to get their shoes on them. So for the kids its been all about daddy here lately - seems like everything I try to do, put them in the bed, get them dressed, etc they all tell me they "WANT DADDY DO IT"!! Well paybacks are heck I think - just last night not one of the babies would let me put them in their jammies to get ready for bed. Daddy had to diaper and clothe all of them by himself and at the end of "jammy time" he turns to me and says "I think I'm tired of being the popular parent".

The Doody Double Whammy!

Denise — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:22:00 GMT

About six months ago we were having problems with the little boys if they pooped during nap or sleeptimes. They just all of a sudden decided that it was a fun thing to do to decorate their rooms and cribs with poop. It started out just occasionally then more and more often until we were ready to give up - we had tried tape around the diapers, layers of clothes, diaper pins, everything we could think of. Then they just quit - I'm knocking on my head right now but they haven't done that again in a long time.

Now out of the blue the girls have started doing poop art in their room. Same M.O. as the boys, they did it just a time or two over the course of a month or so, now they're doing it ALL THE TIME!!! Last night about midnight Sienna scarts SCREAMING in her room. We rush in to see what's wrong and it turns out that Sarah had taken off a poopy diaper and proceeded to smear it into the walls, carpet, sheets, clothes, her legs, just about everything within reach. Apparently Sienna sat and watched her go wild until she actually got some poop on HER, that's when Sienna started hollaring. Then today during naptime, all is quiet in their room (and believe me, whenever EVERYONE is quiet in this household, we let sleeping dogs lie) so we don't realize anything is going on until we hear a lound thump from their closet. We go in to check and here are the girls in the cutest little dresses, with no diapers on, poop all over themselves, actually rubbed into the window panes, and all over the clean clothes they're sitting amongst on the floor that they've taken from the CHILD LOCKED closet. BAGS of folded clothes previously divided into summer, winter, yard sale, etc just STREWN about the floor and them sitting there looking like they're proud of themselves. It's gotten so bad that we've run out of spare sheets for their beds, we can't wash them fast enough. I just hope nobody opens the closet door for awhile, they could get lost in there now!

The Day Our Van Turned Into An Oven

Denise — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:09:54 GMT

On Thursdays we make our weekly run to the grocery store. My mother-in-law comes out to the house and gives us some MUCH APPRECIATED (and well deserved) time off from the young'ns. We do the usual errands (bank, post office, etc) then take ourselves out to lunch at the Chinese buffet before hitting the store. Sad as it may sound, its our TREAT for the week! (probably the kids' treat for the week too - they dig hanging out with nana, and for some reason they mind her much better than they do us) So yesterday we get in the van to head out and within two minutes we realized something was TERRIBLY WRONG! No matter how much we turned up the A/C it just wasn't cooling off. It was already in the 90s out (and about 130 inside our Chevy microwave) and we had a looooooooong way to go! Oh well, at least it was just us and not the kids so we dealt with it.

We are very fortunate that both my husband and I are able to run our own businesses from home, but it can be VERY challenging to squeeze everything you have to do to run a house full of kids and two businesses into only 24 hours. To help us catch up on the week's work (and to help retain our sanity) my parents have been keeping the kids on Thursday nights - they come pick them up in the van, leave us their car and we go pick them back up the next day. Well we couldn't figure out what to do about getting the van into the shop because we can't be without it or there's no way to carry the kids around so my parents figured out a way that they could take it in next week and bring it back to us when they come to pick up the kids next Thursday - way kewl of them to take the time out of their lives to deal with it for us.

Head over today to pick up the kids only to find out that my dad had given up his weekly breakfast and golf game with the buddies to take the van in and get it fixed. Said he didn't know what we'd been grumbling about until he drove home in that tin can (only the front windows open) and he decided it had to be fixed right away. Honestly I think he just couldn't stand the thought of the kids riding around in it. THANKS SO MUCH DAD!! You're the best

Scared of the Water?

Denise — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:13:33 GMT

Now that we've got the pool filled with water the kids have slowly been getting used to paddling around in it wearing their swim vests. It's funny how the girls are much braver than the boys - they're trying to dog paddle and kick their legs, and love to act like they're "swimming". The two little boys will get in the water, then back out, then back in. They splash around and love the water, but they're very cautious of it, which isn't a bad thing I guess. But Jacob - our oldest, he hasn't stepped foot in the pool again since we got it filled up. That first day when we were filling it up we all played around in a few inches of water, but he just cannot be cajoled back into the pool. We have a large plastic tub with rope handles that we keep beside the pool to store the floaties and pool toys and the last couple times we've been out in the pool Jacob will systematically take out all the toys and using a plastic cup will fill it up several inches with water from the pool. He then proceeds to play in "his pool" and has a grand old time doing it, the first day he even wore his life jacket in his tub/pool.

A few months ago we got brave and took all the kids down to the beach for an afternoon of fun and sun. The kids all really enjoyed themselves and only wanted to go into the water with an adult of course, and only a foot or so out into the surf. Things were going really well until Jacob fell face first into the water while throwing/chasing a stick along the shoreline. We pulled him out right away but he refused to go back into the water that day. We can only assume that the episode at the beach is the reason he's acting so scared of the water, but we really have no idea what to do to help him get over his fear. We're being very gentle with him about it, don't want to push him and make it worse. I'm sure that once he finally gets in and sees what a good time he's been missing out on that we'll then have problems getting him out of the pool, but I wish I knew how to help him get past it.

Feeding an Army of Children

Denise — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:14:44 GMT

With as much food as these kids go through in a day now, we're scared to death of what its going to cost to feed them as they (and their appetites) grow! Last year we started a garden but didn't really have time to maintain it. We got tons of tomatoes and a few snap peas but that was about it. This year we decided to try again now that the babies are a little older thinking we might have more time for weeding and watering. Although it could stand more (a lot more) weeding, its doing pretty well so far. We probably went overboard with the tomatoes this year - we have like six rows of different varieties, but the kids all love them and we wanted to have enough to share with others. We also have about five rows of green beans cuz they're a favorite of the kids, thinking that would be enough to freeze or maybe can the extras. They're getting eaten faster than we can put any away (we like them steamed with herbs and butter) but my mother-in-law gave me the BEST IDEA the other day - she says the best way to store any extra beans is to throw them right from the garden, without washing them, into a pillow case, tie the top shut and keep the bag in the freezer. Just add more as you get them, or take them out as you need them. Wash'm and cook'm - sounds like a plan to me! Might have to get a 2nd pillow case cuz I'm thinking about doubling the number of rows for a winter garden. If I'm still motivated after this summer that is