Growing and Snowing

At the beginning of February we entered two of my father's succulent pots into the Southeastern Flower Show which took place in Atlanta. It was a big ordeal to get the genus and species of each plant properly figured out and identified with a labeling system(although in proper Daddy fashion he had maps of the pots made in a binder which helped immensely). Then the pots had to be groomed before we left which entailed removing any dead leaves and some persistent maple seeds which were tangled into the pots (also Daddy). Then we loaded them up with the help of Mom's neighbor and hauled them carefully to the Cobb Galleria where they were groomed some more before submission.

Well, all the hard work payed off. I'm not sure if Daddy would have planned on entering two plants but I'm glad we did because his were the only two submissions in his category (three or more species of succulents in one container). Therefore, and I can still imagine him laughing at this, we won first and second place! Here's the blue ribbon winner.
I think more people didn't enter this year because the show was uncertain for half the year if they would be able to afford putting it on. Last year there were at least 6 submissions. Even more exciting though was the trophy we were awarded for Best Collection in Show (there were at least 5 or six collections). Apparently there's an awards ceremony later in the spring so we'll let you know when we go how that goes.
Here are some of the judges comments, which surprised me because several of the other blue ribbon winners still had some critiques included.
And here's our little flower! She loved looking at all the plants and kids attending.

Ava's developing a healthy appetite for vegetables these days. She really prefers feeding herself and I love when she accompanies her eating with what sounds like her saying "This is delicious." Nom, nom, nom. She loves butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, and here she is trying out the heirloom "Preacher beans", green beans which have been in the Tarver family for four generations.

As most of you know, we had a snowstorm down here a couple weeks ago and we really enjoyed taking Ava out on a hike to take in her first substantial snowfall. Ava even tried eating some snow and seemed intrigued by the feel of it.
The dogs enjoyed it as well.






And here's Ava with her cousin Bo at BBQ on President's day. Nom, nom, nom, more green beans!