Strawberries!

It's strawberry season. Don't sneeze or you'll miss it. Typically the kids and I make a morning of strawberry picking and finish off our picking by enjoying strawberry slushies on the rocking chairs. Since Tyler still has another week of school, I was concerned the prime picking would be over. So, Danielle and I went out yesterday morning and picked a couple bucket's full. Once Tyler is out of school, the three of us will go out and do it right.

The berries are good size this year. It didn't take long to fill up our buckets. In fact, Danielle and I broke last year's record in no time at all. We ended up with 8lbs of strawberries! I froze some for later and saved some out for snacking. I'm pretty sure Tyler ate 3lbs just by himself. I had planned to make a strawberry cake using frozen berries for Memorial Day, but now I can use fresh berries!

We also made strawberry muffins (Kind of bland.)

strawberry smoothies (Very good!)

and chocolate covered strawberries (Mmmmm) . And yes, that's a skull and crossbones. I take requests. :)

This and That

Last week was a busy week! I was sick and pretty much incapacitated Friday evening - Sunday evening, so that took up a huge chunk of time. Here's what's been going on around here lately:

Snappy turned a month old last week. He is now 1 3/4" long. He grew a lot in one month! He's no longer afraid of his food (those wiggly worms were a little frightening at first) and comes to see me when I talk to him. He's much more fun than Spot!

Tyler went on a field trip with my Aunt Barb's 2nd grade class. My aunt's school works with another local school and matches the kids up as penpals. At the end of the school year, the local schools (there were 4) get together so the kids can meet their penpals. Then they participate together in field day type activities. My aunt matched Tyler up with someone in her class and got special permission for him to attend Penpal Day. Although I don't think Tyler will continue to write to his penpal now that the school year is over, he had a lot of fun.

Danielle's class went on a trip to the farm. This is the same farm we visit each summer. It was an ugly, rainy day, but it didn't rain a bit for the few hours we were there. Danielle had fun hanging out with her friends. She's such a social child. She didn't get to hold any baby bunnies or kittens, which she thought was disappointing, but she got to see the fawns and ride a horse. We'll go back later this summer. Hopefully the sun will be shining and she can hold a kitten then.

I surfaced long enough to attend Danielle's first tball game of the season on Saturday. She hit from the tee once and hit a pitch once. She did a great job. She's fun to watch. 3 of her girlfriends are on the team with her, so that makes it even more fun for her.

When I emerged on Monday morning, I had the sudden realization that my days with Danielle are in short supply. We have 2 days this week and 2 days next week to spend together before school is out. Once the summer is over, both kids will be in school all day, every day. Sigh. That makes me sad. I remember sitting on the floor beside the toddler bed and crying after I took Danielle's crib apart one night. I couldn't believe I was ending that chapter of our lives. But time just keeps marching on. Here we are a couple chapters later, and it still tugs at my heart to turn that page. I know the next chapter will have a great story line, too, but it's still bittersweet.

ANYWAY, on Monday Danielle and I had lunch with Ron and then visited the spray park. We had a very nice afternoon together. I have 2 very neat kids! (Love those freckles on that scrunched up nose!)

Cub Scout Fun

Saturday evening was our pack's Rain Gutter Regatta. The "regatta" part was a very minor part of the evening.

Once again the kids got to shoot BB guns and try their hands at archery. Tyler actually hit the target with an arrow this time.

He hit the BB gun target several times, too. He seems to do quite well with the BB guns.

The kids had ample time to run around and be wild, which is usually Tyler's favorite activity. While running around, he found a large hole in the field and convinced several kids that it was an anaconda hole. After awhile he convinced a couple boys to shove large sticks down the hole with him. After awhile 2 of the boys started arguing over who found the hole first and one took a swipe at the other with one of those sticks. Thankfully my child wasn't involved and the kid swinging wasn't a good aim.

Ron and Tyler attempted to camp out again. This time they made it all night! I don't think either of them will say they had a good night's sleep, but they were outside all night. Back at home, Danielle and I made some brownies and then snuggled in bed together and watched a little tv. We both slept very well. :)

Ron was gone most of the week, worked in the yard all day Saturday, and then spent his evening hanging out with a bunch of boys and "slept" outside in the cold, on again/off again rain. And it was obvious he enjoyed every bit of time he spent with his son. Have I mentioned lately what a good dad he is?!

Garage Sale Treasures

This weekend was our annual "summer fun fund raiser". We didn't have any big ticket items this year, so we had to raise our funds a quarter at a time. This was certainly not my biggest sale in terms of money made, but we did ok. We did get rid of "junk", though, so that was a very good thing. My mom, brother, and two of my aunts came to peddle their wares, too. It was entertaining, to say the least.

On Saturday Tyler sold pink lemonade and Danielle sold brownies. Between the two of them, they made a little over $30. They had fun. They had more fun shopping the other neighborhood sales. (We made it a community garage sale weekend this year.)

The best "deal" of the day, in Tyler's opinion, was a sparkly red Christmas tree our neighbors were selling. I cannot begin to describe Tyler's excitement when he ran back home to tell us about his find! We had given him $5, but the tree only cost $1, so he was excited about finding a bargain, too. Once he had the tree tucked away in his room, he begged Grandma to take him back out to find some Christmas lights. He didn't have to walk very far to find some. Granted, they weren't LED lights, but he thought they would do. He put them on his tree and was delighted with the finished look.

Somehow, close to the end of the sale, Tyler ended up back over at the neighbor's house and came home with the little red tree's 8' "Daddy". The trees actually belonged to our neighbor's sister-in-law who worked at Old Navy. The trees had been holiday props in the store at one point. She didn't want to drag the big one back home, so she gave it to Tyler for free. Tyler was so excited to have the pair! The only thing he's missing now is another set of lights, which we will attempt to remedy with a search of the basement later this week.

Tyler was super excited about his garage sale finds. I found the whole thing rather amusing. Ron was a little annoyed that we were bringing junk home rather than getting rid of it, but that's the danger of the "neighborhood garage sale". Who knows...maybe next year we'll get $1.50 at our sale for that little red sparkly Christmas tree.

A Sign of Summer

Grass stained toes from freshly mowed grass...a sure sign of summer.

Tyler's Music Program

The 2nd graders had a music program prior to the school's Language Arts Fair this evening. They were supposed to look like artists with their oversized "paint smocks". It was reaching a little, if you ask me. Tyler is in the front row, 4th from the left in this first picture.

Tyler is still so funny to watch at singing events. He has hated them long since preschool, but he does better now. Better meaning he keeps his hands to himself, does the motions, and occasionally sings a phrase. He still loses interest rather quickly - as you can see in the "teeth" picture. He was actually pretty excited about this program, probably because he had a small speaking part. He did great. He is so at ease in front of crowds. There are times I think being a little self-conscious would be good for him, but really, what a great skill to have. Hopefully he will keep that confidence as he grows up.

Another thing I love about Tyler is that despite all the other people attending the performance, he performs just for us. Several times he made motions that only we would recognize, based on something we had talked about at home before leaving for the program. He did the same thing at his Cub Scout performance the other night. He is such a character. There are times I would like to shake him silly, but most of the time I am just amazed at who he is and wonder how I got to be so lucky.

I also need to say, once again, what an amazing dad my husband is. Tyler will never understand all the hoops Ron had to jump through to get home in time for his program, but he will remember that his dad was there watching, waving, and clapping when it meant the most to him.

Mother's Day

I had a good Mother's Day. It's kind of hard to sum up my feelings or to find words to describe the looks on the kids' faces as they presented their gifts, so I will just say I felt lucky to be Mom today.

With Ron's help, the kids got me some new bird feeders and each decorated a cake for me. I really wanted the feeders, and I looked forward to seeing how high they could pile the sprinkles on the cakes this year, but the gifts that meant the most were the handwritten ones they made at school.

Danielle made a little book that listed a bunch of things she liked doing with me. It was obvious that she attempted to sound out many of the words herself, and, quite honestly, I wouldn't have understood the whole thing if she hadn't read it to me first. That's what made it so special. It was straight from her heart.

Tyler gave me a letter that had been laminated. He wrote about what he liked doing with me and how special those things make him feel. It was nice to see what matters most to him. His words were spelled correctly and his handwriting has improved. It's neat to watch the transition over the years.

I got extra hugs and kisses, and occasionally the kids tried a little harder to behave, in honor of the holiday. Ron did a great job helping out today and really tried to make the day special for me. I've got a great husband and two amazing kids. It was a good day.

Polar Bears and Cubs (Scouts)

Our zoo opened a new section the other day that included polar bears. It just so happened that Tyler had an early release at school that day, so we spent the afternoon checking out the new exhibits. It was a beautiful day, and the new section was very nice.

Tonight we went to the Blue & Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts. It's the end of the year banquet where all the final awards are given out and the kids are "bridged" to the next level. To pass the time before dinner, while everyone was still getting settled, the kids played Bingo. The prizes were gift cards to Toys R Us. Neither of our kids won, but they had fun playing. After dinner the awards were given out. Tyler earned a couple more badges, including his Conservation Badge which he mistakenly called his "conversation" badge. If they awarded a badge for conversation, I'm sure Tyler could earn it! He has officially moved up to the next level now and is looking forward to all the fun stuff he'll get to do in the 3rd grade as a Bear scout.

Incognito

This cracked me up. As Danielle said, "All he needs now is a hat!"
















(In case you're like Ron and don't get it, I think it looks like Snappy has a moustache.)

More Frog Hunting

Danielle has been desperate to find another treefrog since our outing with Cub Scouts last Monday. She was very unhappy that she didn't have a chance to really examine the little guy she found. We stopped by the park again this afternoon and luckily she found another one! She was so happy! And despite her pleas, I stayed strong and did NOT let her bring him home.

He is a gray treefrog, like the one she found earlier. He was content to hang onto her finger with his sticky toe pads. You can see the toe pads pretty clearly if you click on the close-up picture of the frog I cut out of the other picture. You can see Danielle's dirty fingernails pretty well, too. Take a look at the coloring on his eyes, too. The pictures might be too small to really see the detail, but it looks as if someone scribbled little black lines all over them. As far as frogs go, he's one of the more interesting ones Danielle has found.

Patio Update

Our patio is almost done. We've had way more issues with the builder than we should have, but we are finally in the home stretch. They still need to add one more course of stone to the bottom wall along the retention wall, add topsoil to the beds, and add topsoil & grass seed around the small step at the side of the patio. Despite our issues, I think the patio looks really nice. We're looking forward to finally getting to use it.