The Blueberry Patch

Fridays are my favorite. I mean, I know everyone looks forward to Fridays. But fortunately, my work week ends about 9pm on Thursday night and so Fridays are completely open, which means they are best days to do fun things with the kiddos!

Yesterday morning during our lazy morning of cereal for breakfast, followed by an episode of Daniel Tiger or two, I had the random thought to take the kids to the blueberry patch! It's something I've always thought the kids would enjoy, but we've never actually ventured out to pick anything! It was an overcast, breezy morning which was a nice change from the sweltering heat we've had the past few days. We traveled a short 20 minutes, packed an easy picnic, played a bit in the hay maze, and ventured out to pick some berries.

As we left the house in the morning, our intention was to get out in the field to beat the rain. Only for us to get to the field in time for the sun to come out and get super hot. But it didn't slow us down!

The kids were great pickers!

Blueberries (aka "ba-be-ee") are Caroline's favorite. I was a bit concerned she would eat every single one she picked. But, once she saw that we all picked and put berries in the bucket-- she did the same thing! 

Belle picked enthusiastically for a little bit but then spent time in the shade with Caroline. She did provide a "tasting" sample from each plant we stopped to pick. They all passed her inspection. 

Jackson was a great spotter of ripe berries. We worked well as a team. I'd get berries up high and he'd get the ones that were lower.

Caroline only picked for a bit. The heat was beating down so she just mostly sat in some shady spots between bushes. But it didn't stop her from picking berries within reach.

And maybe eating a few. This was after she DUMPED the berries we had both picked like it was some game to fill up the bucket and then pour them out. I picked up what I could from the ground (fortunately it wasn't too many!) and proceeded to share a bucket with Jackson instead. 

We picked until Caroline had enough. We were dripping with sweat and tired from the heat and I knew it was passed her normal nap time. But when I got to my car and looked at the clock-- it was an hour earlier than I expected! Ha! It felt like SO much longer. :) 

We brought home almost 3 pounds of blueberries.

Earlier this spring, I did plant two blueberry bushes. To date, we have one single blueberry. Three kids. One blueberry. This is how wars are started. Or years of future therapy. Who knows. Hopefully more berries start to pop up! 

The kids did each enjoy some fresh strawberries from the garden today. Along with making a few different blueberry treats. We made two batches of blueberry muffins and made frozen yogurt-covered-blueberry kabobs. We still have about half of our blueberries left. Do you have a favorite recipe we should try? 

I'm baaaaaaaack!

Hi friends!

So it's been a long 7 months, but I have made a summer goal to invest more of my time into this space! You may or may not have even noticed that I haven't been around, but I know that I have sure missed it.

I figure too much has gone on from when I last blogged to try to catch up. I mean, it was before Thanksgiving. So I'll just start with a quick rundown of our family life these days.

Jackson, still 7. Finished first grade. Loves paper airplanes. And "electronics time". We've been going to the pool several time each week. He loves his freedom, now that he can touch and swim and spends tons of time going down the slides! He has lost a few teeth, reads chapter books, and rides his bike without training wheels.

Isabelle is 5 and lives so wonderfully in her own little world. She finished preschool and is looking forward to kindergarten! She plays pretend doctor to all of us in the family, has started reading basics. She likes to ride bikes, tell jokes, and play pretend!

Caroline is 21 months, officially. I always tell people she's a little over 18 months. I certainly don't tell people that by baby is almost TWO! She traveled to California with me earlier this month and loved "the bubbles" which most people just call the water. She's an excellent copy cat of anything big brother or big sister do. She's affectionate, funny, and has started saying several words. The most popular is "Mama" about one million times a day, but she also says blueberry "ba-bee", "num-num" -- which is any type of food, and "ball". 

Derek and I celebrated our 10th anniversary this month! We celebrated the actual day apart while he was at annual training and I was in California, but we had a date night last weekend. It was wonderful. I'm still doing therapy three nights a week for teenagers, Derek's still working his computer nerd stuff. And really, the rest of the adulting stuff is far too boring to blog about! 

Thanks for visiting this space once again! I'm glad to be back! :)