Berry Sweet

Our Fun Family Fourth of July was berry sweet!  Hubs and I took the boys strawberry picking to a nearby farm that we've been wanting to visit for years.  It was the first time for all of us, so we weren't sure how it was going to go, but it was a success! 

Mama and her berry sweet boys

Our little berry farmers

N actually picked some for the basket, M ate more than he contributed, and we all picked about 6 quarts of berries in less than a half hour.  The boys had a blast and so did we!  On the other hand, I had 6 quarts of berries when we got home yesterday, so I spend a good portion of the afternoon hulling, cleaning, freezing, and baking.  I'm glad I did because I found SEVERAL half-eaten berries in there that would have spoiled the whole batch.  I tried my hand at Strawberry Mousse Pie with Graham Cracker Crust. 

To eat or not to eat, that is the question

Here's the dessert in question!

It tasted as good as it looks, but to be accurate, I should call it Strawberry Mousse Pudding because it didn't set!  Our sons and guests were gracious recipients and gobbled up the mess, leaving behind no evidence that I created such a debacle.  My Food Network dreams have been dashed.  I'm lowering my expectations to putting myself through Culinary Home School.  (Ha!  If it hadn't been done already, maybe I would blog about that!) 

We are making some new friends in our new town, a couple who will be our new pastors when Canvas Church is launched in September.  They've got little ones and out of state families just like us, so we celebrated the Fourth together in our backyard, family-style.

Hubs and PJ showing the kiddies how to do sparklers

N FREAKED when we lit a couple of fireworks!

He did, however, enjoy the marshmallows...several times!

We grilled, the kiddies played in the shark pool (and no one peed), for the first time ever, we built a campfire at 6:00 so the kids could see it (and I could nearly die of a heart attack trying to keep them away from it) and have roasted marshmallows, and the daddies showed the kids how to do sparklers because even the oldest at 8 wouldn't touch them (thank goodness!) We lit a handful of fireworks that our neighbor brought over to show the kids, which was highly entertaining for all (except one)!  M and N barely made it through all of that and passed out at 8, but the older ones stayed up to watch the neighbor's and city's fireworks at 10.  We made some great memories singing our own patriotic songs in the middle of the road (because the trees were in the way otherwise!).  A great time was had by all. 

Handsome hubby practicing fire safety

One Last Blast of Summer!

(This blog format looks kinda weird and I know it, but I'm going to leave it so I can take the boys outside while it's still nice. It snowed here on Oct. 12 last year!)

I hope that you are enjoying this week's return to summer like we are! The boys seem to have grown a bit since I put away their summer clothes, so I was able to fish out the outfits that were big on them. It was like getting new clothes!

We chose to spend every minute outdoors this weekend! We took the jogging stroller to Ritter Farm Park and went off-roading. It's a large park where people hike and ride their horses on grassy trails and it was just beautiful with the leaves turning. The boys seemed to enjoy the ride as long as we kept the animal crackers flowing! I wish we'd have taken photos, but, alas, I forgot. We didn't see any horses, either - just a gardener snake and some bugs. When we stopped at the grocery store on the way home, I remembered to snap this cute pic of the guys driving their double grocery cart, though!














On Saturday night, we had our friend B and his 5 year old son over for dinner and a bonfire. It was also the boys' first bonfire - for 20 or so minutes! Because we don't trust them for a split second, and also because they were freshly bathed, they enjoyed the fire from the confines of their pack and play, which they didn't seem to mind so long as we fed them graham crackers. Hm, I'm beginning to see a pattern here...

Here's Hubs and M grilling dinner.

B and E took a self-portrait at the campfire! Then E turned the camera on me!

Okay, not my best angle, but I'll give him a break because he's 5, after all.

We always enjoy warm weekends together as a family and spending time with friends makes them extra special! It looks like we're in for some more good weather this week, too. Hooray! After I wrap this up, the boys and I are going to take a long walk in the afternoon sunshine. I only wish that Minnesota weather were like this year round!

Lovely Long Weekend

We traveled so much in May and June that the 4th of July weekend was the first one we spent at home as a family of four in months!  How fun and relaxing it is to just enjoy time spent together in your own house. 

We also got to do something else we enjoy - have friends over!  It's crazy, but now that the boys sleep at bedtime and the weather is good, it's like we've emerged from some kind of year-long baby-hibernation and we can host our friends again.  Last month, we bought a little fire pit so we can have a fire outside, so we've spent several nights sitting around our "campfire," making s'mores, and just talking.  Strange, isn't it, how one can actually talk to one's spouse when the computer, TV, and other electronic gadgets are out of sight - except the baby monitor!

That being said, did I take any photos of the friends, fire, or s'mores?  No, of course not!  I was having fun and didn't even think of the camera.  Hopefully, though, N will come through with of some great shots he took of the fireworks we could see from our driveway on Sunday night and I'll post them here.  (He said I could use them as long as they were not for profit!  So, please, don't send money.)

What you all really want are pictures of the boys, anyhow, so we did take a few.

Nathan's shirt says, "Diaper loading, 72% complete," Matthew's says "Barf Vader!"  These are baby shower gifts from one of Steve's co-workers that finally fit.  They crack me up!

I'm nearly losing my mind with their new game, throw-food-on-the-floor, so we move them outside sometimes so we can feed the birds, too.

Corn-on-the-cob, grilled chicken, and an American flag cookie for our Fourth of July dinner.  (A homemade gesture, since there was no way I was baking my grandma's red, white, and blue pie.  Maybe someday when I grow up.)

Steve had Monday off, so we made it "family fun day," and visited the zoo, stopping at their new African animals exhibit. The boys wore their monkey outfits just for this occasion- greeting the new Colobus Monkeys.

  We always stop at the fish tank to watch the tropical fish and catch a glimpse of the leopard shark - our favorite part of the zoo.

We have some fun stuff planned for this week, too, since our city's annual summer festival started Sunday and goes all week.  Hopefully we'll do a better job taking photos (and the boys will cooperate with their naps - we're missing the baby crawl-a-thon as I type!) and you can see us visiting our orchestra in the park, antique cars cruise night, and WWII bombers!