No blueberries for us tonight :(

We made a bummer discovery this afternoon when we tried to go blueberry picking. Our favorite place, right near by, is closed! They had a sign up that said “New Owners. No more PYO” We were sad. It was 4:45 and a little late to drive to any other place so we just stopped at the playground on the way home instead. Not quite the same, but it was something outdoors and active. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we’re heading to a blueberry patch. I have blueberries on the brain!

Lex was mostly disappointed because he wanted to take pictures at the blueberry patch. He brought the KidCam along and took pictures the whole way there. At one point he even asked me to slow down because all of his out the window pictures were blurry. After I explained why that is he decided to just take pictures inside the car while we were driving.

Once he got over the blueberry disappointment he decided to make the best of it and take pictures at the playground instead. He’s becoming quite the photographer! He took TONS at the camp site this week. I’m going to have him write his own blog post soon and put up his pictures. Most are dark and/or blurry because of the low quality kidcam, but some came out pretty good. I haven’t looked at today’s batch.

Here are MY pictures from today anyway :) Maybe you’ll see his soon.

Little shutterbug

Classic

Eve was feeling brave this afternoon.

We had another first this week. Camping! Well, a first for the kids of course, not for me. I went camping all the time as a kid, with a camper, and parents who took care of all the packing and logistics! Fortunately this time I went with my friend Elizabeth who camps regularly and took care of most of the packing and logistics :) I brought food and kid entertainment, two things I’m pretty good at.

We decided to stay a little close to home (only 40min away) and start with just one night. If everyone had fun we figured we could try a two-night trip next time. My friend Lauren and her lovely Bella came up for a few days and came camping with us too. Alan thought we were all crazy to pass up comfortable beds and electricity and he opted to stay home. He also had to work both days, of course.

Reading "Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping" with Lauren.

Lauren set up her tent in the living room, to try it out. The kids moved right in :)

We arrived Tuesday afternoon in the midst of a giant rainstorm. It wasn’t raining at my house when we left, but we apparently drove right into the center of the storm. The kids and I sat in the car for half hour, Lauren and Bella in her car, and we waited for Elizabeth and/or the rain to stop. When she got there the grownups pow-wowed in the rain (I REALLY need to invest in a raincoat!) and decided to go back to her house instead. I buckled the kids back up and we drove way. Moments later, in the parking lot, we were met with blue skies and sunshine! Another quick pow-wow and we decided to turn around and try to get the tents up. Elizabeth has a mansion of a tent and a canopy to put over the picnic table, so we would be dry enough.  We got the tents up and the cars unloaded before the rain began again. Elizabeth somehow managed to get a fire started in the rain while Lauren cooked dinner on the portable stove (I tell you, she has everything!) and I corralled the wild ones in the tent for stories.

At the camp site, the kids passing around bug bottles to begin their first mission.

Lauren and Eve setting up the canopy for the picnic table.

Lex was fascinated by the portable kitchen Elizabeth has. The box he's looking at here had spices and oils and dishes and tea and lots of other useful things.

The rain let up a bit, the kids ate PB&J under the canopy, Alistair got sick and went to bed (poor boy!) and my kids were DYING to make s’mores! I tried to get them to wait until the rain stopped, but as I could make no promises that it even would stop, I eventually relented and we made the world’s worst s’mores, in the pouring rain. Imagine the three of us, no rain coats, huddling around a fire. Two eager kids, long curved sticks, giant marshmallows swinging wildly around. The whole process was so hurried and chaotic that they ended up with barely warm on the inside, somewhat burnt on the outside marshmallows, chocolate that didn’t melt, barely fitting within the graham cracker confines. The kids were happy but I was a little embarrassed that that was their first introduction to s’mores. Oh well, there’s always next time. :)

Biiiiggg bite! We had some really big marshmallows!

I was surprised that Lex almost finished his.

I just remembered that they had s’mores once before, at Parrish’s house last summer.

Eventually the rain did go away. Lex had a blast exploring the woods around us. We had nice boundaries (a creek and a road) so the kids could wander safely. He took tons of pictures, they both did their scavenger hunts that we made. We walked around the whole campsite a bit, made a few trips to the bathrooms, and suddenly it was nearing dark. I got the kids in pjs and washed up and then we laid on a blanked under the stars (and occasional rain drips from the trees) and read stories by the gentle glow of their glow sticks. Blue, pink, yellow shining down on the book.

I got the kids tucked in, laid with them for a few minutes, then left them to talk quietly with each other (threating all sorts of things if they were too loud and woke up Alistair!) and I joined the ladies by the fire. We worked on s’mores (for them) and wine (for me) and chatted late into the night. That was my favorite part :) Then I crawled into bed to catch a few winks, interrupted once when Eve crawled in with me and once again when Lex joined the party.

We woke up at 5:30 and cuddled for a bit, listening to the rain drips on the tent. It wasn’t really raining, much, mostly just drips from the trees above. We had oatmeal for breakfast and tried to keep the kids quiet until a reasonable hour. We walked down to the lake and beach area, played on the playground, watched Bella swim, and played in the sand. By that point it was about 8:30 in the morning. Seriously.

At the dock, checking out the boats.

Bella swimming. She is a super sweet dog. It was fun to have her camping with us.

Lex made himself comfy to watch Bella in the water.

This girl loves the sand.

Playing at the beach. It was starting to warm up and the sunshine felt good on our damp selves.

We discovered a cluster of big rocks which just called to the kids.
"Climb us, climb us...."

He's king of the mountain!

The boys

Silly kids!

The plan was to pack up the campsite and check out by 11am, then head to the beach for lunch and swimming. However, my kids were exhausted and totally disobedient, and I was exhausted, and Alistair was feeling sick again, so we decided it would be best to just pack up and get going. The sun was shining now, of course. A beautiful day. We packed up, did some more exploring, climbed some giant rocks, checked off a few more scavenger hunt items, and piled into the car at 11am. I was expecting the kids to fuss about not getting to go to the beach. In fact, I was hoping they would fuss so they would make the connection between poor behavior and getting a consequence, but alas, they were tired and I think they were happy to be leaving.

We made it home. Lauren, Lex, and I had lunch while Eve crawled upstairs for quiet time and fell asleep on the floor. Lex had quiet time and Lauren and I got more time to chat before she had to leave. We said goodbye to her and Bella, then settled in for a slow afternoon. Around 4pm I found Lex just dozing on the couch. I woke him up :) You can’t fall asleep at 4pm! I tried to engage him in something, but eventually only managed to get him upstairs for a shower. We had dinner and everyone passed out pretty early, in a dry house and comfy beds :)

The kids both want to go camping again, so… that may be in our future… on a sunnier day!

This makes me so happy I decided to link up to this week’s
Happiness Is… blog hop over on Rub Some Dirt On It :)

It’s my favorite time of year again!  PYO blueberries.  This morning we went with a friend to a new patch we’ve never been to before.  I say that every summer because there are so many around here! I think we could go to a new place each time if we wanted to, but I plan to get back to our favorite place again this year as well.

As usual we had big plans for the berries. Jam, of course, and maybe some more of those red, white and blue scones, and muffins, and, well, eating! I also want to try a blueberry lemon bread recipe I found in a magazine.

We went early and the picking was divine! Big, plum, delicious berries. The kids even found a raspberry patch nearby. I stuck to the blueberries though. We picked and ate and ate and picked. I threw an extra few dollars in the till to cover what was in our bellies.

The kids decided to bring little sand buckets for picking, but when we got there we found they had the good old fashioned milk-jugs-on-a-string available. I used that, but the kids stuck to their beach pails.

Eve trying to cut through the row of trees. They were tightly packed!

Lex says the best picking is low to the ground. He spent more time telling me about good picking spots then actually picking! :)

I wanted a cute picture of the two of them together with our big load of blueberries. Instead I got this (cute, of course)...

... and this. Oh well.

The problem now is that it’s so ridiculously hot this week that I can’t justify doing any baking or canning! We ate a ton of berries this afternoon and that may be the eventual fate of all of them. I was thinking about making tomorrow a hot kitchen day (it’s only supposed to be 93° tomorrow, a great day to turn on the oven!) since I need to make bread too, but then when I asked Alan what his plans were for tomorrow he said, “Stay cool!” Hmm…

So for now they sit on the counter and we munch away. Maybe we’ll just eat them all plain (0 WW points for that!) and I’ll have a good excuse to go blueberry picking again soon :)

We spent the afternoon in the oddest way. The kids are tired. We all are. So Lex had quiet time in the living room playing with Legos and Eve had her quiet time upstairs listening to an audio book on my phone. Half hour after quiet time was supposed to end I talked her in to coming down for snack. She wanted to stay upstairs even longer (she LOVES audio books!) I agreed that she could listen to the audio book while we had snack. So we did. She finished her snack and got out some play-doh. Lex finished his and got out a coloring book. The audio book ended and they both asked for another. I got a ton of food prep done (CSA pickup was yesterday) and the kitchen cleaned and dinner made. The audio book conveniently ended right at 5:30 and I put dinner on the table. Then upstairs for bath and bed. It was such a low-key afternoon.

Chillin' at the table.

Eve brought all of her stuffed animal friends to the table as well, and made each of them a play-doh cookie. :)

Busy baker (play-doh baker, that is!)

Lex likes workbooks. After he's done the (easy peasy) tasks they say to do, he often will decorate the entire page. Like a make-your-own coloring book.

I was hoping to do a few things tomorrow (library, farmers market) but I think I’m going to hold off on those things and have two days at home. Let the kids be still for awhile. Some much needed downtime before another busy week ahead.

Today was a beautiful day.

It started with an unusual sort of morning where Alan was exercising (normal, not unusual), I did not (a little unusual), and the kids played upstairs by themselves for a long time (definitely unusual for the mornings!)  I got breakfast cleaned up, packed for our day, and even sat down and did a little work on the computer!  I kept looking at the clock thinking we must be late, but nope, plenty of time.

When it was finally time to go we headed to a Weight Watchers meeting and we met my Mom and Grandma.  With them, me, and the kids we had 4 generations at WW!  Those of us weighing-in had good numbers on the scale and that alone equals a good day in my mind! :)

After Weight Watchers I took my mom (and kids, of course) to our local farm for our CSA pickup.  The weather was beautiful and the sun was shining so we hung out there for awhile and I snapped a ton of photos! (not unusual!)

A few weeks ago we saw the eggs and this week the baby birds were cheeping away.

Playing with photo editing. They had PYO flowers today and the kids had fun with that.

Eve decided she did not want this one and "put it back."

Please ignore his funny face and enjoy the lighting.

I LOVE this view!

When we got home the kids arranged their flowers in little vases and a bowl of water.

Beautiful! It would have been a good night to have company over for dinner. :)

After lunch we all had quiet time.  The kids did a great job today of staying in their rooms for the entire time.  They even played together upstairs for an extra half hour before coming down for snack.  Meanwhile I got some WW soup made, food prep done, the kitchen cleaned up, and even a little down time for myself.

In the afternoon I was hoping to bake cookies but the kids insisted on playing outside instead.  Bugger kids ;)  They played on the swing set (I took pictures) and then we all rode bikes for awhile.  Yep, me too!  They insisted.  It was fun.  The big news of the afternoon is that Lex decided today was the day to ride without training wheels!  I was telling him that maybe Grandpa Tom could help him practice tomorrow and he said, “Let’s just do it today!”  Um, OK!!  It took him all of about three minutes to figure it out!  Seriously.  He’s awesome :)  When I came in to pack up he decided to stay out and keep practicing.  He still needs practice on his starts and stops, but he amazed me this afternoon!

Upside down Lex

This girl needs a nap! Or a hammock :)

"Here Mom, hold the baby just like this while I go on my rocketship to Pluto."

Baby ended up in the "back pack" instead :)

Alan had no car at work so we went to pick him up and decided to have dinner out.  It was yummy, everyone was well behaved, and I managed to stay within points for the day.  Like I said, a good day!

Eve thought these flowers were as big as her head, then had to go compare. Once there she decided they would make nice pillows.

I added videos to a few older posts. I don’t always get them uploaded as quickly as the photos. Check out Back to the beach and Red, white, and blue scones.

After a brief, but intense, rain storm this afternoon the kids decided we should go out and look for a rainbow. We put our rain boots on and puddle jumped our way up the road and back. No rainbows.

Before going in we decided to check on the black raspberries growing in the backyard. They are ripe for the picking! The kids picked and ate and Lex did a great job taking care of his little sister, picking berries for her and rescuing her from the prickers.

In with the black raspberries are lots of pricker bushes, baby sumac trees (those things grow like weeds!), and miles of grape vines.  We knew the grape vines were there in years past but this year they are growing like mad!  I was cutting prickers and pulling out sumac and grape vines when what to my wondering eyes ahould appear?!?  Grapes!!  So cool.

Grapes!

Princess Eve decided to sit waaay over there and then demanded Lex bring the berries over to her. That didn't last long.

We were going to ride bikes before we got sidetracked by the berries. Lex was a sweaty boy in this 100% humidity with his helmet and boots on!

We also found a huge grasshopper that the kids tried to feed berries to, a golden colored slug, and a cool caterpillar with a big eye spot.  Eve kept calling the slug a “swigs” and was very concerned for its welfare.  It was a great visit to the backyard.

A cool caterpillar with a big eye spot on it's behind.

We went out to find a rainbow but ended up finding so much more!

Sorry for the cell phone pictures. I didn’t think to bring a camera for our quick walk down the road. Of course that was silly of me!

Subtitle: Christmas in July

Just back from yet another busy weekend. I’m having fond memories of last month when I was convinced life would slow down once school ended. Silly me! We just keep going and going. Today, however, is a down day. Washing car seats, laundry, dishes, blogging, etc. The kids are almost up from quiet time and I’m going to see if I can ignore them long enough to get this blog post done :)

This weekend was our much anticipated (for me) trip to Santa’s Village and Day Out With Thomas. When I first (months ago) told the kids about our plans they were thrilled but last week they seemed to have trouble keeping it in their heads. I think they were still recovering from the 4th of July and our last trip! Once we started packing excitement grew.

After an easy drive (my kids are top-notch travelers!) through spectacular scenery we arrived at Santa’s Village. I was having last minute doubts about whether this would be any fun since Lex isn’t really into Santa and, well, it’s July, but of course those were silly thoughts. We had a great time! There were rides just right for them and the lines were very reasonable (even non-existent at some rides) and the weather was a touch on the cool side, which was perfect for a day of walking around. The sun came out in the afternoon and heated things up a bit. We rode the rides and played the Elfabet game and ate some goodies and had a great time!

Santa's Village awaits!

This might have been the most fun ride. We did it twice, switching partners, and everyone loved it! Lex even tried his hand at driving for awhile :)

The view from the top of the ferris wheel.

…quiet time over… kids are up… successfully ignoring them so far…

Lex loved the ferris wheel. He and Alan rode it while Eve and I rode The Himalayas! (a ride I loved at the fair many years ago, but it was too loud and fast for Lex). When we met up again Lex insisted on taking me on the ferris wheel because "it's the most fun ride ever!"

"Look at that nice rock Mom. Do you want to take a picture of me sitting on it?" Umm... YES!

Crazy family! Good thing Alan has long arms! :)

Eve feeding reindeer cookies to the reindeer. This place made me laugh because they had stalls for all eight reindeer (I didn't notice if there was one labeled Rudolph), but there were two to five reindeer in each stall. So the kids had no idea which reindeer was Dasher or Dancer or etc. You'd think one per stall would have been more useful for perpetuating the myth :)

Cupcake chairs! I love them!(I think my camera was on the wrong setting for much of the day :( )

Lex is practicing his senior portrait pose :)

… Eve is bored… must be quick…

Riding the reindeer carousel. They were all Rudolph. Eve loved that.

The water park! Their newest addition (added last year, I think) We avoided it completely. By the time we got to that side of the park it was late afternoon and I was too tired to even consider changing into bathing suites and entering the chaos. Fortunately the kids seemed to agree and didn't argue much.

Taking a break to watch a show. See everyone eating ice cream? We were hot and tired and I decided ice cream was in order. By the time I got to the front of the line I was met with "Sorry, our ice cream machine is broken." Denied! Probably for the best anyway.

This might be the world's most boring ride. It was the last ride of the day and our longest wait in line. The fire engine went around the building and the basket went up and down while you used a hose to spray the building. There were broken LED numbers on top so I think the point was to spray in the circles in the yellow fire and earn points, but the numbers didn't work, the hoses barely worked, and the whole thing moved slowly. The kids liked it, but Alan and I agreed it was the most boring ride ever!

On the way out Lex said "Don't you want a picture of me and Eve in that sleigh?" Of course! Sadly Eve disagreed. Oh well.

After we left Santa’s Village we drove up the road to our B&B. It was a cute place but I was too tired and hungry to take pictures for the rest of the day. We checked in, went to a local deli place to grab dinner (pizza slices) then crashed in front of a little TV to watch Oliver and Company on VHS. Ahhh… 80’s flashbacks everywhere! Then off to bed.

Eve will not be ignored any longer so this is going to have to be a two-part blog. Stay tuned for our exciting adventures with Thomas the Train! Peep peep!